[4] Hornsby graduated from James Blair High School in Williamsburg in 1973, where he played on the basketball team and was chosen by his senior class as most likely to succeed.

In 1980, he and his younger brother and songwriting partner John Hornsby moved to Los Angeles, where they spent three years writing for 20th Century Fox.

[23] Bruce Hornsby and the Range won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1987, beating out Glass Tiger, Nu Shooz, Simply Red, and Timbuk3.

[24] It included "Look Out Any Window" and "The Valley Road" which many critics noted for their "more spacious" musical arrangements, allowing for "more expressive" piano solos from Hornsby.

In May 1990, he released A Night on the Town, on which he teamed up with jazz musicians Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone) and Charlie Haden (double bass) as well as bluegrass pioneer Bela Fleck (banjo).

[19] Critics praised the album for its production, its political relevance, and Hornsby's gestures toward expanding out of a strictly pop sound by incorporating jazz and bluegrass.

Mydland's place was filled in September 1990 by Vince Welnick, who became the sole keyboardist by March 1992, although Hornsby still sat in with the band on occasion.

Critics have suggested that the Dead's vibrant tradition of melding folk music and the blues with psychedelic rock in "loose-knit expressions" and extended jamming "further pushed [Hornsby] outside the confines of mainstream pop".

[35] He has performed several of their songs at his concerts and as homages on studio and live albums, while Hornsby originals "The Valley Road" and "Stander on the Mountain" appeared several times in the Dead's setlists.

Hornsby was the presenter when the Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994[36][37] and in 2005 he participated in "Comes a Time", a tribute concert to Jerry Garcia.

Hornsby reunited with surviving members of the Grateful Dead along with Trey Anastasio from Phish and Jeff Chimenti at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, and later at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, in July 2015.

The record showcased him in a more jazz-oriented setting and featured a lineup that included Pat Metheny, Branford Marsalis, Jerry Garcia, Phil Collins and Bonnie Raitt.

In 1995, Hot House was released, its cover art featuring an imagined jam session between bluegrass musician Bill Monroe and jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Hornsby expanded into the jazz sound from Harbor Lights, this time reintroducing elements of bluegrass from A Night on the Town and his earlier collaborations.

[19] Hornsby next worked with several Grateful Dead reformation projects, including several Furthur Festivals and The Other Ones, which resulted in the release of a live album, The Strange Remain.

Featuring a picture of his uncle on the cover,[44] the collection blended instrumental tracks with the story-telling, rock, jazz, and other musical forms Hornsby had delved into over his career.

It features collaborations with Justin Vernon and Sean Carey of Bon Iver, Jack DeJohnette, Blake Mills, yMusic, The Staves, and Brad Cook.

[47] As Hornsby experimented with a different sound, ushering in frequent collaborations with such musicians as Steve Kimock on guitar and Bobby Read on heavily effects-driven electronic woodwinds, a new band, dubbed the Noisemakers, took shape.

In 2000, Hornsby chronicled this journey with a compilation live album entitled Here Come the Noise Makers, and did extensive touring with his new band featuring John "J.T."

It was the only album on which Hornsby barely plays any piano and relied heavily on post-electronica beats, drum loops, Pro Tools editing, and dense synthesizer arrangements.

The discs are thematically broken into three categories: "Top 90 Time", "Solo Piano, Tribute Records, Country-Bluegrass, Movie Scores", and "By Request (Favorites and Best Songs)".

[4] On September 15, 2009, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers released their fourth album, Levitate to mixed reviews; it included new solo material with several songs co-written with Chip DiMatteo for the Broadway play SCKBSTD.

[56] Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby, featuring the duo backed by Skaggs's band Kentucky Thunder, combined bluegrass, traditional country music, jazzy piano and a splash of humor on a spectrum of songs from the traditional to new compositions such as the opening track, "The Dreaded Spoon", a humorous tale of a youthful ice cream heist.

The pair also reinvented Hornsby's hit "Mandolin Rain" as a minor key acoustic ballad and give his cautionary tale of backwoods violence, "A Night on the Town", a treatment highlighting the "Appalachian storytelling tradition that was always at the song's heart".

[60] Concurrently with the bluegrass project, Hornsby recorded a jazz album, Camp Meeting with Christian McBride (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums).

[63] On January 4, 2007, former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart reunited along with Hornsby, Mike Gordon (of Phish and the Rhythm Devils) and Warren Haynes to play two sets, including Dead classics, at a post-inauguration fundraising party for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.

On July 10, 1990, Hornsby made a guest appearance with the Grateful Dead onstage at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, NC, playing accordion during portions of the first and second sets.

[67] On October 18, 1991, Hornsby joined Pink Floyd, co-founder Roger Waters on stage at Auditorio de la Cartuja in Seville, Spain.

[69] Hornsby has composed and performed for many projects with filmmaker Spike Lee, including end-title songs for two films, Clockers (1995) with Chaka Khan and Bamboozled (2001).

On July 3, 2023, Bruce appeared with The Doobie Brothers in Portsmouth, Virginia during their extended 50th anniversary tour, where he performed on keyboards and soloed on several songs.