As a youngster, Owsley played guitar along to the radio bands like Wings, KISS, and The Cars, matching licks with his older brother, Bud. This morphed into writing songs of his own, 4-track bedroom recording sessions, underage bar gigs with cover bands—he’d do anything to scratch the musical itch.
Eventually he made the pros: his guitar prowess landed him a gig with funk-pop pioneer Judson Spence with whom Owsley played around the world and appeared on MTV in Spence's videos. Subsequently, a pre-fame Ben Folds introduced him to Millard Powers, and the two would form the legendary power-pop trio The Semantics with Zak Starkey (their lone album, Powerbill, released only in Japan, is now hot property). This led to Owsley joining Amy Grant’s touring band in 1994, a gig he holds today. Playing with Grant enabled Owsley to create a musical playground/home studio, not to mention spend time off writing and recording his own music. In 1999, he released Owsley on Giant Records, garnering raves for the anthemic power-pop songs (“I’m Alright†was a minor hit) and a Grammy™ nomination for his engineering efforts.
Owsley next crossed paths with his musical hero, legendary producer Mutt Lange. Lange, equally enamored with Owsley, hired him to play guitar and sing the duet, “No One Needs to Know†with Lange’s wife, Shania Twain live on “The Tonight Show with Jay Lenoâ€, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,†“The Today Show,†“Regis & Kathy Lee†and “The American Country Music Awards.â€
Then came the hard part: Giant fell victim to corporate mergers and boarded up the windows within a year of Owsley hitting shelves. Rather than be swept up in the swirling flush, Owsley began writing and recording another album, The Hard Way. Again produced and performed almost entirely by Owsley in his home studio, The Hard Way continues Owsley’s fascination with perfect pop tunes—big choruses and big words set to lush, exhilarating arrangements.
In November of 2003 Owsley signed one of the first ever all digital music deals with Universal. This innovative new partnership has allowed Owsley to expand his listening audience through distribution on iTunes. Most recently, Owsley released the double sided single "Psycho" and "Upside Down" available exclusively through iTunes.
For more information, be sure to visit Owsley's official site
