After a few years, they had a falling out with their bass player. Kurt knew of an acoustic bass player named Dirk Shumaker and invited him to join the band.

It was during this period that they donned the name Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Scotty came up with the name after attending an Albert Collins concert. "It was such an incredible show that I pulled a poster off the wall and handed it over to him so he could sign it and he wrote ‘to a big bad voodoo daddy, Scotty. Albert Collins.’" A few days later, he and Kurt were trying to decide on a name and Scotty mentioned the autograph. Thus, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy came into being.

At this point, Scotty decided that he wanted to add some horns to the band and delve into New Orleans jazz and 1940’s swing. So, he asked an old friend and baritone saxophone player, Andy "Lucious" Rowley to join the band. Also joining the band was Ralph Votrain on trumpet.

It was with this five member group that Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s first self-titled album was released. The band formed their own record label, Big Bad Records, for this project and sold the album out of the back of their van at performances. This album sold 3000 copies in a two weeks.

Shortly after this first album, they had another falling out. This time it was with their trumpet player, Ralph Votrain. To replace Ralph, they recruited Glen "the Kid" Marhevka and also added Jeff Harris on trombone. With this line-up they released their second album, Whatchu' Want For Christmas?

It was also this incarnation of the band that had that fateful Wednesday night slot as the house band at the Hollywood Derby. After about two years, actor, writer, and Derby regular Jon Favreau approached the band with an offer. He told them that he had written a movie and would like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy to be in it. They agreed, and on one of their regular Wednesday night performances, a movie crew came in and started filming for Swingers.

Swingers became a hit and people started referring to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy as "That band from Swingers." As a result of their seven-minute appearance in the film, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy caught the attention of Capitol Records and was given a record contract. The result was their second self-titled album (also referred to as Americana Deluxe) which contains remakes of several songs from their previous two albums.

Since Swingers, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s popularity has skyrocketed. Not only has Americana Deluxe gone platinum, but they also released another album, This Beautiful Life, and performed to hundreds of sold-out audiences throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and most recently Japan. They performed with Stevie Wonder at the 1999 Super Bowl half-time show, for former President Clinton, and appeared on several television shows including Melrose Place, Aly McBeal, Party of Five, Titus, David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Conan O’Brian to name a few.