Paul Warren
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Paul Warren (born December 22, 1953) is an American blues/rock guitar player, and was the touring guitar player for the English Rock singer Rod Stewart as well as American Rock superstar Richard Marx. In 2013, Rod Stewart hired a new guitarist and Paul Warren was let go.[1]
Paul Warren was born on December 22, 1953 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 by seventeen, he was discovered by Norman Whitfield of Motown Records. Soon after, he became a regular session player for the famed studios. The first song he ever played in was "Papa was a Rolling Stone" by The Temptations. That year the album won five Grammy Awards.
After playing on numerous albums, he became popular, 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 soon joined the group Rare Earth and is credited as being co-writer on three songs from the Back to Earth album. After quitting Motown as a studio player in 1975, Ray Manzarek of The Doors employed Paul to become 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 Night. The band had separated by the release of their second album. Paul Warren by 1978 had formed his own band Paul Warren and Explorer - and was a regular on the Sunset Strip scene playing almost every weekend at either the Roxy, Whiskey a Go Go, the Starwood, and Madame Wongs in China Town - among many others. He was signed by RSO Records and released his first solo album One of the Kids in 1980. Later that year RSO Records folded and Paul Warren found himself unemployed. He began being a guitar player for hire between the years 1981 and 1987, working for such greats and The Ventures, Tina Turner and Prism. He is also credited as producing a number of records in this era.
In 1987 he joined Richard Marx at the beginning of his career soon after the first release of his first song from his debut album. Paul was Richard Marx's Musical Director for seven years before quitting in 1994, as his career as an artist was coming to an end. The day after quitting Richard's band, he went straight out on the road to work as lead guitarist for Joe Cocker. The "Have a Little Faith Tour" lasted eighteen months. In 1996 he was then employed by Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti. His guitar playing for Eros lasted eleven years before quitting for good in 2005. In the interim in 1999 he was employed in between tours with Eros to work as guitarist for Rod Stewart. He has now been playing for Stewart for eleven years. In late 2010 he is releasing his first solo album in over a decade to be entitled Round Trip with his band The Paul Warren Project[2]
