Biography
A true rags-to-riches musical success story, Glen Campbell broke into the industry as one of the elite studio musicians later known as "The Wrecking Crew." He could claim invaluable musical and/or vocal contributions to classic recordings, including many of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" projects as well as Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night," Shelley Fabares's "Johnny Angel" and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album. Blessed with a clear voice and an understated, wistful delivery, Campbell became a country/pop/adult contemporary crossover superstar with melancholy smashes including 1967's Grammy-winning pair of hits "Gentle On my Mind" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," 1968's "Wichita Lineman," 1975's "Rhinestone Cowboy" and 1977's "Southern Nights." His stardom increased when he began hosting "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" (CBS, 1969-1972). On the big screen, Campbell earned a Golden Globe nomination as Texas Ranger La Boeuf opposite an Oscar-winning John Wayne in "True Grit" (1969), for which he sang the Oscar-nominated theme song. Despite notoriety from his addiction issues and highly publicized relationship with a 21-year-old Tanya Tucker in the early 1980s, Campbell settled into a slower professional pace as his career cooled, doing voiceover work and releasing gospel albums. Although it was his amazing talent on the guitar that helped him to escape his parents' sharecropping fate, Glen Campbell proved to be an astoundingly well-rounded talent who became one of his generation's most loved musical icons. His announcement in 2011 that he was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's Disease did not stop him from making a final farewell to his fans with the documentary "Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me" (2015) and a last album, Adios (2017), before his death on August 8, 2017 at the age of 81.
