Post by bayaderra™ on Dec 15, 2009 18:47:32 GMT -4
You did know I was going to start with this one?
David Bryan Rashbaum was born in Perth Amboy Hospital on February 7th, 1962 to Florence and Ed Rashbaum. He and his sister Michele were raised in Edison New Jersey, a typical blue collar working class suburban town. His father, an accomplished trumpet player himself, encouraged his son to start piano lessons with Emery Hack at a tender age of 7. David went on to study with this Juilliard professor for 13 years.
At 16, David joined a 10 piece rhythm and blues band called “Atlantic City Expressway”, where he met another young musician named John Bongiovi. They became friends and in the early 1980’s formed another band called the “Wild Ones” with John’s friend Dave Sabo. They played in clubs around Tri-State area, and even opened for Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes on the east coast stretch of their tour.
During that time, David had also been attending Rutgers University, majoring in pre-med and music. David claims he had a 4.0 GPA. He later made a decision to drop out to practice for an audition at the Juilliard School of Music. Right after David received the notice that he had been accepted at Juilliard, he got a phone call from John with news of a record deal. He then made the difficult decision to turn down his hard earned place at the prestigious music school and joined the newly formed band as the first enlisted member. Their self titled debut album “Bon Jovi” was released in January 1984. And the rest is history! During their first European tour David decided to legally change his last name from Rashbaum to Bryan because it was so often misspelled and mispronounced, and because he felt it sounded a bit too ethnic for a rock and roll star.
Besides his work on Bon Jovi albums, David worked with Richie on “Stranger In This Town” album. He is even listed as co-author of two songs (Rest in Peace and the title track). In 1991 David collaborated on the “Netherworld” soundtrack. In 1994, his first solo effort: an instrumental album “On a Full Moon” was released….and promptly forgotten It was resurrected in 2000 ( with an addition of a vocal track of “In These Arms) as a better known “Lunar Eclipse”.
In the late 1990’s, prior to release of “Crush”, David nearly severed a finger in a home accident involving a circular saw. At that time, doctors were doubtful if he would ever be able to play again. After surgery and a year of rehab and therapy, he regained full range of motion in his finger and went back to playing.
For the past few years David has been involved in a slightly different project. He and a well known playwright Joe DiPietro had written 2 musicals that are currently running on and off Broadway. First one, a comedy with a rock score is “Toxic Avenger the Musical” and the other one is “Memphis”.
On a personal note, on August 25th, 1990, David married his high school sweetheart April McLean. They had 3 kids: twins Gabrielle Luna and Colton Moon born in March 1994, and Tyger Lily born May 2000. David and April were divorced in 2004. David is currently engaged to Alexandria (Lexi) Quaas. They are planning a wedding in August 2010 in their home town of Colts Neck.
David is also very active in charity work. He supports VH-1’s “Save the Music” as well as “Only Make Believe”.
David Bryan Rashbaum was born in Perth Amboy Hospital on February 7th, 1962 to Florence and Ed Rashbaum. He and his sister Michele were raised in Edison New Jersey, a typical blue collar working class suburban town. His father, an accomplished trumpet player himself, encouraged his son to start piano lessons with Emery Hack at a tender age of 7. David went on to study with this Juilliard professor for 13 years.
At 16, David joined a 10 piece rhythm and blues band called “Atlantic City Expressway”, where he met another young musician named John Bongiovi. They became friends and in the early 1980’s formed another band called the “Wild Ones” with John’s friend Dave Sabo. They played in clubs around Tri-State area, and even opened for Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes on the east coast stretch of their tour.
During that time, David had also been attending Rutgers University, majoring in pre-med and music. David claims he had a 4.0 GPA. He later made a decision to drop out to practice for an audition at the Juilliard School of Music. Right after David received the notice that he had been accepted at Juilliard, he got a phone call from John with news of a record deal. He then made the difficult decision to turn down his hard earned place at the prestigious music school and joined the newly formed band as the first enlisted member. Their self titled debut album “Bon Jovi” was released in January 1984. And the rest is history! During their first European tour David decided to legally change his last name from Rashbaum to Bryan because it was so often misspelled and mispronounced, and because he felt it sounded a bit too ethnic for a rock and roll star.
Besides his work on Bon Jovi albums, David worked with Richie on “Stranger In This Town” album. He is even listed as co-author of two songs (Rest in Peace and the title track). In 1991 David collaborated on the “Netherworld” soundtrack. In 1994, his first solo effort: an instrumental album “On a Full Moon” was released….and promptly forgotten It was resurrected in 2000 ( with an addition of a vocal track of “In These Arms) as a better known “Lunar Eclipse”.
In the late 1990’s, prior to release of “Crush”, David nearly severed a finger in a home accident involving a circular saw. At that time, doctors were doubtful if he would ever be able to play again. After surgery and a year of rehab and therapy, he regained full range of motion in his finger and went back to playing.
For the past few years David has been involved in a slightly different project. He and a well known playwright Joe DiPietro had written 2 musicals that are currently running on and off Broadway. First one, a comedy with a rock score is “Toxic Avenger the Musical” and the other one is “Memphis”.
On a personal note, on August 25th, 1990, David married his high school sweetheart April McLean. They had 3 kids: twins Gabrielle Luna and Colton Moon born in March 1994, and Tyger Lily born May 2000. David and April were divorced in 2004. David is currently engaged to Alexandria (Lexi) Quaas. They are planning a wedding in August 2010 in their home town of Colts Neck.
David is also very active in charity work. He supports VH-1’s “Save the Music” as well as “Only Make Believe”.