W. G. Snuffy Walden - Early Music Career

Early Music Career

In the late 1960s, Walden dropped out of school, quit his job, and devoted his energies to the guitar full-time. In 1968, he formed the group Stray Dog, a blues-based rock trio, and together they moved to England. Following the breakup of Stray Dog, Walden teamed up with the English rock singer Paul Rodgers for what would be the last configuration of the rock group Free. Walden replaced the ailing Paul Kossoff on Free's final album Heartbreaker, which was released in 1973. In 1973, he joined The Eric Burdon Band and performed with them for a year.

In 1973, Walden moved to Los Angeles and spent the rest of the decade performing as a solo artist, and supporting artists such as Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, and Eric Burdon. By the mid-1980s, television agents and producers became aware of Walden through his local performances in Santa Monica. When approached to score a new television show, Walden had mixed feelings, but accepted the offer. "I could see the handwriting on the wall for touring," he would later remember, "and it wasn't pretty. I kept envisioning Holiday Inn at age 60." The television show he was hired for was thirtysomething, which turned out to be a major hit television series, and dramatically altered Walden's music career.