Bob Mosley (born James Robert Mosley, December 4, 1942, in Paradise Valley, California) is principally known as the bass player and one of the songwriters and vocalists for the band Moby Grape.
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Mosley spent his adolescence in San Diego, where he graduated from Kearny High School. One of the first bands that he organized in San Diego was called The Misfits, who had one single on Imperial Records and one on Troy Records in the early 1960s. His varied career was spent in a number of other garage combos, including the Strangers, the Frantics and The Ducks. After playing with the Joel Scott Hill Trio, he relocated to San Francisco in 1966, where he played with The Vejtables for a brief period. Next up was the start of an extended and frustrating relationship with the ill-fated Moby Grape with a lineup of Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis, Skip Spence, Don Stevenson, and Jerry Miller.
A soulful singer whose songs deftly bridged the gap between country and blues, Mosley contributed "Mr. Blues,""Bitter Wind,""Rose Colored Eyes,""Trucking Man,""Hoochie,""Lazy Me,""Come in the Morning," and other solid songs to the Grape canon in the early years. If ever a band was snake-bitten, it was Moby Grape, and thanks to backfiring publicity stunts, poor management, and record company snafus, the band never found a steady mass audience. It didn't help, either, that at least two of the members (Spence and Mosley) begin to show signs of mental disorder. Moby Grape managed to record two more albums with its original configuration participating before Spence and then Mosley left the band following the release of "'69".
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As the story goes, Mosley was paying his bills working as a school janitor and was about to be drafted when he decided to volunteer for the Marine Corps in 1969. Mosley made it through basic training, however an extended military career was not in the cards. Following a fight with an officer, nine months into his enlistment he was diagnosed as suffering from paranoid-schizophrenic (a mental condition that also afflicted Skip Spence) and discharged. Returning to California, he rejoined the original Moby Grape line-up in time to record 1971's "20 Granite Creek" for Reprise Records. Unfortunately, in another episode of self-sabotage shortly after the album was released the group again called it quits.
Mosley next signed with Reprise Records and his solo album, Bob Mosley, was released in 1972. Sadly, this lost classic vanished without a trace. In 1973 Bob Mosley joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Chris Darrow and formed the Darrow Mosley Band, drawing on the energy and style of vintage Stones and Faces and adding more than a dash of the prevalent Southern Californian country rock scene to the mix. Bob and Chris were joined by lead guitarist Frank Reckard, keyboard player Loren Newkirk and drummer Johnny Craviotto. They cut 3 songs to try and get Warner Bros interested.Sadly Warners passed on the demos and the band split soon after. The demos lain unheard for ages until later issued as a limited edition 10” vinyl EP.
1973 found Mosley rejoining Jerry Miller and Peter Lewis in another resurrected Moby Grape. An album he recorded in 1974 with members of Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets with James Burton on guitar, was never released, because of Mosleys reputation and because this band never got back together in studio or live. However it was released in 1999 by the German label Taxim.
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Meanwhile, unable to perform as 'Moby Grape" (they didn't own the name), they resorted to playing California clubs as Maby Grope or The Original Grape, eventually recording a 1976 album as Fine Wine (it was only released in Germany). 1977 found Mosley as a member of the Ducks, who backed Neil Young on a series of impromptu bar gigs around Santa Cruz in 1977. Two years later saw another Grape reunion in the form of " Live Grape".
In 1989 the odd Live at Indigo Ranch by Mosley Grape was released, and Mosley joined former Grape members Miller, Stevenson, and Lewis as the Melvilles to record Legendary Grape, which was released on cassette that same year, and has floated around as a bootleg ever since. Eventually the album was reissued on CD with eight bonus tracks in 2003 by DIG Music.
By the mid-’90s Mosley was homeless, sleeping under a freeway overpass in San Diego. Other members of Moby Grape attempted at various times to help Mosley, and he occasionally surfaced to play a show, but he appeared to prefer life on the street, either by design or as a result of his illness, but it wasn't until 1996 when the band regained use of their name, that their efforts saw success until 2001 when they disbanded again.
Mosley released “True Blue,” a solo album in 2005 before rejoining Moby Grape in 2006 and according to Wikipedia is still a member in 2024.
(Edited from Last.fm, Bad Cat Records & Wikipedia)