Who is train the band

After the group played a picnic show with Hootie and the Blowfish — for a horde of Saturn employees in the Midwest — Colin and Underwood decided to alter the afternoon with hits of Ecstasy. We actually billed our management for it as a band expense.

My eyes were so purple they made me put sunglasses on. Colin and Underwood are inseparable, a testament to ten years of playing together in other bands. Hotchkiss and Stafford are another pair, having done time together before Train in an L. All of them hail from different locales: Monahan is the baby of seven in an Irish Catholic family from western Pennsylvania, Underwood is from upstate New York, Stafford from Illinois. Hotchkiss grew up moving around, his family accompanying his Pan Am pilot father as far as Berlin before ending up in Southern California, while Colin and his mother, who is a jeweler and artist, moved eleven times before Charlie was in the fourth grade and eventually landed in Newport Beach, California.

After they broke up, Colin high-tailed it to Singapore for a year to write jingles, then ended up in Durango, Colorado, determined to play music as far from the industry as possible. After three weeks, the band left. Those places eventually realized they should pay us because we were drinking far too much of their booze.

As the group began to come together, Hotchkiss called Colin and Stafford, telling them he had something special on his hands. At first, vocal duties were shared, but soon the natural front-man emerged. It comes from being the baby in the family and knowing how to get the attention.

You know, his mother was his biggest fan. In the last two years, Train have played more than shows and have the stage panache to prove it.

For Train, the stakes are higher now — Grammy nominations, soundtrack songs, major-league management — and whether Monahan likes it or not, people will want to know what his songs are about, what he thinks about, the type of herbal tea he carries by the case on the road answer: Butterfly brand Tuocha Yunnan.

After "Hey, Soul Sister," Monahan and Train made no bones about celebrating their adopted home, in the process racking up a string of Top Ten adult contemporary hits that stretched into the late s.

Following the dissolution of his Led Zeppelin cover band, singer Pat Monahan left his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, in late He resettled in California and crossed paths with Rob Hotchkiss , the former frontman of a Los Angeles group named the Apostles.

The two formed their own duo and began playing local coffeehouse shows, eventually expanding the group to a trio with the addition of former Apostles guitarist Jimmy Stafford. Bassist Charlie Colin and drummer Scott Underwood also climbed aboard, thus solidifying Train 's lineup in Over the course of several years, Train developed a sizable audience in the San Francisco area.

The band also toured the country, opening shows for the likes of Barenaked Ladies and Counting Crows while drumming up enough money to record an album.

Although few labels showed interest at first, Train eventually attracted the attention of Columbia Records, who signed the band to one of its smaller labels -- Aware Records -- and issued the self-financed debut record Train in The song remained in the Top 40 for nearly 40 weeks, while the album itself sold more than three million copies.

My Private Nation followed in and went platinum, largely due to the successful single "Calling All Angels. For Me, It's You followed in , but sales proved to be the lowest of Train 's career. Accordingly, Monahan briefly turned his focus inward, releasing a solo album in and briefly touring behind it.

He returned to the fold shortly thereafter, though, and Train issued their fifth album, Save Me, San Francisco , in The album helped rejuvenate Train 's career, with "Hey, Soul Sister" peaking at number three on the Billboard In , the band released its sixth studio album, California 37 , which debuted at number four on the Billboard chart. Despite these successes, the bandmembers felt that mainstream "cool" continued to elude them. Monahan spoke of wanting to record an album that was more commercial, but would also connect emotionally with the public.

With these ambitious goals, they knuckled down to writing and recording a new album, though without drummer and founding member Scott Underwood , who left the band amicably before production began and was replaced by Drew Shoals. Train 's seventh studio album, Bulletproof Picasso , was finished in and released in September of that year.

It was preceded by the slick, country-tinged single "Angel in Blue Jeans," which didn't make many waves on the charts. Nevertheless, the album debuted at number five on the Billboard Top A year later, after Bulletproof Picasso failed to generate any subsequent hit singles "Cadillac, Cadillac" and "Bulletproof Picasso" did make the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart , Train released the seasonal Christmas in Tahoe. Not long afterward, lead guitarist Jimmy Stafford announced he was leaving the band on good terms.

He did not play on a girl a bottle a boat , which appeared in January