Jimmy Wayne "Jimi" Jamison (August 23, 1951 - August 31, 2014) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He had previously been the frontman of the platinum-selling rock band Survivor. He was also a member of the band Cobra. Jamison is also known for writing and performing the theme song, "I'm Always Here" to Baywatch.

Early years

Jimmy Wayne Jamison was born in rural Mississippi but identified as a Memphis, Tennessee native, as he and his mother, Dorothy (1932-2009) moved there when he was one day old. In his teens he taught himself to play the guitar and piano while honing his vocal abilities. By middle school he was playing in a band.

By the late 1970s Jamison was fronting the local Memphis band Target. He went on to become the lead singer of the better-known band Cobra in the early 1980s. Jamison later provided background vocals for successful artists including ZZ Top, Joe Walsh and many others.

Joining Survivor

After Cobra's demise in 1984, he was invited to join Survivor, whose success had been on the wane since their number-one hit, "Eye of the Tiger." Although he was initially not adamant about fronting what he considered more of a "pop rock" band, which would contrast significantly with the heavy metal stylings of Cobra to which he had become accustomed, Jamison ultimately joined and became Survivor's new frontman.

Jamison provided an instant spark for Survivor. While the first song he recorded with the band, "The Moment of Truth" (theme song from the 1984 box office smash hit The Karate Kid) reached number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1984, his first full album with the band, Vital Signs became even more successful, peaking at number 16 on the Billboard Album Chart and catapulting Survivor back to stardom with the hits "I Can't Hold Back" (number 13 U.S.), "High on You" (number 8 U.S.), and "The Search Is Over" (number 4 U.S.). In late 1985, the band scored another massive hit with Jamison at the helm, "Burning Heart", from the Rocky IV movie with Sylvester Stallone, which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 early the following year.

His second album with the band, When Seconds Count was released in October 1986 and included the hit "Is This Love" (number 9 U.S.). On the Billboard Album Chart the album only reached number 49 but still managed to sell over 500,000 copies and reached certified gold status. This album also found Jamison making more songwriting contributions to the band's output, as he co-wrote four of the record's songs, including another memorable single, "Man Against the World" (number 86 U.S.). One of the biggest adjustments he had to make performing with Survivor was giving up the right to perform hits by other artists. "Sometimes we'll start to do an encore and somebody will say, 'Let's do a Led Zeppelin song!'" he told Nine-O-One Network Magazine in 1987. "You wanna say 'Yeah. Yeah!' And then right at the very last minute you say, 'Nah, we better do this .'"

Too Hot to Sleep, released in 1988, marked Survivor's final studio album of the 1980s. While Jamison and his bandmates believed it to be one of their best albums (with Jamison even citing it retrospectively as his favorite Survivor album), Too Hot to Sleep suffered from a lack of promotion from the record label, and it was not as successful as previous releases. The band then released a greatest hits album to close out the decade and went on hiatus until 1993.

Solo work

In 1989, Jamison contributed his own version of "Ever Since the World Began," a song Survivor had initially recorded prior to his tenure in the band, to the film Lock Up. That same year, he was asked to be the lead vocal replacement for Deep Purple, who had just fired Ian Gillan. Said Purple organist Jon Lord of Jamison in a 1993 interview, "He was an enormous Deep Purple fan and he would happily have taken over the job. But at the time he was afraid of his managers. They didn't want him to leave and he didn't dare to get into a fight with them." In fact, Lord's record label was preparing to release Jamison's new album, When Love Comes Down (which eventually surfaced in 1991), and they wanted him to stay and promote the record instead of joining Deep Purple.

Jamison went on to co-write and sing "I'm Always Here," the theme to the hit TV show Baywatch and later released another solo album, Empires under the name Jimi Jamison's Survivor in 1999.

Jamison recorded many sessions and demos throughout the 1990s that didn't surface at the time, but can be found today.

Jimi Jamison's Survivor

In 1992, Jamison began touring, billing his band as "Survivor" or "Jimi Jamison's Survivor." After Jamison's success touring overseas that year, original Survivor guitarist and founding member Frankie Sullivan contacted Jamison's management and asked to be included on the tour; he performed on eight to ten dates before leaving the group. Soon after, in late 1992-early 1993, Survivor was tapped to do a new and more extensive greatest hits package with two new songs. For a short time, Peterik, Sullivan and Jamison were reunited in the studio to record new material for the new package and forthcoming world tour. But after contract talks broke down, Jamison quit and went back on the road again as "Jimi Jamison's Survivor."

At this point, Sullivan, along with fellow Survivor cofounder Jim Peterik filed a lawsuit against their former colleague for using the name but ultimately failed (at the time) in their bid to stop Jamison from touring under the "Survivor" banner. However, in late September 1999, Sullivan, who had brought forth another lawsuit against Jamison, won ownership of the name "Survivor," thereby ending the ongoing trademark battle.

Return to Survivor 2000-2006

Jamison would later reunite with Survivor in 2000, replacing original singer Dave Bickler once again. The band then began recording material for a new album. The Peterik-Sullivan-penned track "Velocitized" was set for inclusion on the soundtrack to the Stallone film Driven. However, it did not make the cut.

In 2005, Jamison was featured with the band in the Emmy Award-nominated Starbucks commercial which parodied Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger". Jamison remained with the band up through the release of their long-awaited album, Reach, in 2006. He left the band soon after, and was replaced by singer Robin McAuley.

Return to Solo Work/Collaborations

In 2008, Jamison teamed up with his former Survivor bandmate, Jim Peterik and released a solo album called Crossroads Moment in Europe. The album was produced by Peterik and released in the United States in 2009. Then, in 2010, an album titled Extra Moments surfaced, featuring songs from the Jamison/Peterik collaboration that didn't appear on Jamison's previous album.

In 2009 and 2010, he performed to a sold out crowd at Firefest, the yearly Melodic Rock Festival in Nottingham, England. He also performed at the Melodic Rock Fest in 2010 and 2013.

In October 2011, he released an album with Bobby Kimball (former lead singer of Toto) titled Kimball/Jamison. That same year, he joined the band One Man's Trash with Fred Zahl, and they released the album History.

Second return to Survivor

On November 12, 2011, Jamison led and performed "Eye of the Tiger" for champion boxer Manny Pacquiao's entrance into the ring for his bout against Shane Mosley at MGM Grand Las Vegas. Fueled by popular demand, he would repeat the performance the following year for the boxer's next title defense. In the meantime, the first performance foreshadowed later events, as just three days later, on November 15, 2011, Jamison announced his return to Survivor following a five-year absence from the group.

A year later, Jamison again joined with Peterik to release a country-flavored album titled Unreleased Music. That same year, he released a new solo album, Never Too Late, which was more in the melodic hard rock vein. He continued to tour with Survivor until his death.

His last show was on August 30, 2014 in Morgan Hill, California at the CANcert benefit event during the ARTTEC Summer Concert Series. Survivor's 58 minute set consisted of "Feels Like Love, Broken Promises, Take You On A Saturday, High On You, Rockin' into the Night, The Search is Over, Rebel Girl, I Can't Hold Back, Burning Heart, Poor Man's Son, It's The Singer Not The Song" and ended with "Eye Of The Tiger".

Death

Jamison died on August 31, 2014 at his home in Memphis, Tennessee, of a heart attack. His autopsy revealed the actual cause of death to be a hemorrhagic brain stroke, with "acute methamphetamine intoxication contributing".

Legacy

Jamison has earned massive critical acclaim for his vocal abilities, having been praised by such luminaries as Casey Kasem, former Survivor bandmate Jim Peterik, and many others.

Jamison was well known for his contributions to charities, and had been a participant in the annual Rockin Christmas Fund charity fundraiser event among others. He participated with the Make-a-Wish Foundation and benefits for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital annually.

Discography

With Survivor

• Vital Signs (1984)
• When Seconds Count (1986)
• Too Hot to Sleep (1988)
• Reach (2006)
• Ultimate Survivor (2004)
• Survivor Extended Versions MTV Live in Japan Special (Recorded in 1985)

Solo

• "If I Cry" (solo single; credited to "The Debuts") (1967)
• When Love Comes Down (1991)
• Empires (1999), initially released under the "Jimi Jamison's Survivor" band name
• Crossroads Moment (2008)
• Extra Moments (2010) with Jim Peterik
• Kimball/Jamison (2011) with Bobby Kimball
• Never Too Late (2012)

Others

• Combinations - D Beaver (1971)
• Target (self-titled) (1976)
• Captured - Target (1977)
• This Ain't Hollywood, Degarmo & Key, (1980), Forefront Records
• First Strike - Cobra (1983)
• Headhunter - Krokus (1983) (background vocals)
• Deed Is Done - Molly Hatchet (1984) (background vocals)
• Got Any Gum? - Joe Walsh (1987) (background vocals)
• Worrall - Rick & Steve Worrall, (1991), with Shawn Lane, re-release on Yesterrock Records
• Ordinary Average Guy - Joe Walsh (1991) (background vocals)
• Songs for a Dying Planet - Joe Walsh (1992) (background vocals)
• Heat It Up, Degarmo & Key, (1993), Sony BMG
• The Mofo Sessions (1993)
• To Extremes, Degarmo & Key, (1994), Benson
• History - One Man`s Trash feat. Jimi Jamison & Fred Zahl (2011)
• Unreleased Music (2012)
• Karmalion, Indicco, (2013), New Venture Music

[ Source: Wikipedia ]