Like father, like son

When Gregg Scott II graduated from Pleasant Valley High School last week, on June 7, he left his school days behind and started out on a new journey—to forge a career in the music business.

The 18-year-old performer got an early start on his odyssey when he dazzled a packed audience in the Downtown Park Plaza on the unofficial opening weekend of summer, at the Friday, May 25, Concert in the Park.

For three numbers that evening he was joined on stage by his father, Greg Scott Sr., an energetic showman who’s led his own rock band in Chico for the past quarter-century. Watching them, it was obvious Greg II had grown up learning licks and tricks from his dad—both are dynamic, high-energy performers who work hard to fire up their audiences.

But where Greg Scott Sr. was content to stay in Chico, working and raising a family and playing music on the side, Greg Scott II is determined to make his mark in the music industry.

He’s being promoted by Bill Diggler Productions—made up of Andy Wert, 23, and Greg Williams, 19—a new and “relatively small” record producing company in Chico. The recently formed production studio specializes in putting bands together from the Chico area. Wert says he first saw Scott II perform at a Christmas concert last year in Laxson Auditorium at Chico State University.

“I had never heard anyone sing or seen anyone perform like he did that night before. It was unbelievable!” Wert recalls.

Wert contacted Scott II after the concert when they were both working out at a local gym and began to try to convince the young performer to sign on with his company.

“It is phenomenal how hard he works,” exclaims Wert. “I went to see him at his studio while he was working last summer. At the time, he was putting together an album, and it was superb.”

Scott II then was working with another studio, but Wert was finally able to convince him to sign with him. Williams joined Wert in his efforts to promote Scott II after he saw his act at the Brick Works in March.

“I saw Greg perform at his CD release party at the Brick Works earlier this year. I was truly impressed with his showmanship, his musical work, how he interacted with the crowd, and especially the way the crowd reacted to him,” says Williams.

Diggler Productions anticipates that Scott II will get the best response from what they see as their main market—girls and young women ages 12 to 26.

“That is the biggest consumer market in the world,” explains Williams.

Wert sees Scott II’s music as “crossover.” He noticed that the audience at the Friday Night Concert in the Park ranged from young girls, who sat on the stage to be near the performer, to the ''baby boomer generation'’ and to older people sitting in lawn chairs.

“We are talking about people from age 8 to 45,” said Greg Scott Sr., the musician who influenced his son the most as leader of the Greg Scott Band, a Friday Night Concerts in the Park favorite for many years with its classic rock and roll music.

After Scott II’s performance in the park that Friday night, the young musician spent hours selling his promotional CD and signing photos for fans.

Scott II has Ricky Martin-style good looks to go with his slick moves, so it was no wonder that after he signed a young girl’s T-shirt, at her request, she took off in the crowd telling all her friends, “He signed my shirt!” Another young man purchased a CD for his girlfriend because of the romantic ballad included on the recording.

One of the keys to GSII’s success, if it comes, will be the core group of people who support him emotionally and financially, his family and Bill Diggler Productions. Williams explains that the success of entertainers is tied to such close-knit contingents of backers.

“After you get a team together, then it becomes a networking thing. You run into somebody who knows somebody, who knows somebody else. Word of mouth—that’s how the game is played,” says Williams.

On June 21, the Scott family is going to Los Angeles to try to establish some contacts. Scott senior’s brother is an actor down there, who will be able to get them in touch with the right people. In August, Scott II will release his first album, with 12 original songs. He is still in the process of working out the title of the album.

“The main thing we want to do right now, though, is keep Greg’s performances local,” says Scott II’s mother Darlene.

Scott II will be staging a performance in September at a local venue to introduce this new album, where junior high, high school, and college students will be invited to attend. Also at that time, a professional video will be made. The video will then be sent to record companies in Los Angeles and a firm called Tango Films.

Scott senior, one of his son’s biggest supporters, says, “With all Greg’s abilities and talents in songwriting and performing, I think he is headed for Grammies and Oscars.”

For his part, Greg Scott II is totally committed to a career in the music business. "I am never going to stop until I do something big. I’ll be 40 years old and I will still be going at it."