
Ken Shumway
Bass/Vocals
BIO
Ken Shumway is the bass player/background vocalist for Toast.
His music background started as a youngster with several years of piano lessons. He later picked up the bass guitar in junior high and taught himself how to play by listening and following along to Gene Simmon’s bass lines on various Kiss albums. Shortly after, his long time friend and neighbor John Hanson (rhythm guitar/lead vocals in Vision, sound engineer in Toast) bought his first electric guitar and together they formed their first band in 1979.
In 1981 John and Ken were college roommates and at John’s request they both tried out for the college dance band. At the end of the tryout Ken was informed that the dance band already had a bass player in mind so they asked him if he could try doing some vocals. He performed “Believe It or Not” which is the theme song to the TV show “Greatest American Hero”. The band director liked what he heard so Ken spent the next two semesters performing and honing his skills as a lead vocalist.
In 1982 Ken joined Vision as a lead vocalist along with John Hanson on guitar and Brett Hart on drums. A few months later he became Vision’s bass player and has been going strong ever since. In 2019 Ken began writing/producing his own music with a small handful of songs he has published to his youtube channel.
In 2021 he filled in as a backup bass player on the 70s Rock n Romance cruise and a year later was asked to join Toast as their full-time bass player/background vocalist.
When Ken is not dabbling in music you will most likely find him with his wife riding bikes, playing pickleball, hanging with their kids/grandkids or traveling the world together.