1991-Dave MatthewsGuitar, vocals1991-
Boyd TinsleyViolin, vocals1992–2018
LeRoi MooreVarious woodwinds1991–2008
Stefan LessardBass1991-
Carter BeaufordDrums, vocals1991-
Rashawn RossTrumpet2006-
Jeff CoffinSaxophone2008-
Tim ReynoldsGuitar2008-
Dave Matthews was born in South Africa. His family moved to Virginia when he was 2, then back to South Africa when he was 13. Living in both places gave him an interesting perspective on politics and racism.
According to the
RCA Records executive who signed the band, the label signed them in April 1993 but had them issue their debut album,
Remember Two Things, independently that November. Indie cred was a very big deal in the '90s, so this was a clever marketing strategy. When RCA issued their
Under The Table And Dreaming album in September 1994, the band had a backstory as an indie artist. RCA reissued
Remember Two Things in 1997 and it eventually sold over a million copies.
Their home base of Charlottesville, Virginia, is where the University of Virgina is located. Many of their earliest fans were UVA students; they were especially well known at fraternities, where they played a lot of shows. Boyd Tinsley is the only band member who went there - he was in Sigma Nu.
Longtime DMB violinist Boyd Tinsley appeared in a commercials for Twix candy bars and for Jansport.
In August 2000, Matthews married Ashley Harper, a naturopathic physician. She keeps a low profile but Dave has made it clear that she's his rock.
Matthews' father died of cancer when Dave was 10. When Dave released a solo album in 2003 called Some Devil, he wrote in the notes: "I still want him to be proud of me."
Matthews moved from South Africa to the United States in 1985 when he was 18 because he had been drafted and did not want to fight for a racist country. He formed the band in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Prior to joining the Dave Matthews Band, Boyd Tinsley, a classically-trained violinist, had his own group called the Boyd Tinsley Band. There was about a year of overlap when he was playing in both bands, but by the fall of 1992 he was all in on DMB.
The band has a robust charitable endeavor called The Bama Works Fund that supports a number of causes, including the Special Olympics and MusiCares. "Bama" has nothing to do with Alabama - it's a slang term popular in Virgina meaning down-to-earth and a little rough around the edges. The band names their indie label "Bama Rags."
One of Matthews' biggest inspirations as a teenager was Bob Marley, not must for his music, but for the message behind it.
Steve Lillywhite produced their first three major-label albums, but they went with Glen Ballard for their fourth, Everyday in 2001. Lillywhite returned for their 2012 album Away From The World.
Other acts Lillywhite produced include U2, Talking Heads, and The Rolling Stones. Ballard has produced Alanis Morrisette, No Doubt and Aerosmith.
The band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991 when Matthews decided to record some songs he had written. He recruited Carter Beauford and LeRoi Moore, who were local jazz musicians, and later found Boyd Tinsley and Stefan Lessard based on recommendations from friends. Lessard was just 16.
Matthews runs a record label called ATO Records, which stands for "According To Our Records." His first signing was David Gray, which worked out very well when his first ATO album,
White Ladder, took off thanks to the song "
Babylon." Other artists that have been on the ATO roster include Primus, Brandi Carlile and Alabama Shakes.
Matthews joined the board of directors of Farm Aid in 2001, serving alongside John Mellencamp, Neil Young, and Willie Nelson.
Starting with Before These Crowded Streets in 1998, they had a run of seven albums that debuted at #1 in America. This is a testament to their very supportive fan base and to some careful planning timed to avoid releases by major artists.
The band pulled a page from the Grateful Dead playbook by encouraging fans to tape their shows. This helped them build a close-knit community that went interactive as the Internet emerged.
Matthews toured with Tim Reynolds as an acoustic duo during the winters of '96, '97, and '99. Reynolds was a guest guitarist on all of the Dave Matthews Band albums, and officially joined in 2008.
There are many horror stories about bands signing one-sided record deals that come back to bite them, but DMB didn't suffer this pitfall. When they signed with RCA in 1993 they negotiated favorable terms, including ownership of merchandising and music publishing rights. They were in a position of power because they weren't looking for a deal - RCA courted them when they got word of their growing fanbase.
In the US, they were the top-grossing touring band of 2000, with $68.2 million in ticket sales. It typical for DMB fans to see the band perform many times, as their shows are highly improvisational and their setlists varied.
Matthews's sister Anne, who lived in South Africa, was murdered by her husband in January 1994. Dave, along with his sister Jane, brought Anne's two daughters to America and took responsibility for raising them.
In 1999 and 2000 the band recorded an album with producer Steve Lillywhite that was scrapped but found its way onto the Internet, where it became known as The Lillywhite Sessions. Many of the songs from those sessions were re-recorded for the 2002 Busted Stuff album.
DMB sax player LeRoi Moore died at age 46 on August 19, 2008, weeks after an ATV accident at his farm outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. He had been released from the hospital and was set to begin a rehab program, but suffered sudden complications that led to his death.
The band went ahead with their show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on the day he died, dedicating their performance to Moore.
Dave has twin daughters: Grace and Stella, born in 2001. Two of the band's songs mention them: "Grace Is Gone" from
Busted Stuff and "
Alligator Pie" from
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. Matthew's third child, son August, was born in 2007.
One of their tour bus drivers, Stefan Wohl, made an
unfortunate drop-off in Chicago on August 8, 2004. While driving over the Kinzie Street Bridge he emptied the septic tank, dumping 800 pounds of human waste into the Chicago River, splashing feces and urine onto tourists who were on a sightseeing cruise underneath the bridge (no band members or other passengers were on the bus at the time). Wohl was charged and fined; the band got a new driver.
In 2024, Dave Matthews Band were inducted by superfan Julia Roberts into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. "The musical talent, the originality, the sheer quantity of genres they perform, it's mind-blowing," she said in her speech. "I've been lucky enough to attend many a Dave Matthews Band concert and I don't think I've ever heard any of their songs played the same way twice."
It was the Dave Matthews Band that sunk the Titanic soundtrack, which was the #1 album in America for 16 weeks in 1998 before the DMB album Before These Crowded Streets upended it.
