Dave would be the first to remind you that he doesn't exactly fit the rockstar quota. Besides the fact that he continues to shy away from publicity, he's about as un-cool as a celebrity can get, in everything from his facial expressions during performance to his manner of speaking. And of course, his "leg spasm." "You mean my goofy leg spasm? I can't fight off the dance. I think it's genetic. My grandmother used to do the Charleston when she was a wild woman of the '20s, and I think I got it from her. I guess I'll never have a cool rock 'n' roll dance."

Yet, despite his quirks, or better yet, because of them, Dave has managed to win our hearts. He has proven himself brilliant through his beautifully complex melodies and his intensely emotional lyrics, but still he remains modest and completely down-to-earth. So many of his songs are filled with sadness, and yet he can always make us laugh. Not to mention he's gorgeous.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on January 9, 1967, Dave moved with his parents and siblings Anne, Peter, and Jane to the US when he was only 2 years old. His father, John Matthews, worked for IBM, and his mother, Val, was a painter and architect. However, eight years later his father died of lung cancer, and the family returned to South Africa to be with their relatives. In the case for Dave's solo album, Some Devil, it's written, "My father has been dead for over twenty years. I still want him to proud of me."

Not much is known about Dave's childhood and teenage years; however, certain things can be pieced together from various remarks he's made over the years. In one interview, the interviewer asked, "Dave, what were you like as a kid? Were you a class clown, class bully?" To which Dave replied, "No, I wasn't a bully. I was a swell, nice guy. I was a class clown. No, I wasn't a class clown. In school I kinda kept to myself. No...I'm trying to design an interesting childhood. I was tortured as a child. It's hard to see what kind of kid you were. I liked all my teachers and my teachers liked me, except for Ms. Dixon, but then she came around." Although this is a somewhat ambiguous statement, Dave tends to joke around a lot about his being a bit of a social misfit. Dave and Stefan Lessard had the following conversation in another interview:
S: I was the odd man out in most situations.
D: Did you get you get your ass beat?
S: Yeah.
D: I always love it when people who beat your ass or beat my ass come up and say, "They were all jokes. Hey dude, can I get some tickets?" Yeah, you can get some tickets, if you go down to Ticketmaster, and put your money down, you can get some tickets.

Dave's history with music, on the other hand, is much more well-known. "When I was young I would hold a tennis racket and pretend I was a rockstar." He began teaching himself the guitar at a young age by learning his favourite Beatles tunes. Dave soon moved into darker music- "I mean, I was a teenager; I was pissed. I was in South Africa; I was really pissed." He has said that the artist who most influenced him as a teenager was Bob Marley.

After graduating from high school, Dave moved back to the US to avoid compulsory military service in South Africa; his family strongly opposed Apartheid and he therefore refused to fight for his corrupt government. He settled in Charlottesville, Virginia. He took a job as a bartender at a bar called Miller's, and it was here that he would come to meet Carter Beauford and LeRoi Moore. He served drinks to both of them for quite some time without ever considering the notion of forming a band with them. "Years before we got together in the band, I knew LeRoi- he played at Miller's a lot- and we used to get drunk together, sit at the bar and get into fights… I don't think he liked me much, and I think a lot of it was that I was a white South African. That was often the topic of conversation- racism. But we became good friends."

At this point Dave was beginning to write his own music, but could not build up the confidence to share it with anyone. He eventually played his songs for two of his friends, and both urged him to make a tape and attempt to gather some band members. Dave has claimed that his turning point occurred when he returned to South Africa during an "angry" period of his life, and shaved off all of his hair, having had long hair all throughout his teenage years. After returning to Virginia, he handed both Carter and LeRoi a tape of his music, and both fell instantly in love. Eventually both Stefan and Boyd joined the band, and in 1990, the Dave Matthews Band was officially formed.

The band was immediately well-received, and began playing in various clubs. They released two private albums, "Remember Two Things" and "Recently." This period of Dave's life is perhaps most prominently marked by his relationship with Julia Grey. Apparently, Dave proposed to her three times, being turned down each time. "I'll Back You Up," which appears on "Remember Two Things," is said to have been written as a proposal to her, while "Halloween," which appears on "Recently," is basically a "screw you" song, written after he was turned down for the third time.

The band's popularity continued to rise, and they began to record their first official album, "Under the Table and Dreaming." However, it was at this point that tragedy struck Dave's family. In 1994, Dave's older sister, Anne, was killed by her husband, who subsequently shot himself. Dave and his younger sister, Jane, were left to care for Anne's children. When "Under the Table and Dreaming" was released, Dave dedicated it to her; it is written inside the case, "In Memory of Anne." Although Dave has very rarely spoken of the incident, he claims that this, along with his father's death, has given him more motivation to make the most of his life, since life can be evidently taken away at any time.

After the release of their first official album, DMB were an instant hit. And after the release of "Crash," their second album, this only heightened. However, although Dave was very much enjoying his rise in popularity, he was beginning to become somewhat conflicted. As described in one Rolling Stone article, "Matthews had been grappling inwardly with the warring parts of his nature: the goodtime entertainer, the self-described "ambitious mother-fucker" who wanted to take the band to the top, and the private, solitary songwriter who views his own "massively overfed ego" with true contempt and who, even when ripping it up on stage in front of 5000 people, can yearn to be as he once put it in a song as "by myself again.""

At first this inner struggle was not a serious issue, but it only continued to grow, and eventually, Dave began to descend into what was probably the lowest point of his adult life. Although there was always a dark side to Dave's music ("Rhyme and Reason," on the band's first album, is one of the darkest songs he's ever written), this darkness began to intensify around the time of the release of "Before These Crowded Streets," their third album. Dave took to drinking heavily, and began to fall into a state of depression. "I was depressed. I lived upstairs in the playroom and really lost- It was not a good time for me. […] I was feeling remarkably alone."

For a while, he managed to hide it from the public, since he didn't " like to be outwardly troubled." However, the band eventually began to notice. Carter remarked, "Dave was at a breaking point. You could see it. We would be in the studio working on a tune, and then, all of a sudden, he would get up and not say anything and just shove his guitar to the side and go outside."

His emotional state was also starting to come across in his music; the band began working on an album they were tentatively calling "The Summer So Far," but Dave's new songs were lacking the uplifting, energetic feel that usually characterised his music. His voice had also lost that same feel, and was coming across as lifeless. "I think 'Grace is Gone' is one of the best songs I've ever written. I love 'Digging a Ditch.' I like the song 'Busted Stuff.' But they're all a little bit blue. I don't want to be someone who writes about how sad I am, I'd rather write about those same topics, but with a little momentum. With some sort of strength. Otherwise, I don't think there's any gift - or offering - being made. I would like to be an inspiring force. I want the music to make people think, but not think, "What's the point?" I was choking. Every song was about dying. Not about living regardless of the fact that we're going to die."

The band decided that the best way to get out of their situation was to drop "The Summer So Far" and restart from scratch. Dave decided to team up with Glen Ballard to create an entirely new album, with an entirely new sound. At first, Dave was a little wary of writing with Glen; "I'd got further and further away from sharing myself. I got more and more internalised over the last five years and more and more afraid of what I wrote so that I was even afraid to present things that were new." However, the album that came out of those sessions, "Everyday," essentially saved Dave's life; he finally felt good about what he'd accomplished.

In 2000, the same year that "Everyday" was released, Dave was married to his girlfriend of eight years, Jennifer Ashley Harper. They moved from Charlottesville, Virginia to Seattle so that Ashley could continue her studies. A year later, the couple gave birth to twins Grace Anne and Stella Busina. Dave also cut back on his excessive drinking. "I'm not going to do anything rash."

The band was eventually able to come back to their songs from "The Summer So Far," but not without some reverse effects. The original recordings had leaked onto the internet, and were now very well-known among fans as "The Lillywhite Sessions." This made it difficult for the band to come back to them- their new album needed to be truly new. However, this proved a relatively easy task; when singing the songs from a happier place, they gained a whole new sound, and although a lot of sadness still plagues "Busted Stuff," it is much more reminiscent of DMB's earlier music than were the Lillywhite Sessions. "I feel like I've finished the picture. I'd left those songs in an ugly little pile. Going back was like seeing old friends again."

Shortly after the release of "Busted Stuff," Dave went off on his own to produce his first solo album, "Some Devil." Although many fans have been worried that this may be the sign of a potential break-up, Dave has assured everyone that it is nothing of the sort. "The band is in as good a place as it's ever been. We'd just put out a lot of stuff - a live record and a studio record. It would have been kinda nuts to go back in and do another album right then. So it was a good opportunity for me to do some stuff that I wouldn't have done with the band. I'm all for going on sabbaticals, whether it's a vacation or playing with different cats. It makes you open your mind a little bit, so you can have a little more to offer to the band. They're my family, more than anything else. I can't get rid of them!"