Dave Matthews was born outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, on January 9, 1967. As a child he moved around a lot with his family to various parts of the world. And of an early age his mother taught him the evils of racism. When he was ten years old his father died of lung cancer, which later impacted his singing style.
During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s Dave worked as a bartender at Miller’s, a small club where the area bands would come and play. There Dave would sit and dream of playing in his own band. The bar’s owner heard him playing one afternoon and arranged for some of the area’s top jazz musicians to join him. There he found his drummer, Carter Beauford, saxophonist, LeRoi Moore, a local jazz guru, John D’earth, and, a sixteen-year-old music prodigy to play the bass, Stefan Lessard.
They started performing at small clubs and college campuses. There he found a rapidly growing fan club. They started to play at bigger places, later opening for the Blue Travellar. And almost two years to the day the Blue Travellar were opening for the Dave Matthews Band.
He said in an interview with the Rolling Stones that he never really intended for his band to bare his name, but by the time they got around to changing it, they too big of a following to change it. When asked in the same interview if ever gets nervous or got nervous before playing in front of live audiences, he simply replied, “No, not really, I’m the same person/performer I was ten years ago but with more popularity.” When asked if he’d rubbed anybody’s nose in his success, he also replied no, that he had not. He told that there was no need to gloat and that the people who criticized him before know that they were wrong.
Dave Matthews proposed marriage with his love, Julia Grey three times only to be rejected all three times. Which is the reason for his harsh lyrics in the song Halloween. Dave is also an admitted alcoholic and heavy smoker, which is probably a result of the depression of his three rejected proposals.
In conclusion, I think that Dave Matthews is a very successful person. Though that doesn’t mean that he is happy. It really is hard to tell if he is happy or not simply because he says and acts like he does. But then why would such a popular person and musician want to possibly throw all of it away? Happy or not, he is still one of the most popular musicians today and one of my favorite bands.