Bassist Jerry Scheff grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, started playing tuba in elementary school and by the seventh grade had mastered the double bass. His musical inclinations lay in jazz and rhythm and blues. By the age of fifteen he was playing in clubs in his new hometown of Sacramento and back in San Francisco. As a high school student, Scheff enlisted in the United States Navy and ended up at the Navy School of Music in Washington, D.C., where he completed a nine-month course in theory and harmony and got the chance to play with some outstanding musicians. After finishing the course he stayed on to teach, moonlighting by playing in jazz clubs, then the Navy transferred him to San Diego. Some time after his discharge from the service, Scheff moved to Los Angeles and played regularly at a club called The Sands in Watts, where a teenage Billy Preston often performed covers of James Brown. Strangely enough, bassist Scheff began his work on the Los Angeles studio scene playing valve trombone.

The first hit record on which Scheff played bass was an album by The Association, including the singles Along Comes Mary and Cherish. In Mary, Scheff made a mistake on bass that remained on the record, so the thrill of hearing his work on a radio hit was balanced by his wincing every time he heard that mistake. A couple of years later, however, it was pleasant to hear an "elevator music" cover version in which the bassist copied Scheff's part, including the wrong note. A particular milestone in his career was taking part in The Doors' album L.A. Woman. Over the years Scheff recorded with Bobby Sherman, Tiny Tim, Johnny Mathis, Nancy Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Bobby Vinton, The Everly Brothers, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt and many others.

By the end of the sixties he had crossed paths with guitarist James Burton, who remembered Scheff's work and called him when he was putting together a band for Elvis in 1969. Scheff worked with Elvis from 1969 to 1973 and from 1975 to 1977, on stage and on a number of recordings. He can be seen performing in the documentaries Elvis: That's The Way It Is (1970) and Elvis On Tour (1972), as well as in the first-ever show broadcast via satellite, Aloha From Hawaii (1973). Reflecting on those years, Scheff says: "Elvis had a big influence on my career. It was like going to school." In the 80s and 90s he toured with Elvis Costello, Sam Phillips and John Denver. Jerry also appeared with Roy Orbison and Friends on the television concert A Black and White Night (1987). Today he continues to work as a session musician with a wide range of artists. His passion in recent years has become songwriting. Although most of his career has been associated with rock and pop stars, he still enjoys playing a little jazz sometimes, as he says, "to keep the cobwebs out of my head." Both of Scheff's sons, Darin and Jason, are musicians. Jason Scheff took Pete Cetera's place in the band Chicago. He also tours the world with Elvis The Concert.