[2][3] Blue October has won numerous Houston Press music awards including Best New Act (1998), Best Pop/Rock artist (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003), and album of the Year for History for Sale in 2003.

[4] Blue October was formed by lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Justin Furstenfeld, his brother Jeremy and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Delahoussaye.

The band was discovered by former Kid Rock manager Michael Rand performing at the Pappadeaux Cafe in Houston in 1998.

This work eventually led to Michael bringing the band to Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris under the direction of longtime A & R Recording rep Reen Nalli.

Managed by Justin and Jeremy's parents under the name RoDan Entertainment, Blue October released their first album, The Answers in 1998.

Other unreleased songs from this period (which can now be found on YouTube) include: "Rust", "Colorado 5591", "His Name Is Crazy", "Gun Metal Blue", "Dollar 30 Gravy" and "5 Day Walk".

Blue October caught the attention of the major record labels while working with producer dB (Don Byczynski)[6] in early 1998.

Pre-production started for getting Blue October a more "radio ready" sound, with new songs and to rewrite material off The Answers.

The band made their network television premiere on April 14, 2006, performing "Hate Me", the first single from Foiled, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

In addition, locations in Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and the Netherlands were added to their schedule.

In August 2008, Justin was featured in a sold out four-city tour with Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series.

Twilight author Stephenie Meyer is a fan of Blue October, and their music has helped inspire part of the popular book series.

[11] During the week of February 14–18, lead singer Furstenfeld did a stint as a guest DJ on Austin's KROX-FM radio station.

Furstenfeld previewed four new tracks on the air, presumably on the new album, titled "The Chills", "The Waiting, "The Getting Over It Part" and "The Flight (Lincoln to Minneapolis)".

On Tuesday, December 18, the band released a new single called "The Scar", which is a Blue October rendition of a 5591 song.

[16] On his official Twitter account, Justin listed the songs being recorded for the new album, which include "Light You Up", "Still Broken", "Sway" (the title track) and "Sorry Hearts".

Justin Furstenfeld performed other songs off the album, such as "The Weatherman", "Fight For Love", and "Only Lost is Found", acoustically at his solo Open Book shows or for radio promotional appearances.

After playing a series of smaller outdoor acoustic shows in Texas during the summer of 2021, the This is What I Live For Tour began in earnest in September 2021.

[23] The first single from Part II, "Down Here Waiting" made its radio debut in June 2023, and became the band's nineteenth song to reach the Top 40 (spending six months on the charts).

[24][3][1] In March 2024, Blue October released a new single, "Everything We Lost In The Fire" (with lyrics by Justin Furstenfeld and music written by Matt Noveskey and Paco Estrada).

At the time of its release, press reported that the song was the title track to the band's forthcoming thirteenth studio album, with the caveat that the album title was tentative[25][26][27] During the summer of 2024, Blue October embarked on a nationwide triple headliner tour with Switchfoot and Matt Nathanson, playing mostly outdoor venues and rotating the lineup order each night.

They plan to release their next album in 2025, as well as staging some special events to coincide with the band's 30th anniversary, and re-release of their back catalog.

Brant Coulter was chosen as lead guitarist; however, he left the band in late 2000 when Blue October was dropped from Universal Records.

Jeremy and Justin's cousin Cole Bradshaw filled in on lead guitar while the band searched for a permanent guitarist.

At the end of the Consent to Treatment Tour in 2002, Matt Noveskey left the band for health reasons and was replaced by Dwayne Casey.

In August 2003 Dwayne was replaced by Piper Skih Swinford (née Dagnino), who is married to one of Blue October's co-managers and is also an established professional bassist.

Hudson announced he was leaving the band to focus on raising a family and pursuing his dream of owning a recording studio.

[29] On January 24, 2018, Matthew Ostrander posted a video on Instagram announcing he had informed the band ten days prior that he was stepping down.

[30] Although he no longer tours with Blue October, Matthew Ostrander continues to contribute guitar and songwriting to the band's albums.

On August 24, 2022, Justin Furstenfeld posted on instagram announcing Will Knaak would be departing Blue October to be a guitarist in Parker McCollum's band.