Robert Schneider (born October 12, 1965) is an Austin, Texas based musician and former lead singer of the rock band Ugly Americans.
He is known to perform live as both a solo act, and also with various musical groups, including his own Lonelyland and Texas Bluegrass Massacre bands, and has developed a reputation for improvisation and audience involvement.
He dropped out of the University of Texas at El Paso, where he studied art while also performing in his first major band, a local funk-rock outfit called Joe Rockhead.
[9] In 1997, Schneider co-founded The Scabs, a funk ensemble that regularly played local Austin venues, and was described as "inspired by The Rugburns (right down to the suits and ties) [with] bawdy show tunes and puerile blues".
These projects initially received limited releases of approximately 10,000 copies each, though Vanguard eventually agreed to re-release some in 2006, to coincide with his next major album The Californian.
[14] Schneider went on to sign with Kirtland Records in 2009, releasing his next major album Lovely Creatures, which featured the single "40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet)", as well as Patty Griffin on the track "Changing Your Mind".
2023 also saw the release of FAYM, a crowd-funded graphic novel with illustrations by Justin Barker, and a story based on Schneider's long-time rock opera project of the same name.
[14] Solo albums The Scabs Ugly Americans Joe Rockhead Schneider has many unpublished musical projects that, while never officially released, have been made available to fans (either partially or in full) via Patreon and similar platforms.