With his piano-driven soft-rock sound, singer, songwriter, and producer John Ondrasik—known to millions as Five For Fighting—became a fixture of Billboard’s Adult Contemporary charts in the 2000s.
• An L.A. native, Ondrasik grew up in a musical household and learned to play the piano as a toddler and the guitar as a teen. He also took opera lessons.
• In 1988, Ondrasik graduated from UCLA with a degree in applied science and mathematics and formed John Scott, a hair metal band with Pat Benetar guitarist Scott St. Clair Sheets.
• He signed with EMI Records in 1995 and adopted the moniker Five For Fighting—a term derived from ice hockey.
• In 1997, Five For Fighting released his debut album, Message for Albert.
• Under a new deal with Columbia Records, he returned with his sophomore album, , in 2000. The single “Superman (It's Not Easy)” peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and reached No. 1 on the Adult Top 40 Airplay chart. The song earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
• His success continued with the 2003 single “100 Years,” which appears on his third album, The Battle for Everything. It reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.
• Five for Fighting’s fourth album, 2006’s Two Lights, yielded two more Top 20 hits on Billboard’s Adult Top 40 Airplay chart: “The Riddle” and “World.”
• Along with his solo work, Five For Fighting has written music for television series and films like Hawaii Five-0, Code Black, and Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer.
Hometown
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Genre
Pop
Members of Five for Fighting
Five for Fighting was formed in 1997. Members of Five for Fighting include, or have included, the following 1 members.