   john elefante (born march 18, 1958) is an american singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer. he is known for his tenure as frontman of the rock group kansas and is currently touring with several super groups that have featured members from classic rock bands ==early years== born in levittown, new york, his family soon moved to long beach, california. growing up, he sang and performed drums for his family band, the brotherhood. as an artist, his credits include writing and singing lead vocals on three multi-platinum albums; as producer, his albums have earned numerous gma dove awards, four grammy awards (most recently in 2000) and ten grammy nominations. he has maintained a close working relationship with his brother, dino (co-writer of several kansas songs), throughout his career and has been married since 1986 and has three children. ==1981â1985== his career began in earnest when a young john elefante auditioned as the new lead singer and keyboardist for kansas, in 1981. that year, the band was one of the top-grossing concert acts in the world.pollstar and elefante had never been in a band apart from his family. although several of the top vocalists of the day applied for the job (e.g. sammy hagar, doug pinnick, jim stafford), elefante received the part. elefante sang the lead vocals and performed keyboards on two kansas albums. he was also a major songwriting contributor (along with lead guitarist/keyboardist/songwriter kerry livgren). on 1982's vinyl confessions, he co-wrote and sang the no. 4 billboard mainstream rock hit, "play the game tonight". he also wrote the acoustic-based classic "chasing shadows", along with the top 40 single, "right away". the next year, on the following album, drastic measures, he wrote the early mtv favorite,
1958_births American_Christians American_people_of_Italian_descent American_performers_of_Christian_music American_rock_singers Grammy_Award-winning_artists Kansas_(band)_members Living_people People_from_Levittown,_New_York