vocalist
Personal Information
Born on January 24, 1941, in New Orleans, Louisiana; son of a merchant marine sailor; mother's name Amelia; married wife Joel, 1959; four children. Religion: Roman Catholic.
Religion: Roman Catholic.
Career
Rhythm-and-blues vocalist. Worked in a variety of jobs, including longshoreman and truck driver, 1950s-1960s; performed with brothers as the Hawketts, 1950s, later as the Neville Brothers; solo career, 1960s-; released hit single "Tell It Like It Is," 1966; recorded duets with Linda Ronstadt, 1988; Neville Brothers signed to A&M label, 1989; signed with A&M as solo performer, 1991; participated in Rhythm, Country & Blues crossover album, 1993; released The Grand Tour, 1993.
Life's Work
With one of the most distinctive and refined tenor voices in pop music, Aaron Neville is a New Orleans-based vocalist who has enjoyed a long and successful career. Known for his 1960s classic "Tell It Like It Is," Neville often collaborates with other vocalists and with his siblings as a member of the Neville Brothers. He created a body of classic soul music in the 1960s and 1970s that collectors eagerly sought out and revived as the twentieth century drew to a close. Neville re-emerged during the 1990s as a ballad singer, most notably in duets with pop singer Linda Ronstadt and country diva Trisha Yearwood.
Aaron Neville was born in New Orleans on January 24, 1941, the son of a merchant marine sailor. Although he lived in poverty in the city's Calliope housing project, he enjoyed a happy childhood. Neville's mother "showed by actions," he told New Orleans Magazine. "She was just a nice person, so I guess I just picked that up from her. It was just so nice to be at our house. I can't imagine growing up in a better atmosphere." His mother sang to her children and nourished their special vocal gifts. "When I was about eight or nine," Neville recalled in the same interview, "I would sing my way into movies or basketball games or whatever. . . . Whoever was on the door, they knew I could sing, so they'd say, `All right, Neville, sing me a song and I'll let you in."
Served Prison Time
Neville and his brothers, Cyril, Charles, and Art, had begun performing in New Orleans during the mid-1950s as a rhythm and blues group called The Hawketts. In 1954, they scored a local hit with the song "Mardi Gras Mambo." Despite the prospect of a promising music career, Neville was arrested in 1958 for car theft and served six months in prison. "They had eight people in a cell designed to hold four," Neville told People magazine. "People sleeping all in the dayroom. Rats running over everything."
After his release from prison, Neville married his sweetheart Joel (pronounced Jo-el), and launched his solo recording career with the single "Over You." The single rose to the number 21 position on the national rhythm-and-blues charts. The success of "Over You" marked the beginning of a solo career that would span nearly 40 years.
Neville moved to Los Angeles and began a ten-year addiction to heroin. He also served another year in prison for burglary. Despite his legal troubles, Neville continued his musical career and teamed with his brothers in New Orleans as a member of the Neville Sounds. The Neville Sounds eventually evolved into The Meters, which became the house band for the great New Orleans producer Allen Toussaint. Neville teamed with Toussaint and recorded several solo records. He finally scored a hit with the 1966 single, "Tell It Like It Is." The song, which was an exquisitely romantic recasting of a popular expression used by the 1960s black power movement, climbed to number one on the rhythm-and-blues charts and number two on the pop charts. Like many African American recording artists of the day, Neville reaped little financial reward from the record's sales and was paid only a flat fee for the recording session.
Struggled to Make Ends Meet
Neville's solo releases from the 1960s have achieved legendary status among soul music enthusiasts and collectors. "The early sides of Aaron Neville are just waiting to be heard," wrote critics Michael Erlewine and Ron Wynn in The All-Music Guide to Rock. Because he earned very little money from his early recordings, Neville was forced to take jobs as a ditch digger and dockworker to support his family. He also struggled with heroin addiction to heroin and, for a time, put his music career on hold. "Those were some hard times," Neville's son Aaron Jr. told People. "We were eating mayonnaise sandwiches. And we didn't have a refrigerator. We had an ice chest."
In 1975, the Neville Brothers reunited following the death of their mother. They worked as a backup band for a "Mardi Gras Indians" band known as The Wild Tchoupitoulas and performed solo dates as well. During the late 1970s, the Neville Brothers recorded disco and pop tunes but achieved only moderate sucess. They continued to tour regularly, however, and began to benefit from the enthusiasm that younger musicians showed for their classic soul stylings.
Duets with Linda Ronstadt
By the end of the 1970s, Neville was able to break his long addiction to heroin. He credited his Catholic faith for giving him the strength to conquer heroin and wore two medals with depictions of St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. During the early 1980s, the Neville Brothers toured with superstars such as Huey Lewis and the News and the Rolling Stones. Neville's solo career also enjoyed a renaissance in 1988 when he performed four duets with Linda Ronstadt on her Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind album. One of the duets, "Don't Know Much," became an international hit. Neville and Ronstadt had met four years earlier when she joined the Neville Brothers onstage at a New Orleans concert.
In 1989, the Neville Brothers released their critically acclaimed album Yellow Moon. This album, which showcased Aaron's powerful vocals, was a commercial success. Neville released his solo album, Warm Your Heart, in 1991 and recorded his album The Grand Tour in 1993. The title track of The Grand Tour became a hit country song for singer George Jones. In 1994, Neville recorded a duet with Trisha Yearwood on the Rhythm, Country & Blues album.
During the 1990s, Neville recorded the albums The Tattooed Heart and To Make Me Who I Am. In a 1997 commentary on the album To Make Me Who I Am, People magazine referred to Neville as "an established pop icon" and lamented the loss of the "spicy Creole gumbo" that had earlier characterized the music of the Neville Brothers. The Neville Brothers also continued to record and perform regularly. In 1996 they released the album Mitayuke Oyasin Oyasin/All My Relations, which incorporated world music influences into a contemporary New Orleans sound. Reflecting on the dramatic peaks and valleys of his long career, Neville told New Orleans Magazine, "Like I pray for a miracle--I feel I am a miracle. I made it through some odds."
Works
Selected discography
- Tell It Like It Is, Curb, 1967 (CD reissue; original Parlo recordings).
- Orchid in the Storm, Rhino, 1986.
- Tell It Like It Is: Golden Classics, Collectables, 1989.
- Warm Your Heart, A&M, 1991.
- Aaron Neville's Soulful Christmas, A&M, 1993.
- The Grand Tour, A&M, 1993.
- The Tattooed Heart, A&M, 1995.
- To Make Me Who I Am, A&M, 1997.
Further Reading
Books
- Contemporary Musicians, volume 5, Gale, 1991.
- Erlewine, Michael, et al., eds., All Music Guide to Rock, 2nd ed., Miller Freeman, 1997.
- Billboard, July 3, 1993, p. 10; October 18, 1997, p. 12.
- Ebony, December 1991, p. 118.
- New Orleans Magazine, December 1995, p. 60.
- People, August 19, 1991, p. 61; May 1, 1995, p. 21; November 17, 1997, p. 33.
— James M. Manheim
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