Milwaukee-born bass legend Leland Sklar keeps busy during pandemic with YouTube channel, new band, coffee table book

The best résumé in the music business will forever be up for debate.

But one of the longest, and most impressive, résumés indisputably belongs to Leland Sklar.

The Milwaukee-born bass legend first made his mark as a member of "The Section," the famed recording session players who played on albums for James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and other stars in the '70s. Across his 50-year career, Sklar has amassed more than 2,000 recording credits, although Sklar himself says he isn't counting.

"I personally don't care about the number. ... What drives me is the pure joy of what I do," Sklar said in a Journal Sentinel phone interview from his Los Angeles home. "As far as I'm concerned I'm going to treat this like Charlton Heston. They're going to have to pry my bass out of my cold, dead fingers."

Like virtually all of his colleagues, Sklar saw a year's worth of planned work essentially evaporate overnight at the dawn of the coronavirus crisis. 

But Sklar isn't slowing down in the slightest. He launched a YouTube channel seven months ago, where he's teaching viewers bass parts and sharing stories from his career. He has 139,000 subscribers and over 10 million views.

He's just released a new EP, "Slippin' and Slidin'," with The Immediate Family, a new band featuring fellow former Section players Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel and Waddy Wachtel, plus veteran singer and session guitarist Steve Postell. A full-length album and documentary, directed by "The Wrecking Crew" helmer Danny Tedesco, are coming next year. 

If that weren't enough, he's still squeezing in some studio work (while wearing a mask), and has a photo book out next month.

"I am fortunate to have found some things to do that are incredibly uplifting to people," Sklar said. "It's a great motivation."

Learning from Liberace

Sklar's first great musical motivation came from a fellow Milwaukee native: Liberace.

"When I was a little kid, one of the TV shows my parents used to watch was the Liberace show," said Sklar, who moved from Milwaukee to Los Angeles with his family when he was 4. "I thought he was the coolest guy in the world. It's because of him I started playing piano when I was 5."

Sklar was highly skilled, even winning awards from the Hollywood Bowl Association as a child, but he started to feel burned out on piano when he was 12. His junior high school orchestra instructor suggested he play the upright bass.  

"As soon as I felt that vibration I said, 'I'm done, I am your guy,'" Sklar said. 

He sharpened his skills with orchestral work and jazz combos, and then once he got an electric bass, became a rock and roller. Co-majoring in art and science at California State University, Northridge, Sklar played bass in the rock band Wolfgang. A friend brought a special guest one day to their rehearsals: an up-and-coming singer-songwriter named James Taylor. 

"We hung out for a couple of days ... and after he left the rehearsals, James got offered a gig at the Troubador ... and he needed a bass player," Sklar said. "I played this one gig, assuming it would be one gig, and ultimately it turned into the next 50 years of my life."

And what a life it's been. Here are just a few of the thousands of albums featuring Sklar's work: Taylor's "Gorilla," King's "Thoroughbred,"  Browne's "The Pretender," Ronstadt's "Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind," Hall & Oates' "Bigger Than Both Of Us," Phil Collins' "No Jacket Required," Crosby, Stills & Nash's "Daylight Again," Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy," George Strait's "Ocean Front Property," Rod Stewart's "A Night On The Town," and Dolly Parton's "9 to 5 and Odd Jobs."

A new album with old friends

As esteemed as his body of work is, Sklar suggests the forthcoming Immediate Family self-titled full-length album "is one of the best projects I've ever been involved with."

"The thing that is so wonderful about it is the members have had such a long relationship," Sklar said. "We have been together half a century and have never had any fights. We're close friends after all these years and have done tons and tons of projects together. ... The guys are writing songs as good as any they've ever written, and everybody is still on the top of their game."

You can sense that chemistry on the five-track EP, which includes a live version of Zevon's "Werewolves in London" and a couple spirited bluesy rock originals like "Cruel Twist." 

While the full-length is done, Sklar said they're waiting for the documentary to be finished to release it. The film is about two-thirds completed; Tedesco has interviewed Immediate Family members — plus Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt and other stars — and has been digging up archival footage. 

"It's just exciting," Sklar said of the movie. "I pinch myself every day and feel so fortunate to have had the adventure I have had in my music."

Tuning in to YouTube

Now with YouTube, Sklar has set off on a new adventure. A few fans suggested he share his bass parts on YouTube from some Collins' songs he played on tour, but Sklar has been having so much fun, he's been posting a video a day since March, and said he'll keep making videos even after the pandemic subsides. 

"Every night I lay down and read all the comments from the day, and its beautiful that its sort of created a community unto itself," Sklar said. "There are people on the site from Japan, Scotland, Germany, Pakistan, all over the place. I find it so profoundly satisfying."

Sklar is also offering live streams for members of "Lee's Clubhouse," with monthly VIP packages that include one-on-one chats. Subscription is available at lelandsklarsbeard.com, where he's taking pre-orders for a new coffee table book, "Everybody Loves Me." Since 2004 Sklar has taken photos of more than 12,000 photos flicking him off, with pics of Jack Nicholson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlie Watts and other famous people giving the bird in the book.

And Sklar did manage to return to a recording studio, wearing a mask, to record a new album with Kate Taylor, James Taylor's younger sister.

"We were all looking at each other like kids at Christmas, getting to do our craft," Sklar said. 

"I have been through five decades of this now, and I still find it exhilarating, and I am passionate about what I am doing today and I'm looking forward to what I'm doing tomorrow," Sklar said. "I am 73, and I'm healthy and all that. But there are a finite amount of dates left on that calendar, and I want to fill every one of those days."

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Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

Piet also talks concerts, local music and more on "TAP'd In" with Jordan Lee. Hear it at 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9), or wherever you get your podcasts.