Photography by: Lucas Purvis

Adoring fans repeatedly name him Austin’s best; more than 17,000 fans like his Facebook pages; and music critics drool over his releases. But the biggest smile lights Bob Schneider’s face when he talks about his young son.

Over lunch, oblivious to the hum and bustle of the crowd, his touching comments about his son flow, soon making it no surprise to hear the thing he is most proud of is being a father.

Not that the 45-year-old singer/songwriter doesn’t appreciate his fans. In fact, he’s most comfortable when he is performing. His favorite thing to do in Austin is play the Saxon Pub, a Monday night ritual that packs the gloriously seedy South Lamar club. Shy and gentle in person, there is a big change when he performs.

“Onstage, I feel I have permission to do or say anything I want,” he says. “But in real life, I’m constantly worried about what’s going to happen if I say or do something … I’m definitely a different person offstage than I am onstage.”

Schneider was destined to be a musician, growing up in a family where everyone sang just for the love of it. Family reunions, holidays and parties were filled with music, and his father – Robert L. Schneider – had a successful classical singing career in Germany. Taught by his father, Schneider played the guitar at 4 and the drums at 10, and he had his own band – Bitter Lemon – in junior high.

Yet, the visual arts were his first love. After two years, he dropped out of college studying art in El Paso to immerse himself in Austin’s music scene; today he is still an accomplished artist. He illustrates his own album covers and has a poetry and art blog. Earlier this year, Schneider’s work was part of the Austin Museum of Art’s critically acclaimed “Twenty Years of Printmaking at Flatbed Press” exhibition.

Looking back, that decision to drop out of college in 1988 and become yet another musician in Austin was taken with the casual invincibility typical of many 20-something-year-olds. Yet, Schneider was no typical 20-something wannabe. His career took off, and he has gone on to become the kind of musician with “icon” or “legend” attached to his name.

Schneider, his bands and his albums are multiple award winners. In 2010, he again swept the Austin Music Awards, winning Austin Band of the Year, Austin Musician of the Year, Austin Album of the Year and Best Male Vocal.

Although, the older he gets, the more relaxed he becomes about social interaction. Schneider still uses irony and self-deprecating humor as a shield or a deflector to keep those unpredictable social interactions at bay. He also would love to deflect all discussion and analysis of his art with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude.

“I figure my job is to write the best songs I can, perform them to the best of my ability and try to make that an entertaining experience for the audience member,” he says.

He also subscribes to the “reclusive, mysterious artist’s model … I’d prefer to create some story in my head about who the person is, rather than know what they’re doing. Then you realize they are just a regular person and not some kind of superhero.”

The true irony is that this reclusive introvert has a palpable connection with his fans, who cannot get enough of their superhero – onstage or online.

Despite his musical success, by the mid-1990s, Schneider was in a deep personal slump. The struggle of daily life was only bearable through a haze of alcohol.

“I started fantasizing about killing myself as a way out,” he says of those painful days.

Thankfully, while out in Los Angeles, he reconnected with a good friend from college who had quit drinking.

“Seeing a friend I’d partied with and who now wasn’t drinking, yet [was] still enjoying himself, had a big effect,” Schneider explains. That was the turning point for him to enter rehab.

Today, Schneider’s been sober for 15 years. He is now focused on building a life with his 5-year-old son. However, Schneider and his wife separated six months after their son was born, finalizing the divorce in 2009.

“The divorce was definitely the worst experience I’ve had to go through. The one real, true failure in my life was my marriage,” Schneider admits.

Yet from that failure, he has built not only a strong, loving relationship with his son, but also worked hard on himself.

“I just wanted to be a good dad, so I’ve made a lot changes in how I interact with people, and done a lot of therapy to try to be as good of a parent as possible,” he says.

What has he learned from all this? “The more painful it is, the more you’re going to learn from it.”

While he’s quick to point out that “it’s not ideal being single parents,” there has been an unexpected, yet welcome outcome for Schneider and his ex-wife.

“We’ve made the welfare of our son the most important thing for us,” he says. “Because of that, we’ve been able to have a really successful relationship as co-parents.”

Being a parent has also impacted Schneider’s attitude in his career. He had no manager for years, and believes “I let some opportunities slip through the cracks because of that.” Now, however, he has acquired management and an accountant. “It’s only been since my son was born that I really thought more about the long term.”

Schneider has fond memories of his own childhood growing up in Germany. “I was very proud of my dad as a performer and a singer,” he says. “They would have parties at the house, and he would pick up a guitar and just start playing … I thought it was a magical thing that he could light up a room.”

The years living in Germany have also left Schneider with affection for the country. However, these days, he’d prefer to stay close to Austin. He tours twice a year, but aims to be away from home no more than two weeks at a time. “Otherwise I miss my son too much,” Schneider says. “He is the most important thing in my life. I couldn’t live without him.”

Bob Schneider’s latest album, “A Perfect Day,” is due out April 19. For tour dates, benefits and local performances, including during SXSW, visit www.bobschneider.com.

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The Other Bob Schneider is a Classic

He cut an imposing figure standing at the piano. Yet it was his voice that hushed the room. As the soaring tones filled the air, Robert L. Schneider captured his Austin audience with the same ease as he captured audiences in opera houses across Germany.

A classically trained singer and voice coach, Schneider and his wife of 46 years, Katie, moved to Austin five years ago to enjoy their retirement. What drew this pair, who lived the majority of their married life in Germany, to Austin? They wanted to be near their oldest child, whom they still call Bobby, but who is better known to his fans as Bob Schneider. (As a bonus, at the time of the move, their daughter, Amy, was close by, living in Houston.)

Retirement? Make that semi-retirement for the Port Huron, Mich., native. Today, the bass baritone is teaching at the Harmony School of Arts in Marble Falls; substitute teaching in the Lake Travis school system; performing (including in a Gilbert and Sullivan Society principal role last summer); and auditioning, albeit locally and no longer for the likes of the Lübeck, Bremerhaven or Detmold opera companies.

He’s also on the faculty of the Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and recently was elected to the board of Austin’s Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

Truth be told, the thing he gets the biggest kick out of is performing with his son. “He’s always been very creative and very bright,” says the proud father. “As a boy, you’d show him a game like chess for five or 10 minutes, and he’d beat you after a couple of moves.”

What inspires the 68-year-old to keep up such an energetic pace? Well, he loves it – in fact, he’s passionate to the point of inspiration about the work to which he has devoted his life.

“Any time I see my students perform, any time I hear Bobby sing, it’s the very highlight,” Schneider says. “I want to give back by having people learn to sing, and enjoy the gift of singing.”