Steve Poltz (born February 19, 1960) is a Canadian-born American singer-songwriter and guitarist based in San Diego, California. He is a founding member of the indie-rock band The Rugburns and is best known for co-writing the Jewel song " You Were Meant For Me."
As a solo artist, he often performs acoustic-only "good old-fashioned sing-along" shows. His songs feature simple, poignant melodies, and quirky, satirical lyrics.
Poltz was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and later immigrated with his family to Palm Springs, California. After graduating from the University of San Diego with a degree in political science, he met guitarist Robert Driscoll and formed The Rugburns.
Poltz and his bandmates developed a local and national cult following by playing coffeehouses and bars. While performing dates at the Innerchange Coffeehouse in San Diego, he formed a professional and personal relationship with Jewel, frequently opening for her on tours, co-writing songs, and appearing in her music video for "You Were Meant For Me."
In 1998, Poltz released his first solo album, One Left Shoe for Mercury Records. A disagreement in the artistic direction of his material led to him leaving the label and forming his own company, 98 Pounder Records. Five years later, he recorded Chinese Vacation, an album heavily influenced by the events of September 11th and the murder of one of his closest friends.
Recently, Poltz has also collaborated as a songwriter with A. J. Croce on Croce's 2004 album Adrian James Croce.
Answering Machine is a self-released album composed of 56 separate 45-second songs which Poltz recorded as outgoing messages on his telephone message recorder while he was on tour. Reportedly, it is one of Neil Young's favorite records. According to his website biography, he considers "Everything About You" to be the favorite among his own songs. It appears on the soundtrack album to the movie Notting Hill. He was awarded the title of “San Diego’s Most Influential Artist of the Decade” at the 2000 San Diego Music Awards.