Who is Skunk Baxter? Find his net worth, salary, and personal life here!!

Jeffrey Allen “Jeff Skunk” Baxter is an American guitarist who was born on December 13, 1948. He is best known for his time in the rock bands Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, and Spirit in the 1970s and 1980s. Skunk Baxter net worth lies beyond the $2.5 million mark.

He has been working as a defense consultant more recently, and he is also the head of a Congressional Advisory Board on missile defense.

Jeff was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 for the Doobie Brothers’ great musical work. The skunk was born in Washington, DC, on December 13, 1948. Jeff Skunk liked jazz, rock, jazz-rock, and blue-eyed soul, among other kinds of music (rhythm blues). The official Wikipedia page about him gives him high marks for his musical skills and gifts.

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Skunk Baxter Early Life

Washington, D.C., is where Jeffrey Baxter was born.  Baxter went to the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, and graduated in 1967. He called himself a “preppie.” At Taft, he played drums in a band called King Thunder and the Lightning Bolts, which was made up of older students.

In September 1967, he went to Boston University’s School of Public Communication, which is now called the College of Communication. There, he studied journalism while continuing to play with local bands.

Skunk Baxter Music Career

Early Years When Baxter was 11, he joined his first band. In 1966, he worked at Manny’s Music Shop in Manhattan while he was still in high school. Baxter met Jimi Hendrix at Manny’s. Hendrix was just starting out as a frontman when they met.

When Hendrix’s bass player couldn’t make it to a show, Baxter played bass in a band led by Hendrix called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Randy California, who also worked at Manny’s, also played in the band. When Baxter moved to Boston to go to college, he worked at Jack’s Drum Shop on Boylston Street as a guitar tech and amplifier repairman.

Baxter first became known to a large number of rock fans when he joined the psychedelic rock band Ultimate Spinach in 1968. Baxter joined the band for their third and last album, Ultimate Spinach III.

After he left the band, he played with the Holy Modal Rounders and backed up singer Buzzy Linhart. At this point, he went by the name “Skunk,” but Baxter has kept the origins of the name a secret.

1. Steely Dan

When Ultimate Spinach broke up, Baxter moved to Los Angeles and got a job as a session guitarist. In 1972, he and guitarist Denny Dias, guitarist-bassist Walter Becker, keyboardist-vocalist Donald Fagen, drummer Jim Hodder, and singer David Palmer started the band, Steely Dan.

Steely Dan’s first three albums, Can’t Buy a Thrill in 1972, Countdown to Ecstasy in 1973, and Pretzel Logic in 1974, all featured Baxter. He played the guitar fills and signature solo on “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” which was the group’s biggest hit.

2. The Doobie Brothers

While finishing Pretzel Logic, Becker and Fagen told Baxter that they were going to stop touring with Steely Dan and almost only work with session players. So, Baxter left the band in 1974 to join The Doobie Brothers, who were touring in support of their fourth album, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits.

As a session player, he played pedal steel guitar on Vices and “South City Midnight Lady” on The Captain and Me, which came out before Vices. Stampede, which came out in 1975, was Baxter’s first album with the group as a full member. He played important parts on the slide and pedal steel guitar, as well as an acoustic interlude called “Precis.”

While getting ready to go on tour to promote Stampede, Doobie Brothers founder Tom Johnston was taken to the hospital with an upset stomach. Baxter suggested bringing in Michael McDonald, a singer, and keyboardist with whom he had worked in Steely Dan, to fill in for Johnston on vocals. Johnston was still getting better, so McDonald was soon asked to join the band full-time.

The band went in a new direction with the help of McDonald’s singing and songwriting, as well as Baxter’s jazzier guitar style. They had more success with the albums Takin’ It to the Streets (1976), Livin’ on the Fault Line (1977), and especially Minute by Minute (1978), which was the number one album in the U.S. for five weeks and gave rise to several hit singles. Baxter’s work on the album includes a performance at the end of “How Do the Fools Survive?”

At the beginning of 1979, Baxter and co-founder John Hartman, who was the drummer, left the band.

In his later music career, Baxter has continued to work as a session guitarist for a wide range of artists, including Willy DeVille, Bryan Adams, Hoyt Axton, Eric Clapton, Sean O’Bryan Smith, Gene Clark, Sheryl Crow, Freddie Hubbard, Tim Weisberg, Joni Mitchell, Ricky Nelson, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Gene Simmons, Rod Stewart, Burton Cummings, Barbra Streisand,

He has been on the road with Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, and Billy Vera and the Beaters as a musician. In 1982, he was on Spirit’s album Spirit of ’84. Outside of the US, the album was called The Thirteenth Dream.

At the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1984, Baxter played keyboards with Bobby and the Midnites’ Bob Weir, Billy Cobham, Bobby Cochran, Kenny Gradney (“Tigger”), and Dave Garland. In the same year, he produced and played guitar and synthesiser on the band’s album on Columbia Records called Where the Beat Meets the Street.

In 1986, Baxter played guitar with James Brown and Maceo Parker on a few tour dates in North America. In 1990, Baxter joined a supergroup called The Best with John Entwistle, Joe Walsh, Keith Emerson, Simon Phillips, and a singer who was not very well known at the time, Rick Livingstone. Before breaking up, the group put out a video of them performing live in Japan. He also made two albums for the hard rock band Nazareth.

Skunk Baxter Net Worth

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, an American rock and roll guitarist, is well-known and has a net worth of more than $2.5 million. As of September 2019, Wallmine said that he had a net worth of $2.12 million.

Jeff Baxter has made a lot of money from being in good bands. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, every rock fan talked about him.

The director of safety consulting also makes a huge amount of money from all of his different jobs. Jeff was the leader of a progressive and influential rock band when he was at the top of his game, and he has been helping to make music better ever since.

He has worked with major record companies, which have given him a lot of money and bonuses for albums and instrumentals.

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