System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Randy California
February 20, 1951 - January 02, 1997
Born Randy Wolfe, Feb. 20, 1951 in Los Angeles, guitarist/singer/songwriter, Randy California was best known as the leader of Spirit. A guitar prodigy, California played in Jimi Hendrix's pre-Experience group the Blue Flames in New York's Greenwich Village in the summer of 1966. It was in fact, Hendrix who named him Randy "California." to distinguish Randy from the other Randy in the band. After three months Jimi was ready to go to England to put together another band and he invited Randy along. Because he was only 16, his parents refused to let him go.
Randy moved west and formed Spirit in Los Angeles in 1967. The group, an eclectic band with rock, jazz, and folk tendencies, produced several influential albums during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Randy reappeared in the 1990s with several new CDs under the W.E.R.C. CREW label.
In January 1997, Randy California went missing and presumed dead at age 45 after being sucked into the surf off the coast of Molokai, Hawaii. Witnesses report that California pushed his 12-year-old son, Quinn, out of the current, saving the boy's life, before being dragged in himself. His body was never found.
