Rival Sons is a rock band formed in Long Beach, California,[1][2] in 2009 and also affiliated with Nashville, Tennessee.

[3] He had been active in a number of bands, including humanLab, who were signed to Atlantic Records, but which he left and formed Black Summer Crush with Michael Miley, Robin Everhart Thomas Flowers and original drummer J. Harley Gilmore.

Drummer Michael Miley had previously worked with Buchanan (as well as having been in Veruca Salt and the Carson Daly TV show band) and he had met bassist Robin Everhart playing at a benefit concert at Isaac Hayes house for Hurricane Katrina in Long Beach.

[12][13] Storm Thorgerson, who had worked with bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Genesis, created the cover art for the album voluntarily.

- Storm Thorgerson (2011)Rival Sons played a string of Canadian dates in May 2011, as well as SXSW, Hangout festival and the Viper Room, before returning to Europe to play a series of European festivals such as Azkena, Sonisphere, Rock Werchter, Main Square, Putte Parken, and Bospop in July 2011.

[18] While Rival Sons continued to tour extensively, in 2012 they featured on the Harald Schmidt Show and played an acoustic set at the annual Classic Rock awards at the Roundhouse in London.

[19] In February 2012 the band went into Honey Pye studios in Nashville, Tennessee, for twenty days to record their third full-length LP album Head Down with Dave Cobb and this time award-winning engineer Vance Powell (Jack White, The Raconteurs).

In April they toured the UK supported by The Graveltones and Ulysses culminating in a sold-out show at Shepherd's Bush Empire.

Rival Sons also played a station session in St. Pancras, London, for the second time to raise money for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Rival Sons did a small Mid-West USA tour in May before returning to Europe in June to play more summer festivals including Download, Kivenlahti Rock, Bergenfest, Bravalla, Main Square and Open Air St. Gallen.

During this time bassist Robin Everhart quit the band for 'personal reasons' stating "After years of intensive touring with Rival Sons, I have come to the conclusion that I am not a road-warrior and that the rock 'n' roll lifestyle' is not for me.

"[27] In September 2013 Rival Sons supported Sammy Hagar across the US with new bassist Dave Beste, previously of Rocco DeLuca and the Burden.

The band played Hard Rock Vegas in December and started the new year by headlining a street party in their hometown of Long Beach.

In January 2014 Rival Sons returned to the studio in Nashville with Cobb to produce their fourth full-length LP album.

Even before the album's release Rival Sons began their 2014 European Tour opening for Aerosmith in Helsinki, Finland, and Stockholm, Sweden.

After a rest Rival Sons began the second leg of the US tour playing dates in California including The Fillmore in San Francisco and a sold-out show at the legendary The Troubadour.

More Fall 2014 US Tour dates included shows in Arizona, Nebraska, Nevada, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and New Jersey.

Rival Sons toured the United Kingdom from March to April 2015 as well as played the main stage at Download Festival in 2016.

[28] On February 27, 2018, it was officially announced that Rival Sons had signed on with Low Country Sound an imprint of Elektra run by Dave Cobb.

In Fall 2019, the band capitalized on the success of Feral Roots and embarked on a Co-Headline tour with Stone Temple Pilots across North America.

Due to Ögren's departure as well as difficult vocals for Jay Buchanan in songs such as Mirrors or Darkfighter, some tracks were performed live in an alternate manner, such as using transpositions or substitute instruments.

Rival Sons' early albums, including Pressure & Time, were written and recorded in the studio in an intense period of creativity.

"Opting to keep the sound intact and very accurate as to deliver to the listener exactly what was happening in the room when we put it down" – Holiday, talking about the album Great Western Valkyrie.

Jay Buchanan stated that "You need to shift and constantly find new soil" within the creative process, taking eight months to write and record the Grammy nominated album instead of all their previous work which took less than six weeks.

[45] Rival Sons are often compared to sounds of the 1970s yet they cite Prince, D'Angelo and The Roots as influences alongside Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.

[46] Jay has listed artists from Joni Mitchell to Sly and the Family Stone amongst his influences, often stating Van Morrison as one of his heroes.