The Grass Roots

The founding years

The Grass Roots name, originally written as one word, began in mid-1965 as a project by Los Angeles songwriters and producers P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Their record label, Dunhill Records, owned by Lou Adler, wanted to profit from the growing folk rock trend, so Sloan and Barri wrote several songs. One was "Where Were You When I Needed You," which they recorded themselves. Sloan sang lead and played guitar, with Larry Knechtel on keyboards, Joe Osborn on bass, and Bones Howe on drums.

This recording was released under the Grass Roots name and sent as a demo to radio stations in the San Francisco Bay area. After some interest emerged, Sloan and Barri searched for a real band to take the name. They found the Bedouins, a San Francisco group that had won a Battle of the Bands at a Teenage Fair in San Mateo, California. A new version of "Where Were You When I Needed You" was cut with the Bedouins' lead singer, Willie Fulton, who later became an early member of Tower of Power.

In late 1965, the Grass Roots received their first official airplay on Southern California stations like KGB in San Diego and KHJ in Los Angeles, playing a cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Jones (Ballad of a Thin Man)." Dylan had given Sloan permission to record the song. For a few months, this lineup served as the first actual Grass Roots. Dunhill used them to back up the Mamas and the Papas and Barry McGuire, and they became the house band at the Trip nightclub in Hollywood.

The partnership with Sloan and Barri ended when the band pushed for more room to play their own blues rock material, which Dunhill refused. Fulton, guitarist Denny Ellis, and bassist David Stensen returned to San Francisco, while drummer Joel Larson stayed in Los Angeles (he later rejoined the group in 1972). Fulton, Ellis, and Stensen kept performing as the Grass Roots with original Bedouins drummer Bill Shoppe, until Dunhill ordered them to stop.

The label decided to start fresh with a different group they would groom as the Grass Roots. Meanwhile, the second version of "Where Were You When I Needed You" reached the Top 40 in mid-1966, though the album of the same name sold poorly.

Peak years

The most successful version of the group was a Los Angeles band called The 13th Floor, which had formed just a year earlier. Its members were Creed Bratton on vocals and guitar, Rick Coonce on drums and percussion, Warren Entner on vocals, guitar, and keyboards, and Kenny Fukumoto on vocals and bass. Entner had previously studied film at UCLA alongside future Doors members Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. In the summer of 1965, while traveling through Europe, he sang and played on street corners.

In Israel, he met another American busker, Creed Bratton. An Israeli businessman there offered to manage and promote them, but the two went their separate ways. By 1966, both had returned to Los Angeles, where they formed the 13th Floor and sent a demo tape to Dunhill Records. After Fukumoto was drafted into the army, the band tried two replacement bassists before the label found singer Rob Grill.

P.F. Sloan felt Grill’s voice was the ideal way to make his songs more commercially appealing than Sloan’s own singing could. Grill originally played only guitar but had to quickly learn bass to fill the empty spot in the lineup. In 1967, the band could either keep their own name or take one that already had national recognition. At first, they were just another American guitar pop-rock band, but with help from producers like Barri, they built a sound that blended British beat with soul, R&B, and folk rock.

Many of their recordings included a brass section, which was unusual for American rock bands at the time, as groups like Chicago were just beginning to do the same. Most of the band’s songs continued to be written by Dunhill staff, not just Sloan and Barri, and the Los Angeles studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew played on most, though not all, of their hits. The Grass Roots also recorded songs written by the band members themselves, which appeared on their albums and as B-sides of many hit singles.

Later years

Their 1976 single "Out In The Open" proved to be their swan song on Haven. Knighton left in 1976 and Alan Deane took over, followed by guitarist Glen Shulfer in 1977. ABC Records issued a final greatest-hits package of the group titled ABC Collection in 1976, but in late 1977, Grill decided to take a break from performing and later recorded the 14 Greats album on Gusto Records featuring Provisor and himself. This album consisted of 1978 rerecordings of their hits.

The group, still managed and booked by Grill (who owned the group's name), in late 1977 continued touring with Larson, Mark Miller (lead vocals, guitar) and Brian Carlyss (bass, backing vocals), joined by Lonnie Price (lead vocals, keyboards) and Randy Ruff (organ, backing vocals) for touring dates and TV appearances until November 1978. Larson was then joined by new players Scott Hoyt (lead vocals, guitars), David Nagy (lead vocals, bass) and Gene Wall (keyboards).

Nagy and Larson left in 1979 and were replaced by a returning Carlyss and Reagan McKinley (drums, percussion). During this period, the group appeared on an HBO television special, '60s Rock Scrapbook, filmed at Magic Mountain amusement park in Valencia, California, in October 1979, with Grill and Dennis Provisor making special appearances. Grill launched a solo career in 1979 (assisted on his solo album, Uprooted, by Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie of Fleetwood Mac on the song "Rock Sugar").

Grill toured as a solo act in 1979–1980 opening for Fleetwood Mac's Tusk tour with a band led by guitarist Rick Alexander. When interest in bands of the 1960s rose again in 1980, Grill (along with Provisor, Shulfer and new players Steve Berendt on bass and Luke Meurett on drums) took back the Grass Roots name and toured the United States and Japan. Guitarist Miller returned to fill in for Shulfer on some dates with the group in 1981 and Ron Pitt and Mike Daley replaced Berendt and Meurett respectively the same year.

In 1982 Grill went forward with a brand-new lineup consisting of seasoned session players. They were Terry Oubre (guitars, backing vocals), Charles Judge (keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals) and Ralph Gilmore (drums, percussion, backing vocals). Another keyboardist, Bob Luna, came in around mid-1982 to substitute for Judge on dates when he was not available.