Biography
Peter Wolf first gained widespread recognition as the lead singer of the J. Geils Band. Born and raised in the Bronx, he grew up in a household deeply involved in the entertainment world. His father worked as a dancer, song plugger, disc jockey, and performer of light opera, while his mother, active as an organizer in civil rights and labor causes, taught inner-city children in the Bronx. Although painting was Wolf’s initial focus, he earned a scholarship to the Museum of Modern Art’s Special Studies for Children and later attended the High School of Music and Art, located just blocks from the Apollo Theater. Regular visits there exposed him to Jackie Wilson, Dinah Washington, Otis Redding, and James Brown, igniting an early fascination with blues and R&B.
Following high school, Wolf hitchhiked across the Midwest and settled briefly in Chicago, where he participated in local blues and folk societies while continuing his painting studies at the University of Chicago. Frequent nights at South Side blues clubs deepened his musical influences. Awarded a grant to attend the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, he also hosted a wide-ranging program titled The All-Night House Party on WBCN-FM, a show that mirrored his expansive tastes. Still a student in Boston, Wolf formed his first band with fellow art students; they performed blues material and eventually met and toured with John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters.
In 1967 he assembled the lineup that evolved into the J. Geils Band, which soon played clubs throughout New England. Their pivotal opportunity arrived with a performance at New York’s Fillmore East, after which the group became celebrated for marathon live sets and Wolf’s electrifying stage presence. Producer and impresario Jerry Wexler signed them to Atlantic Records, leading to constant touring, including opening slots for the Rolling Stones across the United States and Europe. During one of those shows Wolf encountered actress Faye Dunaway, whom he married for a brief period.
By 1983 the band stood at its commercial peak after seventeen years without any lineup changes. The members then parted ways, prompting Wolf to produce film soundtracks and mount exhibitions of his own paintings. His solo career began with the 1984 album Lights Out, followed in 1987 by Come as You Are, whose title track became a hit single. Between projects he contributed duets to Mick Jagger’s work and to Aretha Franklin’s Who’s Zoomin’ Who album. After a six-month songwriting stay in Nashville in 1989, he completed his third solo effort, Up to No Good, issued the next year.
In 1994 Wolf gathered musicians to test fresh songs in clubs, an approach that shaped the live atmosphere of his 1996 Reprise release Long Line. While touring in 1997 he met producer Kenny White, and their collaboration yielded Fool’s Parade, released on Mercury in 1998; Rolling Stone later named it one of the fifty most influential records of the decade. That same year Wolf joined the Royal Soul Review alongside Lloyd Price, Chuck Jackson, Sam Moore, Ben E. King, Irma Thomas, Percy Sledge, Gene Chandler, and Jerry Butler. He also recorded with Little Milton at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios for the Malaco album Welcome to Little Milton.
The J. Geils Band reconvened in 1999 for an end-of-the-century tour. Wolf returned to the studio with White to record Sleepless for Artemis in 2002, enlisting guests Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Steve Earle. Rolling Stone subsequently ranked the album among the five hundred greatest of all time. Additional reunions followed: a 2005 charity concert benefiting the Cam Neely Cancer Foundation, Denis Leary’s Firefighters Association of New England, and Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s Disease Research Foundation, plus a 2009 series of sold-out U.S. dates that Wolf suggested would likely be the last.
Emerging from a recording hiatus, Wolf issued Midnight Souvenirs on Verve in 2010, again co-produced with White and featuring duet appearances by Shelby Lynne, Neko Case, and Merle Haggard. He promoted the album through network late-night appearances, intimate rock and folk venues, and festival stages; it earned positive reviews and reached the Top 50 on the album charts. Subsequent summers brought further J. Geils Band performances at large outdoor amphitheaters while Wolf composed new songs during breaks. For his Concord debut, A Cure for Loneliness, released in early 2016, he enlisted his road band the Midnight Travelers, including keyboardist and co-producer Kenny White. The album contained nine original tracks and three covers, notably a bluegrass arrangement of the J. Geils Band hit “Love Stinks.”
Following high school, Wolf hitchhiked across the Midwest and settled briefly in Chicago, where he participated in local blues and folk societies while continuing his painting studies at the University of Chicago. Frequent nights at South Side blues clubs deepened his musical influences. Awarded a grant to attend the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, he also hosted a wide-ranging program titled The All-Night House Party on WBCN-FM, a show that mirrored his expansive tastes. Still a student in Boston, Wolf formed his first band with fellow art students; they performed blues material and eventually met and toured with John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters.
In 1967 he assembled the lineup that evolved into the J. Geils Band, which soon played clubs throughout New England. Their pivotal opportunity arrived with a performance at New York’s Fillmore East, after which the group became celebrated for marathon live sets and Wolf’s electrifying stage presence. Producer and impresario Jerry Wexler signed them to Atlantic Records, leading to constant touring, including opening slots for the Rolling Stones across the United States and Europe. During one of those shows Wolf encountered actress Faye Dunaway, whom he married for a brief period.
By 1983 the band stood at its commercial peak after seventeen years without any lineup changes. The members then parted ways, prompting Wolf to produce film soundtracks and mount exhibitions of his own paintings. His solo career began with the 1984 album Lights Out, followed in 1987 by Come as You Are, whose title track became a hit single. Between projects he contributed duets to Mick Jagger’s work and to Aretha Franklin’s Who’s Zoomin’ Who album. After a six-month songwriting stay in Nashville in 1989, he completed his third solo effort, Up to No Good, issued the next year.
In 1994 Wolf gathered musicians to test fresh songs in clubs, an approach that shaped the live atmosphere of his 1996 Reprise release Long Line. While touring in 1997 he met producer Kenny White, and their collaboration yielded Fool’s Parade, released on Mercury in 1998; Rolling Stone later named it one of the fifty most influential records of the decade. That same year Wolf joined the Royal Soul Review alongside Lloyd Price, Chuck Jackson, Sam Moore, Ben E. King, Irma Thomas, Percy Sledge, Gene Chandler, and Jerry Butler. He also recorded with Little Milton at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios for the Malaco album Welcome to Little Milton.
The J. Geils Band reconvened in 1999 for an end-of-the-century tour. Wolf returned to the studio with White to record Sleepless for Artemis in 2002, enlisting guests Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Steve Earle. Rolling Stone subsequently ranked the album among the five hundred greatest of all time. Additional reunions followed: a 2005 charity concert benefiting the Cam Neely Cancer Foundation, Denis Leary’s Firefighters Association of New England, and Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s Disease Research Foundation, plus a 2009 series of sold-out U.S. dates that Wolf suggested would likely be the last.
Emerging from a recording hiatus, Wolf issued Midnight Souvenirs on Verve in 2010, again co-produced with White and featuring duet appearances by Shelby Lynne, Neko Case, and Merle Haggard. He promoted the album through network late-night appearances, intimate rock and folk venues, and festival stages; it earned positive reviews and reached the Top 50 on the album charts. Subsequent summers brought further J. Geils Band performances at large outdoor amphitheaters while Wolf composed new songs during breaks. For his Concord debut, A Cure for Loneliness, released in early 2016, he enlisted his road band the Midnight Travelers, including keyboardist and co-producer Kenny White. The album contained nine original tracks and three covers, notably a bluegrass arrangement of the J. Geils Band hit “Love Stinks.”
Albums
A Cure For Loneliness
2016
Novembermond
2015
Sleepless
2002
Fool's Parade
1998
Long Line
1996
Up To No Good
1990
Singles
Live
