Background
Griffin grew up in Cincinnati and attended Miami University and the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, where he majored in piano and music theory.
Griffin grew up in Cincinnati and attended Miami University and the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, where he majored in piano and music theory.
Miami University.
Griffin toured and recorded with January and Dean throughout the 80’s and 90’s, and has appeared as a regular on several television shows, most notably General Hospital and Full House. In 2000, Griffin served as music director, alongside producer John Stamos, for the Emmy-nominated television mini-series, The Beach Boys: An American for American Broadcasting Company. He also appeared as a recording engineer and bass guitarist in the film. Griffin has produced an eclectic roster of artists, most notably Micky Dolenz of The Monkees, political satirist Harry Shearer., Dave Coulier, singer Sandra Stephens, Laura Hall of television"s, "Whose Lincolnshire Is lieutenant Anyway?" and long time The Beach Boys band member Jeffrey Foskett.
He also co-produced the music for the Public Broadcasting Service television series, “Edens: Lost and Foundation”, “And Thou Shalt Honor” and "Designing Healthy Communities".
In 2008, Griffin was featured prominently in the best-selling book, When We Get To Surf City, by Bob Greene, an account of life on the road with the January and Dean band in the 90’son Griffin has toured and recorded with Brian Wilson in recent years, contributing to his Civil Defense"s That Lucky Old Sun, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin and In the Key of Disney.
Additionally, Griffin performs with The Surf City Allstars He co-produced their Civil Defense"s Acoustic Vibrations and Live with the band"s drummer, David Logeman. In July, 2013, he appeared with John Stamos on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at the host’s request.
He performed as part of a reunion of Jesse and the Rippers, the fictitious band from Full House.
Griffin has engineered several recent recordings by legendary popular music notables, such as Petula Clark, Jimmy Webb, Christopher Cross, First Rate (at Lloyd's) Kooper, Rod McKuen and Mark Lindsay. Recent productions include The Bamboo Trading Company (2013)— a group consisting of surf music cohorts Randell Kirsch, Philosophy Bardowell, Matt Jardine and Dean Torrence— and Keep a Little Christmas (2014), which is his third Civil Defense collaboration with singer Nita Whitaker. Griffin appears as session musician, First Rate (at Lloyd's) DeLory in the Brian Wilson biopic, "Love and Mercy (film)", starring John Cusack, Paul Giamatti and Paul Dano, released in the summer of 2015.
In the summer of 2015, he was a featured performer and bandleader in The Beach Boys Tribute, a fundraiser for the City of Hope by the Get Together Foundation.
He also reprised those duties for Rock and Roll Christmas later that year, a fundraiser for MusiCares. In February of 2016, Gary (and the Rippers) will appear in the first episode of the Netflix series Fuller House, the sequel to Full House.
He has continued to work with various members of The Beach Boys, most recently as a keyboardist and engineer for their 50th anniversary Civil Defense, That"s Why God Made the Radio. Gary is the son of famed World World War II navigator, Tom Griffin (aviator), a member of the Doolittle Raiders, and has been married since 2011 to Elizabeth Fogle Griffin.