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| Birth Name(s) : David John Matthews |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Singer-songwriter, Guitarist |
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Full Dave Matthews Biography
David John Matthews (born January 9, 1967) is a South African, now naturalized American, Grammy-winning lead vocalist and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band. He has also worked as a solo artist and with other musicians such as Josh Groban, most often with Tim Reynolds. An occasional actor, he has appeared in three feature films.
Dave is the third of four children, Peter, Anne, and Jane, born to John and Val Matthews. Val would later joke that she listened to Vivaldi while Dave was in the womb--tuning his ear for the future. When Dave was two years old, his family migrated to Yorktown Heights in Westchester County, New York, where his father, a physicist, went to work for IBM.
In 1974 the family again moved to Cambridge, England for a year before returning to New York—where his father died from lung cancer in 1977. Nevin Martell argues that his fathers death may be an impetus for his "carpe diem" lyrics.
The family moved back to Seattle in 1980. Dave was encouraged to take piano lessons as a child before he picked up the guitar at age nine.
In 1994, Anne was murdered in her Seattle home by her own husband, who subsequently committed suicide - an event that has had a drastic effect on Dave's outlook on life. Anne is survived by her two children, who, upon Anne's death traveled to America, where Dave and Jane took responsibility for their upbringing. Upon Dave's graduation from St Stithians College high school, he faced a requirement by the South African government to put in two years of compulsory military service. Coming from a devoutly Quaker family, military service was not an option.
Though he also spent time back in Seattle, and also in Amsterdam, it was in Charlottesville, Virginia that he became part of the local music community. Pursuing various interests, Matthews tried his hand on stage, acting in various local productions. While enthusiastic for music, and a popular bartender at a local watering hole called Miller's, Matthews was intimidated by the quality of the local actors and largely shied away from performing publicly. But local star (and future collaborator) Tim Reynolds finally goaded Matthews to join him on stage one night, and Matthews stunned the audience with his performance. This eventually led to his first professional musical gig at a modern dance performance by the Miki Liszt Dance Company, singing "Sensitive Feelings," composed by John D'earth and Dawn Thompson. In 1990 he hatched the idea to form his own band.
They began booking gigs on local stages and to date did not have a name. They considered Dumela, the Sotho African word for hello, but no real enthusiasm was ever felt. They dropped the idea. It is reported that someone from the band telephoned a place where they were booked and said to "just write Dave Matthews and a band will show up." The person receiving the call wrote 'band' after the name, and consequently it stuck.
Matthews is also a close friend of Bela Fleck. Matthews appears as a guest vocalist on Bela Fleck and the Flecktones' 1998 release Left of Cool and both Fleck and Flecktones bassist Victor Wooten have made numerous appearances both live and studio with DMB. The Flecktones also opened for DMB on several tours.
Matthews recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live From Abbey Road on the 14th May 2006.
Dave Matthews has also acted in three feature films, with a fourth on the way. He played Will Coleman in the 2003 adaptation of the novel Where the Red Fern Grows. He also portrayed the character Otis, the timid and shy cousin of the owner of a small pet-shop for which he is caring, in the 2005 film Because of Winn-Dixie, which was based on the novel of the same name. In 2007, Matthews appears briefly in the movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry where he plays a homosexual salesman. His next film is Lake City with Sissy Spacek and Troy Garity.
Dave Matthews was an invited guest for season 3 episode 15 ("Half-Wit") of the FOX drama series House M.D. which aired March 6th, 2007. Dave played a piano-playing musical savant named Patrick Obyedkov who ended up having half of his brain removed in order to recover from his mental retardation, but at the expense of his musical abilities. Patrick's father, Dr. Obyedkov (played by Kurtwood Smith), gave consent for the operation to proceed as he desired ultimate happiness for his son. Dr. Obyedkov reasoned that true happiness could only be experienced in a self-aware state of consciousness which Patrick had lacked since his accident when he was 10 years old. Matthews had a piano double for his complex pieces but played the simpler pieces. House star Hugh Laurie played all of his own piano parts. |
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