“I am not offended by homosexuality. In the ‘60s, I made love to many women, often outdoors in the mud and rain. It’s possible a man could’ve slipped in there. There’d be no way of knowing.”

The quirky, mysterious and often bizarre humor of Creed Bratton made him a beloved character on the long-running mockumentary “The Office,” which aired 2005-2013 and starred Steve Carell. Making love in the mud and rain sounds like Bratton may have had visions of the Woodstock music festival that took place in 1969—a year he, too, was part of the rock and roll explosion as the lead guitarist of the hit rock group The Grass Roots.

The band received heavy AM radio airplay in the late 1960s with such big hits as “Let’s Live for Today,” “Midnight Confessions” and “Temptation Eyes.” They scored 14 Top 40 hits, including seven gold singles and one platinum single. A gold single meant at least 1 million units shipped, and a platinum single was at least 2 million. From 1967-1972, the Grass Roots, fronted by lead singer and bassist Rob Grill, set a record by being on the Billboard charts 307 consecutive weeks.

Bratton was an original member of the Grass Roots, playing, songwriting and singing on 1967’s Let’s Live for Today and 1968’s Feelings, and playing guitar and singing on 1969’s Lovin’ You. He was also a band member in 1968, when the Grass Roots released the single “Midnight Confessions,” which, at No. 5, was the group’s highest placement on the Billboard chart. He left the band in 1969 and, several years later, headed off on an acting career.

I ask Bratton, who acted in “The Screener,” a five-part series that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, about those early days as a rock star.

“I came back from Europe in 1966 after spending a few years with the Young Californians,” he recalls. “I started playing with the band that became the Grass Roots, originally titled the 13th Floor, and we recorded our first album as the Grass Roots in 1967. I played guitar and sang harmony on those two albums and on Golden Grass (a compilation) and Lovin’ Things.”

Bratton’s favorite Grass Roots song is the title song “Feelings,” which had all band members playing on it. To Bratton’s dismay, Los Angeles studio musicians the Wrecking Crew had been used instead of band members on early recordings.

“Feelings” was the album’s opening cut, and Bratton also loves the record’s sixth song “You Might as Well Go My Way.”

“It sounds like a Buddy Holly song,” Bratton tells me. “I just love that song. I love how innocent that song sounds.”

Bratton recalls singing lead for “This Precious Time” on the Let’s Live for Today album.

“I had mainly sung background until that time” he says. “I was so nervous—you can hear how nervous I was. I even had a bloody nose—and I was scared to death. But, in retrospect, it has a sweet feeling because of that.”

Is there one live Grass Roots show that stands out above the others, I ask Bratton.

“We had just released the Feelings album, and it was on the charts and the radio,” he responds. “In Ventura (California), we played Let’s Live for Today, and, at the end of the show, we went into Feelings, and the place went nuts. I had never seen a crowd like it before. They were basically moshing, and I looked over at Warren (Entner, the band’s vocalist, keyboardist, guitarist) and thought to myself, here we go—this is the song. With persistence, you want to keep going. It was lightning in a bottle, and I wanted to continue that response with the fans and the audience, as well as from my peers. It was always about the audience—their response to songs made me excited and took me out of the present and into my soul.”

What was the importance of the Grass Roots’ music in rock and roll history?

“You cannot be objective if you are the object,” Bratton answers. “As far as importance, I do not know how I can judge that. That is for the critics. I was so involved in the work. We were entertaining and as honest and enthusiastic as we could be in putting out the best work we were capable of.”

Bratton has recorded 10 solo albums and is working on another. He names songs he considers his best: “Yes, Indeed,” “Always Be Dreaming of You,” “Chip in My Brain,” “The Lovers,” “More Than You Know” and “Matters Like This.”

“For the first album, I remember playing acoustic and singing and the band playing the very first take of ‘Matters Like This.’ We went through the song with no overdubs—in one take. Those are the magical moments.”

Tao Pop is Bratton’s most recent solo album, and his website clues us in.

“There’s a natural sense of humor across the record, as seen on tracks like first single ‘Turn The Corner of The Universe,’ an infectious anthem that imagines a future where climate change is in our rearview mirror,” the website states. “There’s also Tao Pop’s cover art—a futuristic depiction of Creed adorned with a USB outlet in his skull, inexplicably receiving an AI-baby from its AI-parents. Obviously, this is because Creed’s a funny guy––what started as a nonspeaking role quickly turned him into a global star for his work as Creed Bratton on the American version of ‘The Office,’ which is now one of the most streamed television shows of all time.”

I ask Bratton whether Tao Pop is a humor-rock album and whether the songs have an overall aim.

“I do not have many albums with a theme in mind,” he answers. “One song could be folk, one could be psychedelic, one could be middle-of-the-road pop. They are all over the place. It is very eclectic. I am just a songwriter who writes different songs.”

At a very young age, Bratton kicked off his musical journey by playing a trumpet. But a summer stay at his grandfather’s home in Long Beach, California, led to a discovery of another instrument.

“I grew up in Yosemite, but, at the beach, my grandfather Charles picked up the guitar and showed me a few chords,” Bratton recalls. “That was it for me. I played in my first band at a local rec center when I was 17. When I was 18, I played in a professional band in Bass Lake, California.”

Bratton says the best album he has ever listened to is the Beatles’ Rubber Soul.

“When I first heard Rubber Soul and Revolver, I felt they were two bookends to the same thing. Rubber Soul by The Beatles—man, I played that thing until I wore it down. It was the first album that made me realize pop could be made for adults. To this day, I am amazed that they did that.”

Bratton also loves solo music of Bach and Mozart and the works of Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Chet Baker, and he has no doubt about the best concert he attended.

“It is a no-brainer,” he says. “I had just played the Miami Pop Festival (as a member of The Grass Roots) with the Turtles, Three Dog Night and Spanky McFarlane. Richie Havens sings ‘Freedom,’ and it was the best thing I have ever heard. It was brilliant—just the best.”

Another concert, though, influenced him most as a musician.

“I had been in Munich with the Young Californians, and we went to London around 1965,” Bratton remembers. “Eric Clapton was playing, and I had never seen anyone at that time play the pentatonic scale. To me, it was like Mars. It was amazing.”

Bratton also recalls studying German and attending a Kinks concert with the Young Californians in Munich.

“That was one of the first times I saw a show get rowdy,” he says. “It was quite sobering.”

I ask Bratton whether his musical skills have been an asset in his acting career.

“There is musicality and rhythm in acting,” he responds. “If I am singing or using an accent, I am conveying an emotion and working with cadence and tonality.”

Bratton will always have fond memories of his many years of acting in “The Office.”

“It goes without saying how lucky I was and grateful I was, and, at the same time, I had done the work,” he says. “People think that I literally was playing myself, but I had been studying acting and playing all types of different characters throughout my life. After my first scene with Steve, I felt at home, and, the next day, Rainn (Wilson) and John (Krasinski) came up to me and said, ‘You knocked it out of the park, buddy.’ That respect from my peers meant a lot to me and got me through.”

“The Office” provided an opportunity to work with two special talents.

“I had a chance to work with two comic geniuses—Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson,” Bratton says. “The synergy we all had, which seemed effortless, contributed to the craft of all the people involved and the writing and the show. The ensemble was amazing. Greg Daniels (the executive producer) was so brave for taking a chance on all these people and put us together. I am a lucky guy. And I want to do more.”