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 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
The Blue Flame 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. The
stage name "Randy California" was given to him by Hendrix to
distinguish him from another Randy in the band (who Hendrix
dubbed "Randy Texas"). When Hendrix was invited to come to
England by former bassist of
British Invasion band
The Animals
Chas Chandler—who became Hendrix's manager and
producer—Randy's parents did not allow him to go so that he
could finish high school. So at that time the 15-year-old
guitar genius did not become a member of the
Jimi Hendrix Experience. By some accounts, Chandler
wanted Hendrix as the only guitarist for the band and nixed
California's going to England. Hendrix invited Randy anyway,
so they could "go find Jeff Beck." Together with
Cassidy, songwriter/front-man
Jay Ferguson, bassist
Mark Andes (with whom California and Cassidy initially
had formed a band called the Red Roosters) and keyboardist
John Locke, California founded the band Spirit—originally
Spirits Rebellious, after
Khalil Gibran's poem—in 1967. The band's demo was
produced by Barry Hansen, later to become
Doctor Demento.
