Todd Nance is an American musician. He is best known as the original drummer of Widespread Panic, a band he was a member of until his departure in 2016.
Life and career
Early life
Todd Nance was born on November 20, 1962 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a child he began playing the guitar before being given his first drum kit on Christmas 1975. It was around this time that he attended his first concert, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and was inspired to pursue music more seriously. He first met his future Widespread Panic bandmate Michael Houser while in high school in 1977 or 1978 and they formed the bandJust Us together. Following his graduation from high school in 1981, Nance moved to Atlanta, Georgia.
Widespread Panic
In 1986 he reconnected with Michael Houser and joined the band that Houser had formed with John Bell and Dave Schools. The quartet performed their first show as Widespread Panic in February 1986. They developed a local following around Athens, Georgia before developing into a nationally known act. Nance played drums on the band's first elevenstudio albums. Along with all the other members of Widespread Panic, Nance was a member of the band brute. between 1995 and 2002. This band consisted of everyone in Widespread Panic at the time and Vic Chesnutt. They released two albums, Nine High a Pallet and Co-Balt. He took a hiatus from Widespread Panic beginning in late 2014 to deal with personal matters. He was replaced for all live dates by Duane Trucks. He rejoined the band for four shows in February 2016 at their "Panic en La Playa" destination event. Following this, Widespread Panic announced that Nance had officially left the band and would be replaced by Trucks permanently.
Other projects
Nance cofounded the supergroupBarbara Cue in 1997 with William Tonks, John Neff, Jon Mills and Crumpy Edwards. The project was originally formed as an NRBQcover band but soon developed their own material and ended up recording and releasing three studio albums. During his hiatus from Widespread Panic Nance performed sporadically with a band billed as Todd Nance & Friends. Some musicians who have performed with him in this group included Luther Dickinson, Jerry Joseph and David Barbe. Different versions of Todd Nance & Friends still perform regionally around Georgia. In addition to these bands, Nance has sat in with a number of bands following his hiatus and departure from Widespread Panic including Bloodkin and the Dyrty Byrds.
