Widespread Panic is a southern rock band from Athens, Georgia. Founded in 1985 as a weekly jam session at the Uptown Lounge in Athens, the band tours widely, drawing particularly large audiences near its origins in the southeastern United States. The founding members of the group are guitarist/ singer John Bell, guitarist Michael Houser and bassist Dave Schools. Drummer Todd Nance would soon join, and percusionist Sonny Ortiz and keyboardist John Hermann joined in the early 1990s.
