Mount Vernon High School alum Dan Bern is being inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Labor Day weekend Sept. 1 through Sept. 4.
“It’s an honor I never expected,” Bern said. “I wish Dick Peters was still around. He was such a great teacher and he’d probably get a kick out of it.”
Bern, a 1977 graduate, is one of the individuals to be inducted in the individual Hall of Fame Class of 2022.
Bern notes he came from a very musical family, with his dad, Julian, a concert pianist who taught at Cornell. His mother was a pianist, singer and also wrote poetry. His sister Jennifer was also a great singer and actor who paved the way for him in his own pursuits.
“I did every music and drama thing we could do in school,” Bern said. “Mrs. Palmer in elementary school opened us to a lot of different kinds of music, listening and playing. Lois Nichols, Gladys Rife and Linda Bergman were great music and theater teachers/directors. Mr. Nichols got us started writing songs. In junior high, Steve Sargent and I made up songs to and from school. In high school, Eric Bostwick and I did the same as we drove around.”
Bern notes he was a Monkees and Beatles fan, but when he heard musicians like Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, and the blues and country greats, he realized musicians could do it on their own.
“I’ve had bands throughout the years, for touring and recording, but I’ve been a solo artist a lot,” Bern said.
Bern has released more than 30 albums and EPs since 1977, and played shows across North America and Europe. For the past 30 years he has been solely focused on his music. Prior to making music a full-time career, he helped teach tennis to help pay the bills. He taught Wilt Chamberlain how to serve when he was in Los Angeles.
His music has also appeared in numerous films and television shows.
“One of my favorite things has been writing songs for movie and TV projects,” Bern said. “I wrote or co-wrote a bunch of songs for the Judd Apatow-produced movies, ‘Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story’ and ‘Get Him to the Greek.’ I wrote and performed all the songs for two seasons of a kids’ cartoon, ‘The Stinky and Dirty Show’ on Amazon Prime.”
He co-wrote a song that will be featured in the next Judd Apatow film, “The Bubble,” to be released this April. The song will be sung by Adam Levine.
While the music business has always been a challenge, he views it as the best job in the world.
“There’s a lot of variety and I love traveling and connecting with people along the way,” he said. “The pandemic has been a new challenge, with the touring mostly on hiatus, but I’ve enjoyed doing live stream shows, which I call ‘Hunkered in the Bunker.’”
Bern was scheduled to tour with Roger Daltrey in a number of West Coast shows in summer 2021, but those had to be postponed due to the pandemic.
Bern lives with his wife, Danielle, and daughter, Lulu, in New Mexico.
During the pandemic, he was able to help home school his daughter for her sixth-grade year, which he really enjoyed.