Jimi Jamison
| Jimi Jamison | |
|---|---|
Jamison (left) performing live at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2011
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jimmy Wayne Jamison |
| Also known as | Jimi Jamison, Jim Jamison, Jamo |
| Born |
August 23, 1951 Durant, Mississippi |
| Origin | Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | September 1, 2014 (aged 63) Raleigh, Memphis, Tennessee |
| Genres | Hard rock, rock, country, AOR, Pop rock, Heavy Metal, Blues |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano |
| Years active | 1967–2014 |
| Labels | Scotti Bros., Frontiers, Epic, A&M, ATCO |
| Associated acts | Survivor, Cobra, Target, Jim Peterik, Bobby Kimball, ZZ Top, Joe Walsh |
| Website | www |
Jimmy Wayne "Jimi" Jamison (August 23, 1951 – September 1, 2014) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He had previously been the frontman of the platinum-selling rock band Survivor between 1984–89, 2000–06 and from 2011 until his death. Jamison is also known for writing and performing "I'm Always Here", the theme song for the TV series Baywatch.
Jimmy Wayne Jamison was born in rural Mississippi but identified as a Memphis, Tennessee native, as he and his mother, Dorothy (1932-2009) moved there when he was one day old. In his teens, he taught himself to play the guitar and piano while honing his vocal abilities. By middle school (Messick Jr. High, Memphis), he was playing in a band called The Debuts, who recorded what became a local hit song ("If I Cry" 1968) on the Scudder label. He also was part of the band D-Beaver, who released one album (Combinations, 1971).
By late 1970, Jamison was fronting the local Memphis band, Target. Jamison and the group released a pair of albums, Target (1976) and Captured (1977), on A&M Records, plus a live concert at the High Cotton school (which marked the beginning of a contract with the record company) and opened concerts for Black Sabbath, Boston, and KISS.
In 1982, Jamison teamed up with Memphis-based Swiss expatriates, guitarist Mandy Meyer (ex-Krokus) and bassist Tommy Keiser, in their new band, eventually named Cobra. Rounded out by guitarist/keyboardist Jack Holder (ex-Black Oak Arkansas) and drummer Jeff Klaven and managed by Butch Stone, who had also handled Jamison's old band Target as well as Krokus and Black Oak Arkansas, the band became a fixture on the local scene and managed to score a record deal with Epic Records. The group issued their lone album, the Tom Allom-produced First Strike, in 1983. It was also during this time that Jamison began providing background vocals for bands such as ZZ Top (with ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons even referring to Jimi as the "fourth member" of the group). Meanwhile, First Strike was only a moderate commercial success, and Cobra went their separate ways in 1984, with members going on to join Asia, Krokus, and, in Jamison's case, Survivor.
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