John Bell is an American singer and musician from Buffalo, New York, who emerged in the mid-1980s as the frontman of the rock band Widespread Panic, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1986 and rooted in southern rock, blues and jam-band traditions. His musical style blends blues-inflected rock with extended improvisation and narrative lyricism, and across decades his performances and songwriting have contributed to the touring-focused jam-band scene and the broader southern US rock cultural context.