Butch Walker live @ 9:30 Club -- 21 Mar 2009

Walker grew up in Cartersville, Georgia and stood out as a guitarist and performer in several rock bands in the 1980s including Bad Boyz and Byte the Bullet. In 1988, he took Byte the Bullet to LA and they were signed to Virgin Records within the year. The band then changed their name to SouthGang and released two albums, Tainted Angel in 1991 and Group Therapy in 1992. SouthGang was one of the first bands to tour China in the early 1990s. Southgang disbanded when Walker lost interest in continuing, but he remained on good terms with all the other members of the band. (See www.MetalSludge.tv, "20 Questions with Butch Walker" 2/1/00)

After Southgang, Walker formed a new band with ex-SouthGang members Jayce Fincher and Mitch McLee (aka: Doug Mitchell), calling themselves "The Floyds". Walker shared lead vocals in the band with Fincher's wife, Chrystina Lloree. They released one self-titled album on the Deep South label, which contained ten original tracks along with a humorous intro piece. Bonus tracks included a cover of Duran Duran's "Rio", and a live rendition of the Shasta soda jingle from the late seventies. (See Amazon.com and TheMarvieChronicles.com) The quartet followed that release with an album entitled "Creamy", now calling themselves Floyd's Funk Revival, and releasing the album on Alliance Records. That album contained thirteen original tracks and was similar in style to the earlier Floyd's album, but with Lloree taking a larger share of the lead vocals and with more reliance on guitar. The style of both these albums was guitar-oriented, mainstream rock with mild funk influences, and was a forerunner to the more basic guitar-oriented rock approach Walker took later with Marvelous 3. Although the albums are highly regarded among the people who discovered them (see Amazon.com reviews), they failed to sell many copies, and both albums are now quite rare. They are highly coveted by fans of Butch Walker, especially fans of Marvelous 3, and the few copies that surface in the used cd market today command very high prices.

In 1997, Walker, Fincher, and McLee transformed themselves again, scaling back to a trio with Walker handling all the lead vocals. They also decided to streamline their sound to more of a "power pop" type of band. Calling themselves Marvelous 3, they released the album "Math and Other Problems" on Deep South Records in 1997. They followed this in 1999 with "Hey!Album" on Elektra records and had a relatively successful hit with the song "Freak of the Week." The next year, they released their final album, "Ready Sex Go", also on Elektra. That album failed to continue the momentum created by the prior release, however, and perceiving a lack of support from their record label, they disbanded in 2001. Their final concert was on August 3, 2001 at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park in front of their hometown fans.

Butch then began a solo career, releasing the albums Left of Self-Centered in 2002, Letters in 2004 and The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites in 2006, and in 2005 played over 200 live shows across both the U.S. and Japan. Butch Walker was recently featured as a headlining artist on the MySpace-promoted Inaugural Hotel Cafe tour, supporting independent artists from the Los Angeles venue of the same name. He created a new band, 1969, which released its full-length debut album titled Maya on April 1, 2008.

Many of his songs have been mega-hits for other artists, including Avril Lavigne, Sevendust, Injected, The Donnas, Hot Hot Heat, American Hi-Fi, Default, Gob, Midtown, Puffy AmiYumi, Pete Yorn, Fall Out Boy, Quietdrive, All-American Rejects, SR-71, The Academy Is... and recently The Cab, Saosin, NeverShoutNever!, Weezer, Dashboard Confessional and All Time Low.

In late 2005, he released his first DVD, Live at Budokan and ended the year as Rolling Stone's producer of the year. On July 11, 2006, his third solo studio record was released, entitled The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites. It was recorded with his backing band, the Let's Go Out Tonites. His second DVD titled "Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street" was released in early 2008.

In 2007, Walker provided guest vocals on Fall Out Boy's third record Infinity on High, on the track "You're Crashing, but You're No Wave", and co-produced the track "Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?" with singer Patrick Stump. He also made a brief cameo in the video for "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race".
Walker also appears in The Academy Is... videos for "Slow Down" and "We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands" as well as the video for "So What" by Pink. He also co-wrote the songs "Breaking" and "Younglife", both of which are performed by Anberlin and co-written by them.

Walker also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers. He was also a judge for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards.