Bob Seger

Seger was born at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Charlotte and Stewart Seger. At age five, he moved with his family to Ann Arbor. He had an older brother, George. Regarding his early musical inspirations, Seger has stated, "Little Richard – he was the first one that really got to me. Little Richard and, of course, Elvis Presley." "Come Go with Me" by The Del-Vikings, a hit in 1957, was the first record he bought. ==Regional favorite and first national hit: 1961–1976==

The Decibels and The Town Criers Bob Seger arrived on the Detroit music scene in 1961 fronting a three-piece band called the Decibels. The band included Seger on guitar, piano, keyboards, and vocals, Pete Stanger on guitar, and R.B. Hunter on drums. All of the members attended Ann Arbor High. The Decibels recorded an acetate demo of a song called "The Lonely One", at Del Shannon's studio in 1961. As well as being Seger's first original song, "The Lonely One" was Seger's first song to be played on the radio, airing once on an Ann Arbor radio station. In 2021, a recording of "The Lonely One" resurfaced, and was broadcast (with permission from Seger) twice on WCSX-FM in Detroit. After the Decibels disbanded, Seger joined the Town Criers, a four-piece band with Seger on lead vocals, John Flis on bass, Pep Perrine on drums, and Larry Mason on lead guitar. The Town Criers, covering songs like "Louie Louie", grew a steady following. Meanwhile, Seger was listening to James Brown and said that, for him and his friends, Live at the Apollo was their favorite record following its release in 1963. Seger was also influenced by the music of The Beatles, once they hit American shores in 1964. In general, he and local musician friends such as Glenn Frey (later a member of the Eagles) bought into the premises of 1960s pop and rock radio, with its hook-driven hits; he later recalled himself and Frey thinking at the time, "You're nobody if you can't get on the radio." While with The Omens, Seger met his future manager Edward "Punch" Andrews, who at the time was partnered with Dave Leone running the Hideout franchise, consisting of four clubs ranging from Clawson to Rochester Hills, where local acts could play, and a small-scale record label. Seger started writing and producing other acts that Punch managed, such as the Mama Cats and the Mushrooms (with Glenn Frey). Seger and Brown were then approached by Punch and Leone to write a song for the Underdogs, a local band who recently had a hit with "Man in the Glass". Seger contributed a song called "East Side Story", which was unsuccessful. but went unnoticed almost everywhere else and failed to chart nationally in the US. The single did, however, make the Canadian national charts, peaking at . The second single was "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". It was a major hit in Michigan, and became Seger's first nationwide hit, peaking at . Its success led to the release of an album in 1969. ''Ramblin' Gamblin' Man went to on the Billboard'' pop albums chart. Glenn Frey got his first studio gig singing back-up and playing guitar on "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". Seger was unable to follow up this success. For the next album, singer-songwriter Tom Neme joined The System, ultimately writing and singing the majority of the tunes featured, for which the group was heavily criticized. Noah (1969) failed to chart, leading Seger to briefly quit the music industry to attend college. He returned the following year and put out the System's final album, 1970's Mongrel, without Neme. Bob Schultz left as well, and was replaced by Dan Watson. Mongrel, with the powerful single "Lucifer", was considered a strong album by critics and fans, but failed to sell. The Bob Seger System was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2006. Solo After Mongrel failed to live up to the success of ''Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, The System disbanded. For a short time following the breakup, Seger had ambitions to be a one-man act. In 1971, he released a solo album, the all-acoustic Brand New Morning''. It was a commercial failure and led to his departure from Capitol. Having thus regained an eye for bands, According to Seger, there was a financial misunderstanding with the musicians: they offered to record him "for $1500 a side", which he took to mean $1500 per album side. When he found out that they meant $1500 per song, he left after recording three songs but resolved to work with them in the future. An instant best-seller in Detroit, Live Bullet got attention in other parts of the country, outselling Seger's previous albums, received progressive rock radio and album-oriented rock airplay, and enabled Seger to headline shows. But there was still a popularity imbalance; in 1976, he was a featured performer at the Pontiac Silverdome in metro Detroit in front of nearly 80,000 fans, but one night later played to fewer than a thousand people in Chicago. == Peak of success: 1976–1987 ==

Seger finally achieved his commercial breakthrough with his October 1976 album Night Moves. The title track was critically and commercially well-received, becoming a hit on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and receiving airplay on AOR radio. The album also featured "Mainstreet" (written about Ann Arbor's Ann Street), a hit that emphasized Seger's rock credibility as well as guitarist Pete Carr's lead guitar, and "Rock and Roll Never Forgets", which peaked at on the Billboard Hot 100. Night Moves was Seger's first top-ten album in the Billboard album chart, and as of 2006 was certified at 6 million copies in the United States, making it the biggest-selling studio album of his career. The success of Night Moves also bolstered sales of Seger's previous releases. Seger's 1975 release Beautiful Loser would eventually sell two million copies and the 1976 album Live Bullet would go on to sell six million copies in the US. In February 1977, Silver Bullet Band drummer Charlie Allen Martin was hit by a car from behind while walking on a service road and was left unable to walk. David Teegarden, previous drummer for Seger on his 1972 album ''Smokin' O.P.'s'' was his replacement. The 1978 album Stranger in Town was a success. The first single, "Still the Same", reached on the Billboard Hot 100. "Hollywood Nights" reached , and the ballad "We've Got Tonight" reached . "We've Got Tonight" was a major hit again when it was covered in 1983 by Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton. Notably, it topped ''Billboard's Hot Country Songs and peaked at and on Billboard's Adult Contemporary and Hot 100 charts respectively. "Old Time Rock and Roll", a song from George Jackson and Thomas E. Jones III that Seger substantially rewrote the lyrics for, peaked at on the Hot 100, but achieved greater popularity after being featured in the Tom Cruise film Risky Business'', in which Cruise's character dances in his underwear to the song. It has since been ranked the second-most played Jukebox Single of all time, behind Patsy Cline's "Crazy". Seger's 1986–1987 American Storm Tour was his self-stated last major tour, playing 105 shows over nine months and selling almost 1.5 million tickets. Like a Rock reached and eventually sold over three million copies, although it has never been certified above platinum. On March 13, 1987, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to the music industry; it is located at 1750 Vine Street. In 1987, Seger recorded "Shakedown" for the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II. A synth-driven pop-rock song, it was Seger's first and only hit on the pop singles chart. The song had originally been intended for fellow Detroiter Glenn Frey, but when Frey lost his voice just before the recording session, he asked Seger to take his place. Seger changed the verses but kept the chorus as it was. Seger received an Oscar nomination as co-writer in the Best Original Song category the following year. == Later years: 1988–present ==

Seger's next record was 1991's The Fire Inside, at a time when glam metal, grunge and alternative rock were at the forefront. His new music found little viability on radio or elsewhere. The same was true of 1995's ''It's a Mystery, although it was certified gold (500,000 copies sold). But in 1994, Seger released Greatest Hits''. The compilation was his biggest-ever record in terms of sales, selling nearly 10 million copies in the United States . Seger went out for a 1996 tour, which sold the fourth-largest number of tickets of any North American tour that year. He took a sabbatical from the music business from 1997 to 2005 to spend time with his wife and children. In 2001, and again in 2002, he won the prestigious Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race aboard his sailboat Lightning. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2004. Fellow Detroiter Kid Rock gave the induction speech and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm proclaimed the date Bob Seger Day in his honor. In 2005, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band were inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame, and Seger was featured singing with 3 Doors Down on the song "Landing in London" from their Seventeen Days album. Seger's first new album in eleven years, Face the Promise, was released in 2006. In its first 45 days, it sold over 400,000 copies and went on to sell 1.2 million, returning Seger to platinum status and staying on the Billboard chart for several months. The supporting tour was eagerly anticipated, with many shows selling out within minutes. Showing that his legendary appeal in Michigan was undiminished, all 10,834 tickets available for his first show at Grand Rapids' Van Andel Arena sold out in under five minutes; three additional shows were subsequently added, each of which also sold out. In 2009, Seger released a compilation album, Early Seger Vol. 1, containing archival material from the 1970s and 1980s, including some fully or partially re-recorded tracks from ''Smokin' O.P.'s (1972) and Seven'' (1974), and some never-before-released songs. The album was initially only available for purchase at Meijer stores and then later for download at his website. Seger contributed piano and vocals to Kid Rock's 2010 album Born Free and staged a successful arena tour during 2011, accompanied by the release of a two-CD compilation, Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets. On May 28, 2011, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder proclaimed that date as Bob Seger Day (Seger's second such honor) for his more than 50 years of sharing his celebrated musical talents with fans all over the world. In 2012, Seger was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. On December 22, 2016, Seger performed "Heartache Tonight" as the Kennedy Center honored the Eagles. A few weeks later, on January 18, 2017, Seger gave away the single "Glenn Song" on his website as a tribute marking the first anniversary of the death of Eagles founding member Glenn Frey. That summer, Seger embarked on his Runaway Train tour, including a show at The Palace of Auburn Hills, the last event to be held at that venue. Seger released a cover of the Lou Reed song "Busload of Faith" as the first single from the I Knew You When album. Due to "an urgent medical issue with his vertebrae", all concert dates starting September 30 were postponed. Of the 32 scheduled tour dates, Seger completed thirteen and postponed nineteen. On September 18, 2018, Seger announced his final tour. The ''Travelin' Man'' tour included postponed dates from the 2017 tour, and kicked off at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The tour ended on November 1, 2019, and Seger retired. Seger made a brief return in 2023 to perform at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville for the induction of Patty Loveless, playing her song "She Drew a Broken Heart". Loveless sang a duet with Seger in "The Answer's in the Question" from Seger's Face the Promise album. Legacy Lincoln Park declared November 17, 2017, "Bob Seger Day" In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Seger at number 181 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. ==Personal life==

Seger's first marriage to Renee Andrietti in 1968 lasted for "one day short of a year". He had a long-term relationship with Jan Dinsdale from 1972 until 1983. In 1987, he married actress Annette Sinclair and they divorced one year later. He married Juanita Dorricott in 1993, in a small private setting at The Village Club, in Bloomfield Hills; they have two children. Views Politically, Seger has characterized himself as a centrist: "[I'm] right down the middle", he remarked. He supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. He tackled antiestablishment themes in early songs such as "2 + 2 = ?" (1968) and "U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)" (1974), according to Brian McCollum of the Detroit Free Press. On his 2014 album Ride Out, he addressed topics such as gun violence and wrote "It's Your World" about climate change. On the subject, he said, "There are a lot of culprits in climate change, and everybody's responsible, myself included. Nobody gets a free pass on this one. We've got to change our ways and change them fast." He has considered President Barack Obama to be the favorite president of his lifetime; he met him at the 2016 Kennedy Center Honors and thanked Obama for his "wisdom and dignity." ==Discography==

Studio albums • ''Ramblin' Gamblin' Man'' (1969) • Noah (1969) • Mongrel (1970) • Brand New Morning (1971) • ''Smokin' O.P.'s'' (1972) • ''Back in '72'' (1973) • Seven (1974) • Beautiful Loser (1975) • Night Moves (1976) • Stranger in Town (1978) • Against the Wind (1980) • The Distance (1982) • Like a Rock (1986) • The Fire Inside (1991) • ''It's a Mystery'' (1995) • Face the Promise (2006) • Ride Out (2014) • I Knew You When (2017) Live albums • Live Bullet (1976) • Nine Tonight (1981) Compilation albums • Greatest Hits (1994) • Greatest Hits 2 (2003) • Early Seger Vol. 1 (2009) • Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets (2011) • Heavy Music: The Complete Cameo Recordings 1966–1967 (2017) ==References==