Scaggs was born in Canton, Ohio. He attended a Dallas private school, St. Mark's School of Texas, where schoolmate Mal Buckner gave him the nickname "Bosley", later shortened to "
Boz".
After learning guitar at the age of 12, Scaggs met
Steve Miller. In 1959, he became the vocalist for Miller's band, the Marksmen. The pair later attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison together, playing in blues bands.
Leaving school, Scaggs briefly joined the burgeoning R&B scene in London, then traveled on to Sweden as a solo performer, and in 1965 recorded his solo debut album, Boz, which failed commercially.
Returning to the U.S.,
Scaggs promptly headed for the booming psychedelic music center of San Francisco in 1967. Linking up with
Steve Miller again, he appeared on the
Steve Miller Band's first two albums,
Children of the Future and
Sailor in
1968.
Scaggs secured a solo contract with Atlantic Records in 1968, releasing his second album,
Boz Scaggs, featuring the
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and session guitarist
Duane Allman (also of the
Steve Miller Band), in
1969. Despite good reviews, this release achieved only moderate sales. He then briefly hooked up with Bay Area band Mother Earth in a supporting role on their second album Make a Joyful Noise on guitar and backup vocals.
Scaggs next signed with Columbia Records releasing the albums Moments in
1971 and
My Time in
1972. His first two Columbia albums were modest sellers and seeking a new more soulful direction his record company brought in
former Motown producer Johnny Bristol for
1974's
Slow Dancer album. Although the album only made # 81 on the US Billboard Album Chart, it subsequently attained gold status no doubt getting a boost from the huge success of Scaggs's next album Silk Degrees.
In
1976,
using session musicians who later formed Toto,
Scaggs recorded
Silk Degrees, with Joe Wissert on producing duties.
The album, which received a Grammy nomination for album of the year and a further nomination for Wissert as Producer of The Year, reached #2 on the US Billboard 200, and #1 in a number of other countries, spawning
four hit singles: "It's Over", "Lowdown", "What Can I Say", and "Lido Shuffle",
as well as the poignant ballad "We're All Alone", later recorded by Rita Coolidge and Frankie Valli. "Lowdown" sold over one million copies in the US and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, which was shared by Scaggs and David Paich.
A sellout world tour followed, but his follow-up album in
1977 Down Two Then Left did not sell as well as Silk Degrees and neither of its singles reached the Top 40. The 1980 album Middle Man spawned two top 20 hits, "Breakdown Dead Ahead" (No. 15, Hot 100) and "Jojo" (No. 17, Hot 100); and Scaggs also enjoyed two more top 20 hits in 1980–81, "Look What You've Done to Me", from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack, and "Miss Sun", from a greatest hits set, both reaching No. 14 on the Hot 100.
Scaggs took a long break from recording and his next album,
Other Roads, did not appear until
1988.