Kevin Rutmanis was born Kevins Roberts Visvaldis Rutmanis in the Bronx, New York in 1958 to Latvian immigrants. Kevin's family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska afterwards. Rutmanis completed a public school education where he excelled in music playing the piano and cello. He moved to the Minneapolis area in 1976. Rutmanis attended the University of Minnesota where he befriended Thor Eisentrager. In late 1985, Kevin, Thor, Kevin's younger brother Sandris Rutmanis, and then Jayhawks drummer Norm Rogers started the band The Cows. After the dissolution of The Cows, Kevin was the bass guitar player for The Melvins from 1998 to 2005. Kevin was also the bass guitarist in the supergroup Tomahawk featuring Mike Patton. Kevin played bass on Tomahawk's first two CDs titled Tomahawk and Mit Gas, and played for two world tours supporting those CDs. He is currently in the band Hepatitis.