Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

Bob Seger’s status as a rock icon rests upon his run of albums with The Silver Bullet Band from the mid-’70s until the early ’90s. With his raspy, underdog voice front and center, albums like 1976’s Night Moves, 1978’s Stranger In Town, 1980’s Against the Wind, and 1986’s Like a Rock became cornerstones of a heartland rock movement that also counts Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp among its Mount Rushmore of giants. Seger himself is as blue-collar as they come. A Detroiter born in 1945, he grew up listening to ’50s rock ’n’ roll and R&B on his transistor radio. His father was a skilled musician, but he left the family to fend for themselves when Seger was only 10. This hardscrabble attitude shaped the first 15 years of his career, which were marked by a string of short-lived bands including The Last Heard and The Bob Seger System, grueling tours that stretched on forever, and gritty records that, outside of “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” (a Top 40 hit in 1968), remained regional Midwest hits. Along the way, Seger bounced back and forth between garage rock, sweaty soul, and even psychedelia before nailing the sublimely rootsy style heard on “Night Moves,” the landmark 1976 single that not only catapulted him to stardom but also set the stage for working-class anthems like “Old Time Rock & Roll,” “Feel Like a Number,” and “Mainstreet.” Though Seger’s recording career had slowed considerably by the late ’90s, his influence on modern music has remained profound. Both Kid Rock and Metallica can be counted among his loyal fanbase, while 21st-century country music frequently sounds more indebted to Seger’s heartland rock than it does to traditional Nashville twang.