Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948)[1] is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts including Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell.

[2] Carlton was born in Torrance, California adjacent to Long Beach,[1] and at the age of six began guitar lessons.

In the early 1960s, while he was still in high school, he debuted his talent playing surf guitar with Eddie and the Showmen, who became the house band at the Retail Clerks Union Hall in Buena Park, California west of Orange.

[1] Carlton appeared in hundreds of recording sessions with Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Bobby Bland, Sammy Davis Jr., Paulinho Da Costa, Charly García, the Fifth Dimension, Herb Alpert, Christopher Cross, Dolly Parton, Andy Williams, and the Partridge Family.

In 1988, with his solo career burgeoning, he was shot in the throat by a teenager outside Room 335 and suffered nerve and vocal cord damage,[1] which delayed completion of the album he was recording at the time, On Solid Ground.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Carlton identified the shooter as one of two young men who he remembered jogging right after a dog ran by his carport.

[12] With The Crusaders With Fourplay With Paul Anka With Joan Baez With Bobby Bland With Pat Boone With David Cassidy With Paulinho da Costa With Randy Crawford With Andraé Crouch With Four Tops With Michael Franks With David Gates With Lani Hall With Albert Hammond With The Hues Corporation With John Klemmer With Bill LaBounty With Henry Mancini With Gap Mangione With Megan McDonough With Joni Mitchell With Wayne Newton With Michael Omartian With The Partridge Family With Michele Pillar With Johnny Rivers With Leo Sayer With Tom Scott With James Lee Stanley With Steely Dan With B. W. Stevenson With Barbra Streisand With Livingston Taylor With others