Glen Campbell

Campbell is a native of Delight, Arkansas and began playing the guitar as a youth. By the time he was eighteen, Campbell was touring the south as part of the Western Wranglers. In 1958, Campbell moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician.

Campbell's period as a session musician was successful, and he played with Bobby Darin, Rick Nelson, the Beach Boys, Merle Haggard, the Monkees, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, the Association and the Mamas & the Papas, among others. His debut single was the moderate success "Turn Around, Look at Me". "Too Late to Worry - Too Blue to Cry" and "Kentucky Means Paradise" were similarly popular within only a small section of the country audience. By 1967, Campbell was ready to break through to the mainstream with "Gentle on My Mind" (written by John Hartford) and "I Wanna Live" in 1968 (1968 in music).

At the height of his popularity, a 1970 biography by Freda Kramer, "The Glen Campbell Story", was published. After he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for the Smothers Brothers television show, Campbell had his own weekly variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, from January, 1969 through June, 1972.

During the early 1970s, Campbell released a long series of singles and appeared in the movies True Grit with John Wayne and Kim Darby and Norwood with Kim Darby and Joe Namath. After "Southern Nights" and "Sunflower"'s success, Campbell began having trouble reaching the charts, as well as abusing drugs. By 1989, however, he had quit drugs and was regularly reaching the Top Ten -- songs like "She's Gone, Gone, Gone" were extremely popular. In the 1990s, Campbell most retired from recording, though he has not quit entirely. In 1994, his autobiography, Rhinestone Cowboy was published.

Marriages include

• 1955-1959 to Diane (??last name), daughter Debra Kay
• 1959-?? to Billie Jean Nunley, daughter Kelli, son Travis
• ??-?? to ??
• 1982 to present, Kimberly (Kim) Woollen, 2 or 3? children

Referenced By