S.L. guitarist J.D. Moffat steps out from Ray Charles' shadow

He's trim, fit, married, has a neat and tidy house in the Salt Lake suburbs, and gets up every morning and drives to Highland High School, where he's a history teacher.

You could go a long way down the list before you came up with what J.D. Moffat's life was before it was this.

He played lead guitar for Ray Charles.

His day job used to be a night job.

For seven years in the 1970s and early 1980s, J.D. was one of four men who "made Ray sound good" as members of his band. There was a drummer, a bass player, a saxophone player and him.

"Nicest compliment he (Ray Charles) ever gave me," he says, "was, 'J.D., I didn't know you were white.'"

He remembers Ray Charles as a bona fide musical genius. If you hit the wrong chord, he'd realize it before you did.

"He could hear around two corners," he says. "He'd fine you if you messed up. He was demanding in everything he did. He fined me for not having my shoes shined. He had valets who would check for him.

"He was blind and he always liked to say, 'See that,' and he'd look up where the lights spelled out his name and he'd say, 'They're paying to hear me and they get to hear you; when it's different, we'll do it your way.'"

The 2004 movie, "Ray," that details the hard-partying, hard-charging life of Ray Charles?

"A little watered down," says J.D. "It was more intense than that."

His roommate was legendary saxophone player David "Fathead" Newman. "I asked him, 'How do you play drunk?'" remembers J.D., "He'd say, 'I practice drunk.'"

J.D. didn't drink.

"I stayed away from it. I saw a lot of grief and sadness that came from that," he says. "It's the reason I'm the only one still alive."

About to turn 69, he looks 10 years younger, a condition he ascribes to good genes and the six days a week he works out at the Sports Mall.

"I'm in pretty good shape," he says, "for an old guy."

Getting off the road when he was 40 also helped.

He first spent six years with Lou Rawls — "the best singer I ever heard; even better than Ray," he says – before hooking up with Ray Charles. He also played on occasion with John Lee Hooker.