Big Head Todd & The Monsters

Big Head Todd & the Monsters have built a lasting career in rock through their laid-back jam-band leanings and affinity for blues, rock, and funk sounds. Fronted by singer and guitarist Todd Park Mohr, the outfit surfaced in the mid-1980s before reaching mainstream audiences in 1993 via the platinum-certified third album Sister Sweetly. Although subsequent releases never replicated that level of commercial performance, the group has sustained a devoted audience across the years, earning regular festival slots while delivering a consistent flow of live and studio projects such as Riviera (2002), Rocksteady (2010), and Her Way Out (2024).

Todd Park Mohr on guitar and vocals, Rob Squires on bass and vocals, and Brian Nevin on drums and vocals formed BHT in Boulder, Colorado. The three friends from high school started the band in 1986 during their time at the University of Colorado. They quickly built a following across their home state and began regular tours along the West Coast and through the Mountain States. Their debut album, Another Mayberry, came out in 1989 on their own imprint, Big Records. Midnight Radio, a set of live recordings, became BHT's second release in 1990.

Growing popularity drew attention from major labels, leading to a contract with Giant Records under the Warner Bros. distribution umbrella. Sister Sweetly, their first Giant effort from 1993, achieved platinum status on the strength of the hit singles "Bittersweet," "Circle," and "Broken Hearted Savior," after which the band joined the 1993 H.O.R.D.E. touring festival as a headliner. They moved swiftly into a follow-up with Strategem in 1994. Following extensive touring, the group returned to the studio for 1997's Beautiful World, which featured guest contributions from John Lee Hooker and P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell. Live Monsters, captured during one of their H.O.R.D.E. performances, surfaced in 1998. By the arrival of Riviera in 2002, Giant had shuttered, prompting the band to reactivate Big Records for its distribution.

The lineup grew to a quartet when Jeremy Lawton joined on keyboards and pedal steel guitar in time for the 2004 concert album Live at the Fillmore. That same year, BHT also put out the Sanctuary Records studio release Crimes of Passion. In 2005 the band issued a digital single of "Blue Sky," written and recorded to commemorate the Discovery Space Shuttle mission crew; the track later served as a campaign song during Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential run. All the Love You Need arrived in 2007, marking a return to the Big label, with Rocksteady following in 2010. BHT next explored classic blues material through the Big Head Blues Club project 100 Years of Robert Johnson, a 2011 collection marking the centennial of his birth that included guest spots from B.B. King, Charlie Musselwhite, Hubert Sumlin, Cedric Burnside, and others.

The band resumed its core style for 2014's Black Beehive, while the concert document Live at Red Rocks 2015 appeared the next year. Another Big Head Blues Club outing, Way Down Inside, emerged in 2016 as a tribute to the songs of Willie Dixon and featured Billy Branch, Ronnie Baker Brooks, and Mud Morganfield, son of the legendary Muddy Waters. Big Head Todd & the Monsters delivered the self-produced New World Arisin' in November 2017. Two live albums, Live at the Belly Up and We're Gonna Play It Anyway – Red Rocks, arrived in 2020, followed by the band's twelfth studio effort, Her Way Out, in 2024.