Warren was born in
Garden City, Michigan, to Pearl Elwanda Gribble and Walter Wayne Warren. His family relocated to
Plymouth, Michigan, when Paul was a child. He started to play guitar at twelve years old, and at the age of seventeen, he was discovered by
Norman Whitfield of Motown Records. Soon after, he became a regular session player for the famed
Hitsville studios. The first recording he ever played on was "
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" by
The Temptations. The song went to #1 on the
Pop and
Rhythm & Blues charts in 1972. It won a
Grammy Award in 1983. Warren appeared with the band Pacific Gas & Electric in 1972 on the German television show
Beat Club. He also claims to have performed the famous guitar solo on
Funkadelic's song "
Get Off Your Ass and Jam". After playing on numerous albums, he became a working studio musician, and when Motown moved offices to California in 1973, they paid for him to move so they could continue using his services as a session guitar player. He joined the rock band
Rare Earth and is credited as being co-writer on three songs from the
Back to Earth album. After quitting Motown in 1975,
Ray Manzarek of
The Doors employed Paul as lead guitarist for his new band
Nite City. By their second album, Paul had also become the lead singer and wrote a number of songs on the Album
Golden Days Diamond Nights. The band had separated by the release of their second album. In the late 1970s, Paul formed his own band Paul Warren & Explorer – and was a regular on the Sunset Strip scene playing almost every weekend at the Roxy, Whisky a Go Go, the Starwood, Madame Wong's in Chinatown, or other clubs. He was signed by
RSO Records and released his failed first solo album
One of the Kids in 1980. Later that year, RSO Records folded and Warren was unemployed. He became a guitar player for hire from 1981 until 1987, working for such greats as
The Ventures,
Tina Turner and
Prism. He is also credited with producing a number of records in this era. In 1987, he joined
Richard Marx at the beginning of his career soon after the release of Richard's multi-platinum debut album. Warren was Marx's Musical Director for seven years before leaving in 1994. The day after quitting Marx's band, Warren went out on the road to work as lead guitarist for British singer
Joe Cocker. The "Have a Little Faith Tour" lasted 18 months. In 1996, Warren was employed by Italian singer
Eros Ramazzotti. His guitar playing for Eros lasted eleven years before quitting for good in 2005. In the interim, circa 1999, he was employed in between tours with Eros to work as guitarist for
Rod Stewart. In late 2010, he released his first solo album in over a decade entitled
Round Trip with his own band, The Paul Warren Project. In an interview in 2010, Warren talked about working on recording sessions with local artists, producers and recording studios. He also was working on obtaining a pilot license as well as taking
boxing lessons. Warren and his wife Melanie reside in
Watertown, Tennessee, a suburb of
Nashville. == Discography ==