Bassist, producer and tuba player from Detroit, Michigan, whose family relocated to Neptune, New Jersey, while he was still a youth. He went to Neptune High and his classmates included Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez and Johnny Lyon, who would eventually adopt the moniker, Southside Johnny.
In the late 1960s, he made friends with Bruce Springsteen and was a member of The Boss’s various bands, including the now legendary E Street Band. He appears on nearly every Springsteen album, from 1973’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., through 1987’s Tunnel of Love.
It did not preclude him from working with other artists, however. He also appeared on Waylon Jennings’ 1976 album, Wanted! The Outlaws and Gary U.S. Bonds’ 1981 comeback, Dedication.
He gradually got into production work and one of his early credits is “Crying, Waiting, Hoping”, performed by Marshall Crenshaw on the soundtrack of La Bamba.
In 1989, Bruce dissolved the E Street Band and Garry decided to move to Nashville, Tennessee, and pursue his second career as a producer. He started up MoonDog Studios and helped co-found D’Ville Record Group.
Some of the artists and groups he has worked with include The Believers, Sonny Burgess, Julian Dawson, The Delevantes, Steve Earle, Steve Forbert, The Hoopsnakes, Evan Johns and His H-Bombs, Robert Earl Keen, Jr., Jim Lauderdale, Billy Pilgrim, and Greg Trooper.
In 1995, he reunited with The Boss on his folksy album, The Ghost of Tom Joad, and made the cut on his Greatest Hits. Bruce and the E Street Band officially got back together in 1999 when they went on a highly successful international tour. It has been back and forth between the road and the studio ever since. In 2002, Garry appeared on The Rising and took part in the accompanying tour. He has since appeared on Magic and Working on a Dream.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the E Street Band in 2014.
Garry now lives in Whitefish, Montana, and boasts an enormous collection of vintage rock and roll 45s from the 1950s.
Bruce Springsteen recordings
Held up without a Gun (Bruce Springsteen)
Hungry Heart (Bruce Springsteen)
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