He served as an alcohol and drug counselor at the American Indian Free Clinic in Long Beach. Shumate said Davis discovered his Indian roots as an adult.

Bob Dylan called their first collaboration, “aka Grafitti Man,” the best album of 1986.ĭavis, who liked to quote Socrates and Plato, graduated with a degree in English Literature from the University of Oklahoma. Davis put music to Trudell’s vivid poetic images. “There was always that suspicion lurking in people’s minds: ‘Will he show up? Will he show up drunk, or will he not bother to come at all?’ ”īy 1985, he had recovered enough to form the Grafitti Man Band with Indian poet and civil rights activist John Trudell. “I’ve got a real reputation as a lunatic, a madman,” he told The Times in an interview. Four years later, he returned to Los Angeles broke and ravaged by drug and alcohol addiction. In the early 1970s, Davis recorded three solo albums in which his backup musicians included Eric Clapton and Leon Russell.ĭisenchanted with the recording session scene, he moved to Hawaii in 1977. His guitar work can also be heard in songs ranging from the Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville” to Jackson Browne’s “Doctor My Eyes,” according to his publicist, Lani Lou Shumate. He was definitely making an effort,” he said.ĭavis rose to prominence in the 1960s playing lead guitar in blues musician Taj Mahal’s band. “It’s hard to believe he got right back into it. Folgner said he provided Davis with a job upon his release from the hospital June 16.

Road Stories by Ed Davis