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The Wallflowers are an American rock music solo project of American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jakob Dylan. The Wallflowers were originally a roots rock band formed in Los Angeles by Dylan and guitarist Tobi Miller. It has undergone several personnel changes, but has remained centered on Dylan.
The band signed with Virgin Records to release their debut studio album (1992), which, despite critical praise, failed to chart and served as their only release with the label. Following the success of their 1996 single "6th Avenue Heartache," the band signed with Interscope Records to release their second album, Bringing Down the Horse (1996), which spawned their signature song, "One Headlight." Their third album, (Breach) (2000), yielded the single "Sleepwalker," which became their only song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 (previous singles, popularity notwithstanding, did not chart due to Billboard rules at the time). The group released two further albums— Red Letter Days (2002) and Rebel, Sweetheart (2005)—before going on hiatus. Their sixth and seventh albums, Glad All Over (2012) and Exit Wounds (2021), followed thereafter and were met with continued praise. Lyrically, the band focuses on Dylan's introspection, exploring themes of nostalgia, broken heart, purpose and insecurities.
The Wallflowers have sold over ten million albums internationally. They have won two —Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Rock Song for "One Headlight"—from six nominations. The song was also included on Rolling Stones list of the 100 Greatest Pop Songs. Billboard named "One Headlight" as the Greatest of All Time Adult Alternative Song, while "6th Avenue Heartache" ranked at number 37 on the list. 15 of the band's songs have peaked within the top ten of Billboards Adult Alternative Airplay chart. The Wallflowers' personnel has been shared with other bands including Foo Fighters, Ozomatli, and Gogol Bordello; two former members have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Wallflowers continued to tour through the first half of 1993 but despite this sales of the album were slow. In total, 40,000 copies were sold. Reviews for the album, however, were mostly positive. Rolling Stone gave the album 4 stars calling it, "one sweet debut" and describing Dylan's songwriting as "impressive." Great reviews notwithstanding, executives at Virgin Records were reportedly not pleased with the album's lack of commercial success. Around this time, the company was going through a shift in management which led to the removal of Jeff Ayeroff and Jordan Harris, the two people who initially brought The Wallflowers to Virgin. After Ayeroff and Harris left the company The Wallflowers began to feel that they had no future with Virgin and asked to be released from their contract. The split with Virgin has been regarded as mutual. By mid-1993 The Wallflowers were without a record label.
After leaving Virgin, The Wallflowers went back to playing Los Angeles clubs in hopes of getting signed with another label. The band found it difficult to even get label representatives to come to their shows. In the year it took to get another record deal The Wallflowers gained and lost several band members. Bass player Barrie Maguire was asked to leave for undisclosed reasons in early 1993. The Wallflowers continued playing shows with replacement bass player Jimmie Snider until May 1993 when the band hired Greg Richling. Dylan and Richling went to high school together. The Wallflowers continued to play club shows in Los Angeles through early 1994 when drummer Peter Yanowitz left the band to join his girlfriend Natalie Merchant's band. Yanowitz brought in Barrie Maguire to help record Merchant's debut solo album, Tigerlily. Around the time of Yanowitz's departure The Wallflowers caught the attention of Jimmy Iovine and Tom Whalley of Interscope Records, who then signed the band to their label in 1994.
The Wallflowers released Bringing Down the Horse on May 21, 1996. The band began touring for the album soon after the release. Album sales were slow to start but after the first single, "6th Avenue Heartache" (featuring Adam Duritz of Counting Crows) was released on August 19, interest in The Wallflowers began picking up as the song began getting more radio play. The David Fincher-directed music video for "6th Avenue Heartache" was also receiving attention on MTV and VH1. The Wallflowers continued to tour through the rest of 1996 and were featured as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live that November. On December 1, Bringing Down the Horse received Gold certification from the RIAA by selling 500,000 copies of their album.
In January 1997, The Wallflowers were nominated for two , both for "6th Avenue Heartache". Dylan was a presenter at the 1997 Grammy Awards though he and The Wallflowers did not win either of the awards they were nominated for.
The band continued to tour and gain popularity. In February 1997, The Wallflowers completed a tour opening for Sheryl Crow before beginning a string of their own headlining shows beginning at the end of February and running through May. On February 24, the second single from Bringing Down the Horse, "One Headlight", was released. "One Headlight" received heavy radio play, which propelled Bringing Down the Horse to Platinum certification on March 4 by selling one million copies of the album. Within six weeks, sales for Bringing Down the Horse doubled and on April 16, the album received Double-Platinum status by selling two million copies. In mid-May, The Wallflowers crossed over to Europe for a three-week-long tour. Upon return in mid-June, The Wallflowers continued to tour the United States. On June 12, Dylan received his first Rolling Stone cover. In the accompanying interview, Dylan spoke both candidly and at length about his lineage for the first time. Five days later, album sales for Bringing Down the Horse reached the three million mark, qualifying the album for Triple-Platinum status. On June 21, The Wallflowers co-headlined a festival at Texas Motor Speedway called Rock Fest. The day-long festival drew upwards of 400,000 people, making it one of the largest concerts in US history.
On July 2, 1997, The Wallflowers kicked off a co-headlining tour with Counting Crows that continued through September. This tour included opening acts by Bettie Serveert, Engine 88, Gigolo Aunts, and That Dog, with each opening band touring for a three-week stretch. The Wallflowers took over full-headlining duties for several shows in July when Counting Crows were unable to perform due to Duritz's swollen vocal cords. On September 22, The Wallflowers released their third single from Bringing Down the Horse, "The Difference". On October 30, Bringing Down the Horse hit another milestone by receiving Quadruple-Platinum status by selling four million copies. After taking the month of October off from touring, The Wallflowers hit the road again in November. On November 9 and 10, The Wallflowers broke from their headlining tour to open for the Rolling Stones at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Less than a week later, The Wallflowers again broke from their tour to co-headline a private show at an arena in San Jose, California with Bob Dylan on November 14. The Wallflowers continued to tour through the end of December. By the end of 1997, Bringing Down the Horse had become the most played album on rock radio and peaked at Number 4 on the Billboard 200 while "One Headlight" had received some 209,000 radio spins across all formats.
On January 6, 1998, The Wallflowers received three Grammy nominations; "One Headlight" and "The Difference" were both nominated for Best Rock Song while "One Headlight" received an additional nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. At the 1998 Grammy Award ceremony on February 25, The Wallflowers walked away with two Grammy Awards; "One Headlight" won for Best Rock Song as well as Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Despite the fact that Bringing Down the Horse was released nearly two years previously, The Wallflowers released an additional single from that album on March 23, "Three Marlenas". "Three Marlenas" would be the fourth and final single to be released from Bringing Down the Horse. By 1998 The Wallflowers had begun declining on the Billboard charts and receiving fewer spins on the radio. That changed, however, when the for the 1998 film Godzilla was released on May 19. The Wallflowers had recorded a version of David Bowie's "Heroes" which was chosen as the lead single for the soundtrack. The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and The Wallflowers' version of Heroes received heavy radio play. Though The Wallflowers did not tour in 1998 they did play a series of one-off shows including the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. and the Bridge School Benefit in September in Mountain View, California, which was hosted by Neil Young and his wife Pegi Young.
Four years after the release of Bringing Down the Horse in 1996, (Breach) was released on October 10, 2000. The album was met with generally positive critical reception but underwhelming sales. Rolling Stone gave (Breach) four stars, calling the band "more muscular" than they used to be. However, (Breach) commercially floundered in comparison to its high-selling predecessor. The album peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and took almost a year to receive the Gold certification, which is the highest certification (Breach) has received to date.
A month before the official release of (Breach), the album was leaked in its entirety to file-sharing giant Napster, where a reported 25 million users had the ability to listen to and download The Wallflowers' third album. With regard to the impact of leaks for big recording artists, former Capitol Records senior vice president and general manager, Lou Mann stated: "For The Wallflowers or any major superstar band, the problems are major. In fact they're Herculean, because people already want it and you don't want to dilute your audience." Jakob Dylan also explained his feelings about (Breach) being leaked: "Album one of the ways that we have of making a living really. It's not about record companies, it's not about people's right to trade, you know, it's also how we put food on the table."
Despite the disappointing release, The Wallflowers set out on another tour beginning in early October 2000. After one show in Atlanta on October 2, The Wallflowers traveled to New York to open for the Who for four nights at Madison Square Garden. Later that month, Jakob Dylan was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone for a second time. The Wallflowers continued to tour throughout the U.S. through mid-December before heading to Japan in February 2001 for their first tour there.
The Wallflowers covered the Bee Gees' 1968 hit song "I Started a Joke" for the 2001 film, Zoolander.
The band continued to tour the U.S. for the remainder of 2001 until it was announced in early October that guitarist Michael Ward had left The Wallflowers due to creative differences.
While The Wallflowers were working on Red Letter Days, they recorded a cover of The Beatles' 1965 song "I'm Looking Through You" for the soundtrack to the 2001 film I Am Sam. The soundtrack was released on January 8, 2002.
The first single from the Red Letter Days, "When You're On Top," was released to radio on August 16, 2002. A music video directed by Marc Webb followed. After a few false starts, Red Letter Days was released on November 5, 2002. The album was met with mixed to positive reviews. Many critics noted the harder rock sound and catchy melodies used throughout the album. Commercial performance was relatively mixed as well, peaking at No.32 on the Billboard 200. Around the time of Red Letter Days' release The Wallflowers embarked on a monthlong U.S. tour stretching into early December. After another U.S. tour in January 2003, The Wallflowers toured in several European countries in February including Spain, Italy, Germany and Great Britain. After this tour, The Wallflowers' drummer since 1995, Mario Calire announced he was parting ways with the band.
In 2003, The Wallflowers were featured on the soundtrack for the film American Wedding. The band recorded a cover of Van Morrison's 1970 song "Into the Mystic". The film's music department weren't able to secure the licensing rights to use Morrison's version so they enlisted The Wallflowers to cover the song. Both versions of the song were, however, featured in the film.
On October 14, 2004, the Warren Zevon tribute album was released, on which The Wallflowers covered Zevon's 1978 song "Lawyers, Guns and Money." In promotion of the album, The Wallflowers performed "Lawyers, Guns and Money" on the Late Show with David Letterman with Zevon's son, Jordan Zevon, on October 12, 2004.
On October 31, 2004, The Wallflowers were flown via military transport plane to the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to perform for the returning troops.
Rebel, Sweetheart was released on May 24, 2005, and was met with positive reviews. Despite widespread critical acclaim, Rebel, Sweetheart performed relatively poorly commercially, peaking at No. 40 on the Billboard 200. However, the first single from the album, "The Beautiful Side of Somewhere", hit No. 5 on AAA radio. The second single was "God Says Nothing Back". This was the first Wallflowers album to be released on DualDisc. On one side was the album, and on the other was a DVD that included exclusive performances and arrangements of some of the band's songs, as well as an interview with comedian Jon Lovitz. In promotion of the album, The Wallflowers did concerts for the Oxygen Custom Concert Series and PBS Soundstage. Around the time of the album's release, the band set out on what would be their last tour for two years. They were joined by Stuart Mathis on lead guitar. After 2005, The Wallflowers ended their relationship with Interscope Records.
On August 31, 2007, The Wallflowers announced they would be touring for the first time in over two years. They toured in the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. in October and November. Before the tour, Jaffee announced that he was leaving The Wallflowers. This left Dylan, Greg Richling and Fred Eltringham as the remaining members and a guitar player, Stuart Mathis, as a touring member. In 2008, The Wallflowers toured on-and-off throughout the summer. Touring for The Wallflowers was limited as Dylan had released his first solo album, Seeing Things, on June 10, 2008. Eltringham joined Dylan on tour in promotion for the album.
On March 31, 2009, The Wallflowers released a greatest-hits album called Collected: 1996–2005. The album featured every single released from the four albums The Wallflowers released between 1996 and 2005. It also featured several non-single songs from those four albums, a demo version of "God Says Nothing Back" and an unreleased song called "Eat You Sleeping". That summer, The Wallflowers embarked on a U.S. tour in support of the album. In addition to Dylan, Richling, Eltringham and Mathis, Bill Appleberry joined the band on this tour as a keyboard player. The Wallflowers did not tour in 2010 as Dylan had released his second solo album, Women + Country, on April 6, 2010, and was touring in support of that album.
On January 20, 2012, The Wallflowers began recording their sixth studio album, Glad All Over, at the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye studio in Nashville. Jay Joyce, who had played guitar on The Wallflowers' Bringing Down the Horse agreed to produce the album. Before going to the studio, the band had decided have a more collaborative writing process than they had in the past. Instead of Dylan bringing in fully completed songs like he had done in the past, he only brought lyrics. Dylan and the rest of the band wrote the music for the songs together in the studio. Joyce explained: "Jakob came to Nashville and we sat down and I asked him to play me a song, but instead he pulled out this 2-inch-thick notebook. ‘This is what I’ve got. Let’s play some grooves and throw it around.’ I thought, ‘Wow, that’s kind of scary, but it’s exciting.’ So we didn't really know going in what we were going to do. We had no songs, no demos. It was all developed in the studio. The band finished recording on February 20, 2012.
At a private solo performance in New York on April 19, 2012, Dylan announced that the new The Wallflowers album was expected to be released in fall later that year. On July 14, 2012, the band announced that the title of their new album would be Glad All Over. They also announced that the album's first single, "Reboot the Mission", would be available for free download from their website.
Following several one-off shows in the summer of 2012, The Wallflowers kicked off a fall tour in San Diego on September 8, 2012. From there, they continued to tour the U.S. and Canada through mid-November, playing a mix of clubs and festivals, with an additional four East Coast dates at the end of December. Glad All Over was released on October 9, 2012, on Columbia Records and was met with generally positive reviews. Leading up to the album's release, The Wallflowers promoted the album on various television shows including Good Morning America, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Late Show with David Letterman and Ellen.
After the Clapton tour, The Wallflowers played several additional shows of their own in May 2013. On May 12 in Napa, California, the band's longtime keyboardist Rami Jaffee played what would be his final show with The Wallflowers to date. Although no official announcement was made, Jaffee has not appeared with the group again, and became an official member of the Foo Fighters in June 2017. Jimmy Wallace subbed in his spot for the remaining dates of 2013, and played regularly with the band up until 2019. The Wallflowers continued to tour through the summer of 2013 and played their final show of the summer on August 17 at the River Roots Live Festival in Davenport, Iowa, to a crowd of 17,000 people. This show would turn out to be longtime bassist Greg Richling's and drummer Jack Irons' final show with the band. On September 8, Richling officially announced that he was leaving The Wallflowers after 20 years with the band. Jack Irons announced he was leaving soon after, on September 15. Irons reportedly left to focus on his band project, Arthur Channel, a group he had put together with Greg Richling in 2009, prior to Irons joining The Wallflowers in 2012. Arthur Channel released their debut album on October 15, 2013.
The Wallflowers have continued to play shows since 2013 with a new drummer, bass player, guitar player, and keyboardist filling in for Irons, Richling, Mathis, and Jaffee. Dylan stated later he would be continuing making music under name The Wallflowers as a solo project: "The Wallflowers is me, and if I go under my own name, it's me. It's the same thing, ultimately. It's really dictated on the songs I have and how I want to record them and would they sound better with a full-band sound. In many ways it's the same person. It's just what outfit do I want to put on". As of 2017, the touring lineup consisted of Stanton Adcock on lead guitar, Steve Mackey on bass, keyboardist Jimmy Wallace and Lynn Williams on drums.
In May 2016, The Wallflowers' 1996 album Bringing Down the Horse was issued on vinyl for the first time in honor of the 20th anniversary of the album's release. The Wallflowers was among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire, although later research showed the master tapes for Bringing Down the Horse were not actually destroyed in the fire.
The band was set to undertake a North American summer tour in 2020 alongside Matchbox Twenty prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The band's planned 2022 tour with Matchbox Twenty, which had already been postponed from 2020, was postponed again to 2023 and The Wallflowers had to drop off the tour due to scheduling conflicts. The band went ahead to schedule their own headlining tour in North America, announcing initial dates in April 2022, and continued to tour into 2023, with numerous sold out shows.
On October 14, 2023, Jakob Dylan and former Wallflowers guitarist Michael Ward reunited for the first time in over 20 years in Las Vegas, with Dylan being a surprise guest at Ward's show, joining him for "One Headlight". On April 1, 2024, Ward passed away due to complications of diabetes. The band paid tribute to him in a Facebook post from their official page, on April 3.
On May 7, 2024 the band announced they would perform Bringing Down the Horse live in its entirety for the first time, at a special show at the Palace Theatre on October 2 in Los Angeles, California.
Former members
Former touring musicians
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