John Popper

His father was a Hungarian immigrant who left Budapest in 1948.

John Popper (born March 29, 1967) is an American musician and songwriter, known as the co-founder, lead vocalist, and frontman of the rock band Blues Traveler.

John Popper was born in Chardon, Ohio.

He attended Davenport Ridge School, Stamford Catholic High School (now Trinity Catholic High School), and Princeton High School, from which he graduated in 1986.

He took lessons on the piano, the cello, and the guitar, but none of those instruments appealed to him, and he hated being forced to practice.

He originally wanted to become a comedian, finding he could use humor to make friends and avoid bullies, but when he and a friend performed a routine as the Blues Brothers, he found that he enjoyed musical performance.

From there, he took up the harmonica.

Popper played trumpet in the Princeton High School Studio Jazz Band and convinced the teacher to let him play harmonica instead, after an in-class solo on the song "She Blinded Me with Science."

He formed several garage bands with friends in Princeton, New Jersey, one of which evolved into Blues Traveler in 1987.

After graduating from high school, the group's members all moved to New York City, where Popper enrolled in the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, along with two of his bandmates as well as high school friend Chris Barron.

Popper attended for three years but devoted himself to the band full-time once they signed a record contract, in 1990.

Popper is a founding member of Blues Traveler, serving as the band's frontman with lead vocals and harmonica.

For some songs, he forgoes the harmonica in favor of guitar, most often a 12-string acoustic.

In addition, Popper has played the tin whistle on some recordings.

A prolific songwriter, he has composed the majority of the lyrics and music of Blues Traveler's songs.

The band grew a following with its extensive touring, sometimes with over 300 dates a year, and gained a reputation in the jam band scene of the 1990s.

In 1990, Popper began to perform occasional solo concerts in addition to touring with Blues Traveler.

Several songs that originated as Popper's solo pieces have become part of Blues Traveler's repertoire, and vice versa.

He also performed with the Grateful Dead at a tribute to Bill Graham in 1991.

In 1992, Popper conceived the HORDE Festival as a venue to gain exposure for up-and-coming independent musicians.

Blues Traveler crossed over into mainstream pop/rock radio success with their 1994 album, four, which garnered the group extensive media exposure.

The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1996 was awarded to "Run-Around", a song that Popper composed.

In 2021, Blues Traveler's album "Traveler's Blues" was nominated by the Recording Academy for "Best Traditional Blues Album" for the 2022 GRAMMY Awards.

He sat in with the Smashing Pumpkins on the second day of their acoustic 1997 Bridge School Benefit appearance, contributing harmonica for their song "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans"; Popper's solo garnered major applause from the audience.

Popper was a part of a one-time studio band brought together in 1997 by New York drummer/songwriter Solomon Deniro.

It ran until 1998.

Bolstered by Blues Traveler's mainstream success, Popper released a solo album, Zygote, in 1999, and toured in support of it with his own John Popper Band.

The album was produced by Terry Manning, and the backing band consisted of longtime friends Dave Ares, Crugie Riccio, and Rob Clores of Cycomotogoat, with drummer Carter Beauford of Dave Matthews Band.

The album's release came less than three months after Popper's heart surgery, and only days after the death of Bobby Sheehan, Popper's bandmate and best friend.

The subsequent tour was canceled midway due to poor ticket sales, and Popper instead took the time to focus on his health.

Popper has co-written songs with Trey Anastasio, Warren Haynes, Chris Barron, and Jonny Lang.

He also frequently appears as a guest performer with musicians both famous and obscure, from a diverse variety of genres.

Popper played the harmonica on Hanson's album This Time Around in 2000, for which he performed on "If Only" and "In the City."

He also composed, wrote, and performed the theme song for the ninth season of the sitcom Roseanne.

He has performed with, among others, jam bands Spin Doctors, Dave Matthews Band, Phish, and most recently, the Allman Brothers Band in 2009; bluesmen Eric Clapton and B.B. King; singer-songwriters Jason Mraz and John Mayer; saxophonist Karl Denson; San Francisco's Culann's Hounds; heavy metal band Metallica; rock trio ZO2, and even with the Hungarian Ambassador to the United States, András Simonyi.

In 2017 and 2018, Popper began to play solo acoustic performances across the United States.

He is often accompanied by Blues Traveler keyboardist Ben Wilson and performs songs that span both Blues Traveler and his solo catalog.

Through him, Popper is related to David Popper, an important 19th-century European cellist.

Popper's mother and brother are lawyers.

Popper was raised in Stamford, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.