A graduate of Oak Park High School in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park, Michigan, and later the University of Michigan, Was left his native Detroit for California, and found employment as the jazz critic for the now-defunct Hearst daily the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, where he forged friendships with Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis and Mel Tormé.
With his childhood friend Don Was he went on to form Was (Not Was), composing the lyrics and music and playing various instruments, primarily flute, keyboards and harmonica.
Reviewed by The New York Times in 1980 as "the funkier art-funk band," Was (Not Was) used members of Funkadelic, alongside jazz musicians like trumpeter Marcus Belgrave; and singers Mel Tormé and Ozzy Osbourne.
Their most recent album, Boo!, was issued in 2008 and ranked among that year's top ten releases on many critics'[who?]
As a record producer, he has worked with Bob Dylan, Rickie Lee Jones, Roy Orbison, k.d.