Jack Dishel is an American singer-songwriter. Dishel was frontman of the New York City band Stipplicon, lead guitarist for The Moldy Peaches and is currently pursuing his individual project Only Son. When playing as a full band, Only Son includes Rick Snell on guitar, Shawn Feeney on bass, Jesse Wallace on drums and Jon Natchez/Ryan Smith on keyboards. Dishel is married to Regina Spektor.

Only Son is the band name of NYC-based songwriter Jack Dishel. Born in Moscow and raised from early childhood in New York, Dishel has been releasing records and playing in New York bands since the late 1990s. Only Son's first album, "The Drop To The Top" was released in 2006 and features eleven songs, including "My Museum", "Long Live The Future", "Sleepyface" and "Brand New Broken Heart". He toured the world in support of the album for two years opening for Regina Spektor and former bandmate Adam Green. The second Only Son album, titled "Searchlight", was released January 18, 2011 and features "Magic", whose video was directed by Adria Petty. It can be seen on Only Son's YouTube channel.

Regina Ilyinichna Spektor (Russian: Реги́нa Ильи́нична Спе́ктор, IPA: [rʲɪˈɡʲinə ˈspʲɛktər], English: /rɨˈdʒiːnə ˈspɛktər/; born February 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City's East Village.

Spektor was born in Moscow, Soviet Union in 1980 to a musical Russian Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, is a photographer and amateur violinist. Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Soviet college of music and now teaches at a public elementary school in Mount Vernon, New York. She has a brother Barry (Bear), who was featured in track 7, "* * *", or "Whisper", of her 2004 album, Soviet Kitsch.

She learned how to play piano by practising on a Petrof upright that was given to her mother by her grandfather. She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles, Queen, and The Moody Blues by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union. The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. Regina had to leave her piano behind. The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not leaving the USSR, but they finally decided to emigrate, due to the ethnic and political discrimination that Jews faced. Spektor is fluent in Russian and reads Hebrew, and has since paid tribute to her Russian heritage, quoting the poem February by the Russian poet Boris Pasternak in her song Après Moi, and stating “I’m very connected to the language and the culture.”

Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty (born October 20, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr. and Muddy Wilbury.

He has recorded a number of hit singles with the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist, many of which remain heavily played on adult contemporary and classic rock radio. His music, and notably his hits, have become popular among younger generations as he continues to host sold-out shows. Throughout his career, Petty and his collaborators have sold 60 million albums.

Tom Petty was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, and attended Gainesville High School. His interest in rock and roll music began at age 10 when he met Elvis Presley. In the summer of 1961, his uncle was working on the set of Presley's film Follow That Dream in nearby Ocala, Florida and invited Petty to come down and watch the shoot. He instantly became an Elvis Presley fan and soon traded his Wham-O slingshot for a box of Elvis 45s. In a 2006 interview on the National Public Radio program Fresh Air, Petty said that he knew he wanted to be in a band the moment he saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. One of his first guitar teachers was Don Felder, a fellow Gainesville resident, who would later join the Eagles. As a young man, Petty worked briefly on the grounds crew for the University of Florida, but never attended as a student. An Ogeechee lime tree that he planted while employed at the University is now called the Tom Petty tree.

Samuel Lincoln "Sam" Seder (born November 28, 1966) is a comedian, writer, actor, film director, television producer-director, and talk radio host. Seder was born in New York City, New York into a Jewish family, and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts.

His works include the film Who’s the Caboose (1997) as well as the television shows Beat Cops (2001) and Pilot Season (2004). He also appeared in Next Stop Wonderland (1998). Seder also made guest appearances on Spin City (1997), Sex and the City (2000) and America Undercover (2005).

In March 2004, Seder became co-host along with Janeane Garofalo on Air America Radio's The Majority Report. In July 2006 Garofalo departed the show, offering positive comments about working with Seder. Seder was later offered a new contract with Air America Radio, and his show moved from the 7-10PM (Eastern) spot to a 9AM-Noon spot, retitled The Sam Seder Show.

On September 1, 2004, Sam Seder was briefly detained by the United States Secret Service during his live, on-site coverage of the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden. Shortly after Zell Miller gave his speech, Seder began searching (with a sign in hand) on the convention floor for a willing homosexual Republican to interview live on radio. It was not long before he was physically removed from the floor and after brief questioning, was asked (or according to some, "strongly encouraged") to leave the convention. Seder later commented that his wearing of a lapel pin that he had been given by a Secret Service agent at the Democratic National Convention earlier that year had kept him from being ejected from the convention completely.

Michael Ian Black (born Michael Ian Schwartz; August 12, 1971) is an American comedian, actor, writer and director. He has starred in several TV comedy series, including The State, Ed, Viva Variety, Stella, and Michael & Michael Have Issues. He is also a prominent poker player, appearing on Celebrity Poker Showdown several times. He released a children's book, Chicken Cheeks, in 2009.

Black was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jill, a store owner, and Robert Schwartz, an executive. He grew up in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, where he attended Hillsborough High School. His parents divorced when he was three years old. When he was twelve, his father died during neurological surgery following a mysterious assault. His birth name, Schwartz, is derived from the German word "schwarz," which has the same meaning as his stage name, Black. Schwartz changed his name to Michael Ian Black because there was already a popular actor named Michael Schwartz.

Black attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in New York and Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, but later dropped out.