Don Was

Don Was started his career playing in Detroit bar bands and co-founding cult heroes Was (Not Was), and he has become one of the most successful figures in contemporary music as a producer, composer, label head, and impresario. He had been making music for the better part of a decade when he formed Was (Not Was) with musical partner David Was, and their eccentric, dance-friendly music earned them a hit album, 1988's What Up, Dog?, that put Don into the spotlight. By this time, Was had already risen from producing local acts to major-label artists, and he'd go on to work with the Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, the B-52's, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and many more. Despite success as a producer, sideman, and industry figure, he's rarely recorded as a solo artist, though his instrumental score for the 1994 film Backbeat was belatedly issued on in 2024. In 2025, Don Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble released Groove in the Face of Adversity.