Tim Rice-Oxley - Life and Career

Life and Career

He was born in Oxford, England to Charles Patrick and Margaret Rice-Oxley. He went to Tonbridge School, Kent with his best friends at the time, Richard Hughes and Tom Chaplin. Rice-Oxley's and Chaplin's mothers had become friends as Rice-Oxley's brother (also named Tom) was born soon after Chaplin, with their mothers becoming friends. He had piano lessons when he was a teenager but admitted to hating them and never practicing pieces because they were all classical music which he found boring. After his parents stopped his lessons, he developed a liking for piano and so taught himself how to play, mainly because of The Beatles. Later, Rice-Oxley would give Chaplin after-school piano lessons.

In 1994, he began studying for a degree in Classics at University College London, where Hughes studied Geography. Friend and guitarist Dominic Scott suggested to Rice-Oxley that they form a band and he agreed. The two asked Hughes to join on drums. While there, he met Chris Martin, who was creating demos at the time with Coldplay. Rice-Oxley was invited by Martin to join after listening to his piano playing during a weekend at Virginia Water in Surrey, but declined in order to concentrate on Keane with his friends.

Tim lives in Polegate, East Sussex with his wife, Jayne Rice-Oxley, whom he married in February 2005. Chaplin was the best man at their wedding. He has two daughters; Lilac, born on 22 September 2007, and a baby daughter.