John Elefante
| John Elefante | |
|---|---|
Elefante performing in 2012
|
|
| Background information | |
| Born |
March 18, 1958 Levittown, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) |
|
| Instruments | Vocals, keyboards, guitar, drums |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Labels | Brothers, Legacy |
| Associated acts | Kansas, Mastedon, World Classic Rockers |
| Website | johnelefante |
John Elefante (born March 18, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer. He is known for his tenure as frontman of the rock group Kansas and is currently touring with several groups that have featured members from classic rock bands.
Born in Levittown, New York, his family soon moved to Long Beach, California. Growing up, he sang and performed drums for his family band, The Brotherhood. As an artist, his credits include writing and singing lead vocals on three multi-platinum albums; as producer, his albums have earned numerous GMA Dove Awards, four Grammy Awards (most recently in 2000) and ten Grammy nominations. He has maintained a close working relationship with his brother, Dino (co-writer of several Kansas songs), throughout his career and has been married since 1986 and has three children.
Elefante's career began in earnest when he auditioned as the new lead singer and keyboardist for Kansas, in late 1981. The previous year, the band was one of the top-grossing concert acts in the world. and Elefante had never been in a band apart from his family. Although several of the top vocalists of the day applied for the job (e.g. Sammy Hagar, Doug Pinnick, Jim Stafford), Elefante received the part.
Elefante sang the lead vocals and performed keyboards on two Kansas albums. He was also a major songwriting contributor (along with lead guitarist/keyboardist/songwriter Kerry Livgren). On 1982's Vinyl Confessions, he co-wrote and sang the No. 4 Billboard Mainstream Rock hit, "Play the Game Tonight". He also wrote the acoustic-based classic "Chasing Shadows", along with the Top 40 single, "Right Away". The next year, on the following album, Drastic Measures, he wrote the early MTV favorite, "Fight Fire with Fire", which remains the band's highest charting single at No. 3 (Mainstream Rock) as well as a staple of Kansas' live shows to this day. Elefante was also responsible for "Everybody's My Friend", which was released as the second single from the album and reached No. 34 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
...
Wikipedia