Nick St. Nicholas (born Klaus Karl Kassbaum on September 28, 1943) is a German bandleader, bass guitarist, singer and songwriter; best known for his partnership in Steppenwolf. Early life He was born in Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and his family moved to Toronto after World War II and became Canadian citizens. His sister Maren joined The Royal Conservatory of Music, (Canadian Ballet Company & Conservatory of Music), as a pianist. He also has a younger brother, Gary who entered the Merchant navy. Early career Kassbaum spent a brief period as bassist with the Epics, then Shirley Matthews and the Big Town Boys before organizing a set of musicians who eventually coalesced as the Mynah Birds, featuring singers Rick James, Neil Young and Jimmy Livingston. In 1965, Kassbaum replaced Bruce Palmer as bassist with Jack London and the Sparrows, became Nick St. Nicholas, and played on most of the tracks on their only LP, which was released in that year. As the band leader, St. Nicholas hired East Prussian-born front man John Kay when Jack London left The Sparrows, and they became Sparrow. He moved the band south to New York for a modest record deal with Columbia Records, then drove Sparrow non-stop to California. St. Nicholas was one of the driving forces in music of the hippie counterculture movement, the Summer of Love. Having booked the band at the Matrix club in San Francisco, on May 14, 1967, two live shows were recorded, including a 20-minute version of "The Pusher." These are the live recordings released by ABC Dunhill Records as Early Steppenwolf. In 1967 St. Nicholas also joined a Los Angeles-based group called The Hardtimes, who soon renamed themselves T.I.M.E., which stands for Trust in Men Everywhere. Capitol Records signed them to a $500,000 recording contract, but their manager, the now deceased Ron Levin, turned out to be a con man and absconded with the advance and all of the band's earnings. Prior to the formation of the Steppenwolf partnership in 1968, music producer-arranger Gabriel Mekler changed the name from Sparrow to Steppenwolf based on a book he was reading at the time by Hermann Hesse. Steppenwolf After having recorded two albums without him, St. Nicholas's Sparrow bandmates, (vocalist/guitarist John Kay, drummer Jerry Edmonton and organist Goldy McJohn) came to see him perform with T.I.M.E. at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip and asked him to leave