Leslie West was born Leslie Weinstein on October 22, 1945, in New York City, to Bill and Rita Weinstein. His mother was a hair model, his father the vice president of a carpet shampoo company. He grew up in the suburbs.
When Leslie was 8, his mother bought him his first instrument, a ukulele, but he was fascinated with the guitar after seeing Elvis Presley play one on television. He bought his first guitar with the money he was given for his bar mitzvah.
After his parents divorced, he changed his name to West and, upon graduating from high school, decided to enter the world of music directly. “I went to NYU – New York Unemployment,” he jokingly told The News-Times in Danbury, Connecticut, in 2005.
His professional career started in a band he formed in the mid-1960s with his brother Larry, who played bass. The band, The Vagrants, was a blue-eyed soul group inspired by a Long Island hit, the Rascals. The two bands played at the same local clubs, as did Billy Joel’s first group, Hassles.
Unlikely, Vanguard Records, best known for folk, jazz and classical artists, signed Vagrants. Their first single, “I Can’t Make a Friend”, a garage rocker, became less of a hit in 1966. Pappalardi, who produced some of Vagrants’ songs, helped them get a new contract with Atco Records , an Atlantic subsidiary, for which they cut a cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect”, which airplayed on the East Coast in 1967.
But West longed to record something heavier, so he went out to make a solo album in 1969, whose title, “Mountain”, was a reference to its imposing size. Produced by Pappalardi, it features many songs co-written by the two, including “Long Red”, which, in a live version supported by drummer ND Smart, features a drum break that inspired one of the most popular samples from hip -hop history, heard on over 700 recordings, including those by Public Enemy, Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar.