Shuggie Otis's third album was hailed as classic, but his record company dropped him: It took 40 years to make a fourth

Shuggie Otis onstage circa 1970.

If ever there was a musician who went his own way, it’s Shuggie Otis. In 1974, he turned down an offer to replace Mick Taylor in The Rolling Stones. He played with Frank Zappa when he was 15, but said no to working with David Bowie, Spirit, Buddy Miles and Blood, Sweat And Tears. He told Quincy Jones he didn’t need a producer, he could do it all himself. 

“I never had a problem with fame,” told The Blues magazine in 2016. “Put my face on a billboard, make me a star, I don’t mind that, but only if it’s for my music. I’m nobody’s sideman, I’m my own man. I’m Shuggie Otis.”