For the Austrian-born composer, producer, songwriter and arranger, see Peter Wolf (producer).
Peter Wolf (born Peter Blankfeld on March 7, 1946) Bronx, New York is an American rock and roll musician, best known as the lead vocalist for the J. Geils Band from 1967 to 1982. He planned a career as an artist, but landed a job in the late 1960s as a disc jockey on then-cutting edge Boston FM radio station WBCN and began exploring his interest in blues and rhythm and blues music, giving himself the nickname "the Woofer Goofer", sometimes expanded to "the Woofer Goofer with the Green Teeth". He formed a group called the Hallucinations, then saw the then J. Geils Blues Band in concert and quickly joined. He was the vocalist and frontman, and often acted as a sort of manager. He was known for his charismatic stage antics of fast-talking quips and "pole-vaulting" with the mic stand. He and keyboard player Seth Justman were responsible for most of the song writing, but Wolf left the group in 1983. He and the group felt their creativity was stagnating and they were faced with a decision to follow the path they had been on, or the new path which had won them chart success with "Centerfold", a pop music record with very little traditional blues or rhythm and blues content. Wolf was a solo act for the next 15 years (with the assistance of guitarist Johnny A for seven of those years[1]), but in 1999 the J. Geils Band reunited for several appearances, with Wolf resuming his duties as lead vocalist. They have since separated again, probably with no hope of reunion. Wolf then began touring once more, as a solo act. Wolf's first solo record, Lights Out, was produced by Michael Jonzun of the Jonzun Crew, also features Adrian Belew, and has a somewhat funky, electro sound. His last two solo albums, Fool's Parade and Sleepless (the latter featuring guest appearances from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), were both highly praised by Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone, receiving four-and-a-half and five stars, respectively. Sleepless was noted as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in Rolling Stone issue 937. He has performed on stage with his friends Bruce Springsteen and Phil Lesh. Wolf was married to actress Faye Dunaway from 1974 to 1979. He studied painting in Stockbridge, Massachusetts with Norman Rockwell as a boy. Wolf was a roommate of well-known surrealist filmmaker David Lynch at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Discography
- Lights Out (1984)
- Come As You Are (1987)
- Up to No Good (1990)
- Long Line (1996)
- Fool's Parade (1998)
- Sleepless (2002)
