Amos Staggs, (a.k.a. his real name Roy Robinson) began playing and singing at age six. He started his musical career at age fourteen with his first band, playing drums and guitar. He began writing songs while still in high school in the early 1960's. He started performing folk music as a solo act in the late '60's around Fort Worth, Texas. He performed in many bands in Austin, Texas and San Francisco, California from the late '60's to the '70's, performing original music. By then he had taught himself to play bass, dobro and steel guitar.
While performing in Austin, Staggs' band was the opening act at Armadillo World Headquarters, Soap Creek Saloon and "a folk place, the old Checkered Flag." Recited Amos, "That group got pretty solid. We took off for San Francisco, on the Armadillo School Bus. The band managed to make a living playing clubs like The Family Dog, The Lions Share, even the Fillmore West. The group did a west coast tour with Santana, and a little acoustic group-- The Kinks," It was while playing in an electric band opening for Boz Scaggs that Roy Robinson acquired his musical alter-ego, Amos Staggs. "Our drummer was from Chicago, and he was saying, 'You're much too funky for the Roy deal', and he started calling me Amos, and it stuck."