Jay was born into a musical family 5/10/1947 in San Fernando Valley, California. As a teenager Jay learned to play guitar and piano, and he played in various folk and garage bands. One of these bands was The Red Roosters featuring Jay, Mark Andes (whom Jay had met while going to highschool), Randy Wolfe (later to become Randy California), Ed Cassidy and Mike Fondelier. This band lasted for about a year, and then split up when Randy and Ed went to live in New York. Jay, Mark and Mike went on to form the band Western Union, who almost got a record deal, but broke up when that didn't work out. Jay then worked on a solo single with future Spirit associate Barry Hansen, but it was never released. At this point Jay and Mark met Randy and Ed again at a love-in. They decided to try to play together again, and the result of this decision was the band Spirit. This band lasted until 1971, and cut four albums; "Spirit" (1968), "The Family That Plays Together" (1968), "Clear" (1969) and "The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus" (1970). Jay was the vocalist and wrote most of the songs on the groups debut album. On the other three albums Jay and Randy California wrote approximately half of the material each, with some input from the other members. In 1969 the band had a top twenty hit with the song "I Got A Line On You". Jay wrote many classic songs for Spirit like "Fresh Garbage", "Uncle Jack", "Mr Skin" and "Animal Zoo", which are still played on the radio today. After recording and touring to support the classic "Sardonicus" album in -71, the band broke up, frustrated with their lack of commercial success.

Jay went on to form the band Jo Jo Gunne with Spirit bassist Mark Andes, Mark's brother Matt on guitar and Curly Smith on drums. Their first album, "Jo Jo Gunne" was released in 1972 and contained the top 30 hit "Run Run Run". All the groups material was written by Jay, except a few (like "Run Run Run") that were co-written with Matt Andes. Jo Jo Gunne released three more albums during it's existence, "Bite Down Hard" (1973), "Jumpin' The Gunne" (1973) and "So...Where's The Show?" (1974). Jo Jo Gunne's career went downhill commercially after the first album and the group split up in 1974.

In 1976 Jay started a solo career with the album "All Alone In The End Zone", and followed it in 1977 with the "Thunder Island" album that contained the hit single "Thunder Island". In 1979 came the "Real Life Ain't This Way" album and another hit; "Shakedown Cruise". After that, Jay released two albums that were less successful; "Terms and Conditions" (1980) and finally "White Noise" in 1982.