He is best remembered for playing the bass line on Norman Greenbaum's 1970 hit "Spirit in the Sky" (number 333 on Rolling Stone 's list of 500 greatest songs of all time).
Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands where his father was stationed as part of the American occupation force.
At the age of 17, he and high school friends Russell DaShiell, Rick Jaeger, and Lance Massey formed the band "The Beau Gentry".
He also played with such notables as Blue Cheer, Commander Cody, Nick Gravenites, Michael Bloomfield, David LaFlamme, Linda Tillery & The Loading Zone, The Stoval Sisters, Jesse Barish, Booker T. Jones, Luther Tucker, Charlie Musselwhite, Barry "The Fish" Melton, John Cipollina, Carla Thomas, Pete Escovedo & Azteca, Tommy Roe, The FG's, Mark Naftalin, The Dovells, Dee Clark, Redwing, and Curly Cooke's Hurdy Gurdy Band.
After beating pneumonia, he was no longer able to afford the high cost of living in Novato, California so he decided to move his family north.
His life was celebrated by his fellow San Francisco Bay Area musicians at a fund-raiser memorial for his family in Mill Valley, California at the Sweetwater Saloon.