Creed Bratton

Creed Bratton first gained notice as lead guitarist in the West Coast folk-rock ensemble the Grass Roots, whose string of late-1960s successes featured the singles "Let's Live for Today" and "Midnight Confessions," before launching a lengthy and wide-ranging career as a character actor. Departing the group in 1969, he concentrated on screen work, securing supporting parts across numerous films and television programs during the ensuing thirty years. Appearances in features such as Heart Like a Wheel and Mask marked that period, yet his most visible success arrived in the late 2000s when he portrayed a fictionalized version of himself on NBC’s acclaimed sitcom The Office, earning several Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. While maintaining his acting schedule, Bratton resumed recording with the 2001 solo release Chasin’ the Ball on his own Kindred Music label, issuing two additional albums in rapid order. His songwriting leaned toward introspective acoustic folk infused with rock and country elements. Another collection appeared in 2008 amid his Office run, and he balanced acting and music throughout the 2010s before returning with his eighth solo album, Slightly Altered, in 2020.

Born in Sacramento, Bratton began playing guitar in childhood and, after finishing high school in 1961, chose to travel as a working musician. During journeys through Europe and the Middle East he encountered fellow Californian Warren Entner, also a guitarist; the pair formed a duo and sustained themselves by performing on the streets from one nation to the next. Their partnership solidified following a 1964 meeting with an Israeli businessman who envisioned them as the foundation of a rock band composed of American expatriates based in Israel. The project lasted only months before the musicians parted ways and eventually returned to the United States.

Residing in Los Angeles by 1965, Bratton contacted Entner to propose assembling a band, noting that a mutual acquaintance could secure paying engagements right away. Bratton assumed lead guitar duties, Entner handled rhythm guitar and vocals, and the lineup was completed by drummer Rick Coonce and bassist Rob Grill. Operating initially as the 13th Floor, they performed at bars, clubs, and bowling alleys throughout the Los Angeles area, distinguishing themselves with original material that they recorded and submitted to Lou Adler’s newly established Dunhill Records.

Dunhill expressed interest but proposed an unexpected arrangement: the musicians could sign under their own name as the 13th Floor and start anew with producers P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, or adopt the vacant moniker the Grass Roots, previously used by another act for whom Sloan and Barri had already produced the 1966 Top 30 single "Where Were You When I Needed You" and an accompanying album. With Grill assuming lead vocals, the group became the Grass Roots and, beginning in spring 1967 with the number-eight hit "Let's Live for Today," accumulated more than a dozen chart successes through 1973.

Bratton supplied lead guitar while Entner played rhythm and occasional twelve-string parts; Sloan added guitar to the first two albums and their singles. Sloan and Barri instructed the members in studio techniques and songwriting methods. Bratton and Entner jointly composed the track "Beatin’ Round the Bush," while the pair joined Grill to write "No Exit," featured on the debut album Let’s Live for Today; Bratton alone penned the harder-rocking "House of Stone" that closed the same record. His guitar work appeared on the band’s releases, particularly album tracks, through the early-1969 Lovin’ Things LP. By then the quartet had adopted a reliable commercial formula that limited individual expression, and their sound had shifted from folk-rock toward a pop-soul direction.

Bratton exited in 1969 and set music aside to pursue acting. Based in Los Angeles, he spent the next three decades building a steady career as a character actor in film and television before returning to music. Throughout those years he continued composing songs, and in 2001 he mined his catalog for the solo debut Chasin’ the Ball. Issued on Kindred Music, it was followed swiftly by The ’80s and Coarsegold. In 2005 he joined the cast of NBC’s American adaptation of The Office, playing a version of himself; during its eight-season run the series received multiple awards and markedly raised his profile as an actor. In that span he released Creed Bratton in 2008, Bounce Back in 2010, and the 2011 compilation Demo. Later in the decade he maintained diverse television roles and issued While the Young Punks Dance in 2018. Slightly Altered arrived two years afterward.