The son of two preachers, music played an important role in Joe’s life early on. As a musician and singer of his parents’ church, the Georgia native’s early musical influences include gospel greats such as The Winans, Commissioned and Vanessa Bell Armstrong (with whom he’d later also work with). He eventually discovered secular acts like Bobby Brown and Keith Sweat and after playing in local bands, set his sites on a career in music. After graduating high school, Joe bought a one-way ticket to New York to pursue his dream. His melodic and instrument-playing skills would serve him well – it enabled him to produce his own three-song demo, which eventually lead to a label deal and the 1993 release of Everything.

Between 1997 and 2002, Joe would release three more albums. All That I Am (1997), his debut for Jive, and Better Days (2002) sold well, but it was 2000’s My Name Is Joe that catapulted his career to new heights. The album debuted at number-two on the Billboard Top 200 and the singles “I Wanna Know” and the remix for “Stutter” featuring Mystikal both went to the top five on the singles chart (number-one and number-four, respectively).I got this from someone elses website.