Backstage with Aaron Neville from The Neville Brothers of New Orleans
No Lies Radio Music – By Teri Perticone – Saturday Jan 02, 2021
Aaron Neville (born January 24, 1941 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States) is an American R&B and soul singer and musician. He has had four Platinum-certified albums and four Top 10 hits in the United States, including three that went to #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. His debut single, from 1966, was #1 on the Soul chart for five weeks.
He has also recorded with his brothers Art, Charles and Cyril as The Neville Brothers and is the father of singer/keyboards player Ivan Neville. Of mixed African-American, Caucasian, and Native American (Choctaw) heritage, his music also features Cajun and Creole influences.
Neville’s first major hit single was “Tell It Like It Is”, released on a small New Orleans label, Par-Lo, co-owned by local musician/arranger George Davis, a friend from school, and band-leader Lee Diamond. The song topped Billboard’s R&B chart for five weeks in 1967 and also reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (behind “I’m a Believer by the Monkees). It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[1] It was not the label’s only release, as some sources claim. At least five other Par-Lo singles, three of them by Neville himself, are known to exist.[2].
His other hits have included “Everybody Plays the Fool”, his 1991 cover of the 1972 Main Ingredient song, that reached #8 on the Hot 100; “Don’t Take Away My Heaven”, “Hercules” and “Can’t Stop My Heart From Loving You (The Rain Song).” Neville’s biggest solo successes have been on the Adult Contemporary chart, where “Don’t Know Much,” “All My Life,” and “Everybody Plays the Fool” all reached Number One.
AARON NEVILLE – Everybody Plays The Fool ( 1991 )
The Neville Brothers – Don’t Take Away My Heaven (Live at Farm Aid 1994)
In August 2005, his home in Eastern New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina; he evacuated to Memphis, Tennessee, before the hurricane hit. He moved to Nashville after the storm.[3] and failing to return to the city by early 2008, caused the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to temporarily change its tradition of having the Neville Brothers close the festival. However, the Neville Brothers, including Aaron, returned for the 2008 Jazzfest, which returned to its traditional seven-day format for the first time since Katrina.[3] He then decided to move back to the New Orleans area, namely the North Shore city of Covington.[3] Neville performed Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927” during NBC’s A Concert for Hurricane Relief on September 2, 2005.
On October 27, 2006, Neville made a guest appearance on an episode of the soap opera The Young and the Restless.[4] He sang “Stand By Me” and “Ain’t No Sunshine”, from his album, Bring It On Home … The Soul Classics. In 2008 he released Gold, which includes a double album of his hits.
Aaron Neville – Ain’t No Sunshine
In 2009, Neville, along with the Mt. Zion Mass Choir, released a version of the song “A Change Is Gonna Come” on the compilation album, Oh Happy Day.[5]
Aaron Neville – A Change Is Gonna Come
On December 12, 2010, while performing at Baton Rouge’s Manship Theater in the Shaw Center, Neville was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Neville was the featured artist for the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the University of Memphis Centennial Concert September 30, 2011, at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.
Neville is an inductee of the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame in Ferriday, Louisiana.
In January 2013, paying tribute to the songs of his youth, Blue Note Records released Neville’s My True Story, a collection of 12 doo-wop tunes, produced by Don Was and Keith Richards, with backing by musicians such as Benmont Tench and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.[6] In October 2015, Keith Richards selected the song “My True Story” as one of his Desert Island Discs.[7]
Aaron Neville Interview
Aaron Neville – For The Good Times
Video source: www.youtube.com & www.vevo.com
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