Steve Miller Band brings memorable rock classics to The Mill on Oct. 12

Apr. 29—Anyone listening to FM radio in the 1970s and '80s heard plenty of Steve Miller guitar riffs and melodies.

His funky, bluesy electric guitar lick to open "Fly Like an Eagle" prepared fans for a catchy, dreamy audio flight through the next 4 minutes and 42 seconds in late '76 and early '77. Miller and his band cranked out a string of classics, along with that one. "Take the Money and Run," "Jet Airliner," "Jungle Love," "Swingtown" and three No. 1 singles — "The Joker," "Rock'n Me" and "Abracadabra."

Any of those evoke nostalgic memories in those of the Baby Boom generation.

A Terre Haute crowd will get a chance to hear the 80-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. The Steve Miller Band is scheduled to perform a concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, at The Mill on Prairieton Road, according to the venue's website.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday online at themillterrehaute.com/steve millerband. Prices range from $45 for general admission (seats allowed), $100 for VIP spots (seats allowed) to $150 for the VIP standing pit.

Miller grew up in Milwaukee as the son of a music-loving pathologist father and a jazz-singer mother. Miller's father became a friend to guitar icon Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford, according to Miller's Rock Hall biography; thus, Paul and Ford were regular visitors in the family's home. Paul became young Steve's godfather. Other famed musicians, such as T-Bone Walker, visited the Millers during Steve's boyhood.

Miller wound up in the business, too, of course, forming bands as a teenager and while a student at the University of Wisconsin. His roster of bandmates included fellow future-'70s music great Boz Scaggs.

His big break came in 1968, when Capitol Records signed him to a five-album contract for nearly a million dollars, according to the Rock Hall. Miller's first hit single, "The Joker," topped the charts in 1973. The Steve Miller Band's "Greatest Hits 1974-78" reached platinum status 15 times over and is among the 25 best selling albums of all-time, according to his band's website. He was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2016 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2022.

The band's most recent lineup includes Miller on lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards; Kenny Lee Lewis bass, guitar, backing vocals; Joseph Wooten keyboards, backing vocals; Jacob Petersen guitar, backing vocals; and Ron Wikso drums.

The October concert will be Miller's first Terre Haute appearance.

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.