30 Incredible Facts About Rival Sons Every Fan Must Know

Rival Sons, one of the best rock bands in the music industry, currently consists of Jay Buchanan (lead vocals), Scott Holiday (guitar), Dave Beste (bass guitar) and Michael Miley (drums). With a strong collaborative bond with Nashville producer Dave Cobb, the group enjoyed modest success at home in the U.S., with each of their albums, while also becoming perennial chart staples throughout much of Europe. They have recorded regularly, releasing seven records in ten years, and are often cited for the sartorial style as well as their musical style. Here are some really interesting facts about the band that will make you love them more:

"Rival Sons - Øyafestivalen 2014" by NRK P3 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

1.  Rival sons released their sixth studio album “Feral Roots” to critical acclaim on January 25, 2019, which won the 2019 Metal Storm Award for Best Hard Rock Album.
2.  The album also received nominations for two awards at the 2020 Grammy Awards, one for Best Rock Album and the other for Best Rock Performance for the song "Too Bad."
3.  The band appeared on the Late Late Show with James Corden, on May 9, 2019, during which they performed the single “Too Bad.”
4.  Their “Great Western Valkyrie,” released in June 2014, was nominated for “Album of the Year” in 2014 by Classic Rock Magazine.
5.  The band toured with Deep Purple in their 2016 European tour, following which they toured as the main supporting act on the entirety of Black Sabbath’s notable The End Tour, throughout 2016 and early 2017.
6.  Rival Sons was formed by Jay Buchanan and Michael Miley in their native of Long Beach, in Los Angeles County, California.
7.  The band actually originated from the remnants of guitarist Scott Holiday’s previous band. He has come across Buchanan while searching for a singer on MySpace.
8.  Before Rival Sons, Buchanan was recording as a solo artist, while also performing with his Buchanan Band.
9.  Buchanan had previously worked with drummer Miley, who has played at a benefit concert with bassist Robin Everhart at Isaac Hayes house for Hurricane Katrina in Long Beach.
10.  Finally, with the union of Holiday, Buchanan, Everhart and Miley, the band Rival Sons was formed, although Buchanan was initially skeptical about it.

"Rival Sons - 2nd set metal stage - High Voltage, Victoria Park, London - 20110723_IMG_9999" by Sally Payne is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

11.  However, after seeing the reception of their debut album “Before the Fire,” Buchanan became confident about the band, and committed to Rival Sons full-time.
12.  Following the release of “Before the Fire,” Jack Rivera of the Huffington Post declared them "A rock band to watch" in November 2009.
13.  With this success and acclaim, they were invited to perform as a supporting act for AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and Kid Rock shows.
14.  Around this time, the band also performed on the race track during a televised show of the “Indianapolis 500.”
15.  In the year 2010, the band recorded a self-titled EP, and released it independently. The EP caught the attention of Earache Records founder Digby Pearson.
16.  Pearson offered the band a record deal in November 2010, following which they immediately started working on the album “Pressure & Time.”
17.  On February 2, 2011, Rival Sons played at Gene Simmons’ "Aces & Angels" Super Bowl party. Ten days later, they made their European debut at Camden Barfly for the HMV Next Big Thing.
18.  They had a nearly unbroken string of European sell-out shows, starting with this appearance, where the show sold out in advance, partly due to band Vintage Trouble supporting their act.
19.  In June 2011, “Pressure & Time” was released under Earache label, which reached number one on Amazon's Hard Rock best sellers and nineteen on the Billboard Hot 100.
20.  It was said that Storm Thorgerson, famous for working with bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Genesis, voluntarily created the cover art of their album “Pressure & Time.”

"Rival Sons @ Circus, 2012.10.11" by Adrián Pérez is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

21.  In October 2011, their debut European single “Torture” from their self-titled EP, was featured in the film “Real Steel” in October 2011.
22.  The same month, they supported Evanescene in the US, with the personal request of Amy Lee. Rival Sons played again with Evanescence in January 2012.
23.  In mid-2012, “Pressure & Time” was voted number two album of the year and the band was named “Breakthrough Artist of the Year” by Classic Rock Magazine.
24.  The band went into Honey Pye studios in Nashville, Tennessee, for twenty days to record their third full-length LP album “Head Down” with Dave Cobb and this time award-winning engineer Vance Powell, in February 2012.
25.  “Head Down” was released in September 2012 to critical acclaim, charting at #31 in the UK album chart, #5 in the UK indie chart, #6 in Sweden, #13 in Finland, #14 in Norway, #30 in Switzerland and #38 in Germany.
26.  Their debut single “Keep on Swinging” started a trend on Twitter, and the musical video of single was filmed in a church with snakes.
27.  In January 2013, the band released a second single from “Head Down” with a video for "Until The Sun Comes" directed by Simon Gesrel.
28.  Rival Sons returned to the studio in Nashville with Cobb to produce their fourth full-length LP album “Great Western Valkyrie” which was released in June 2014, to critical acclaim.
29.  In Fall 2019, the band capitalized on the success of “Feral Roots” and embarked on a Co-Headline tour with Stone Temple Pilots across North America.
30.  Rival Sons performed a stripped-down version of “Do Your Worst” at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on October 11, 2019.
31.  Jay Buchanan Net Worth: $3 Million