Fact #159830

Steve Miller : We started off as a blues band and eventually, by 1967, I got a contract with Capitol. Buddy Guy told me to call it “The Steve Miller Band.” He said, “Use your own name, because you’re gonna go through a lot of people in your life and your band. And you don’t want it to just be four guys, and when the bass player leaves, everybody goes ‘Oh, man. It’s broken up. It’s all over with!’” So I did that. And it was The Steve Miller Blues Band. And then Butterfield said, “Listen, man. You know, I just got back from Europe and — lose the blues part of the name,” he said. They thought he was a Dixieland band. The first time he toured Europe as a blues band, they thought it was Dixieland or something. So I dropped that and it just became “The Steve Miller Band” and off we went!
(Source : http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/steve-miller-interview-2-0308/)