Creed Bratton played The Office's strangest employee for nine seasons, a man of vague job duties and vaguer history. It turns out almost none of the mystery was invented. Long before he sat behind a desk at Dunder Mifflin, Bratton was the real lead guitarist of a band with two actual gold records.

A Real Job Before Dunder Mifflin

In 1967, Bratton joined The Grass Roots as lead guitarist and vocalist, right as the band adopted that name.

He toured with the group through 1969, during the peak of its run on the charts.

Two Real Gold Records

"Let's Live for Today" reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold, with sales topping a million copies. "Midnight Confessions," released the following year, became the band's biggest hit at No. 5 and also went gold.

Like most acts signed to Dunhill Records at the time, The Grass Roots leaned heavily on session players known as the Wrecking Crew to record most of their studio tracks.

Bratton wasn't one of those anonymous session musicians, though. He was a real member of the touring band, performing live with the group throughout its hit-making years.

Pushed Out Before the Fame Faded

Bratton grew frustrated that Dunhill wouldn't let the band write its own songs or play the instruments on its own records.

Following a rough show at San Francisco's Fillmore West in April 1969, he was asked to leave the group.

The Grass Roots pose together for a 1967 group publicity photo showing the band lineup that included guitarist Creed Bratton, black and white, era-accurate to the band's chart run — The Grass Roots in 1967, the lineup that included Creed Bratton on lead guitar.

The Office Barely Had to Write Him a Backstory

Bratton was already in his sixties when The Office cast him, and the writers leaned into his real life rather than invent a new one.

His character's real name is eventually revealed to be William Schneider - the same name Bratton was actually born with.

The show folded in his real music too. In the season three episode "A Benihana Christmas," Creed sings a karaoke rendition of "Spinnin' N Reelin'" - a song Bratton genuinely wrote and recorded, not something invented for television.

Still Touring, Decades Later

Bratton never really stopped playing music.

He's still touring small venues and theaters across the country today, at 83, more than half a century after The Grass Roots first made him a professional musician.

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