Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and a ballistic missile and anti-terrorism expert
SAN DIEGO — Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a man of international intrigue and a secret agent?
Yes, yes, and, um, no. The versatile guitarist — who rose to prominence as a nimble-fingered member of Steely Dan in the early 1970s — was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of the Doobie Brothers, the band he joined after Steely Dan.
“You have to be proud of your accomplishments, but you have to keep moving,” said Baxter, whose tour to promote his long-overdue debut solo album, “Speed of Heat,” includes a recent concert at the Belly Up.
His many credits include playing on such chart-topping hits as Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” and the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes.” Baxter was featured on Steely Dan’s first three albums and on such classic songs as “Do It Again,” “Rikki, Don’t Lose That Number” and “My Old School.”
He is not, so far as is known, a secret agent. But the walrus mustachioed guitarist checks multiple boxes as a man of international intrigue.
Baxter is certifiably the only Rock & Roll Hall of Famer who spent 15 years as a specialist reserve officer with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Anti-Terrorist Division. He is also a founding member of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Terrorism Early Warning Group.
Born in Washington, D.C., and raised mostly in Mexico City, he has high-level security clearances as a U.S. government defense consultant specializing in ballistic missile systems and counterterrorism. For good measure, he has performed with the band Coalition of the Willing, whose lineup has included U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on guitar and vocals.
“Antony is pretty good; he’s got a lot of energy. And Andras Simonyi, the former Hungarian ambassador in Washington, D.C., is also in Coalition of the Willing,” said Baxter, who had a pressing reason for changing this recent interview with the Union-Tribune from a Monday to a Sunday.
“I have a commitment with the Air Force and have to leave town tomorrow,” he explained, speaking from his Los Angeles area home. “It’s part of my day job.”
MULTIPLE DAY JOBS
Baxter’s “day job” is, in fact, multiple days jobs.
He is a consultant for the Global Security Sector of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a member of the Director’s Strategic Red Team at MIT/Lincoln Laboratories and a Senior Thinker for the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition. He is also the chairman of the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense for the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.
A two-time Grammy Award winner, Baxter has worked as a consultant for NorthropGrumman, Science Applications International Corporation, Ball Aerospace, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Photon Research, General Dynamics Information Technologies, and other companies.
“I’m under contract with a number of different government agencies and also with a couple of national laboratories. I’m a consulting contractor for the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and a couple of others,” Baxter said, speaking from his Los Angeles home.
“The idea of being able to think on a multilevel template is common to both music and problem-solving. Musicians are always thinking on multiple levels, whether it’s just playing a piece where you’re looking at time, tempo, chords, lyrics and different melodies.
“There’s so much going on — and it’s the same with problem-solving. To solve a problem correctly, you need to break it down to its smallest components and then reassemble it, in a way that gets you an answer that’s different from what you would normally get.”
That Baxter has thrived in such disparate worlds is a singular achievement. Ditto the fact that this pony-tailed guitarist has been embraced by politicians and defense-industry wonks for his ability to think outside of the box about counterterrorism, cybersecurity and ballistic missile strategies.
He has brought a similar degree of creativity to his design and development work for such leading music instrument and equipment companies as the Roland Corp., Akai and Fender.
‘BRILLIANT’
“Jeff stands alone,” said Joe Lamond, the president and CEO of the Carlsbad-based National Association of Music Merchants. “But when you think about it, if an organization wanted to get a glimpse into ‘asymmetrical thinking,’ why wouldn’t you consult someone as brilliant as Skunk?”
San Diego-bred bass guitar great Nathan East, who has performed with Baxter, voiced similar sentiments.
“Skunk is not only one of my favorite musicians,” East said, “he’s the most interesting guy to hang out with as you learn about his amazing life outside of the music business.”
Baxter’s “Skunk” nickname dates to his late teens. He has long declined to disclose what inspired it — a detail he may include in the autobiography he hopes to complete by next year.
The book will have multiple focuses, as befits a musician who was once the co-owner of the Beverly Hills Gun Club and — in 1999 — came close to running as the GOP candidate for the 24th Congressional District.
“It was an interesting exploration,” said Baxter, whose collaborators over the years have ranged from Joni Mitchell and Rod Stewart to jazz trumpet great Freddie Hubbard and the Argentinian rock band Enanitos Verdes.
“I decided not to (pursue running for office) because of the level of vitriol and vituperation I encountered. I didn’t really understand that politics was a blood sport. I guess I was a little naïve.”
Baxter’s life can be summarized as a series of interesting explorations, starting with the classical piano lessons he began taking when he was 5.
His family moved to Mexico City from Washington, D.C., when he was 9. He quickly learned Spanish and began playing guitar. When he was 10, his father took him to a concert in the Mexican capital by jazz giants Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald.
“I was enthralled and fascinated,” Baxter, 73, recalled. “Jazz is an expression of freedom. Improvisation needs freedom to even exist. Music, to me, represents a pathway — and a philosophy — that requires freedom.”