My Morning Jacket Artistfacts

1998-
Jim JamesVocals, guitars
Tom BlankenshipBass
Johnny QuaidGuitar1998–2004
J. GlennDrums1998–2000
Chris "KC" GuetigDrums2000–2002
Danny CashKeyboards2000–2004
Patrick HallahanDrums2002-
Bo KosterKeyboards2004-
Carl BroemelGuitar2004-
In 2005, My Morning Jacket lent two songs to the soundtrack of the film Elizabethtown under the name Ruckus. One of the songs was called "Same In Any Language" and was actually written by Nancy Wilson of Heart.
My Morning Jacket's 2003 song "One Big Holiday" is largely considered to be their breakout song. The signature guitar riff, along with lyrics about how the band was discovered, makes it a fan favorite at live shows. In July 2009, it was announced that "One Big Holiday" would be a playable track in the video game Guitar Hero 5.
My Morning Jacket's song "Run Thru," from their major-label debut album It Still Moves, was featured on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. "Run Thru" landed at #99, just below the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 1991 hit "Under The Bridge" at #98.
In 2008, My Morning Jacket played an epic show at Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee. The set started at midnight on a Friday night and featured collaborations with Kirk Hammett of Metallica, actor Zach Galifianakis, and the Nashville-Louisville horn section.
My Morning Jacket was forced to cancel their fall European tour in 2008 after lead singer Jim James fell off the stage in Iowa City, Iowa. James was injured but recovered without any permanent damage. He admitted the experience affected him deeply, and it was still on his mind when he wrote "Compound Fracture" for the band's 2015 Waterfall album.
Frontman Jim James and the rest of My Morning Jacket once appeared in the animated TV show American Dad! My Morning Jacket played themselves in a Season 5 episode called "My Morning Straitjacket" where main character Stan Smith (the Dad) becomes obsessed with the band after trying to ban his daughter Hayley from listening to them. The band performed a handful of tunes from their 2008 Evil Urges album, including the polarizing track "Highly Suspicious."
My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James is a huge fan of the late Jim Henson, calling him "one of the greatest artists of all time." James and the rest of the band were slated to voice a new iteration of The Muppets band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, but the project was dropped when their producer was let go due to a takeover by Disney. A couple of the song ideas they had for the project ended up being fleshed out and included on their 2011 Circuital album ("Wonderful (The Way I Feel)" and "Outta My System").
Jim James came up with the band's moniker after he found a discarded jacket with the letters MMJ stitched on it.
When asked in a 2025 Reddit AMA what the band's go-to karaoke songs are, drummer Patrick Hallahan chose Madonna's "Crazy For You," keyboardist Bo Koster picked Journey's "Faithfully," and bassist Tom Blankenship chose Garth Brooks' "The Dance." Blankenship also added that his favorite guilty pleasure song is the Beverly Hills, 90210 soundtrack staple "The Right Kind Of Love" by Jeremy Jordan.
My Morning Jacket have experimented with several different genres on their albums over the years, but they're also known for mixing it up on their choice of cover songs during live performances. One of their favorites is Erykah Badu's 1997 soul classic "Tyrone," which they included in the setlist for their famed Bonnaroo performance. A couple months later, Badu joined MMJ on stage in Dallas for a duet of the tune. They reunited for the band's Unstaged concert special in 2011, singing "Tyrone" and other songs at the Louisville Palace Theater.
Prior to My Morning Jacket's 10th studio album, frontman Jim James produced or co-produced all of the band's material, sometimes with help from outside producers like John Leckie (Z), Joe Chiccarelli (Evil Urges), and Tucker Martine (Circuital, The Waterfall). But the band's 2025 album, Is, marked the first time James ever gave control of the entire production over to someone else: Brendan O'Brien, a powerhouse producer who previously worked with Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam.

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