Shuggie Otis - Music's Forgotten Legend

Shuggie Otis - Music’s Forgotten Legend

 Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message. 

Hello my love, I heard this from you. Welcome to the episode of The Trout Show, Vinyl to Viral. Rediscovering Music's Forgotten Legends.

With your host, The Trout, and today, his spotlighting a forgotten legend, Shugie Otis. In the 70s, Frank Zappa and Quincy Jones called this teenage prodigy a genius for his psychedelic soul masterpiece Inspiration Information. Shugie was hailed as the next Jimi Hendrix, and he was even asked to join the Rolling Stones to replace the departing Mick Taylor.

But his career flopped, and Shugie vanished, until Beyonce, TikTok, and fans on YouTube brought him back. Now The Trout Deep dives into the Shugie Otis story, right after a message from our supporter. Meet a financial advisor who learns what truly matters to you, creating financial strategies that support a life you love.

That's David Smith with Edward Jones. His years of experience has assisted dozens of clients, just like you, to weave their way through the maze of financial opportunities available. One quick call at 469-372-1587 and David can assist your financial wants and needs.

That's David Smith with Edward Jones at 469-372-1587. Remember it's your financial future make it a rewarding one. David Smith at 469-372-1587.

Hey everybody it is the Trout once again and welcome to another episode of the Trout Show podcast Vinyl to Viral. Today we're going to look into a music legend that was supposed to be a legend but his career faded out and that was a guy by the name of Shugie Otis. Now that wasn't his real name his real name was Johnny Alexander Velotez and I can remember him because the fact when I used to be much younger I used to go to the record store to try to find music to listen to and a lot of us did this back then we just looked at the covers and go hey we think we like this guy or not or this band and so Shugie was everywhere.

I saw his picture I remember people talking about him a lot of famous people talked about him. In fact I remember seeing his information a lot a lot of music magazines talked about him. Shugie was considered a child prodigy.

He was born to a very musical family in fact his father Johnny Otis was a well-known rhythm the blues guy actually was a legend. He wrote the song Willie and the Hand Jive and he was in a band that was very famous back then. Shugie began playing guitar at the young age of two and performing with his father's band by the age of 12.

He often would wear sunglasses and a fake mustache to skirt child labor laws. Unbelievable. His early work got him into working with such great artists as Al Cooper and Frank Zappa but his solo career in the early 70s didn't take off as expected.

Shugie was a wonder kind in the Los Angeles music scene celebrated by established artists for his prodigious talent as a guitarist multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. At just the ages between 15 and 21 he was already rubbing shoulders with music legends earning praise for his technical skill and innovative sound. Here's some of the people that he worked with at that time.

Frank Zappa who was a maverick in rock and experimental music featured Otis in his 1969 album Peaches and Regalia where the 15 year old Shugie played bass. Zappa praised Otis's musical intuition noting his ability to hold his own complex sessions despite his youth. In interviews from the era Frank Zappa called him a phenomenon impressed by his ability to blend bluesy guitar with avant-garde sensibilities and there wasn't anybody more avant-garde than Frank Zappa at that time.

This collaboration gave Otis early credibility among progressive rock and jazz fusions. Now you may not know who Al Cooper is but Al Cooper was a founding member of the band Blood Sweat and Tears probably heard of them. Al Cooper the multi-instrumentalist behind Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and Blood Sweat and Tears produced Otis's debut album which was called Here Comes Shugie Otis in 1970.

He was only 16. Cooper held Otis as a genius in the making touting his guitar chops and songwriting tracks like Booty Cooler. In a 1970 Rolling Stone interview Cooper predicted Otis would redefine R&B drawing comparisons to a young Stevie Wonder for his versatility.

And Shugie's dad Johnny Otis rhythm and blues pioneer was his biggest cheerleader. As a band leader and radio DJ Johnny featured Shugie in his review billing him as a teenage sensation. In a 1971 Billboard article Johnny called Shugie the future of soul emphasizing his ability to play guitar bass drums and organ with equal flair.

Well a lot of people thought it was just a parent talk and it was his bias. Johnny's connections brought Shugie to the attention of great artists like Etta James. Etta says well she praised him at her live for his live performances but she said he's a great performer.

He comes from one of the greatest blues singers ever. And then there's this little known producer called Quincy Jones that worked with Shugie on his song Strawberry Letter 23 which is what you heard earlier in this episode for Otis's 1971 album Freedom Flight. Quincy was so impressed that he produced the Brothers Johnson's 1977 cover of the same tune which hit number five on the Billboard Hot 100.

In a 1970s interview Jones described Otis as a quote visionary with a limitless palette end quote particularly for the song's psychedelic funk groove and intricate guitar work. This endorsement from a future legend underscored Otis's early promise. Then you get into another great artist blues icon B.B. King who shared bills with Johnny's dad reportedly called Shugie quote a young cat with an old soul.

After hearing him play at a 1970 gig B.B. admired Otis's fluid guitar style which blended B.B.'s emotive blends with Jimi Hendrix's psychedelic flair as heard on Freedom Flight's tune Ice Cold Daydream. This nod from a blues giant boosted Otis's reputation among traditionalists. Well he wasn't just doing that Otis was also working as a session guitarist and he worked with artists like Preston Love, Big Joe Turner in the late 60s and early 70s earned him whispers from the music business as a secret weapon.

Musicians in LA studio scene including drummer Jim Keltner if you don't know who Jim played with John Lennon in his solo career praised his ability to nail parts in one take and Keltner noted in 1972 Downbeat magazine that Otis's guitar playing sang like nobody else. So here's the question you're asking yourself why this praise didn't translate to stardom? Despite this early hype from heavyweights Otis's career faltered by the mid-1970s making his rediscovery story all the more poignant for this episode. So what happened to Shugie? All this hype to a guy that was supposed to be the next Jimi Hendrix? Well I look at these things as it's not just one thing that happens to a person it's several things that seem to pile up to make things disappear not going their own way He brought an album out in 1974 that was very eclectic it had a psychedelic soul and funk and he used drum machines which of course were just not very good back then and layered guitars.

Now the critics loved it how many times we've heard that but the radio stations at the time said yeah it's too experimental and they were playing stuff like Sly Stone and Marvin Gaye which means he got limited airplay. Shugie was on Epic Records at the time and which it was a big label back then a lot of famous people were on it. It was known that you know record label executives would promote people they liked well they didn't really promote Otis that much.

They spent their time focusing on up-and-coming acts like the Jackson Five and unfortunately his album only sold about 10,000 copies and then Epic dropped him and he tried to shop his stuff at other labels and they rejected them and that crushed his momentum and by his early 20s Shugie faced substance abuse and depression exasperated by industry setbacks and he became very reclusive unlike extroverted peers like George Clinton and if you know who George Clinton is he was very extroverted kept him from capitalizing on early buzz and you know the other problem you have he was so talented and pressure was put on him and the fact that he was touted as a prodigy at 16 put immense pressure on him and some musicians like Al Cooper later noted he seemed overwhelmed by expectations retreating from the spotlight people wanted a lot of big things from him and I guess personally he couldn't commit to him there was a lot of stress so what happened all those years later when did they rediscover him well Otis put the band together in 2013 and went on tour he even went to Coachella and he showcased his guitar skills with the Rolling Stone magazine calling him a living link to soul's golden age in fact his youtube clips from those shows have over 500,000 plus views as of 2025 and his strawberry letter 23 has now had over 200 million spotify streams and is a tiktok favorite in lo-fi and chill hop videos echoing the early buzz from musicians but now reaching generation z so what do we get out of all this well I don't know what to tell you except I remember when I saw something about his name showing up on some social media and I went oh my goodness what happened to Shuggie Otis well he faded into obscurity now in his 70s it's hard to find anything by him and you might listen to this song that we played at the beginning the strawberry letter 23 and think well gee it's kind of dated isn't it well of course it's been over 50 years ago but to me it's a story of what could happen to a lot of people I knew a guy back in the early 90s when I was producing an album for myself and I was in the studio one day and I was talking to my engineer and and my other producer and I said who's this picture and above the console they had a picture of a guy walking and I can't remember his name he'd signed a big record label deal and he had recorded at my friend's studio and whoever he signed with one of the major labels had offered him a hundred thousand dollars and he said nah I think I can get more money from somebody else well after I left the studio and went back many times later I've looked for that guy's album and guess what happened to him he disappeared and I'm sure there's lots of stories like that trust me I know from being the host of the Trout Show I've interviewed dozens and dozens of independent artists that are phenomenally good will probably never make it to the big time good bad or indifferent music legends come and go and in this case Suge Otis who had a chance to join the Rolling Stones has never been heard of again Well that's it for this episode of the Trout Show. Thank you so much for stopping by and listening to the musical history of Suge Otis. Once again thanks to our sponsor and supporter David Smith with Edward Jones that keeps the lights on here at the Trout Show and for more information about any podcast or YouTube videos check out my website at www.edwardjones.com. www.thetroutshow.com for more information.

So you know what I always say people it's only rock and roll but I love it. See ya!

 Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.