John Popper - Biography

One of the greatest harmonica players in rock, John Popper formed his band, Blues Traveler, along with his high school friends Bobby Sheehan (bass), Chan Kinchla (guitar) and Brendan Hill (drums), in the late 80s, in New York City. They released their eponymous debut album in 1990 and hit the charts with 1994's "Four". Meanwhile, Popper started to appear as a cameo in several films: the Farrelly Brothers' Kingpin (1996) (which included a Blues Traveler performance at the end), Howard Stern's Parties intimes (1997) and Blues Brothers 2000 (1998). The year 2000 was a tragic one for the band. Popper had to canceled some tour dates due to some hard pain in his chest. Then, later that year, bassist Bobby Sheehan died of a heroin overdose. That same year marked Popper first actual role in movies. He acted in the indie film, Just for the Time Being (2000), with supermodel Eva Herzigova. He also released his first solo album in 2000, "Zygote". After all that, he went through a gastric surgery to reduce his weight and Blues Traveler rejoined forces with two new members, and released the album "Bridge", a new beginning for the band.