Rob Burns (born Robert George Henry Burns, 24 February 1953), earlier also known as Robbie Burns, is an English-born New Zealand bass player, author and academic. Burns' career spans five decades, encompassing musical genres such as pop, rock, R&B, soul, jazz, gospel, folk, and country. From the late 1970s until 1999 he toured and worked several sessions a week for artists of international fame, as well as for many major British TV shows, before embarking upon an academic career.