Bruce Hornsby Biography

Bruce Randall Hornsby was born in 1954 in Williamsburg, Virginia.  While in high school, Bruce was a basketball player, but his love of music sent him first to the Berklee College of Music in Boston and then later to the University of Miami. While still in college, Bruce played keyboards for his brother Bobby’s band, Bobby Hi-Test and the Octane Kids, a band which performed covers of hits by Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band, and the Band.

After graduating from Miami in 1977, Bruce and his brother John moved to California, where they found a job writing for film. Bruce Hornsby also worked as a session musician and toured with some notable acts, including Sheena Easton. He teamed up with musicians John Molo, David Mansfield, Joe Puerta, and George Marinelli to form Bruce Hornsby and the Range in 1984, and they scored their first big hit, “The Way It Is,” in 1986. The album also went multi-platinum and found additional hits with “Mandolin Rain” and “Every Little Kiss.” Ultimately, Bruce Hornsby and the Range would go on to win Best New Artist at the 1987 Grammies.

Scenes from the Southside (1988) was also successful, spawning the hits “Jacob’s Ladder,” “The Valley Road,” and “Look Out Any Window.” A Night on the Town followed in 1990, and then came Bruce Hornsby’s solo debut, Harbor Lights, in 1993. From there, Hornsby continued with a string of albums, some solo, some with the Range, all the way up through the millennium’s first decade: Hot House (1995), Spirit Trail (1998), A Night on the Town (1990), Big Swing Face (2002), Halcyon Days (2004), Intersections (2006), and Levitate (2009.)

Bruce Hornsby’s distinctive and impressive keyboard style has also led to his much sought-after collaboration with other artists. He filled Brent Midland’s keyboard spot for the Grateful Dead for a variety of tours and performances, and co-wrote Don Henley’s smash hit, “The End of the Innocence,” on which Hornsby’s distinctive piano style can be heard. Hornsby has also lent his talents to a variety of other artists, including Bob Weir, Warren Zevon, and Stevie Nicks.

Today, Bruce Hornsby continues to write, perform, and record with the Range, as a solo artist, and with his fellow musicians. In recent years, he has been active in the Grateful Dead and Further communities, joining the Dead’s farewell and reunion shows of 2015. Hornsby’s latest album, Solo Concerts, arrived in 2014, and in the following year he was featured on the Grateful Dead album 30 Trips Around the Sun.