As the bassist of Paul Revere & the Raiders from 1965 to 1967, Volk appeared in over 750 television shows, 520 of which were episodes of the Dick Clark production, Where the Action Is, which aired daily from 1965 to 1967.

[7] At Nampa Junior High School, Volk met Drake Levin, who had moved from Chicago, in their 9th grade journalism class.

Levin helped him find a way out by allowing Volk to climb down a drainpipe from the second floor to escape to his father's car.

[3] After his dismissal from The Chancellors, Levin invited Volk to join him in the band Sir Winston's Trio, a jazz-pop group, as guitarist/bassist.

[10] Revere had seen the Sir Winston's Trio on the television show and asked if they would be interested in becoming the house band while the Raiders went back to Portland, Oregon, their new home base.

Volk and Levin did not know of anyone that could join the group right away, so they asked Revere if they could borrow The Raiders' drummer, Mike 'Smitty' Smith, for the first week they played the club.

Their most famous guitar battle came during the song "Big Boy Pete", which they later performed on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

[7] In January 1965, Levin recommended Volk to Paul Revere, who needed a replacement bass player for Mike "Doc" Holliday, who was leaving The Raiders for personal reasons.

[10] Since all band members had a nickname, Revere suggested Volk call himself "Bugs" or "Bucky Beaver", due to the prominent eye teeth he often displayed with a wide grin.

[11] The first side of the album, with Holliday playing bass, contained songs recorded live by producer Bruce Johnston.

[7] After the success of Here They Come!, their television show appearances, and a national tour in the summer of 1965, the Raiders reentered the studio to work on their next album, Just Like Us!, released in January 1966.

[citation needed] Not willing to lose the momentum the national exposure of their television show provided, the group quickly recorded and released Midnight Ride, the first album to contain song writing contributions from all five members of the band.

The follow up single "Hungry", recorded during the sessions for Midnight Ride but not included on the album, peaked at #6 on the Billboard charts and once again featured the bass part propelling the song.

[10] The result was what author and Rolling Stone magazine critic Dave Marsh calls, "...the center of the performance...a lethal bass line".

[15] The next single, "Good Thing", which peaked at #4 in December 1966,[21] was credited to the writing team of Melcher, Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay.

Volk stated that the song was written at the Cielo Drive home of Melcher in the Beverly Glen section of Los Angeles.

After putting together some more lyrics with the others who were present and coming up with some chords for the song, Volk thought he would get partial writing credit along with Jim "Harpo" Valley, who was filling in while Levin was in the National Guard.

[22] However, the trio was being sued by both Columbia Records and Paul Revere which delayed RCA from releasing the group's first album, titled simply Brotherhood.

On "Love for Free", the band used a pump organ to create a sound like a classical fugue at the beginning of the song as Volk's solo.

[7] The band and its members often found themselves in the company of some of the best musicians and songwriters of the late 1960s, including Johnny Barbata, Buddy Miles, Jimi Hendrix, Harry Nilsson, Stephen Stills, Steve Winwood and Lee Michaels, who would gather at Drake Levin's home to jam.

[23] Volk incorporated the first recording he ever made as a child into the last song on side 1, "ChildSong", which also uses the voices and sounds of children playing in a park and school as part of the background.

[3] In 1970, at the request of Paul Revere, Volk briefly returned to the Raiders for four concert appearances as part of a tour with The Beach Boys.

[9] In 1978, the Raiders' classic line-up reunited for a final time on a Dick Clark prime-time special titled The Good Ole' Days where the group performed a medley of their biggest hits.

I don't know, Mark brought some people in for "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)", but when I was in the band, and I want to get this straight, I was the bass player, I sang background vocals, and I also sang some lead vocals on some of the songs, and it was Drake, and myself, and Smitty, and Paul on keyboards, and Mark played some saxophone.

Volk also had a recording session that evening and struck a deal that she immediately sell the guitar to him, and he would loan her a brand new VOX Phantom bass which he had in the trunk of his car.

"[12] Volk went on to record several of The Raiders biggest hits with the Fender bass, including "Kicks", "Hungry" and "Good Thing".

[7] Volk and two former Raiders, Drake Levin and Keith Allison, as well as former members of The Grass Roots and The Buckinghams, formed a group called The American Rock All-Stars.

The song was played at Ground Zero the day after bin Laden was killed, and received a warm response from the crowds gathered there.

[31][citation needed] In November 2020, Volk released a 2-CD set called "Rocker", comprising 39 songs and covering five decades of his career.

[3] His sisters also had show business careers; Jeannie and Marilou were part of The Friendship Train with Volk and wife Tina Mason.