Alexander John Ligertwood (; ) (born 18 December 1946) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

singer, guitarist and drummer.

Early life, family and education

Ligertwood was born in

Drumchapel Drumchapel (), known locally as 'The Drum', is a district in the north-west of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It borders Bearsden (in East Dunbartonshire) to the north-east and Drumry (part of Clydebank, in West Dunbartonshire) to the south-wes ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland.

Career

He is best known as the lead vocalist of

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer * Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp ** Santana 20 ** Santan ...

, with five different stints from 1979 to 1994, which included the

US Festival The US Festival is the name of two early 1980s music and culture festivals held near San Bernardino, California. Background Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple and creator of the Apple I and Apple II personal computers, believed that the 197 ...

in 1982. He is credited on songs by Santana such as "All I Ever Wanted", " You Know That I Love You", "

Winning Winning may refer to: * Victory Film * Winning (film), ''Winning'' (film), a 1969 movie starring Paul Newman * ''Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman'', a 2015 documentary by Adam Carolla and Nate Adams Music * ''Winning'', an album by Ten Fo ...

" and " Hold On". He also performed with the Senate,

the Jeff Beck Group The Jeff Beck Group was a British rock band formed in London in January 1967 by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck. Their innovative approach to heavy-sounding blues, rhythm and blues and rock was a major influence on popular music. Histo ...

and

Brian Auger Brian Albert Gordon Auger (born 18 July 1939) is an English jazz rock and rock keyboardist who specialises in the Hammond organ. Auger has worked with Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Sonny Boy Williamson, Eric B ...

's Oblivion Express. He appeared with Go Ahead side project started by members of

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

John Cipollina John Cipollina (August 24, 1943 – May 29, 1989) was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. After leaving Quicksilver he formed the band C ...

and friends, the

Average White Band The Average White Band (also known as AWB) was a Scottish funk and R&B band that had a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. They were best known for their million-selling instrumental track " Pick Up the Pieces", and their alb ...

and

David Sancious David Sancious (born November 30, 1953) is an American musician. He was an early member of Bruce Springsteen's backing group, the E Street Band, and contributed to the first three Springsteen albums, and again on '' Human Touch'' (1992), '' Tr ...

. Ligertwood sang lead vocals on the song "Crank It Up" by The Dregs, (previously known as

Dixie Dregs Dixie Dregs is an American rock band from Augusta, Georgia. Formed in 1970, the band is known for instrumental music that fuses elements of rock, classical music, country music, country, jazz and bluegrass music, bluegrass into an eclectic sou ...

), from the album '' Industry Standard'' (1982), as well as contributing the lead vocal on the song "Double Bad" from

Jeff Lorber Jeffrey H. Lorber (born November 4, 1952) is an American keyboardist, composer, and record producer. After six previous nominations, Lorber won his first Grammy Award on January 28, 2018 for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for ''Prototype'' ...

's album '' In the Heat of the Night'' (1984). In 1972, he was a member of the ephemerous Troc band with drummer

André Ceccarelli André "Dédé" Ceccarelli (born 5 January 1946) is a French jazz drummer. Biography After learning to play the drums from his father, Ceccarelli started out playing in the salons of the Hotel Royal Nice Promenade des Anglais at the age of fi ...

, bassist Jannick Top, pianist Henri Giordano and guitarist Jacky Giraudo. From 1986 to 1988, Ligertwood was a member of Go Ahead with

Bill Kreutzmann William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...

and

Brent Mydland Brent Mydland (October 21, 1952 – July 26, 1990) was an American keyboardist, songwriter and singer. He was a member of the rock band The Grateful Dead from 1979 until his death in 1990, a longer tenure than any other keyboardist in the ...

. During 2000, he toured with World Classic Rockers. He sang on a cover of the

Scorpions Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...

song "Is There Anybody There", which appears on drummer

Herman Rarebell Hermann Erbel (born 18 November 1949), known professionally as Herman Rarebell, is a German musician, best known as the drummer for the hard rock band Scorpions from 1977 to 1996, during which time he played on eight studio albums. Aside from pl ...

's solo album ''Acoustic Fever'' (2013). In 2014, Ligertwood's vocals were featured on tracks by

El Chicano El Chicano was an American brown-eyed soul group from Los Angeles, California, whose style incorporated various modern music genres including rock, funk, soul, blues, jazz, and salsa. The group's name came from the word Chicano, a term for Un ...

. In the same year, he toured in Japan and Europe with

and the Oblivion Express. In 2014, Ligertwood was invited by producer Gerry Gallagher to record with Latin rock band

. His vocals are featured on the songs "Make Love", "The Viper" and "Outbound" from a Gallagher studio collaboration. Ligertwood has also performed with the Magic of Santana, a German tribute band whose guests have included other former Santana members.

References

External links

* * 1946 births Living people Musicians from Glasgow Scottish rock singers 20th-century Scottish male singers Scottish rock guitarists Scottish drummers Santana (band) members Average White Band members Go Ahead (band) members The Jeff Beck Group members People from Chipping Barnet World Classic Rockers members {{Scotland-musician-stub