California Randy Lyrics

Randy California (born Randy Craig Wolfe; February 20, 1951 – January 2, 1997) was a guitarist, singer and songwriter and one of the original members of the rock group Spirit, formed in 1967.

Randy was born into a musical family in Los Angeles and spent his early years studying varied styles at the family's Los Angeles folk club, the Ash Grove. Randy's uncle, Ed Pearl, was famous as the founder of the Ash Grove. He was 15 years old when his mother Bernice Pearl and his new stepfather Ed Cassidy, (later to become a founding member of the band Spirit, with Randy) moved to New York City in the summer of 1966 because Cassidy had a number of jazz gigs lined up. It was there, at Manny's Guitars, that Randy met Jimi Hendrix. He played in Hendrix's band Jimmy James & the Blue Flames that summer. California, Cassidy and Pearl lived in an apartment building in Forest Hills (Queens), New York called the Balfour, whose other residents included future Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker, who cites California's blues-based guitar style as an influence on his own playing.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_California