David Was

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David Was (born David Weiss; 26 October 1952) is, with his stage-brother Don Was, the founder of the influential 1980s pop group, Was (Not Was).

Was was born in Detroit, Michigan. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Was fled his native Detroit for California, and found employment as the jazz critic for the now-defunct Hearst daily, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, where he forged friendships with Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis, and Mel Tormé.

With his childhood friend Don Was he went on to form Was (Not Was), providing the lyrics and playing various instruments, primarily flute and harmonica. Reviewed by The New York Times in 1980 as "the funkier art-funk band" (comparing them to Talking Heads), Was (Not Was) used members of Funkadelic, alongside jazz legends like trumpeter Marcus Belgrave; and singers Mel Tormé,and Ozzy Osbourne. They released five albums and enjoyed four Top 10 singles worldwide. They continue to tour, their most recent album being issued in 2008.

In other projects, Was produced two soundtrack albums for the X-Files TV show and feature film, as well as music supervised features for Fox and Disney. He joined the ranks of network music composers on CBS Education of Max Bickford, starring Richard Dreyfuss, and also did the music for ABC's "That Was Then." His theme music introduces Fox Sports' "NFL Pregame Show." As a record producer, he has also worked with Bob Dylan, Rickie Lee Jones, Roy Orbison, k.d. lang, Wayne Kramer (of MC5 fame) and the Holly Cole Trio of Canada.