John Popper (born March 29, 1967) is an American musician and songwriter, known as the co-founder, lead vocalist, and frontman of the rock band Blues Traveler.

Early life

Popper was born on March 29, 1967, in Cleveland, Ohio. His father was a Hungarian immigrant who left Budapest in 1948. Popper has stated that he is a distant relative of David Popper, a 19th-century Bohemian cellist.

Popper was raised in Stamford, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. He attended Davenport Ridge School, Stamford Catholic High School (now Trinity Catholic High School), and Princeton High School, from which he graduated in 1986. He took lessons on the piano, the cello, and the guitar, but none of those instruments appealed to him, and he hated being forced to practice.

He originally wanted to become a comedian, finding he could use humor to make friends and avoid bullies, but when he and a friend performed a routine as the Blues Brothers, he found that he enjoyed musical performance. From there, he took up the harmonica. Popper played trumpet in the Princeton High School Studio Jazz Band and convinced the teacher to let him play harmonica instead, after an in-class solo on the song "She Blinded Me with Science."

He formed several garage bands with friends in Princeton, New Jersey, one of which evolved into Blues Traveler in 1987. After graduating from high school, the group's members all moved to New York City, where Popper enrolled in the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, along with two of his bandmates as well as high school friend Chris Barron, with whom he formed the band Trucking Company, which evolved into Spin Doctors. Popper attended for three years but devoted himself to the band full-time once they signed a record contract, in 1990.

In 2017 and 2018, Popper began to play solo acoustic performances across the United States. He is often accompanied by Blues Traveler keyboardist Ben Wilson and performs songs that span both Blues Traveler and his solo catalog.

Popper has collaborated with a range of artists outside of his primary projects. In 2021, he appeared on guitarist Eric Krasno's single "Silence", contributing harmonica parts recorded remotely during the COVID‑19 pandemic.

Side projects

In 1992, Popper conceived the HORDE Festival as a venue to gain exposure for up-and-coming independent musicians. It ran until 1998. Popper was part of a one-time studio band brought together in 1997 by New York drummer/songwriter Solomon Deniro. Other musicians included Trey Gunn, Bernie Worrell, Marc Ribot, and Vernon Reid. The group's only recordings were released as the album Gimme Gimme, under the name the Devotees. The same recording was re-released by Deniro in 2001, under the title Solomon.

Popper took over in 1998 as frontman of the jam-band supergroup Frogwings, which then released the live album Croakin' at Toad's. He later formed a rock/jazz/hip-hop fusion group called the John Popper Project with DJ Logic, which released an album in 2006 and performs occasionally. He also appears on the 2008 album Jason Miles: Global Noize: A Prayer for the Planet.

Popper's latest side project is John Popper & the Duskray Troubadours, which plays Americana roots music.

Acting and media appearances

Popper has provided narration for art projects produced by his friends, including Das Clown, an award-winning short film in slideshow style that was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2016, Popper, along with the rest of Blues Traveler, made a cameo appearance in The Meddler. In 2018, Popper appeared in the "Fully Vested" episode of Pawn Stars.

Personal life

On November 23, 2015, Popper and his then-wife Jordan Auleb had their first child, a daughter; the couple divorced in 2018.

In 1999, he suffered a near-fatal heart attack brought on by years of compulsive overeating (he had been diagnosed with diabetes a few years earlier). Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center performed an emergency angioplasty, which saved Popper's life; he had 95% arterial blockage. Popper later underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost a significant amount of weight. Popper has a tattoo across his chest that says "I WANT TO BE BRAVE", written backwards. In August 2016, he announced a pending surgical procedure to repair collapsed vertebrae in his neck, necessitating the postponement and cancellation of some Blues Traveler shows.

In 2024, Popper married Sherri "Gidget" Popper, telling Rolling Stone that they first met "at a nudist colony in 2003".

Weapons collecting

Popper is an avid collector of weaponry, including firearms, swords, and a working $10,000 American Civil War cannon. He cites a fascination with their aesthetic of being "life-savingly efficient" machines. Popper is an advocate of Second Amendment rights and once appeared on an MTV-sponsored roundtable discussion on gun control, which included panelists from the Law Enforcement Alliance of America and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He carries weapons in any state where it is allowed, even when onstage. On his 2003 Daily Show appearance, he stated that he decided to move away from New Jersey because of the state's restrictive gun laws.

Politics

Popper endorsed George W. Bush in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. In November 2008, Popper said, regarding Barack Obama, "this is the first time I've voted for a Democrat, ever." Popper was a supporter of Ron Paul during the 2012 U.S. presidential election and participated in phone-banking at Paul's New Hampshire campaign headquarters. He also played a short set during Paul's "We are the Future Rally", an alternative convention for Paul supporters that was held in Tampa the day before the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Popper (with and without Blues Traveler) has played at conventions, fundraisers, and ceremonies for both Republican and Democratic politicians. He has said, "I was a bleeding-heart liberal, until I got a job", The singer summed up his political position by saying, "I believe in freedom for markets and freedom for individuals, so I guess that makes me a libertarian". He has toured with United Service Organizations, both with Blues Traveler and solo.

Religion

Popper was raised Catholic, and for a time attended Stamford Catholic High School in Connecticut. However, he does not actively practice in his adult life. He has described himself as a "recovering Catholic". He wrote the song "Trina Magna" as an exploration of his religious views.

In 2003, Popper was arrested for possession of marijuana. He was arrested again on March 6, 2007, near Ritzville, Washington, by the Washington State Patrol. He was the passenger in his own vehicle, which was stopped for speeding, and was found to be in the possession of a small amount of marijuana and weapons. Popper was released the same night. The vehicle had a stash of hidden compartments, which contained four rifles, nine handguns, a switchblade knife, a Taser, a set of brass knuckles, and night vision goggles. The vehicle was temporarily seized.

No charges were filed for the firearms and Taser, as they were all registered and securely locked away, and Popper was licensed to carry them. He agreed to surrender the brass knuckles and switchblade knife. A deal was reached that allowed the marijuana charge to be dropped if Popper remained free of further drug infractions for one year and attended eight hours of drug counseling. Popper and the driver had been driving back to Washington from Austin, Texas, and Popper likes to visit gun ranges during long trips.

Online controversy

Popper is also known as an avid Twitter user and has caused some controversy on the platform. He also has publicly posted the home address and information of a particular Twitter user who often made jokes at his expense. Popper also drew attention for arguing with a bot named "assbott", which had become well-known during the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump; it was the co-creator of this bot that Popper doxxed in July 2017.

Autobiography

On March 29, 2016, Da Capo Press released Popper's autobiography, Suck and Blow: And Other Stories I'm Not Supposed to Tell, written by Popper with the help of Relix co-editor-in-chief Dean Budnick. In the book, among band exploits and a variety of topics, Popper discusses the group's rebound from the death of bassist Bobby Sheehan, the creation of the H.O.R.D.E. tour, his relationship with Bill Graham, and his personal battle with being overweight.

Equipment

thumb|250px|alt=John Popper at the 2010 [[New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.|Popper's trademark hat and custom modified harmonica microphone]]

Popper has expressed a preference for the Hohner Special 20 diatonic harmonica, calling it "the Porsche of harmonicas." He has developed some equipment innovations to accommodate his use of harmonicas during performances. Because each individual diatonic harmonica is tuned to one particular key, he fashioned belts with enough pockets to hold harmonicas in all twelve keys (plus extras) and wore them as a bandolier, or slung over his neck. He switches keys multiple times within one song, and this arrangement has allowed him to quickly trade one harmonica for another without looking.

In 2002, he stopped using the belts, as they no longer fit him properly due to his weight loss. One such belt later sold for $2,700 on the History Channel series Pawn Stars. He now carries his harmonicas in a small black attaché case. He uses a special microphone with switches that change the audio effect of the harmonica as it is played through an amplifier, similar to a guitar effects pedal. Popper was inspired by Jimi Hendrix's guitar-playing to make his instrument sound however he wanted.