If You Learn From the Best You Become the Best: The Silent Member of the Steve Miller Band

More often than not, every person who excels in their given profession has had an exceptional mentor. Learning from a master and turning their wisdom into practice is invaluable. This applies to every field, including music, and there is a long list of famous musicians who learned from older, famous musicians. One star-studded mentor-mentee relationship is that of Steve Miller and Les Paul.

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Steve Miller became the mentee of Les Paul due to his family’s close ties with Paul and his wife, Mary Ford. As a matter of fact, they were so close that Les Paul became Miller’s godfather at a young age. Thanks to these familial and friendly ties, Les Paul taught Steve Miller his first chords on the guitar and continued to help him grow as a musician for years to come.

Les Paul is a prize puzzle piece in the inception of mainstream rock ‘n’ roll. So, needless to say, Steve Miller was one lucky son of a gun both in terms of receiving musical wisdom and industry knowledge as well. In a sense, Les Paul was the silent member of the Steve Miller Band.

Simple Tips & the Joys of Music: What Les Paul Showed Steve Miller Early On

During a 2020 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Miller recalled how his father and Les Paul met. In short, Miller’s father offered to record Les Paul one night in Wisconsin during one of his and Mary Ford’s shows. Subsequently, a relationship was born, and Les Paul and Mary Ford became best friends of the Miller family. According to Steve Miller, they actually got married and spent their honeymoon at his family’s home in Wisconsin.

Concerning the early teachings of Les Paul, Miller told Howard Stern, “He showed me three chords. From there, I just started making up songs and doing stuff.” More importantly, Les Paul showed Steve Miller firsthand how playing music leads straight to joy, and that is what seemingly got him drinking the music kool-aid.

“What I saw was grown men having a great time. You know, really, really having fun. I just loved singing and playing,” added Miller. Years and years after Steve Miller’s day as a youngster, he would go on to form the Steve Miller Band in 1966. Armed with Les Paul’s teaching, Miller stormed the scene, and his band hit the mainstream in the early 1970s.

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