James Robert "Bob" Mosley (born December 4, 1942, in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

) is principally known as the bass player and one of the songwriters and vocalists for the band

Moby Grape Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting, and who collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz with rock and psychedelic music. They were ...

. Some of his best-known songs with Moby Grape are "Mr. Blues", "Come In The Morning", and "Lazy Me" from the first Moby Grape album (1967),

History

Bob Mosley spent his adolescence in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, where he graduated from Kearny High School. One of the first bands that he organized in San Diego was called The Misfits, who had one single on Imperial Records (Imperial61054) and one on Troy Records (Troy222) in the early 1960s. After playing with the Joel Scott Hill Trio, he relocated to San Francisco where he played with

The Vejtables The Vejtables were an American rock band from Millbrae, California, United States. They recorded for the Autumn label and found limited success with such songs as " I Still Love You" and a cover version of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind ...

for a brief period. Mosley has had a varied musical career, including a prominent but interrupted role in Moby Grape during the 1967-1971 period, and the commencement of a solo career in 1972. The following year he formed the Darrow Mosley Band with

Chris Darrow Christopher Lloyd Darrow (July 30, 1944 – January 15, 2020) was an American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. He was considered to be a pioneer of country rock music in the late-1960s and performed and recorded with numerous groups, ...

(formerly of

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country rock band formed in 1966. The group has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California. Between 1976 and 1981, the band performed and recorded as the Dirt Band. Constant ...

and

Kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a regular symmetrical pattern when v ...

) and issued one album, ''Desert Rain''. In 1977 Mosley played with

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

in a band called

The Ducks The Ducks (formerly known as the Jeff Blackburn Band) were a short-lived American hard rock supergroup formed in the summer of 1977 by singer-songwriter Jeff Blackburn. The band included Bob Mosley (an original member of Moby Grape), Canadian ...

, with Jeff Blackburn (guitar and vocals) and John Craviotto (drums and vocals), which had a brief life during that year. Mosley's career has been plagued by the challenges of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

, as was the case with Moby Grape bandmate

Skip Spence Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence (April 18, 1946 – April 16, 1999) was a Canadian-born American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. In the same year, he released his only s ...

. Both musicians were homeless for several years. Mosley's schizophrenia was first diagnosed in 1968. Mosley shocked the remaining band members by leaving the band to enlist in the Marines. It was during basic training that Mosley was first diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He was discharged from the Marines nine months after basic training. In 1996, three of Mosley's fellow band members,

Jerry Miller Jerry Miller (born July 10, 1943) is an American songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. He performs as a solo artist and as a member of the Jerry Miller Band. He is also a founding member of the 1960s San Francisco band Moby Grape, which continues ...

, Peter Lewis and Don Stevenson, in part reformed Moby Grape with the objective of helping Mosley recover emotionally and financially. Bob Mosley describes the circumstances as follows: "In 1996, Peter Lewis picked me up along the side of a San Diego freeway where I was living, to tell me a ruling by San Francisco Judge Garcia gave Moby Grape their name back. I was ready to go to work again" in relation to the circumstances ultimately leading to the recording of ''True Blue''. Earlier attempts by Moby Grape band members to help Mosley out of homelessness had been less successful. One such attempt is described by Peter Lewis as follows: "We went to find Bob, and there he was, living in this cardboard box. He had these friends, the squirrels and the lizards that he had. And I brought this guitar, cost me a hundred bucks, you know, and I left that with him and a tape of Moby Grape songs and a tape recorder with batteries in it and some extra batteries. So the next weekend, I came back, and there was no guitar, but the cassette case... He had tried to tear all the tape out of it and had left it, you know, down there in the bushes. And that's all that was left. Bob was gone, you know," as per article by Paul Conley. The reformation was troubled for some time as Mosley believed Stevenson was trying to kill him. Stevenson eventually left the band. Mosley's bass preference is a Fender Precision bass. Unlike bandmate Skip Spence, whose musical output largely ceased within a few years of the onset of schizophrenia, Bob Mosley has been able to continue to write songs and record music for much of his life. His most recent solo release is ''True Blue'' (2005), released on the Taxim label

Solo discography

*''Bob Mosley'' (Reprise, 1972) *''The Darrow Mosley Band'' (Shagrat, 1973) Song EP*''Wine and Roses'' (Nightshift, 1986) coustic 5 song mini-album*''Mosley Grape Live at Indigo Ranch'' (San Francisco Sound, 1989) *''Never Dreamed'' (Taxim, 1999) *''True Blue'' (Taxim, 2005)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosley, Bob 1942 births Living people American rock bass guitarists Moby Grape members Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area People from San Diego People with schizophrenia Homeless people American male bass guitarists 20th-century American bass guitarists Guitarists from California 20th-century American male musicians Kearny High School (California) alumni