He learned guitar as a child in Los Angeles, and started working with bands in small clubs, as well as accompanying doo-wop vocal groups.
[citation needed] After meeting H. B. Barnum, they formed a band, the Circats, who played in clubs in the late 1950s and also toured Hawaii with Billy Ward and the Dominoes.
He also worked in bands backing such performers as Roy Milton, Sam Cooke, Don Julian, and Johnny Otis.
Often in collaboration with producer Hal Davis, he worked with many other Motown acts over a period of more than twenty years, including: Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and The Temptations, as well as other musicians including: Ray Charles, The Friends of Distinction, the Righteous Brothers, Mel Brown, Jerry Butler, Donna Summer, Ike & Tina Turner, and Billy Preston.
[5] With Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson With the Super Black Blues Band: T-Bone Walker, Otis Spann and Joe Turner