About SCOTT
Born and raised in Southern California, Scott was exposed to music at an early age. Although he started on the clarinet, Scott switched to guitar in high school where he joined a Beatles tribute band. In college Scott started off as a pre-law major but his love for music quickly made him re-think his plans. Scott moved to Boston to attend Berklee College Of Music where he would earn a Bachelor of Music degree and make friendships and connections that endure to this day.
After Berklee Scott moved to New York City where he began his dream of earning a living in music. That first summer Scott and his roommate Dan were street performers in Times Square playing for tips. So many people saw them there that almost every where he went, people would recognize Scott and say “Hey Guitar Man!” Scott became a sub on several Broadway shows, played weddings and parties on the weekends, and played on commercial jingles and albums and demos during the week. Eventually he was offered the National Tour of The Who’s Tommy in 1993 which began a 30 year run of touring.
In late 2000 Scott was offered a chance to sub for one of the guitarists with The Beach Boys, and in 2001 he became a full-time band member as lead guitar and vocalist. In 2007 he also became Music Director of the band.
Since leaving The Beach Boys in 2023 Scott has been in Florida spending quality time with his family, recording in his home studio, teaching promising musicians in person and remotely, and playing several Broadway shows when they come to Florida.
His other passion is tennis. When COVID shut the world down Scott decided to pick up his racquet again after many years and now plays nearly every day, making a whole new group of friends as well.
“Guitarist extraordinaire!” - Bob Lefsetz
“Dope, dope guitar!” - Grandmaster Flash
HOW DID YOU GET TO PLAY WITH THE BEACH BOYS?
This is the number one question I get from BB fans all over the world. I’m going to share that story here.
In 2000 I had just left the touring Broadway show RENT and was living in Los Angeles. My soon-to-be wife Alyssia and I went to see Brian Wilson at the Hollywood Bowl which was a great show. On our way out I said to her “this would be my dream gig!” Not long after that I had a message on my answering machine (remember those?). It was from a guitar player friend named Ross Bolton (RIP). He said he was on his way to Japan but he heard that The Beach Boys were looking for a guitarist. Unfortunately he didn’t leave me any details about who to contact.
I decided to call Capitol Records, but I didn’t know who to ask for. Even then they had an automated voice line, “Push 1 for Marketing, push 2 for Distribution, push 3 for Catalog…” etc. I chose Catalog. I got someone’s voicemail and left a message saying I heard that The Beach Boys were looking for a guitar player and that I was a pro guitarist and a huge fan. Much to my surprise the next day I got a call from that lady at Capitol and she told me to fax my resumé to the band’s manager. I did so and soon after he called me and asked me to send my guitar demo CD. Not long after that Mrs. Love called and asked me to record myself singing a few Beach Boys songs and send that along, which I did. Although I was being asked to sub temporarily for another band member, Mrs. Love warned me that the band works a lot - she said “Last year we did over 175 shows” to which I replied “Last year I did 408 shows!”. She liked that and I was invited to an audition in Burbank. As it turned out I was the only one auditioning, at least that night. It was only then that I found out that they were really looking for a falsetto lead singer more than a guitar player. At that time my voice and especially my falsetto wasn’t as strong as it needed to be to handle that responsibility. Nevertheless after the audition Mike asked me if I was available at the end of December for some shows on the East coast.
I thought that was it, but a few months later their lead guitar player asked if I could cover him on a couple of dates, which I did. Then he asked me if I could cover him for the summer while the band was in Europe as he was working on a solo album. It was while I was in Sweden that he decided he wasn’t going to return, and I was offered the job permanently. I never dreamed that it would last another 22 years!