David Anthony Pirner (born April 16, 1964) is an American songwriter, singer, and producer best known as the lead vocalist and

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

for the

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Soul Asylum Soul Asylum is an American alternative rock band formed in 1981 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their 1993 hit "Runaway Train (Soul Asylum song), Runaway Train" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. The band was originally called Loud Fast Rule ...

Early life and work

Pirner was born in

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

and graduated from Minneapolis West High School in 1982. He taught himself how to play the drums. By age 20, Pirner started his career drumming with a punk band called Loud Fast Rules as part of the Minneapolis scene, together with Karl Mueller (bass) and Dan Murphy (guitar). When Pirner switched to singing and playing rhythm guitar, Pat Morley joined on drums. Morley was later replaced by Grant Young, and the band changed their name to Soul Asylum. After touring the United States for a number of years they gathered a cult following of fans, but did not quite reach commercial visibility. Pirner at the time was the band's songwriter and he produced the album, ''Coup De Grace,'' by the Minneapolis

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

band the Coup de Grace in 1990.

Commercial success

The band achieved commercial success and visibility on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

with the 1993 single "

Runaway Train A runaway train is a type of railroad incident in which unattended rolling stock is accidentally allowed to roll onto the main line, a moving train loses enough braking power to be unable to stop in safety, or a train operates at unsafe speeds d ...

", followed by another hit song, " Black Gold"; both from their album ''

Grave Dancers Union ''Grave Dancers Union'' is the sixth studio album by American alternative rock band Soul Asylum and was released in 1992. The album spent 76 weeks on the US ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' music charts and was certified triple-platinum certi ...

''. As Soul Asylum grew in popularity, Pirner was seen guesting on albums of differing

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

s, including artists like

Paul Westerberg Paul Harold Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the Replacements. Following the breakup of the Replacements, Westerberg launched a solo career that saw him re ...

Jason Karaban Jason Karaban is an American singer-songwriter and musician living in Los Angeles, California. Karaban first began his career fronting the Philadelphia-based indie rock band ''Dragstrip Courage'' in 1997, and ''Grand'' in 2000. He emerged as a ...

Mike Watt Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957) is an American bassist, vocalist and songwriter. Watt co-founded and played bass guitar for the rock bands Minutemen (1980–1985), Dos (1985–present), and Firehose (1986–1994). He began a solo ...

The Autumn Defense The Autumn Defense is an American indie rock band composed of multi-instrumentalists John Stirratt and Pat Sansone. History The Autumn Defense began as a side project for John Stirratt, best known for his work as bassist for alt-country bands Wi ...

and

Victoria Williams Victoria Williams (born December 23, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. Diagnosed with multi ...

. His disheveled appearance and blonde matted dreadlocks made an unmistakable impression on fans and critics alike, making Pirner easily recognized and associating the band with the grunge scene. 2016DavePirner

By 1999, Soul Asylum went into hiatus after making their eighth album ''

Candy from a Stranger ''Candy from a Stranger'' is Soul Asylum's eighth studio album. It was released on May 12, 1998 (see 1998 in music). It follows 1995's ''Let Your Dim Light Shine''. The band had originally planned to release an album entitled ''Creatures of Habi ...

'' (1998), which sold the fewest copies of the three albums most recently released at that point (after ''Grave Dancers Union'' and ''

Let Your Dim Light Shine ''Let Your Dim Light Shine'' is the seventh studio album by United States, American rock band Soul Asylum, released June 6, 1995 on Columbia Records. Critically, it suffered in comparison to its predecessor, ''Grave Dancers Union'', the band's brea ...

'' (1995), which yielded the big hits " Misery" and " Just Like Anyone"). After four years, Soul Asylum reunited and started writing songs in the studio. Bassist Karl Mueller died on June 17, 2005, at the age of 42 from

esophageal cancer Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse voice ...

. About a year after his death, Soul Asylum released '' The Silver Lining'' on

Legacy Recordings Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 20 ...

, which was dedicated to Mueller. About half the songs on the album were recorded with the late bassist, such as "Lately", "Slowly Rising" and "Standing Water". The first hit from this album was "Stand Up And Be Strong". Soul Asylum toured with their new line-up, which consisted of Pirner on guitar and vocals, Dan Murphy on lead guitar,

Michael Bland Michael Bland (born March 14, 1969) is an American musician best known as a drummer for Prince starting in 1989. He was with Prince during The New Power Generation era and played with him live and on albums for seven years. From 1995 to 1997, ...

on drums and

Tommy Stinson Thomas Eugene Stinson (born October 6, 1966) is an American rock musician. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the bass guitarist for The Replacements, one of the definitive American alternative rock groups. After their breakup in 1991, Stins ...

on bass (as well as John Fields standing in on bass and piano for Mueller). A few years later, on July 17, 2012, Soul Asylum released an album titled Delayed Reaction. In 2016, the band released Change Of Fortune and in 2020 released Hurry Up And Wait. Pirner had a small role in the film ''

Reality Bites ''Reality Bites'' is a 1994 American romantic comedy-drama film written by Helen Childress and directed by Ben Stiller, in his directorial debut. It stars Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Stiller, with supporting roles by Janeane Garofalo and Steve ...

'' in 1994. He was also part of the all-star band assembled for the soundtrack of the 1994 film ''

Backbeat In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a pi ...

''. Pirner also contributed to the soundtrack of

Kevin Smith Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic book writer, author, YouTuber, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film ''Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, co ...

's 1997 film ''

Chasing Amy ''Chasing Amy'' is a 1997 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and Jason Lee. The film is about a male comic artist (Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian woma ...

'' with an instrumental song called "Tube Of Wonderful". There are two songs by the band Soul Asylum featured in the film: "Lucky One" and "We 3". Pirner also composed the incidental music for the film. The song "Can't Even Tell" is featured in Smith's ''

Clerks A clerk is someone who works in an office. A retail clerk works in a store. Office holder Clerk(s) may also refer to a person who holds an office, most commonly in a local unit of government, or a court. *Barristers' clerk, a manager and administ ...

'', and Smith used "Misery" in the sequel, ''

Clerks II ''Clerks II'' is a 2006 American comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, the sequel to his 1994 film ''Clerks'', and his sixth feature film to be set in the View Askewniverse. The film stars Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Rosario Dawso ...

''. In 2002 Pirner released his first solo album entitled '' Faces & Names'' on Ultimatum Music. He also contributed guest vocals on the song "Chillout Tent" in

The Hold Steady The Hold Steady is an American rock band originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, now based in Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2003. The band consists of Craig Finn (vocals, guitar), Tad Kubler (guitar), Galen Polivka (bass), Bobby Drake (drums), ...

's 2006 release, ''

Boys and Girls in America ''Boys and Girls in America'' is the third studio album by The Hold Steady, released on October 3, 2006, by Vagrant Records. On August 18, 2006, first single "Chips Ahoy!" was released as a free download from music site Pitchfork Media. The secon ...

''. In 2020 he released the book Loud Fast Words: Soul Asylum Collected Lyrics and when the pandemic stopped the tour Soul Asylum was making for their new album, Pirner and the band's guitar player Ryan Smith played 100 original songs on weekly Facebook streams that were called The Quarantine Sessions.

Personal life

Pirner started dating actress

Winona Ryder Winona Laura Horowitz (born October 29, 1971), professionally known as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. Originally playing quirky roles, she rose to prominence for her more diverse performances in various genres in the 1990s. She has recei ...

after the pair were introduced at Soul Asylum's performance on ''

MTV Unplugged ''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV showcasing musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999 and less frequently from 2000 to 2009, when it was usually billed as ''MTV Un ...

'' in 1993. They broke up three years later. Pirner lived in Bywater,

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, Louisiana for a time and still maintains a residence and recording studio in New Orleans. He also maintains a residence in Minneapolis. He has a son, Eli, with his ex-wife.

Discography

Solo

*2002: '' Faces & Names'' (Ultimatum Music)

Guest appearances

*2006:

– "Chillout Tent" (''

'') *2014:

Within Temptation Within Temptation is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded in April 1996 by vocalist Sharon den Adel and guitarist Robert Westerholt. They have been classified by critics as gothic metal and symphonic metal, although each album contains other inf ...

– " Whole World Is Watching" (''

Hydra Hydra generally refers to: * Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed serpent in Greek mythology * ''Hydra'' (genus), a genus of simple freshwater animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria Hydra or The Hydra may also refer to: Astronomy * Hydra (constel ...

'')

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Dave Pirner at MinneWiki
* The Soul Asylu
Band Files
are available for research use at th
Minnesota Historical Society.Career Retrospective Interview from February 2016 with Pods & Sods
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pirner, Dave 1964 births Living people American male singers American rock drummers Grammy Award winners Musicians from Minneapolis Columbia Records artists Singers from Minnesota 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Soul Asylum members 20th-century American male musicians American baritones