- Date Of Birth: June 14, 1945
- Date Of Death: May 28, 2016
- State: Louisiana
Michael Henry Sklar died peacefully in his home in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 28, 2016 after a brief battle with cancer, aged 70 years old. Born in New York City on June 14, 1945, he was raised by his parents, the late Solomon Isaac Sklar and Mary Schapiro Sklar, in Manhattan, where he picked up his first guitar at age five and began his lifelong love affair with music. He spent time listening to a young Bob Dylan perform at clubs in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, and he taught famed musician Ritchie Havens to play Blues guitar while they jammed together in Washington Square Park . After graduating from the prestigious Dalton School in New York and attending Trinity School in New York and Tilton School in New Hampshire, he was inspired by reading “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac and hitchhiked to San Francisco in 1965, where he played guitar for numerous bands including Percy Sledge and blues legends Luther Tucker and Big Mama Thornton. In 1979 he became the guitarist for The Neville Brothers and fell in love with New Orleans and, in turn, a New Orleans girl. He moved to New Orleans permanently in 1983 and was with his late wife Roberta Gelpi Sklar for 29 years.
