Keaggy was a member of a mid-1960s garage rock band called the Squires; one of their songs ("Batmobile"), which he co-wrote, appears on the compilation album Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Volume 9.
A major turning point for the trio was their winning of an Ohio area's "Battle of the Bands", One of the event's judges happened to be an associate of producer Lewis Merenstein, whom he alerted to the threesome.