Tommy Bolin

Bolin moved to Boulder, Colorado in his late teens and then played in a band called American Standard (with future songwriting collaborator Jeff Cook) before joining Ethereal Zephyr, a band named after the California Zephyr train which ran between Oakland and Chicago. When record companies became interested, the name was shortened to Zephyr.

That band included Bolin on lead guitar, David Givens on bass, and Givens' wife Candy Givens on vocals. The band had begun to do larger venues, opening for more established acts such as Led Zeppelin. Their second album, Going Back to Colorado, featured a new drummer, Bobby Berge, who would pop up from time to time in musician credits in album liner notes from Bolin's later projects. In 1972, the 20-year old Bolin formed the fusion jazz-rock-blues band Energy. Unable to secure a record contract, the band never released an album during Bolin's lifetime. However, several recordings have been released posthumously. Bolin briefly reunited with David and Candy Givens in a band called the 4-Nikators, after which he took nearly a year off from music. During that time, he wrote close to a hundred songs.

Stuck between the musical direction he wanted to pursue and a nearly-empty bank account, Bolin joined the James Gang in 1973, replacing Domenic Troiano, who had replaced Joe Walsh in the band. He recorded two albums: Bang in 1973 and Miami in 1974; Except for one song on Bang, Bolin wrote or co-wrote every song on these two albums.

In between the James Gang albums, Bolin played on Mahavishnu Orchestra member Billy Cobham's solo album Spectrum, which included Bolin on guitar, Cobham on drums, Leland Sklar on bass and Jan Hammer (also of Mahavishnu Orchestra) on keyboards and synthesizers. Keyboardist Jon Lord said the album changed his mind about disbanding Deep Purple following the departure of Ritchie Blackmore. "When Ritchie left, I wanted to discontinue the band. But then David (Coverdale) said, 'I want you to hear something,' and he played the Spectrum album. I was blown away and utterly entranced by this guitar player."

After the Miami tour, Bolin wanted out of the James Gang. He went on to do session work for numerous rock bands and also with a number of jazz artists including Alphonse Mouzon's album Mind Transplant, considered "easily one of the best fusion recordings of all time" by AllMusic reviewer Robert Taylor. He also toured with Carmine Appice and the Good Rats. At the start of 1975, Bolin was a guest studio guitarist for Canadian band Moxy during the recording of their debut album, on which Bolin contributed guitar solos for six songs.