Early life Kimball was raised in
Vinton, Louisiana, but born in nearby
Orange, Texas, as Vinton did not have a hospital. He started singing as a child, dabbling on vocals and playing piano and acoustic guitar in a musical household throughout his youth, mostly covering and performing 1950s and 1960s
R&B hits, 1800s
traditional old-time music, and rare local
swamp pop and
Cajun folk songs typical of Louisiana. His parents were extremely supportive of his musical talents, devoting themselves to his desire to become a full-time professional musician as an adult. He is of English, German, Irish, and Cajun French ancestry. He graduated from
McNeese State University in
Lake Charles,
Louisiana, in 1969. Throughout the 1970s, Kimball performed as the vocalist in various
New Orleans-area
bands, including the Levee Band, which became
Louisiana's LeRoux after Kimball left.
Career success In 1974, Kimball moved from Louisiana to
Los Angeles, California, to pursue a full-time music career. In California, he joined three members of
Three Dog Night,
Floyd Sneed, Joe Schermie, and
Michael Allsup, to form a band called S.S. Fools. They released one album on
CBS Records, which was considered a commercial failure, causing the band to be dropped from their label and to split up within a year and a half. In 1976,
David Paich and
Jeff Porcaro asked Kimball to join them with three other session musicians, who would eventually form
Toto. He submitted a self-penned audition song for the band, "You Are the Flower", which he had written for his daughter and was later included on Toto's
debut album. Paich and Porcaro were impressed by Kimball's bluesy vocal style and offered him the job of vocalist and songwriter. The pair liked Kimball's ability to sing in an R&B style and to fuse it with
hard rock and
jazz, which was characteristic and attributed to his Louisiana origins. Kimball performed on the first four studio albums by Toto. He was asked to leave the band in 1984 during the sessions for the
Isolation album. In the late 1990s, on good terms with his former bandmates, Kimball was asked to rejoin Toto, which he accepted.
After Toto In the 1984 movie
Gimme an F, Kimball sang lead vocals on the song "State of My Heart". After splitting from Toto in 1984, he relocated to
Germany. Under producer
Frank Farian, he became a member of the band
Far Corporation. In 1985, they released their first studio album,
Division One, which also included many contributions from former Toto bandmates
David Paich and
Steve Lukather. He toured with a solo band from the late 1980s into the 1990s. This band consisted of longtime friend and saxophonist
Jon Smith, guitarist and vocalist Dave Blasucci, guitarist Mark Manjardi, keyboardist Dave Porter, bassist Vince Bilbro, and drummer Jimmy Griego. They performed Toto songs as well as covers of songs by
The Isley Brothers,
Whitesnake,
Donny Hathaway,
George Michael, and
Patti LaBelle. Kimball also continued to work as a session artist, singing background vocals on songs by
Quiet Riot,
Al Jarreau,
Richard Marx, and
Trixter. Toto was planning Kimball's return in 1989 for the band's greatest hits album,
Past to Present 1977–1990, and even recorded a song, "Goin' Home" (which was later released on
Toto XX in 1998). Toto instead recruited singer
Jean-Michel Byron (a decision said to have derived from
Sony, the band's record company at the time). Byron was let go shortly thereafter, and guitarist-vocalist
Steve Lukather took over Toto's primary lead vocal duties from 1991 to 1997.
Other activities Kimball provided additional backing vocals on the song, "Caroline," on the 2006
Chicago album,
XXX. In January 2010, he did fourteen concerts in Germany on the "Rock Meets Classic" Tour with the
Bohemian Symphony Orchestra Prague, featuring Philipp Maier as Conductor and Music Arranger. The singers with Kimball on this tour were
Lou Gramm, the original lead vocalist of
Foreigner, and
Dan McCafferty, from the band
Nazareth. On May 16, 2010, at the LMHOF Louisiana Music Homecoming in Erwinville, Louisiana, Bobby Kimball was inducted into The
Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Kimball recorded a progressive rock album in 2010 entitled
Elements under the band name
Yoso with former
Yes members
Tony Kaye and
Billy Sherwood. Kimball recorded the 2011 album
Kimball/Jamison with
Jimi Jamison. In July 2011, Kimball toured Ireland with an emerging Irish band, Shadowplay. The tour visited Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Sligo, concluding in a headline performance at The Buncrana Music Festival, Ireland's largest not-for-profit music event. In November 2012 and March 2013, Kimball toured extensively in South America. The tour included
Argentina,
Uruguay,
Chile and
Peru and the backing band included musicians
Tommy Denander and Gabe Treiyer. In March 2013, Kimball was a special guest vocalist with the
Raiding the Rock Vault classic rock tribute show in Las Vegas, Nevada. At Fiera Internazionale della Musica (FIM) in Genoa in May 2014, Kimball was awarded the Legend of Rock – Best Voice award. In February 2015, he represented the United States at the LVI International Song Festival in Viña del Mar, Chile, with the song "Living Your Life for Happiness". In late 2016, he released a solo album, ''We're Not in Kansas Anymore
, and the same year, music website No Echo'' featured Kimball on their "Best Male AOR Singers" list. In November 2019, German media reported that Kimball has
dementia. This was also confirmed by Steve Lukather in an interview with Eonmusic in 2021. In recent years, it has more specifically been identified as
frontotemporal dementia. A documentary about Kimball is planned to be released called,
Kite on a String: The Bobby Kimball Story. It is being led by his longtime collaborator and producer John Zaika. In 2022, Kimball contributed vocals on the Chicago song "Someone Needed Me the Most" from their twenty-sixth studio album
Chicago XXXVIII: Born for This Moment.
Personal life Kimball married Jasmin Kimball in 1996 and has a daughter named Allison Kimball. He resides in Los Angeles, California and receives care from his wife and two caretakers. == Discography ==