BOBBY SHEEHAN

Bobby Sheehan is best known as the hard-rocking bass player from Blues Traveler, and he was a founder member of the band when the four high-school friends got together in New Jersey in 1987. They were hooked on the idea of playing a continuous stream of music without defined tracks and became known as a ‘jam band’. Their shows would turn into a ‘never ending medley’ as they improvised around various themes, much in the style of The Grateful Dead, but with a deep foundation in Blues-rock. John Popper’s vocals and harp put some shape into their playing, and the band got a deal with A&M Records in 1990.

Their fourth studio album ‘four’ was a massive hit in 1994, on the back of the single ‘Run Around’ which spent nearly a year in the charts. Blues Traveler were in at the start of the H.O.R.D.E. Festival (Horizons Of Rock Music Developing Everywhere) which was a touring summer festival designed for East Coast bands like Phish, The Spin Doctors and Widespread Panic to create their own scene. Blues Traveler went on to record ‘Live from the Fall’, a double CD which shows the band spreading out and developing their musical themes without being framed by individual songs.

Bobby and his friends rock out on ‘Carolina Blues’;

Bobby had relocated to New Orleans in August 1999, where he was discovered dead at his home after overdosing from a toxic chemical soup. He had suffered from sleep apnoea, which temporarily impairs breathing, and this may have contributed to 31-year-old Bobby’s sad end.