Profile of Dave Matthews on Famous Like Me

David John Matthews (born January 9, 1967 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is the vocalist and guitarist from Dave Matthews Band.

At the age of two, Matthews and his devoutly Quaker family immigrated to Westchester County, New York, where his physicist father went to work for IBM. Then, in the early 1970s, he moved to Cambridge, England before returning to New York, where his father died in 1977. Dave took piano lessons as a child before picking up the guitar at age nine. The family moved back to South Africa in 1980, where Matthews went to a few different schools.

In 1986 Matthews relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia, where his parents had lived before he was born. Though he also logged time back in South Africa and in Amsterdam, it was in Charlottesville that he became part of the local music community. His first professional musical performance was 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.

Matthews had originally envisioned someone else singing his songs. After writing his first few songs, including "The Song that Jane Likes" and "Recently", he began to consider starting his own band. Matthews formed The Dave Matthews Band in early 1991 with Boyd Tinsley, Leroi Moore, Carter Beauford, and Stefan Lessard while he was working as a bartender at Miller's in Charlottesville. The band's first performance was on May 11, 1991, at a private rooftop party held by Lydia Condor at the South Street Warehouse in downtown Charlottesville.

The musician is one of the principals of ATO Records, a music label which he helped found in 2000. Matthews released a solo album in late 2003, Some Devil, which went platinum; its single, "Gravedigger," won a Grammy Award in 2004.

Dave Matthews has also acted in two feature films. Matthews played Will Coleman in the 2003 adaptation of the novel Where the Red Fern Grows. He also portrayed the character Otis in the 2005 film Because of Winn-Dixie, also based on a novel of the same name.

Matthews and his wife, Ashley Harper, have twin daughters born in 2001, Stella and Grace. The family splits their time between Seattle, Washington and Charlottesville.

Discography

2005

• Mike Doughty - Haughty Melodic
• Mark Roebuck - Tribe Of Heaven
• Dave Matthews Band - Stand Up
• Dave Matthews Band - Live Trax Vol. 3: 08/27/00
• Various Artists - Live From Bonnaroo 2004 (also on DVD)
  • Dave Matthews & Friends - Trouble

2004

• Dave Matthews Band - Live Trax Vol. 2: 09/12/04
• Dave Matthews Band - Live Trax Vol. 1: 12/08/98
• Dave Matthews Band - The Gorge (6 CD box set and 2 CD & 1 DVD set))

2003

• Dave Matthews - Some Devil
• Boyd Tinsley - True Reflections
• Various Artists - The Sounds Of Wood And Steel Vol. 3
• Dave Matthews Band - The Central Park Concert (also on DVD)
• Blue Man Group - "Sing Along", from The Complex
• Soulive - Next

2002

• Dave Matthews Band - Live at Folsom Field (also on DVD)
• Dave Matthews Band - Busted Stuff
• Angelique Kidjo - Black Ivory Soul
• Johnny Cash - We Were Soldiers Soundtrack

2001

• Thompson D'earth - Mercury
• Dave Matthews Band - Live In Chicago
• Dave Matthews Band - The Videos 1994–2001 DVD
• Dave Matthews Band - Everyday

2000

• Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl

1999

• Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds - Live at Luther College
• Dave Matthews Band - Listener Supported (also on DVD)
• Santana - Supernatural

1998

• Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
• Béla Fleck and the Flecktones - Left of Cool

1997

• Dave Matthews Band - Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95

1996

• Dave Matthews Band - Crash
• Soko - In November Sunlight

1994

• Dave Matthews Band - Under The Table and Dreaming
• Dave Matthews Band - Recently

1993

• Dave Matthews Band - Remember Two Things

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