Johnny Alexander Veliotes, Jr.—better known by the stage name Shuggie Otis—was born in Los Angeles on November 30, 1953. He is the son of R&B musician, producer, manager and impresario Johnny Otis.

He began playing guitar at the age of two and would sit in with his father’s band, starting at age eleven. He first garnered attention in 1969, when he was featured on the follow-up to Al Kooper’s 1968 collaborative Super Session project, appropriately titled Kooper Session (subtitled “Al Kooper introduces Shuggie Otis”).

He went on to release three studio albums in his prime, influencing a plethora of musicians along the way—including The Brothers Johnson and their Quincy Jones-produced cover of “Strawberry Letter 23”—but meteoric success evaded Otis after Epic Records dropped him in 1974, resulting in almost 40 years of seeming seclusion. This led to rumors that he had either retired or lost his mind, but according to this 2013 LA Weekly interview the truth was much simpler:

Rolling Stone magazine said I retired at 22. That pissed me off when I read that. I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘Who is writing this and why?’ Is it my fault that… I can’t get a record deal? I will never retire. Put that down. I’m never retiring. I’m a musician, and musicians can’t retire.

His music has been sampled by the likes of DJ Quik, J Dilla, Outkast and Beyoncé.

On April 20, 2018, after a 44-year hiatus, Shuggie Otis released Inter-Fusion.