Roger McGuinn

James Roger McGuinn (/məˈɡwɪn/; born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician, best known for being the leader of the Byrds. He has released ten albums and collaborated with many other performers, among them Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Chris Hillman. The Rickenbacker 12-string guitar is his signature instrument. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 along with The Byrds.

McGuinn was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, son of James Joseph McGuinn Jr (b. 1909) and Dorothy Irene (b. 1911), daughter of engineer Louis Heyn. His parents worked in journalism and public relations, and during his childhood, they wrote a bestseller titled Parents Can't Win. He attended the Latin School of Chicago. He became interested in music after hearing Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" (a song that he frequently performs as a part of his autobiographical live shows), and asked his parents to buy a guitar for him. Around the same time, he was also influenced by inidivdual performers and groups such as Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent and the Everly Brothers.

In 1957, he enrolled as a student at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, where he learned the five-string banjo and 12-string guitar. After graduation, McGuinn performed solo at various coffeehouses on the folk music circuit where he was hired as a sideman by the Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and Judy Collins and other folk music artists in the same vein. In 1962, after he ended his association with the Chad Mitchell Trio, McGuinn was hired by Bobby Darin as a backup guitarist and harmony singer. Darin wanted to add a folk roots element to his repertoire because it was a burgeoning musical field. Darin opened T.M. Music in New York City's Brill Building, hiring McGuinn as a songwriter for $35 a week. About a year and a half later, Darin became ill and retired from singing.

During 1963, just one year before he co-founded the Byrds in Los Angeles, McGuinn was working as a studio musician in New York, recording with Judy Collins and Simon & Garfunkel. At the same time, he was hearing about the Beatles (whose first American appearances would come in February 1964) and wondering how Beatlemania might affect folk music. When McGuinn saw George Harrison play a 12-string Rickenbacker in the film A Hard Day's Night, it inspired him to buy the same instrument.

By the time Doug Weston gave him a job at The Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles, McGuinn had begun to include Beatles songs in his act. He gave rock style treatments to traditional folk tunes and thereby caught the attention of another folkie Beatles fan, Gene Clark, who joined forces with McGuinn in July 1964. Together they formed the beginning of what was to become the Byrds.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.