Timothy Bruce Schmit was born on October 30, 1947 in Oakland, California. He spent the first few years of his childhood in a camper with the rest of his family following his musician father, Danny Schmit, from gig to gig until finally settling in Sacramento, where his father was a musician in the house band of a local club.
As a child, he first took tap-dance lessons, and, at ten, he finished second to a rock band in a local talent competition. This caused him to give music a look. The first musical instrument he played was violin, followed by trombone and ukelele.
At 15, Timothy and some friends formed a folk trio called Tim, Tom & Ron. They later switched to surf music and changed their name to the Contenders. When they changed to a more Beatles-esque style, they changed their name to New Breed. They had quite a following in the northern California area, opening for such acts as Sonny & Cher, Herman's Hermits and Big Brother and the Holding Company. In 1968, under the name Glad, the band recorded an album called Feelin' Glad.
While in Los Angeles recording that album, a mutual friend of his & Richie Furay's invited him to audition for Poco. He eventually lost the bass player job to Randy Meisner. Nine months after winning the audition for Poco, Meisner quit the band during the recording of their first album, Pickin' Up The Pieces, and Timothy replaced him. When he joined Poco, their lineup consisted of Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Rusty Young and George Grantham. After their self-titled Poco album (aka "Oranges") and the excellent live album DeLIVErin', Messina left the band and was replaced by Paul Cotton. This lineup recorded the albums From the Inside, A Good Feelin' To Know, and Crazy Eyes. Instead of replacing Furay when he left after these albums, they remained a four-man band, with Timothy taking a more central role-acting as band spokesman on stage and sharing more lead vocal duties with Paul Cotton. Between 1974 and 1977, they recorded the albums, Seven, Cantamos, Head Over Heels, Rose of Cimarron (my favorite), Live, and I
ndian Summer. Anyone who thinks Timothy is strictly a ballad singer, needs to check out the song "Restrain" from the album, A Good Feelin' To Know or better yet, the live version from the second Live album.
After Randy Meisner left Poco, he eventually formed the Eagles along with Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon. In mid-1977, after a tour in support of their monstrously successful Hotel California album, Randy Meisner quit the Eagles. Once again, Timothy replaced him and was reportedly the Eagles' first and only choice. In a November 29, 1979 article, Rolling Stone said, "Schmit, who obviously enjoys being onstage, is an improvement over his predecessor, Randy Meisner, who loathed performing toward the end of his tenure." Ironically, after Timothy left Poco, they scored their biggest hit with their next album Legend and its' hit single "Crazy Love."
In 1979, the Eagles released what unfortunately is their only studio album to feature Timothy, The Long Run. One of the best songs on this album, is Timothy's "I Can't Tell You Why," which reached Number 8 on the Billboard charts. It would be the Eagles' last Top Ten hit before their "vacation." After touring and recording the Eagles Live album, the band broke up in 1981.
Following the breakup of the band, Timothy moved into even more session work and also recorded a cover of the Tymes' classic "So Much In Love" for the movie soundtrack Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Fellow Eagles Don Henley, Don Felder and Joe Walsh also contributed songs to this soundtrack, along with Jimmy Buffett, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks and Poco, just to name a few. He also appeared on about half the songs on Don Henley's first solo album, I Can't Stand Still, including the beautiful harmonies on the ballad "Long Way Home."
Among his session work at this time were appearances on Toto's Toto IV, singing background vocals on "Good For You" and "Africa" along with a more prominent vocal role on "I Won't Hold You Back." He also appeared on the Crosby, Stills & Nash album Daylight Again, singing on such hits as "Southern Cross" and "Wasted On The Way" as well as appearing on Don Felder's 1983 solo album, Airborne. Also during this time, he began touring with Jimmy Buffett, playing bass and singing background vocals. At one show in Cincinnati, he and Buffett were standing backstage looking out at the audience, when Jimmy made a comment about the fans in their brightly colored clothes, saying they looked like tropical Deadheads. When Timothy replied, "yeah, Parrotheads," Jimmy's marketing empire was born! Along with touring with Buffett, he also appeared on four of his albums, One Particular Harbour, Last Mango In Paris, Hot Water, and Off To See the Lizard.
In 1984, he released his first solo album, Playin' It Cool. This album contains songs that cover a broad range of styles from straight-ahead pop to a capella and others and also features appearances by his former Eagles band mates Don Henley and Joe Walsh. Included among the songs is "Tell Me What You Dream", which was co-written with Vince Melamed and Josh Leo. This song was covered by country band Restless Heart on their 1992 album Big Iron Horses and was a crossover hit for them. Another highlight of the album is a beautiful semi-a capella song called "Voices" on which Timothy sings all the vocal parts. This song was written years before the recording of the album and was even presented to the Eagles for possible recording, but was rejected.
Timothy's second solo album, Timothy B. followed in 1987. This album has an obvious R&B feel to it which was a surprise to those who expected to hear country-rock from this former member of Poco and the Eagles. This was his most successful solo effort with the songs "Boys Night Out" and "Don't Give Up" both charting.
Timothy B. was followed in 1990 by Tell Me The Truth. Like Playin' It Cool, this album covered a range of styles--jazz, pop, acoustic, etc. Highlights include the acoustic songs "In Roxy's Eyes" and "Something Sad," the New Orleans-flavored "Down By the River" and the title song which was co-written and co-produced by Don Henley.
In 1992, Timothy joined Joe Walsh, Burton Cummings, Todd Rundgren, Dave Edmunds, and Nils Lofgren on the Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band tour. Each artists performed two songs and Timothy's two songs were "Keep On Tryin'" from his Poco days and "I Can"t Tell You Why" from his days with the Eagles. Judging from the video Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band Live From Montreaux, it looks like Timothy and the others had a great time performing with each other.
In 1993, the country Eagles tribute album, Common Thread was recorded and released. Timothy was in Nashville while Vince Gill was recording his cover of "I Can't Tell You Why" and was invited to join Vince on background vocals of the song. After touring with Dan Fogelberg that year, Timothy was invited to join the other Eagles in December for the taping of the video for Travis Tritt's version of the Eagles classic "Take It Easy." Pretty soon after this and an appearance by Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh at a benefit in Aspen, the wheels were set in motion for an Eagles reunion album and tour. In April 1994, the band taped their Hell Freezes Over MTV special which was televised in November 1994. The band performed four new songs including "Love Will Keep Us Alive" which featured Timothy on lead vocals. The next month the guys began a highly successful tour which was only supposed to run through 1994. Due to Glenn Frey's illness and also the success of the tour, it lasted for 2-1/2 years.
On January 12, 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with Santana, Fleetwood Mac, The Mamas and The Papas, Gene Vincent, Lloyd Price and Jellyroll Morton. It was a historic night for the band as it marked the first time that all seven past and present members of the Eagles performed together on the Eagles' classics "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California."
On May 1, 2001, Timothy released his fourth solo album, Feed the Fire, and also launched his official web site.
In the summer of 2001, the Eagles-minus the recently fired Don Felder-embarked on a tour of Europe and also played two dates in the United States, opening the American Airlines Center in Dallas and Invesco Field in Denver. In the fall of 2001, they entered the studio to begin work on their first solo album since The Long Run.
