Steven Neil Turner (born March 28, 1965) is an American

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

ist, most famous for his work with

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

band

Mudhoney Mudhoney is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988, following the demise of Green River. Its members are singer and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison and drummer Dan Peters. Orig ...

Early life

Turner was born in 1965 in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, but moved with his family to Seattle when he was two.

Career

His first band was called The Ducky Boys. The lineup included future

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guita ...

member

Stone Gossard Stone Carpenter Gossard (born July 20, 1966) is an American musician who serves as a guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of the band. ...

. The Ducky Boys split around 1983. Turner later joined

Mark Arm Mark Arm (born Mark Thomas McLaughlin; February 21, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the vocalist for the grunge band Mudhoney. His former group, Green River, was one of the first grunge bands, along with Malfunkshun, So ...

in Mr. Epp and the Calculations, which Arm described as "The worst band in the world". Mr. Epp played their final show with Turner in 1984. Turner was also the first guitarist in

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

which again featured Arm and Gossard, and also acquired the services of

Jeff Ament Jeffrey Allen Ament (born March 10, 1963) is an American musician and songwriter who is best known as the bassist of the American rock band Pearl Jam, which he co-founded alongside Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder. Prior to his wo ...

(later

) on

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

. Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 431-2 Turner left the band in 1985, citing differences with the "careerist" Ament. Arm and Turner started

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

, 1988.

The Melvins ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

bassist

Matt Lukin Matthew David Lukin (born August 16, 1964) is an American former musician, best known as a bassist and founding member of the Melvins and Mudhoney. Career Melvins (1983–1987) Lukin co-founded the Melvins in 1983 with guitarist/vocalist B ...

was brought in, as was

Dan Peters Daniel Joe Peters (born August 18, 1967) is the drummer for Mudhoney, having played with them since their formation in 1988. Prior to Mudhoney, he joined Bundle of Hiss when he was fifteen years old. He was also briefly the drummer for Nir ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

. With

, Turner recorded all their albums from ''

Superfuzz Bigmuff ''Superfuzz Bigmuff'' is the debut EP and first major release by the Seattle grunge band Mudhoney. It was released on October 20, 1988 through record label Sub Pop. The album was later re-released in 1990 in the form of '' Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus E ...

'' in 1988 to ''

Digital Garbage ''Digital Garbage'' is the tenth studio album by the alternative rock band Mudhoney. It was released on September 19, 2018. This is their seventh studio album release on Sub Pop. Critical reception ''Digital Garbage'' received generally posi ...

'' in 2018. Turner also has side projects such as The Thrown Ups, Monkeywrench, and played bass for a short time with legendary Seattle band The Fall-Outs. He also has released various solo recordings in a folk vein.

Other Work

Turner founded Super Electro, an independent record label, which ran from 1992 to 1998.

Discography

Green River discography

Solo discography

References

1965 births Living people Musicians from Houston American rock guitarists American male guitarists Lead guitarists Grunge musicians Mudhoney members Green River (band) members Guitarists from Texas 20th-century American guitarists {{US-rock-guitarist-stub