ERIC MARTIN BIOGRAPHY

ERIC MARTIN
Biography

Eric Martin is an American rock singer, born in New York on 10 October 1960 (Sony Music Japan's official profile / CDJournal). After singing with the San Francisco Bay Area bands 415 and the Eric Martin Band, he started his solo career in 1985 and in 1988 formed MR. BIG, whose "To Be with You", from the 1991 album Lean Into It, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. MR. BIG played its last show at the Nippon Budokan on 25 February 2025 (The Big Takeover, 2024 / Blabbermouth, 2025). In Japan he is also known for MR.VOCALIST, his series of English-language covers of Japanese hits, and for TMG, his band with Tak Matsumoto of B'z. KIZUNA, the first official documentary about his life in music and his bond with Japan, carries a Japanese release date of 4 December 2026, opening across the country in stages (the KIZUNA film site).

Early life (1960-1978)

Eric Martin was born in New York on 10 October 1960 (Sony Music Japan's official profile / CDJournal); his own website gives his full name as Eric Lee Martin and his birthplace as Long Island. His father was a well-known drummer in Cincinnati, Ohio, who played with national acts when they came to town, but after marrying he joined the army, stayed in it for his whole career and retired as a colonel. Eric was the couple's first child (The Big Takeover interview, 2024).

The army did not end his father's interest in music, and the house was always full of it. The family played the cast albums of musicals such as South Pacific and Hair, and Martin sang at home with his mother, his brother and his sisters; he remembers his mother telling him he had a very good voice. The family lived in Germany and Italy, where his father was posted, and then moved to Sacramento, California (The Big Takeover interview, 2024).

As a boy Martin played the drums, which his father was keen on. One day the singer of his band failed to turn up to a rehearsal, and Martin sang "Get Ready" (a Temptations song that Rare Earth had covered for a hit) from behind the kit. His bandmates told him he was a far better singer than drummer, and he has said that this is how he became a singer (The Big Takeover interview, 2024).

The Bay Area years: Kid Courage, 415 and the Eric Martin Band (1978-1985)

After several bands in Sacramento, Martin answered an advertisement in a music paper in 1978: Kid Courage, a San Francisco band, wanted a male singer. Kid Courage opened two shows for AC/DC at the Old Waldorf, and Martin has said that was when he knew he wanted to do this for the rest of his life (The Big Takeover interview, 2024).

His official website dates the start of his career as a lead singer to 415, a band formed at the end of 1979. In his own account, 415 played hundreds of shows at clubs, parties and school dances before headlining the Old Waldorf in San Francisco, and it opened for Billy Squier, Hall & Oates, Rick Springfield, Molly Hatchet, the Marshall Tucker Band and FOREIGNER, among others. Still without a record deal, the band played to 60,000 people at Bill Graham's Day on the Green at the Oakland Stadium (his official website).

415 then signed with Elektra/Asylum. Its managers were Walter "Herbie" Herbert, Ron Chiarottino and Sandy Einstein, who also managed JOURNEY, and because bands named after their singers were in fashion, they renamed it the Eric Martin Band (his official website). The Eric Martin Band released its debut album, Sucker for a Pretty Face, in 1983 (Sony Music Japan's official profile / his official website), appeared on American Bandstand and opened arena tours for ZZ Top, NIGHT RANGER and JOURNEY. It split up in 1985, after coming home from the ZZ Top tour (his official website). Its members included Troy Luccketta, who also played in TESLA (Avalon).

Three records from those years were issued in Japan for the first time on 11 December 2024, by the Japanese label Avalon: two albums under the name 415, AREA CODE 415 and BOYS NIGHT OUT, and the Eric Martin Band's SUCKER FOR A PRETTY FACE -ORIGINAL SESSIONS-, which holds eight songs in the versions recorded before they were re-cut for the major-label album. Each adds unreleased bonus tracks (Avalon's release notes / his official website's blog, 2024).

The songs the Eric Martin Band recorded at Prairie Sun Studios for the follow-up to Sucker for a Pretty Face, before the ZZ Top tour, were shelved when a dispute between Herbert and Elektra's newly appointed chief executive cost the band its contract. More than forty years later, on 12 June 2026, Metallic Blue Records released them for the first time as Looks Can Be Deceiving (Metallic Blue Records' notes, HIGHRESAUDIO).

Going solo (1985)

After the Eric Martin Band broke up, Martin made his solo debut in the autumn of 1985 with the album Eric Martin (profile of his official Japanese fan club, LITTLE DEVIL's CLUB), released by Capitol Records (FMQB, 1985). His second Capitol album, I'm Only Fooling Myself, followed in 1987, and by the end of February radio stations were adding "Everytime I Think Of You" (FMQB, 27 February 1987). Richie Zito produced it (RPM, 21 March 1987). CDJournal's profile says he made his debut as a solo singer in 1985 and released two albums before forming MR. BIG in 1988 (CDJournal).

MR. BIG (1988-2002)

In 1988 Eric Martin formed MR. BIG with the bassist Billy Sheehan, the guitarist Paul Gilbert and the drummer Pat Torpey (his fan club's profile / CDJournal). Sony Music Japan's profile tells it this way: Sheehan, who had played in David Lee Roth's band among others, met Gilbert of Racer X, and Martin and Torpey then joined them. Martin remembers it starting with just Sheehan and himself writing songs; once all four were together, they wrote the whole first album in eight days and signed with Atlantic Records (The Big Takeover interview, 2024).

The debut album, Mr. Big, came out in 1989 (Billboard, 2018 / CDJournal). Lean Into It (1991) reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200 (Billboard, 2018), and its song "To Be with You" went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (The Big Takeover, 2024 / Sony Music Japan's official profile). Martin had written the song as a teenager, at 16 or 17 by his own estimate, and later finished it with David Grahame, a songwriter his publisher introduced him to (Songfacts). "Wild World", from Bump Ahead (1993), was another hit single (Sony Music Japan's official profile).

Three more MR. BIG albums followed, but from around the summer of 2001 the members' musical directions began to part, and the band broke up after a final concert at the Tokyo International Forum in February 2002 (Sony Music Japan's official profile / CDJournal).

Solo records (1998-2003)

In 1998 Martin released the solo album Somewhere in the Middle, issued in Japan by East West Japan and in Europe by Atlantic (Oricon / Discogs). After MR. BIG broke up he released three solo records, I'm Goin' Sane among them (Sony Music Japan's official profile). I'm Goin' Sane and Pure, both from 2002, came out in Japan on Canyon International (Pony Canyon) and in Europe on Frontiers Records, and Destroy All Monsters (2003) on Canyon International in Japan (Oricon).

TMG and a family (2004-2008)

In 2004 Martin became the singer of TMG (Tak Matsumoto Group), the project of the B'z guitarist Tak Matsumoto; it released one album and played a successful show at the Nippon Budokan (Sony Music Japan's official profile). Jack Blades of NIGHT RANGER played bass and sang, and the first album, TMG I, came out in June 2004 (BARKS, 2025).

Martin then put his family first and stepped back from music for a while, and in 2008 he decided to return (Sony Music Japan's official profile).

The MR.VOCALIST series (2008-2012, 2024)

For his return Martin wanted, before anything else, to sing for his Japanese fans. He chose ballad hits by Japanese women singers, sang them in English, and released the result as MR.VOCALIST in November 2008. According to Sony Music Japan, it topped the international section of Oricon's daily chart, reached No. 7 on the overall daily chart and sold more than 100,000 copies (Sony Music Japan's official profile); his fan club's profile describes it as an international No. 1 and a gold disc.

MR.VOCALIST 2 (March 2009) came from his wish to make a record together with the fans: Japanese fans voted for the songs, this time by women singers from around the world, and in November 2009 the album was released in the United States as Timeless. The same November brought MR.VOCALIST X'MAS, a set of Christmas songs from Japan and abroad (Sony Music Japan's official profile), and MR.VOCALIST 3 followed in 2010 (Sony Music Japan).

Love Is Alive ~Works of 1985-2010~, a best-of marking 25 years of his solo career, came out in 2010 (Sony Music Japan's official profile). For MR. ROCK VOCALIST (October 2012) the fans' request vote picked songs by Japanese male rock acts such as B'z, BOΦWY and LUNA SEA (BARKS, 2012 / Sony Music Japan's official profile). His fan club credits the series with starting a fashion for English-language covers of J-pop.

In April 2024, the series' 15th anniversary year, Martin announced that he would bring the Japanese songs back as MR.VOCALIST (his official website's blog, 2024). In November came MR. VOCALIST COMPLETE BEST, its songs chosen by fan request. The first-press limited edition added "I'll be there just for you", a charity song by Voice of Youth JAPAN in which Martin took part, as a bonus track, and a Blu-ray with the concert film MR.VOCALIST ~A Special Night In Tokyo~ among other material (Sony Music Japan, 2024).

MR. BIG again (2009-2018)

MR. BIG re-formed in June 2009. Its tour of Japan, which took in the Nippon Budokan and the Yokohama Arena, drew about 40,000 people and sold out every date, and the band went on to Europe in September and Asia in October (Sony Music Japan's official profile). What If... followed in 2010 (CDJournal). Straight after the 2011 earthquake in Japan the band made the charity single "The World Is On The Way", and it toured Japan that year (CDJournal, 2015). Defying Gravity came out in 2017 (CDJournal).

The drummer Pat Torpey was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2014 and still took part in the band's shows, singing backing vocals and playing percussion. He died of complications of Parkinson's disease on 7 February 2018, at the age of 64 (Billboard, 2018 / CDJournal).

The last tour and the Budokan (2023-2025)

From 2023 MR. BIG played The BIG Finish, a last tour to say goodbye to its fans (his fan club's profile); the name was Martin's own idea (The Big Takeover interview, 2024 / Blabbermouth, 2025). The final studio album, Ten, came out in July 2024, followed in September by The BIG Finish Live, a live album recorded at the Nippon Budokan (The Big Takeover, 2024).

The tour ended on 23 August 2024 at the Way Too Far Rock Festival in Bistrița, Romania, but in February 2025 MR. BIG came back for The BIG Finale!: two shows in India, then Osaka, and finally the Nippon Budokan on 25 February 2025, its last show. Nick D'Virgilio was the band's drummer by then. Martin has said the band said its goodbyes at the Budokan once more (Blabbermouth, 2025).

TMG returns (2024-2026)

TMG came back in 2024 with its original members, twenty years after the first album, and released TMG II in September. Matt Sorum, known from GUNS N' ROSES and VELVET REVOLVER, played the drums, and on "ETERNAL FLAMES" BABYMETAL trade lines with Martin (BARKS, 2024). That autumn the band played nine shows in five cities on the TMG LIVE 2024 -Still Dodging The Bullet- tour, filmed for a video release in May 2025 (BARKS, 2025).

According to Tak Matsumoto, Martin kept saying while they made TMG II that the first album had been American rock and roll and the second had something Japanese in it. On the 2024 tour each member brought a song from his own band, and Martin chose MR. BIG's "To Be with You", sung acoustically (BARKS, 2025). The third album, TMG III SAYONARA, came out in October 2026 (HMV).

After MR. BIG (2025-2026)

In July 2025 Martin announced shows in Michigan and Illinois as his first rock and roll dates in the United States with his new band, after his years of touring with MR. BIG. The band had PJ Farley of Fozzy and TRIXTER, the drummer Jason Hartless and the guitarist Julio Mendoza, with Motnik of ACCEPT on bass for the Arcada Theatre show (his official website's blog, 2025).

He was named in the line-up of the 2026 farewell tour of Germany's Rock Meets Classic, eleven years after he had appeared there in 2015 (his official website's blog, 2025). In February 2026 three shows in Brazil in July were announced for Masters of Voices, which brings him together with Edu Falaschi, Tim "Ripper" Owens and Jeff Scott Soto (his official website's blog, 2026).

AVANTASIA

Martin has sung as a guest on records by AVANTASIA, the project led by Tobias Sammet of EDGUY. On The Mystery of Time (April 2013) he sang a duet on one track (Nuclear Blast, 2013 / Blabbermouth, 2013 / AVANTASIA's website), and he was one of the guest singers on Moonglow (February 2019) (Blabbermouth, 2018 / AVANTASIA's website).

KIZUNA (2026)

KIZUNA is the first official documentary film about Eric Martin. It follows his forty years in music since the 1985 solo debut and his long friendship with his Japanese fans, built from time spent with Martin himself and from interviews with fans and with people around him, Tak Matsumoto of TMG among them. Katsuya Kobayashi, known as the face of the music television show Best Hit USA, narrates. Saimon Kawagishi directed it; it was produced by DRE JAPAN, is distributed by Uplink and runs 106 minutes (the KIZUNA film site / Kinema Junpo, 2026).

The film includes the night he sang a GLAY song in Japanese on a Japanese television music show, the story of how MR.VOCALIST came about, the charity work that began after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, his support for the areas struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Noto Peninsula earthquake, and his return in May 2026, after thirty years, to the stage of Chicken George in Kobe (the KIZUNA film site). His fan club describes it as a film that begins and ends in Kobe (his fan club).

Its release date in Japan is 4 December 2026, with cinemas opening it in stages (the KIZUNA film site / Kinema Junpo, 2026). The world premiere was set for the evening before, 3 December, at Chicken George in Kobe, with a talk and a short acoustic set by Martin after the screening (the KIZUNA film site / his fan club). Screenings with Martin on stage were arranged at eight cinemas in Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka, Sendai, Kanazawa, Nagoya and Tokyo, from Uplink Kyoto on 4 December to Human Trust Cinema Shibuya on 19 December. The theme song is "I'll Be There Just For You", a new song sung by Martin, with a digital release announced for November 2026 (his fan club).

Eric Martin and Japan

Martin calls Japan a home and his Japanese fans his friends, people he has gone through life with (the KIZUNA film site). His fan club's profile puts his concerts in Japan at more than a hundred, and MR. BIG played its hundredth show in Japan in 2011 (Songfacts).

In 1996, the year after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, MR. BIG played an acoustic charity concert at Chicken George, a live house in Kobe; more than 10,000 applications came in for its 500 places (his fan club). On a Japanese television music show he sang a GLAY song in Japanese (the KIZUNA film site / Kinema Junpo, 2026). On New Year's Eve 1999 he played a countdown concert at the Osaka Dome with AEROSMITH (his fan club's profile).

His solo tour of July 2015, ERIC MARTIN OVER JAPAN, grew out of his concern for Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and his wish to play small clubs, close to the fans: seven shows were set, starting at BLUE RESISTANCE in Ishinomaki, Miyagi, and going on to Sapporo, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Osaka and Nagoya. He chose Ishinomaki as the starting point because he wanted to see the recovery of the coast for himself (CDJournal, 2015). His fan club notes that he has given charity support after three great earthquakes: Great Hanshin-Awaji, Great East Japan and Noto.

In 2024 he toured Japan for the 15th anniversary of MR.VOCALIST (his fan club's profile), with two shows a night set at Billboard Live Osaka on 20 December and Billboard Live Tokyo on 22 December. A further show was added on 18 December at Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall in Tokyo: Big Night, two sets of MR. BIG songs, acoustic and electric, performed by Li-sa-X, Voice of Youth JAPAN and other Japanese musicians (his official website's blog, 2024). In 2025 he made an acoustic tour (his fan club's profile).

On 14 May 2026 he played an acoustic show at Chicken George in Kobe, thirty years after the charity concert, and on 16 May at Zepp Osaka Bayside and 19 May at Zepp DiverCity in Tokyo he played BIG Night- HEY MAN 2026-, a set of MR. BIG songs only, performing the thirty-year-old album Hey Man in full. Li-sa-X of KOIAI played guitar at the 14 May show (his fan club).

His Japanese dates of December 2026: the world premiere of KIZUNA at Chicken George in Kobe on the 3rd; the stage appearances at eight cinemas from the 4th to the 19th; two Acoustic BIG Night concerts of MR. BIG songs, at Fukuoka Toyota Hall Scala Espacio on the 9th and at DIAMOND HALL in Nagoya on the 15th, with David Cotterill on guitar and vocals; and KIZUNA Symphony -40th Anthology- at Meguro Persimmon Hall's large hall on the 21st. His fan club billed that last one as a one-night concert closing the 40th anniversary of his solo debut, with songs from his solo records, MR. BIG, TMG and MR.VOCALIST played with the Tokyo Starlight Orchestra and a band, and as his first concert with an orchestra (his fan club). Members-only shows for his Japanese fan club, LITTLE DEVIL's CLUB, were set for Osaka on 6 December and Tokyo on 23 December (his fan club).

Solo Concerts in Japan

Date	City	Venue	Show
4 March 2009	Tokyo	duo MUSIC EXCHANGE	MR.VOCALIST one-night special live
2 December 2009	Nagoya	Aichi Kinro Kaikan	MR.VOCALIST JAPAN TOUR
5 December 2009	Osaka	NHK Osaka Hall	MR.VOCALIST JAPAN TOUR
7 December 2009	Tokyo	Bunkamura Orchard Hall	MR.VOCALIST JAPAN TOUR
18 December 2024	Tokyo	Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall	BIG Night (featuring Li-sa-X) for Voice of Youth Japan
20 December 2024	Osaka	Billboard Live OSAKA	MR.VOCALIST 15th Anniversary Japan Tour
22 December 2024	Tokyo	Billboard Live TOKYO	MR.VOCALIST 15th Anniversary Japan Tour
15 December 2025	Yokohama	Billboard Live YOKOHAMA	I Love Japan tour 2025
17 December 2025	Osaka	Billboard Live OSAKA	I Love Japan tour 2025
23 December 2025	Tokyo	Billboard Live TOKYO	I Love Japan tour 2025
14 May 2026	Kobe	Chicken George	Acoustic BIG Night
16 May 2026	Osaka	Zepp Osaka Bayside	BIG Night -HEY MAN 2026-
19 May 2026	Tokyo	Zepp DiverCity	BIG Night -HEY MAN 2026-

About the sources

The sources are Eric Martin's official website, ericmartin.com (its biography page and blog posts of 2024 to 2026); his official Japanese fan club, LITTLE DEVIL's CLUB (ericmartin.fanpla.jp: its profile, news and schedule); Sony Music Japan's official site (its profile of Eric Martin and a news item of 2024); the official site of the film KIZUNA, run by its distributor Uplink; Kinema Junpo (2026); the Avalon label's release notes for December 2024; Nuclear Blast's news (2013); AVANTASIA's official website; The Big Takeover's interview with him (2024); Billboard (2018); Blabbermouth (2013, 2018 and 2025); CDJournal's artist profiles and news (2015); BARKS (2012, 2024 and 2025); Songfacts; and HMV. Some labels and release years, and the membership of the Eric Martin Band, come from MusicBrainz and Discogs.