Early years Baxter was a
classically trained pianist, studying from the age of 5 to 15. When he was 9 years old, his family moved to
Mexico City, where he bought a cheap guitar and taught himself how to play. While still a high school student, he worked at Jimmy's Music Shop in Manhattan in 1966. At Jimmy's, Baxter met guitarist
Jimi Hendrix, who was just beginning his career as a
frontman. Later, Baxter claimed to have sat in with the Hendrix-led band
Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, when the regular bassist could not make the show. Baxter first reached a wide rock audience in 1968 as a member of the
psychedelic rock band
Ultimate Spinach. Baxter joined the band for
Ultimate Spinach III, their third and final album. After leaving Ultimate Spinach, he learned how to play
pedal steel guitar, He was using the moniker "Skunk" by this time; so far, Baxter has kept the origin of the nickname a secret. Baxter found extensive work as a
session guitarist, including playing on
Carly Simon's first top 10 hit, "
That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be". There he became a founding member of the band
Steely Dan. Baxter had played with the drummer,
Jim Hodder, on a number of occasions, and was acquainted with Steely Dan's producer,
Gary Katz, who was responsible for inviting Baxter to join the group. While preparing to tour in support of
Stampede, Doobie Brothers founder
Tom Johnston was hospitalized with a stomach ailment. To fill in for Johnston on vocals, Baxter suggested bringing in singer-keyboardist
Michael McDonald, with whom Baxter had worked in Steely Dan. With Johnston still convalescing, McDonald was invited to join the band full-time. McDonald's vocal and songwriting contributions, as well as Baxter's jazzier guitar style, marked a new direction for the band. They went on to continued success with the 1976 album ''
Takin' It to the Streets'', 1977's ''
Livin' on the Fault Line'', and particularly 1978's
Minute by Minute, which spent five weeks as the #1 album in the U.S. and spawned several hit singles; Baxter's work on the album includes an extended solo at the end of the closing track "How Do the Fools Survive?". As with Steely Dan, Baxter continued to do extensive session work while a member of The Doobie Brothers. McDonald had grown frustrated with the way Baxter altered the guitar lines in his songs and indicated that he could no longer work with him. In 1984, Baxter played keyboards with
Bobby and the Midnites'
Bob Weir,
Billy Cobham,
Bobby Cochran,
Kenny Gradney ("Tigger"), and Dave Garland at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey. That same year, he produced and played guitar and synthesizer on the band's album
Where the Beat Meets the Street on Columbia Records. In 1986, Baxter joined
James Brown and
Maceo Parker on guitar for several North American tour dates. In 1990, Baxter joined
John Entwistle,
Joe Walsh,
Keith Emerson,
Simon Phillips and relatively unknown vocalist Rick Livingstone in a
supergroup called
The Best. In 2007, Baxter jammed with former White House Press Secretary
Tony Snow's band Beats Workin' at the
National Press Club and the
Congressional Picnic held on the White House South Lawn. Baxter continues to do studio work, most recently on tribute albums to
Pink Floyd and
Aerosmith. In 2012, he appeared on keyboardist
Brian Auger's
Language of the Heart, and
The Beach Boys' ''
That's Why God Made the Radio''. In 2022, Baxter released his first solo album. ==Defense consulting career==