Robin Zander

Robin Zander is a singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist. He is best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Cheap Trick, but is also a solo artist. Zander was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 as a member of Cheap Trick.

Zander discovered his fondness for music via his father's jazz band, as well as his older sister's record collection. But as with countless other subsequent musicians, it was the Beatles' infamous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show that inspired Zander to pick up the guitar. By the dawn of the '70s, Zander played in a folk band with a piano player which held down a residency for three summers at the Wisconsin Dells Picadilly Pub. Between breaks however, Zander would play in groups that featured drummer Bun E. Carlos, the man who in 1974 would offer Zander a full-time gig with Cheap Trick. Cheap Trick's 1979 album, Cheap Trick at Budokan, catapulted the band to stardom. The band reached the Top 10 in the U.S. charts in 1979 with "I Want You to Want Me" and topped the charts in 1988 with "The Flame".

Cheap Trick has performed more than 5,000 shows and sold more than 20 million albums. Zander also released the solo albums Robin Zander in 1993 and Countryside Blvd in 2011. Zander is one of the only singers in rock history whose influence can be detected in such polar opposite musical styles as '80s glam metal (Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil, Enuff Z'nuff's Donnie Vie), and '90s alternative (Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland, etc.).