Gregg Alan Rolie
(born June 17, 1947 in Seattle, Washington) is an American keyboardist, organist, and singer, who is one of the founding members of the bands Santana, Journey, The Storm, and Abraxas Pool, as well as his current Gregg Rolie Band. Rolie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Santana.
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GREGG ROLIE TICKETS
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Career
Prior to embarking on his successful career, Rolie played with a group called William Penn and his Pals, circa 1965, playing at least one high school dance at Serra High School in San Mateo, California. A year later, Rolie joined with
Carlos Santana and others to form the Santana Blues Band, which was later shortened to Santana. With Santana he was part of their first wave of success, including an appearance at the
Woodstock Music and Art Festival and several hit albums. He is perhaps best known for being the lead vocalist on Santana's US #4 hit,
Black Magic Woman. However
persistent differences with Carlos Santana as to musical direction led Rolie to leave the band at the end of 1971. He went home to Seattle, opening a restaurant with his father, which was not very successful.
Rolie was then recruited in 1973 to join a new band with ex-Santana guitarist
Neal Schon; this became
Journey.
Starring in a lineup that featured Schon,
Aynsley Dunbar,
George Tickner, and
Ross Valory, he produced music for such albums as the self-titled
Journey
,
Look into the Future
,
Infinity
, and
Departure
. Towards the beginning of the band's history, he was the
lead vocalist and
keyboardist, but when
Steve Perry came into the picture he became largely a backup vocalist as well as keyboardist. Gregg Rolie and Steve Perry sang co-lead vocals on several Journey songs.
After leaving Journey in 1980, Gregg released several solo albums, including the eponymous
Gregg Rolie
in 1985. This album featured the song "I Wanna Go Back," which later became a hit for
Eddie Money, and included contributions from
Carlos Santana,
Peter Wolf,
Neal Schon, and
Craig Chaquico. A second solo effort,
Gringo
, was released in 1987.
Rolie formed
The Storm in 1991 with
Steve Smith,
Ross Valory, Josh Ramos and
Kevin Chalfant, whose voice resembles that of Steve Perry. Their eponymous album hit #3 on the
Billboard albums chart and spawned the Top Ten single "I've Got A Lot To Learn About Love." Despite this success, their second album, recorded in 1993, was shelved, due to the industry's shifting focus to favor rap and alternative music audiences. It finally saw limited release in 1996, and in the late 1990s, Rolie and
Neal Schon formed
Abraxas Pool. Rolie also released another solo album,
Roots
, in 2001.
Philanthropy
Gregg Rolie is a proponent of music education for children. In 2005, he signed on as an official supporter of
Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and instruction to children in underserved public schools throughout the U.S.A. He sits on the organization's Honorary Board of Directors.