Passenger was born Michael Rosenberg on 17 May 1984 in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, England to an English mother and an American father. He learned classical guitar at a young age, and he started writing songs at around 14-15. He later left school to pursue a career in the music industry. "I dropped out of school at 17 'cause all I wanted to do was play music. I had odd jobs on the side of gigging until I turned 22, when I was lucky to start doing this full time. I believe it's important to put all of your energy into what you're doing rather than doing an office job and trying to muster up energy for music. It's been a real blessing to play music full time," he said.