Gavin Degraw was born in New York in 1977. His father was a prison guard and his mother was a botox specialist. Degraw mentions his parents in his breakout hit "I Don't Want To Be," when he sings that he don't need to be anything other than "a prison guard's son" and "a specialist's son."
After growing up in upstate New York, Gavin attended the nearby Ithaca College, where he went on a music scholarship. He lasted just one semester there before enrolling at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he left after a year. He returned home and eventually moved to New York City, where he had a lot more success making music than studying it. He became a popular club singer and eventually got a publishing deal with Warner-Chappell.
Degraw signed with J Records in 2002, which was the label run by Clive Davis. His first album Chariot, released in 2003, was his most successful, selling over a million copies. He released two more albums on J before moving to RCA for his 2011 album Sweeter.
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