Warren Ham (born 1957) is an American multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for playing with

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

(1982), Toto (1986-1988, and since 2017) and Ringo Starr (since 2015). During the early '70s, Warren and his brother Bill formed The Ham Brothers Band and included Ira Wilkes on bass, Red Young on piano and organ and Dahrell Norris on drums. The group recorded for Texas producer Huey P. Meaux. Despite critical acclaim for the work, the album never made it in the marketplace. It was soon taken out of print. In 1978 The Ham Brothers band had replaced Wilkes and Young with Bob Parr and Ken Rarrick, both from the acclaimed jazz education program at the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School, ...

. Later that same year,

David Gates David Ashworth Gates (December 11, 1940 – January 5, 2023) was a American singer-songwriter, guitarist, musician and producer, frontman and co-lead singer (with Jimmy Griffin) of the group Bread, which reached the top of the musical charts ...

, of Bread fame, hired the Ham Brothers to tour as part of Bread. The act was then billed as David Gates and Bread. A year later pop diva Cher secured the services of the same band. When Cher recorded the project album '' Black Rose'', Warren joined the band for the recording and the subsequent supporting tour. In his early years, Ham was a vocalist and played the reeds for the Fort Worth, Texas based Bloodrock (1972–74). Ham appeared on the last two Bloodrock albums: ''Passage'' and ''Whirlwind Tongues''. Warren Ham has also toured with

in the John Elefante era (in 1982, played additional keyboards, flute, alto and soprano saxophones, harmonica and backing vocals), Toto (1986-1988, and since 2017), and Donna Summer (1983). He has recently toured with

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

(in 2006) as an instrumentalist and vocalist performing John Travolta's part with Newton-John on her No. 1 ''Grease'' hit, "You're The One That I Want", as well as backing vocals. When

Kerry Livgren Kerry Allen Livgren (born September 18, 1949) is an American musician, best known as one of the founding members and primary songwriters for the American rock band Kansas. Biography Livgren was raised in Topeka, Kansas, by his father Allen ...

left Kansas to form his own Christian rock band AD, Ham went with him as the new band's lead singer. Ham appeared on the first, second and fourth of AD's four albums: 1) ''Timeline'' 2) ''Art of the State'' and 3) ''Prime Mover''. Ham was a featured vocalist and instrumentalist for the Maranatha! Promise Band - the worship band for the

Promise Keepers Promise Keepers is an Evangelical Christian parachurch organization for men. It originated in the United States, but independent branches have also been established in Canada and New Zealand. Promise Keepers describes its goal as "to bring abo ...

men's movement put together by

Maranatha! Music Maranatha! Music is a Christian music record label which was founded as a nonprofit ministry of Calvary Chapel in 1971. The label is distributed by Capitol Christian Music Group, a division of Universal Music. Background In the early 1970s Cal ...

from Promise Keepers' incarnation in 1993 to 1996. He appeared on their 1993 album, ''Face to Face'' with the song "This Is What I Believe", and on their 1996 album, ''Break Down the Walls'', on the song "Send Me" along with Steven Jackson and Leonard Tucker. He was also a part of the live touring version of the Promise Band for the 1995 Promise Keepers conference season where he played harmonica, saxophone, trumpet, flute, and other wind instruments along with backup vocals. This was documented in the VHS video and CD "Live Worship With The Maranatha! Promise Band" where he most famously played an intro to "Man Of The Spirit, Man Of The Word". Since the demise of AD, he has released solo recordings in the contemporary Christian music genre "Come on Children" and is the author of ''Beginning Blues/Rock Harmonica'' (). From 1996 to 2000, Ham toured as part of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Warren Ham also appeared as an integral member of Donna Summer's live band on her 2008 tour (having first appeared as part of her 1983 touring group) supporting her 2008 release ''

Crayons A crayon (or wax pastel) is a stick of pigmented wax used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from pastels, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder such as gum arabic, and from oil pastels, where the binder is a mixture of wax a ...

''. Warren Ham toured with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022. In 2017, he toured with Toto.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ham, Warren Singers from Texas American male singers Living people People from Fort Worth, Texas 1957 births Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band members The Four Seasons (band) members American Christians Bloodrock members AD (band) members