Survivor is an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1978 by guitarist/songwriter Jim Peterik. The band achieved its greatest success in the 1980s, garnering many charting singles, especially in the United States. The band is best known for its double platinum-certified 1982 hit "Eye of the Tiger," the theme song for the motion picture Rocky III (US number 1 for 6 weeks). Singles like "Burning Heart" (US number 2), "The Search Is Over" (US number 4), "High on You" (US number 8), "Is This Love" (US number 9) and "I Can't Hold Back" (US number 13) continued to chart in the mid-1980s.
The band tweaked its musical direction in 1988 with the release of the slightly heavier Too Hot to Sleep, but due to lackluster promotion the album barely reached the Billboard 200 in the United States. Because of this and tension between founding members, the band split.
Singer Jimi Jamison later toured as "Survivor" in the mid-1990s without the permission of the rest of the band, but reunited with guitarist Frankie Sullivan in 2000. The band then released Reach in 2006, but Jamison left again after its release and was replaced by singer Robin McAuley. Survivor continued to tour with McAuley into 2011 until Jamison returned later that year.
An announcement on November 13, 2011 by McAuley on his Facebook page revealed that he had left Survivor. A subsequent announcement on November 18, 2011 confirmed that Jamison had rejoined the band and a tour was to take place in 2012.
In April 2013 it was announced by the band's official media sources that guitarist Frankie Sullivan had reunited the current Survivor line-up with original singer Dave Bickler, with the band now having their two most popular vocalists together for the next tour, Bickler and Jamison.
On September 1, 2014 Jamison died of what was believed to be a heart attack in his home in Memphis, TN, at the age of 63. His autopsy released on November 11, 2014 revealed the actual cause of death to be a hemorrhagic brain stroke, with "acute methamphetamine intoxication contributing."