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Gary Saxon, the longtime owner of The Record Man and a revered figure in Redwood City’s community, died on May 6. He was 82.
Saxon opened the Record Man, a vinyl record shop on El Camino Real in 1988. The store was family-run, a place his daughter, Athena Saxon, 28, remembers spending more time at growing up than in their small family home.
“This was our playground,” Athena Saxon said of the shop. “Weekends, we were at the store, my sister and I were running around the parking lot, we were making forts out of boxes, we were climbing over roofs, running around, we were causing havoc with the boys, with the people in the back store, and playing games.”
When asked how to describe her father, Athena said: “Awesome.”
She characterized him like that over a dozen times in an hour-long call, which might be because he would tell her that even when he hardly had the strength to say much more. He’d whisper, “You’re awesome,” Athena said.
Saxon was born in Evanston, Illinois and grew up in a log cabin near Woodside and Atherton with his mom and little brother. He attended Sequoia High School for one year and was part of the inaugural class of Woodside High School.
He served four years with the U.S. Army, including time fighting in Korea and received an honorable discharge, even though “he wasn’t always the most behaved,” Athena said, laughing.
Shortly thereafter, Gary moved to San Francisco, lived in a commune in the Haight-Ashbury district and “became a hippie,” where he was “doing things that they shouldn’t be doing,” Athena Saxon said.
Barefoot and vegan, Gary hosted a number of notable visitors at his commune, including Bob Dylan and Mama Cass, Athena said.
He was fascinated by spirituality and exploring ideas like “Why are we here?” and “What is existence?”
He married his first wife, who died a couple of years ago, and had Kimberly Saxon, his first child, likely in the ‘60s. Kimberly, her half sister, is 61.
Athena doesn’t know what her dad was up to in this time period, but she said she thinks he was “living in random places,” like the mountains, and believes he started selling second-hand jeans to make money at the local flea market. He would walk around with a big tape measure around his neck and size people who would walk by, fitting them for jeans.
Gary then started buying and selling pre-loved books… and then records. One day, someone asked where “the Record Man” was, and the name just stuck.
He also rose to become manager of Round Table Pizza in Redwood City and had been really proud of that role ever since, grabbing pizza from there even toward the end of his life as a special treat.
In the ’80s, Kimberly Saxon noticed an apartment for rent on El Camino Real and figured it would be a perfect space for her dad to store his records and set up a shop, as he was just keeping them at his mom’s garage at the time.
And then, while filming a commercial for the shop, Gary saw Athena’s mom, Angela E.S. Saxon, for the first time and was like, “Who’s that?” The rest is history.
Very soon after, Angela started helping out at the record store and would continue to carry the team even through today, helping to buy the building and running it on the daily.
Gary then had Athena and her twin sister, Phaedra Saxon. The girls would spend much of their time at The Record Man, seeing as their parents were busy running the business, so Athena Saxon regards it as their second living room, where she’d hang out with her dad more than in her childhood home.
Athena remembers taking important phone calls or having big conversations in the store and joking with patrons about it.
“It’s kind of rude that you’re interrupting,” they would quip, according to Athena. “We’re having a family meeting right now.”
While the shop is now highly regarded as vintage and retro, Athena said it “wasn’t seen as cool” when she was growing up, especially because they did not make much money and because everything was “dirty and used.”
That said, she and her family saw the value in it, and now she’s happy that it feels like “the rest of the world does” too.
While the long-term future of The Record Man is uncertain, the shop will continue operating as usual for now and intends to host its biggest annual summer parking lot sale yet. Athena hinted that this will likely be the last one, and probably the largest.
Behind The Record Man, another Saxon-owned shop, sells cassettes, DVDs, video games and other items. Anthony Chavez, an aspiring artist and filmmaker who helps run that shop, recalled Saxon’s colorful stories and motivating advice. Gary would tell Chavez about “this guru” who said “there’s a great fire within,” and to use that phrase as fuel to pursue Chavez’s creative dreams.
When asked how patrons regarded Gary, Chavez giggled and said that there were “no bad reviews.”
Gary told the Pulse in 2024 in a feature about his shop that he came of age during the transition from Big Band music and jazz to rock.
“All of the sudden, around 1956 – ‘One, two, three-o’clock, four-o’clock rock!’ Elvis and Little Richard and Chuck Berry changed everything,” Gary Saxon said.
After mentioning that he saw James Brown play at the American Legion on El Camino, Gary said, “I’m not Mr. Redwood City, but I could be.”
Gary died from hip and knee joint infections after an accident, the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office said.
For years, he had battled cancer on his face, immunocompromising his body and making medical operations riskier, Athena said.
The Saxon family will hold a celebration of life for Gary, open to the public, in the parking lot of The Record Man on July 25. Anyone in the community is welcome to attend.
