P.F. Sloan

Philip Gary Schlein, later Sloan (his Dad changed the family name for business reasons, i.e., anti-Semitism) was originally from NYC but his father, a pharmacist, moved them to W. Hollywood in 1957 where, incidentally, he met Elvis in a music store where latter gave him an impromptu music lesson. He wrote & recorded his first song at 13, then at 16 got a job as a songwriter at Screen Gems, the largest publisher on the West Coast where he worked for & later branched out with, Sharon Osbourne’s father & Screen Gems executive, Lou Adler, who later left the co. & started his own music publishing & record company, Dunhill Records. He went on to write a series of hits for artists such as Jan and Dean, the Turtles, the Grass Roots, and Johnny Rivers, then he hit it big when he wrote Eve Of Destruction for Barry McGuire. He actually formed the group the Grass Roots with session players, including himself, but when they scored a big hit, Dunhill Records forced him to create a real band which would record & perform as the Grass Roots. After doing so, the new band, which Sloan & music partner Steve Barri had stayed on to produce, wanted to write their own music. In ‘69 after becoming alienated from the band & the notoriously difficult-to-work-with Lou Adler, he left the music industry & didn’t get back into it until 2000 due to an illness he described as catatonia. He was a major talent and imho, could have had a successful career as a singer/songwriter if he had not contracted what sounds like mental illness. He died in L. A. in 2014 at the relatively young age of 70 from pancreatic cancer.