Michael Franti & Spearhead

Describing himself as a soulrocker, Michael Franti's funky fusion of rock, reggae, soul and hip-hop has always been filled with socially conscious passion and has taken him from singing on the streets of Baghdad to playing at Folsom Prison and performing for the Dalai Lama, since he first emerged in the 1990s. Born in Oakland, California on April 21, 1966, to an African-American father and an Irish-American mother, Franti was put up for adoption at nine months old because his mother believed that her parents wouldn't accept him, and he instead was raised by a Finnish couple. The experience gave him empathy for outsiders and outcasts, and he was first drawn to artists who shared a similar outlook, such as Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye and The Clash in his teens. He extended his musical knowledge by picking up records that local radio station KCBS used to throw away. While studying at the University of San Francisco he discovered poetry and, after buying a second hand bass at a pawn shop, he formed The Beatnigs in 1986 and set about making raging, industrial-punk and spoken word tracks inspired by Gil Scott-Heron and DOA. He also released two albums with political rap group The Disoposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and supported U2 on their Zoo TV tour, before forming Spearhead in 1993, at which point he turned his attention to less angry, more inspirational messages, and a style that was driven by soul melodies and stripped down funk licks on debut Home. His jumble of global sounds was shaped further when he melded reggae with his conscious hip-hop rhymes on second album Chocolate Supa Highway in 1996, which was co-produced by Stephen Marley and featured Joan Osbourne; his follow-up Stay Human was a concept album centred around a fictional death penalty case and featured actor Woody Harrelson. Though his backing band Spearhead constantly evolved and changed line-ups, Franti took on issues such as poverty, gay rights and AIDS in his songs, and his peace activism led him to take a journey to the war torn parts of the Iraq and Palestine. He chronicled the trip on documentary I Know I'm Not Alone, and as a tall American with dreadlocks and tattoos wandering around Baghdad and the West Bank with an acoustic guitar he was a highly unusual sight. His performance of protest song "Bomb the World" to a bar full of US soldiers was a particularly tense moment, but the trip gave Franti new insight and his album Yell Fire! in 2006 further discussed his experiences and featured Pink and German reggae singer Gentleman. Despite rupturing his appendix on tour, Franti's 2010 album The Sound of Sunshine became his most successful by reaching number 17 on the US charts, and he continued to be a force of soulful, politically aware positivity on All People (2013) and SoulRocker (2016), before returning again with a new set of love songs to humanity on his next studio albums Stay Human Vol II (2019) and Work Hard and Be Nice (2020), before the Covid-19 pandemic. Back in 2022 with the reggae pop Follow Your Heart, Franti & Spearhead released the fusion albums Big Big Love (2023) and Welcome to the Family (2025).