Bob Seger

Overview

Submitted by guitar-list on Wed, 2013-10-09 08:32

musical style:

photograph of Bob Seger

Robert Clark Seger (/ˈsiːɡər/, born May 6, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s. By the early 1970s, he had dropped the 'System' from his recordings and continued to strive for broader success with various other bands. In 1973, he put together the Silver Bullet Band, with a group of Detroit-area musicians, with whom he became most successful on the national level with the album Live Bullet (1976), recorded live with the Silver Bullet Band in 1975 at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1976, he achieved a national breakout with the studio album Night Moves. On his studio albums, he also worked extensively with the Alabama-based Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, which appeared on several of Seger's best-selling singles and albums.

Seger's first marriage 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. Seger lives mainly at his home in Orchard Lake Village, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He owns a condo in Naples, Florida.

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.

A roots rocker with a classic raspy, shouting voice, Seger wrote and recorded songs that deal with love, women and blue-collar themes and is an example of heartland rock. Seger has recorded many hits, including "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man", "Night Moves", "Turn the Page", "Still the Same", "We've Got Tonight", "Against the Wind", "You'll Accomp'ny Me", "Shame on the Moon", "Like a Rock", and "Shakedown", which was written for Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). Seger also co-wrote the Eagles' number-one hit "Heartache Tonight", and his iconic recording of "Old Time Rock and Roll" was named one of the Songs of the Century in 2001.

With a career spanning six decades, Seger continues to perform and record today. Seger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012. Seger was named Billboard's 2015 Legend of Live honoree at the 12th annual Billboard Touring Conference & Awards, held November 18–19 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York.

Seger was known as one of the last holdouts regarding making his catalog available for digital download and streaming. However, as of 2017, much of his work is available. Read more about Bob Seger on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.