Michael Foster (born December 9, 1964) is an American musician best known as the drummer and founding member of

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

FireHouse __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire hos ...

. Foster and guitarist/founding member

Bill Leverty William G. Leverty II (born January 30, 1962) is an American guitarist. He is a founding member of the hard rock band FireHouse and has been responsible for writing many of the band's hit songs. Throughout the 2000s, Leverty has also pursued a s ...

are the only original members still active in the band, following the death of vocalist

CJ Snare Carl Jeffrey Snare (December 14, 1959 – April 5, 2024) was an American singer best known for being the frontman and founding member of the hard rock/glam metal band FireHouse. Snare co-wrote most of the band's songs and has had seven songs c ...

Biography

Foster was born in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

to James Ernest and Patricia (née Valenti) Foster. He has a younger brother called Daniel Sean. When he was 5 years old, his mother gave him his first real

drum set A drum kit or drum set (also known as a trap set, or simply drums in popular music and jazz contexts) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The drummer ty ...

and he dedicated hours to practice it. He played in school bands and eventually learned music theory as well as other

percussive A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

instruments. In 1984, Foster auditioned for a band called White Heat, in which

was the guitarist. He got the job, and eventually they met C.J. Snare and

Perry Richardson Perry Richardson (born July 7, 1958) is an American bass guitarist who played in the hard rock band FireHouse until 2000 and is currently the bassist of Stryper. Biography Richardson graduated Conway High School in Conway, South Carolina ...

through touring in the Carolinas. The four joined forces as White Heat in 1988 and changed their name to Firehouse prior to their first release with

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

in 1990. Firehouse went on to sell over 7 million albums worldwide and have a number of international hits. Foster filled in for Warrant drummer, Steven Sweet, from December 2012 until February 2013, while Sweet recovered from a neck injury.

Personal life

Foster married Lori Mingee on September 15, 1995. They have two daughters and one son together.

References

External links

Michael Foster's Homepage
1964 births Living people American rock drummers FireHouse (band) members 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Drummers from Virginia {{US-rock-drummer-stub