Susan Skaggs, influenced S.F. music scene at famed studio

Susan Skaggs, the industrious and magnetic music industry professional who coowned Different Fur Studios for almost 20 years and indelibly shaped the San Francisco studio’s success, died Saturday in Beaumont (Riverside County) after contracting COVID19 in hospice care. She was 80.

As coowner of the worldrenowned studio with music engineer Howard Johnston, Skaggs worked with a wide range of artists, from the Bay Area rock act Primus to jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. She oversaw the studio’s transition to digital technology and kept the studio forwardfacing with topoftheline equipment. She also had an indomitable spirit for helping others create success.

“There’s a reason that almost every recording studio that thrived in the Bay Area (in the) ’60s is gone and that Different Fur — that quirky little oneroom studio in the Mission before the Mission was fashionable — is still here,” said Patrick Gleeson, founder of Different Fur Studios. “Susan was the den mother and without her, it might have not happened.”

Susan Mary Skaggs was born in Clinton, Tenn., on March 13, 1940, the second of three children. Her father worked at the nylon hosiery mill, Magnet Mills, and her mother was a homemaker. Skaggs had always wanted to move to California, and in 1960, she and her cousin relocated to Hollywood, where she found secretarial work in the space industry.

The music industry, though, was where Skaggs really wanted to be, and in the early 1970s, she moved to San Francisco to dip into the scene. Her reputation as one of the most accomplished studio managers in the business quickly spread around the area, and she continued to independently chart her career forward.

“Many women in those days, including me, we were nurtured more to become mothers and housewives but there were some of us that kind of rebelled against us,” said Beverly Sommerfeld, Skaggs’ friend of more than 40 years and former director of the San Francisco Recording Academy. “I know I was one, and Susan was, too.”

Skaggs began working at KNEW radio but dreamed of a job in production, so she found a job at Wally Heider Studios, an influential recording studio with clients that included Jefferson Airplane, Harry Nilsson and Creedence Clearwater Revival, among others. Ginger Mews, the studio manager, took one look at Skaggs’ velvet coat and hired her for the front desk.

“She had her on the front desk, and people just fell in love with her,” Sommerfeld said. “She had a really lovely Southern charm about her — just a downhome girl that had a million little crazy stories to tell about people and life.”

By the late 1970s, Skaggs became the studio manager and the talk of the town.

In the early 1980s, Skaggs went to work at another top recording studio, The Automatt, founded by producer David Rubinson. That was when Sommerfeld finally understood her magnetism — her ability to make instant friendships and leave an impression on anyone she encountered. Skaggs became governor of the San Francisco board of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which presents the Grammy Awards. The two began going out nightly, listening to music and mingling with industry folk around town.

Shortly around that time, she was hired by Gleeson to manage Different Fur.

In 1986, she and Johnston bought Different Fur from Gleeson. They were a symbiotic pair — Johnston’s engineering expertise powered the studio, and Skaggs’ business acumen and bright personality brought in clients like Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder, Brian Eno and David Byrne, as well as local artists just getting their start in San Francisco.

She never had children, but she became a mother of sorts to every artist who came into the studio, Gleeson said, especially to those who were emotionally wounded or feeling lost. Gleeson and Skaggs took a chance on Huey Lewis, then a young and unmoored Bay Area artist who wasn’t yet recording his own music, and that landed him his first record deal. They funded him $15,000 of studio time, and he recorded all his demos at Different Fur Studios.

In 1993, after falling in love with line dancing, Skaggs started a company aimed at its promotion called Buffalo Productions with Sommerfeld. They started dancing five nights a week at clubs and halls like Newark’s Swiss Hall and the Country Quicksteppers in Redwood City, and soon, a local choreographer dubbed them the Buffalo Girls.

Soon, the Buffalo Girls adopted another member, Danette Petersen. Choreographers would ask them to demonstrate their new dances at gatherings, and the trio would go as far as Canada to dance at events.

During the next decade, the Buffalo Girls’ friendship blossomed: They vacationed and spent their birthdays together, becoming each other’s families. But Petersen and Sommerfeld started to notice some concerning changes in Skaggs, who had always been unwaveringly sharp. They were early signs of dementia.

Skaggs is survived by her sister, Linda Weber of Hemet (Riverside County), as well as three nieces and two nephews.