Keith Karloff is a musician's musician in every sense of the term.
A Singer/ Songwriter who has been in radio rotation consistently since the early 1980s, Karloff is also a multi-instrumentalist and producer. He began his musical career as a drummer at the age of nine and played his first paid gig by age twelve. By the time Keith was seventeen years old, he was a full time working musician, under the tutelage of Soul great Bernard Purdie. Performing as Keith Gale, his early career included stints in regional N.Y. and N.J. outfits Peacock, Baby, Whiplash, Samantha and Streetfigher. During this period, he recorded as a vocalist, songwriter, drummer, bassist and guitar player for the RCA, Polygram, Island and Ze Labels and recorded at RCA, Electric Ladyland, House of Music and The Record Plant with noted Producers Jimmy Iovine, Joe Lopes and Mike Frondelli.

As a consequence of physical injury, Keith was forced to make a career transition from his primary instrument of drums to bass where he soon scored the Gold Record "Poemmes Rock" by Charlelie Couture (Island Records) while doing session work at Electric Ladyland Studios. An additional track was recorded by Keith for Charlelie which was included on the "Ze Christmas Album" (Ze/Island Records), earning Keith earned his second Gold Record. Kid Creole & The Coconuts and The Waitresses were also featured on this recording.

After moving from role to role within bands for most of his career, it was apparent the one constant in Keith's musical journey was to be songwriting, so his next move was to form and front his own band "Keith Gale". This fledgling outfit performed at such iconic NYC venues as CBGBs, Max's Kansas City, Xenon, 8 BC, Pyramid Club, The Bitter End and Folk City. On record and stage, Karloff has worked with music legends and contemporary groups as diverse as James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Cyndi Lauper, The Ramones, Twisted Sister (Karloff's teenage upstart band "Peacock" who recorded for RCA featured future Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider), David Bromberg, The Belmonts, Gary U.S. Bonds, Arlene Smith and the Chantelles, Wild Magnolias, Dave Mason, Meat Loaf, Savoy Brown and Alvin Youngblood Hart.

Interview with Keith Karloff in Savannah, Georgia, USA

Mid-career, Keith relocated to San Francisco in 1984 to pursue his musical ambitions away from the big business atmosphere of NYC. Catching the interest of Greg Kihn's Management company soon after his arrival, Keith rounded up stellar Bay Area musicians, including upcoming guitar phenom Charlie Hunter and bassist extraordinaire R.D. Maynard to re-form The Keith Gale Band, later to be named "Keith Gale's Parallel Universe". Dates with this lineup included support slots with Chris Isaak, Beat Farmers, Joe Ely, Chesterfield Kings and an EP for BlueBlack Records "Five Piece Screwdriver Set".

After a period of experimenting with lineups and instrumentation, everything came together best with Judd Austin on guitar and vocals (formerly with Tower of Power's Ed McGee Group) and Trey Sabatelli (Jefferson Starship, The Tubes) on drums. Enjoying the chemistry of this combo and feeling that he had begun to truly assimilate S.F.'s atmosphere, Keith became "Keith Karloff" and the band became "The GONE JACKALS" - a musical unit.

"Out & About with THE GONE JACKALS" (ConTon-BLUEBLACK), the group's first full length C.D. was produced by Keith Karloff and Gary Hobish and released in 1990, making it the first official recording of The Gone Jackals. This C.D. had moderate success on college radio stations throughout California & Washington State as well as affiliate airplay on San Diego powerhouse station 91X. The band now expanded its performing territories to Southern CA, sharing bills with such acts as T.S.O.L. and Fantasy 7 while playing college campuses and their adjacent towns throughout California. Legendary N.Y.C. guitarist Johnny Gale (who happens to be Keith's brother) featured two songs from "Out & About" plus two additional Karloff penned numbers on his 1994 album 'Gale Force' for Guitar/Relativity Records and was awarded best guitar record of the year by Guitar Shop Magazine

The Gone Jackals second full length C.D. "BONE TO PICK" is the featured R&R soundtrack to THE LUCAS ENTERTAINMENT GROUP's smash hit interactive motorcycle P.C. game FULL THROTTLE which has sold hundreds of thousands of units worldwide. "BONE TO PICK" sold out its entire first run of 2K units within two months of initial release, primarily through mail order via the BLUE/BLACK P.O. Box (listed in the game information) with only a limited amount of "in store" distribution and no airplay whatsoever. "BONE TO PICK" was then added to the LUCAS Mail Order Catalog and immediately become the #1 selling item in the entire Catalog. Keith personally selected each piece of music for every scene in "Full Throttle" as well as Engineering and Producing this music into the game itself.
This joint venture can be considered the exact point of the sea change in new music deliverey - the addition of vital, real music from real bands to gaming devices - now the biggest selling field in the music industry. The Gone Jackals could easily be considered the first pioneers of this major shift in the recording industry.
"Full Throttle" went on to win "Soundtrack of the Year Award" from PC Gamer Magazine, the most prestigious award in the gaming field. Other bands competing for this honor were Metallica, Aerosmith and NIN.

"Bone To Pick" also caught the attention of Don Johnson's Music Director, who featured the song "Born Bad" in the "Baby Boy" episode of the hit C.B.S. Television series Nash Bridges.

"Blue Pyramid" was the follow up to "Bone to Pick" and proved the be the band's final recording. An adventurous and rambling collection, "Blue Pyramid" spawned the singles "No Sign of Rain" and "Business As Usual" which received rotation airplay on the ROQ affiliate stations along with considerable commercial play nationally. Music from this CD was used in Stinky Pictures (Atlanta, GA) slasher flick "Cheerleader Autopsy" and Angelic Entertainment's movie "The Maze". This third and last CD took The Gone Jackals as far as Texas and S. Carolina for performances.

Keith Gale Band

Keith Gale Band - First California Incarnation

THE GONE JACKALS

THE BONEDRIVERS

As The Gone Jackals began to wind down, Keith added front of house mixing as a live sound Engineer to his musical resume. This new work found him mixing at The Great American Music Hall, Cafe Cocomo and John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room for such greats as Mr. John Lee Hooker himself, Chemekia Copeland, Idris Mohammad, Mofro, Leo Nocentelli, Susan Tedeschi, Bonnie Raitt, Nick Lowe, Tab Benoit, Elvis Costello and Buddy Miles.
Keith's Engineering work heated up locally enough to catch the attention of huge industry standard bearer MIX MAGAZINE who ran a feature article on his FOH work.

After extensive work at John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room as a live sound engineer and stage performer, Keith decided to assemble a combo in the mold of the touring roadhouse R&B bands he'd been enjoying so much live. He and fellow GJ alumnus R.D. Maynard founded their new Rock-N-Blues band The Bonedrivers in late 2001. Since then, The Bonedrivers have become a mainstay at festivals and in major regional music venues. The current line up of the BDs features Blues-Rock Specialist/Singer Peter O'Malley on bass and groovemeister Jim Nelson on drums.

The Bonedrivers debut CD "Roadhouse Manifesto" (BlueBlack Records) received worldwide acclaim and achieved rotation on many NorCal radio stations.

The Bonedrivers second CD “Mobile”, inspired by the great City of Mobile, Alabama was released in 2010 and solidified this band as a Regional force

Their third and final CD  "Greasfire!!" was released in Fall 2013 and was a mainstay of Independent, College Radio and featured on affiliate radio stations.

Keith relocated from S.F. to the Low Country in The Deep South of the USA in 2019 where he was invited to front local powerhouse Rock outfit "Irritating Julie".  This lineup was a Low Country mainstay, hitting the 'Tonks over many years, primarily in Coastal South Carolina.

Karloff plans to continue performing and recording "until he's thrown into the weeds". He currently resides in Valencia, Spain.

Keith Karloff - Vital Stats:

Other AKA's - Keith Cortez, Keith Quinn, Keith Chin, Keith Cohen, Little Elmer, Dr. Karl Schnitzer
Favorite color - Green
Bats R/Throws R
Favorite Musicians - Max Roach, Jimi Hendrix & Brian Wilson
Favorite Movies - "Unforgiven", "Two Lane Blacktop" & "Runaway Train"
Favorite Authors - Paul Bowles, Jim Thompson, John Steinbeck, Mohammed Mrabet, Charles Bukowski, Ray Bradbury
Favorite Sport - Baseball
Dislikes - Oligarchies
Pet Peeves - High action on guitars, monitor feedback
Early Drumming Influences - Dino Danelli, Joe Morello, Charlie Watts, D.J. Fontana, Al Jackson
Favorite Vocalists - David Ruffin, Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Darlene Love, Elvis, Jim Reeves, Jack Scott, Muddy Waters, Mick Jagger, Johnny Horton, Mike Love, Dusty Springfield, Felix Cavaliere, Samudio Domingo - too many to list.
Mid Period Bass Influences - Jamie Jamerson, Duck Dunn, Robbie Shakespeare, Carol Kaye, Ron Wood, Dee Murray
Guitar Faves - Keith Richards, Steve Cropper, Leslie West, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, James Taylor, Rick Derringer, Jim McCarty & the great Johnny Gale.
Favorite Bands - Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs, Music Machine
Favorite Food - Fudge covered apples
Personal Credo: "The more you understand what is bullshit, the more you appreciate what is not".


Keith uses Dr. Z Guitar Amplifiers, Ernie Ball Strings, Picks and Accessories, Modtone EFX Pedals and Austin Custom EFX Cases