

Instead of letting McGuinn face the unemployment line, Darin opened T.M. However, a year later Darin retired from singing due to medical issues. It was Darin’s desire to add folk music to his recording repertoire. In 1962, McGuinn was hired by Bobby Darin to serve as his backup guitarist and harmony singer. Not long after graduation and performing, McGuinn moved to the West Coast before eventually settling in Los Angeles. He often performed as a sideman for a variety of folk music artists during this time frame. After he graduated, he performed in coffeehouses and on the folk music circuit.
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This is where he learned how to play the five-string banjo and a twelve-string guitar. Elvis Presley, along with Johnny Cash, The Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, and Gene Vincent was also credited as the inspiration that fueled McGuinn to embark on a musical career of his own.Īt fifteen years old, McGuinn became a student of Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. Elvis Presley was the key influencer as “Heartbreak Hotel” triggered the young man to ask his parents for a guitar.

While growing up in Chicago, McGuinn was exposed to the music scene that featured post-WWII blues and the emergence of a new genre called rock and roll. This is the same McGuinn that co-founded the Byrds in 1964 with Gene Clark. Technically, he was born James Joseph McGuinn III on July 13, 1942, before he became better known as James Roger McGuinn. Feature Photo: Eugene Powers / Shutterstockīefore collaborating with a long and impressive roster of recording greats, Roger McGuinn was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois as the son of a journalist and public relations specialist.
