Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American country singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actor. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television from 1969 until 1972.[2] He released 64 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album.
This article is about the country music singer. For other uses, see Glen Campbell (disambiguation).
Glen Campbell
August 8, 2017 (aged 81)
Campbell family cemetery, Billstown
- Guitarist
- singer
- songwriter
- actor
- television host
1950–2013
-
Diane Marie Kirk(m. 1955; div. 1959)
-
Billie Jean Nunley(m. 1959; div. 1976)
-
Sarah Barg Davis(m. 1976; div. 1980)
-
Kimberly Woollen(m. 1982)
9, including Ashley
- Vocals
- guitar
- banjo
- bagpipes
Born in Billstown, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as "The Wrecking Crew". After becoming a solo artist, he placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Among Campbell's hits are "Universal Soldier", his first hit from 1965, along with "Gentle on My Mind" (1967), "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (1967), "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" (1968), "Wichita Lineman" (1968), "Galveston" (1969), "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975), and "Southern Nights" (1977).[3]
In 1967, Campbell won four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For "Gentle on My Mind", he received two awards in country and western; "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owned trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA's top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Campbell played a supporting role in the film True Grit (1969), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. He also sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Early life[edit]
Glen Travis Campbell was born on April 22, 1936, in Billstown, a tiny community near Delight in Pike County, Arkansas, to John Wesley Campbell (a sharecropper) and Carrie Dell (née Stone) Campbell.[4] Campbell was of Scottish descent and was the seventh son of 12 children.[5][6] As a child he almost died from drowning.[7] His family went to the Church of Christ, and Campbell's brother Lindell became a Church of Christ minister.[7] In 2011, Campbell said his mother was Irish; although his mother was born in the United States, her family had emigrated from County Tipperary.[8] The family lived on a farm, where they barely managed, by growing cotton, corn, watermelons and potatoes. "We had no electricity," he said, and money was scarce. "A dollar in those days looked as big as a saddle blanket."[9] To supplement income the family picked cotton for other farmers. "I picked cotton for $1.25 a hundred pounds," Campbell said. "If you worked your tail off, you could pick 80 or 90 pounds a day."[10]
Campbell started playing guitar at age 4 after his father gave him a Sears-bought five-dollar guitar as a gift, with his uncle Boo teaching him the basics of how to play.[11] Most of his family was musical, he said. "Back home, everybody plays and sings."[12] By the time he was 6 he was performing on local radio stations.[2]
Campbell continued playing guitar in his youth, with no formal training, and practiced when he was not working in the cotton fields. He developed his talent by listening to radio and records and considered Django Reinhardt among his most admired guitarists, later calling him "the most awesome player I ever heard."[13][14] He dropped out of school in the 10th grade[7] at 14 to work in Houston alongside his brothers, installing insulation and later working at a gas station.[15]
Not satisfied with that kind of work, Campbell started playing music at fairs and church picnics and singing gospel hymns in the church choir. He was able to find spots performing on local radio stations, and after his parents moved to Houston, he made some appearances at a local nightclub.[15]
In 1954, at age 17, Campbell moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to join his uncle's band, known as Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys.[16] He also appeared there on his uncle's radio show[14] and on K Circle B Time, the local children's program on KOB television.[17] It was there that he met his first wife, whom he married when he was 18 and she was 16.[15]
In 1958, Campbell formed his own band, the Western Wranglers.[16] "We worked hard," he said. "Six, sometimes seven nights a week. I didn't have my eye set on any specific goals or big dreams."[9]