For those of you who might not know…about Shuggie Otis

Frank Zappa was so enamoured of bandleader Johnny Otis, the so-called Godfather of Rhythm & Blues, that he copied Otis' distinctive facial hair.

Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson’s eponymous debut album was produced by Johnny, who was an early champion of the young axe-slinger. A compilation album of late 50s/early 60s Watson tracks was released in 1976 called The Gangster Is Back; the tracks segue into latter-day comments from Johnny Otis, plus occasional instrumental breaks from his son Shuggie (born Johnny Alexander Veliotes Jr. on St. Andrew's Day 1953) on acoustic guitar.

In 1967, the fourteen year old Shuggie Otis recorded his first sessions with Johnny Otis And His Orchestra, playing blues guitar on his father’s 1968 comeback album, Cold Shot. It had been Frank Zappa who suggested to the owners of the record label, Cadet, that they give Johnny Otis a call. On the strength of that album, Johnny signed a lucrative major label deal with Epic Records which in turn paved the way for Shuggie’s solo recording career.

Father and son followed Cold Shot with an ‘adults only’ album, in the guise of Snatch And The Poontangs, with Shuggie contributing guitar, bass and organ as Prince Wunnerful. The final cut, Two Girls In Love (With Each Other), features Shuggie on guitar with two girls enjoying some ‘recreational activities’, à la Frank’s The Torture Never Stops seven years later.

In July 1969, Shuggie played bass for Zappa at TTG Studios on Peaches En Regalia, Arabesque (later reused as the intro to Toads Of The Short Forest) and Dame Margret’s Son To Be A Bride (In Session).

In November 1970, FZ appeared on the Johnny Otis radio show on KPPC in Pasadena, where he and Shuggie participated in a couple of live in-studio performances, including with Ray Agee on his 1960 song Leave Me Alone.

Also in 1970, Shuggie contributed to the Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris album Sugarcane, arranging and co-writing many of the songs, while his dad produced it.

In 1971, Shuggie released his second solo album, Freedom Flight. It featured contributions from Aynsley Dunbar and George Duke, plus the track Strawberry Letter 23. This song was successfully covered by the Brothers Johnson (produced by Quincy Jones) in 1977, and appeared on the soundtracks to Quentin Tarantino’s films Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. Their version has also been sampled many times, including by Color Me Badd (I Wanna Sex You Up, 1992), OutKast (Ms. Jackson, 2001), Beyoncé (Be With You, 2003) and Justin Timberlake (Señorita, 2003).

Around the time he was recording his third album (Inspiration Information, eventually released in 1974), Shuggie had a son with Miss Mercy of the GTOs named Lucky. The couple had bonded over drugs and music, and married soon after their son’s birth – but the relationship was fairly short-lived. In her posthumously published memoir Permanent Damage – Memoirs Of An Outrageous Girl (skilfully pieced together by Lyndsey Parker), Mercy says she “crushed on” Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson and that Shuggie was prone to fits of jealousy – destroying her diaries, which FZ had at one time planned to publish. There was also another woman involved, in the shape of Lillian Wilson (known as Teri), the daughter of trumpeter/bandleader/Latin-jazz pioneer Gerald Wilson. Soon after he divorced Mercy, Shuggie had a son with Teri, who they named Eric - after Eric Dolphy.

Via Billy Preston, the Rolling Stones invited Shuggie to audition for them, but he wasn’t interested, saying “I don’t want to be with white boys!” He would also turn down David Bowie.

By the mid seventies, Shuggie had a bad reputation in the music industry – not helped by his increasing dependency on milk and alcohol – and his recording contract with Epic Records was terminated.

He continued to work on sessions with his father, including in 1977 when Johnny produced a re-recording of Louie, Louie for Richard Berry on which Shuggie played guitar and bass.

While he continued to record, he didn’t release new solo material for decades: “I spent many years sending tapes and taking meetings with every label in the industry – I was turned down by everyone at least twice,” he later said.

In 1986, he played with Etta James and Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson on their Blues In The Night series of live albums, together with Hot Rats drummer Paul Humphrey.

In the late nineties/early noughties, Jeff Simmons played piano in Shuggie’s band for shows on the US West Coast and in Canada.

Following his father’s death in 2012, Shuggie returned to the stage big time with his World Domination Tour 2013. His band (the Shuggie Otis Rite) included ‘Broadway The Hard Way’ tenor saxophonist Albert Wing, plus Shuggie’s brother Nick on drums and his son Eric on guitar. To coincide with this, his Inspiration Information album was reissued with four bonus tracks from its sessions, together with a 14 track album of previously unreleased material recorded between 1975 and 2000, titled Wings Of Love.

In 2014, he released an album and concert film from the comeback tour, recorded at The Music Hall Of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York.

In 2015, he released a new original song, Ice Cream Party, “offering a taste of sounds to come from his forthcoming 2016 full length album!”

In May 2017, Miss Mercy wrote on Facebook that, “Shuggie had an accident a few months ago. He needs prayers and healing thoughts as he improves.” A planned UK tour that September was scrapped.

In 2018, Cleopatra Records released a new, mostly instrumental album credited solely to Shuggie called Inter-Fusion. This was apparently a new rock project featuring Otis on guitar, Carmine Appice on drums and Tony Franklin on bass, plus keyboardist Kyle Hamood – who also produced the album – with additional guitars by Aaron Kaplan. It included a version of Shuggie’s Ice Cold Daydream from his Freedom Flight album – a song Miss Mercy believed was about her.

Sadly, Mercy passed away in 2020. She was still at odds with son Lucky – who she initially palmed off onto her mother, and then the Otis family.

Shuggie’s most recently released new recording was as one of a number of guests on Arthur Brown’s Monster’s Ball album in 2022.