name	Brian Deacon
birth date	February 13, 1949
birth place	Oxford, England, UK
birthname	Brian Deacon
occupation	Actor
spouse	Rula Lenska (1977–1987)Natalie Bloch (1998 to present)
yearsactive	1971 - Present}}

Brian Deacon (born 13 February 1949) is a British actor. Born in Oxford, he trained at the Oxford Youth Theatre. He appeared with his brother Eric Deacon in the Peter Greenaway film, ''A Zed & Two Noughts'' (1985), as Heumac in ''The Feathered Serpent'' (1976, 1978) and as Frank Miles in the TV series ''Lillie'' in 1978.

He has been married twice: first time to Rula Lenska (1977–1987), with whom he had a daughter Lara Deacon, and the second time to Natalie Bloch (1998 to present).

Deacon's major claim to fame is that in 1979 he starred in the title role of the film ''Jesus''. This film was made by an evangelical organization, the Jesus Film Project.

External links

Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:British film actors Category:British television actors Category:British voice actors Category:British stage actors Category:People from Oxford

de:Brian Deacon hy:Բրայան Դիկոն

name	Patti Smith
background	solo_singer
birth name	Patricia Lee Smith
birth date	December 30, 1946
birth place	Chicago, Illinois
origin	New York City, New York,United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, clarinet
genre	Protopunk, punk rock, art rock
occupation	Singer-songwriter, poet, artist
years active	1971–present
label	Arista, Columbia
associated acts	Tom Verlaine
website	}}

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''. Called the "Godmother of Punk", her work was a fusion of rock and poetry. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir ''Just Kids.'' Recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.

Early years

Patricia Lee Smith was born in Chicago. Her mother, Beverly, was a waitress, and her father, Grant, worked at the Honeywell plant. She spent her entire childhood in Deptford Township, New Jersey, raised as a Jehovah's Witness. She had a strong religious upbringing and a Bible education, but left organized religion as a teenager because she felt it was too confining; much later, she wrote the line "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine" in her cover version of Them's "Gloria" in response to this experience. She has described having an avid interest in Tibetan Buddhism around the age of eleven or twelve, saying "I fell in love with Tibet because their essential mission was to keep a continual stream of prayer", but that as an adult she sees clear parallels between different forms of religion, and has come to the conclusion that religious dogmas are "...man-made laws that you can either decide to abide by or not." At this early age Smith was exposed to her first records, including ''Shrimp Boats'' by Harry Belafonte, Patience and Prudence doing ''The Money Tree'', and ''Another Side of Bob Dylan'', which her mother gave to her. Thurston http://bombsite.com/issues/54/articles/1928 “Patti Smith” in BOMB Magazine Winter, 1996. Retrieved August 9, 2011 Smith graduated from Deptford Township High School in 1964 and went to work in a factory. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter, on April 26, 1967, and chose to place her for adoption.

Career

1967–1973: New York

In 1967, she left Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and moved to New York City. She met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe there while working at a book store with a friend, poet Janet Hamill. She and Mapplethorpe had an intense romantic relationship, which was tumultuous as the pair struggled with times of poverty, and Mapplethorpe with his own sexuality. Smith considers Mapplethorpe to be one of the most important people in her life, and in her book ''Just Kids'' refers to him as "the artist of my life". Mapplethorpe's photographs of her became the covers for the Patti Smith Group LPs, and they remained friends until Mapplethorpe's death in 1989. In 1969 she went to Paris with her sister and started busking and doing performance art. When Smith returned to New York City, she lived in the Hotel Chelsea with Mapplethorpe; they frequented Max's Kansas City and CBGB. Smith provided the spoken word soundtrack for Sandy Daley's art film ''Robert Having His Nipple Pierced'', starring Mapplethorpe. The same year Smith appeared with Wayne County in Jackie Curtis' play ''Femme Fatale''. As a member of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, she spent the early 70's painting, writing, and performing. In 1971 she performed – for one night only – in ''Cowboy Mouth'', a play that she co-wrote with Sam Shepard (The published play's notes call for "a man who looks like a coyote and a woman who looks like a crow".) She wrote several poems, "for sam shepard" and "Sam Shepard: 9 Random Years (7 + 2)" about her relationship with Shepard.

Smith was briefly considered for the lead singer position in Blue Öyster Cult. She contributed lyrics to several of the band's songs, including "Debbie Denise" (inspired by her poem "In Remembrance of Debbie Denise"), "Baby Ice Dog", "Career of Evil", "Fire of Unknown Origin", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (on which she performs duet vocals), and "Shooting Shark". She was romantically involved at the time with the band's keyboardist Allen Lanier. During these years, Smith also wrote rock journalism, some of which was published in ''Rolling Stone'' and ''Creem''.

1974–1979: Patti Smith Group

By 1974, Patti Smith was performing rock music herself, initially with guitarist and rock archivist Lenny Kaye, and later with a full band comprising Kaye, Ivan Kral on bass, Jay Dee Daugherty on drums and Richard Sohl, on piano. Ivan Kral was a refugee from Czechoslovakia, fleeing in 1968 after the fall of Alexander Dubček. Financed by Sam Wagstaff, the band recorded a first single, "Hey Joe / Piss Factory", in 1974. The A-side was a version of the rock standard with the addition of a spoken word piece about fugitive heiress Patty Hearst ("Patty Hearst, you're standing there in front of the Symbionese Liberation Army flag with your legs spread, I was wondering were you gettin' it every night from a black revolutionary man and his women..."). The B-side describes the helpless anger Smith had felt while working on a factory assembly line and the salvation she discovered in the form of a shoplifted book, the 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud's ''Illuminations''.

The Patti Smith Group was signed by Clive Davis of Arista Records, and in 1975 recorded their first album, ''Horses'', produced by John Cale amid some tension. The album fused punk rock and spoken poetry and begins with a cover of Van Morrison's "Gloria", and Smith's opening words: "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" (an excerpt from "Oath," one of her early poems). The austere cover photograph by Mapplethorpe has become one of rock's classic images. As the popularity of punk rock grew, Patti Smith Group toured the United States and Europe. The rawer sound of the group's second album, ''Radio Ethiopia'', reflected this. Considerably less accessible than ''Horses'', ''Radio Ethiopia'' initially received poor reviews. However, several of its songs have stood the test of time, and Smith still performs them regularly in concert. She has said that ''Radio Ethiopia'' was influenced by the band Black to Comm.

On January 23, 1977, while touring in support of ''Radio Ethiopia'', Smith accidentally danced off a high stage in Tampa, Florida and fell 15 feet into a concrete orchestra pit, breaking several neck vertebrae. The injury required a period of rest and an intensive round of physical therapy, during which time she was able to reassess, re-energize and reorganize her life. Patti Smith Group produced two further albums before the end of the 1970s. ''Easter'' (1978) was her most commercially successful record, containing the single "Because the Night" co-written with Bruce Springsteen. ''Wave'' (1979) was less successful, although the songs "Frederick" and "Dancing Barefoot" both received commercial airplay.

1980–1995: Marriage

Before the release of ''Wave'', Smith, now separated from long-time partner Allen Lanier, met Fred "Sonic" Smith, former guitar player for Detroit rock band MC5 and his own Sonic's Rendezvous Band, who adored poetry as much as she did. (''Wave'''s "Dancing Barefoot" and "Frederick" were both dedicated to him.) The running joke at the time was that she only married Fred because she would not have to change her name. They had a son, Jackson (b. 1982) who would go on to marry The White Stripes drummer, Meg White in 2009, and a daughter, Jesse (b. 1987). Through most of the 1980s Patti Smith was in semi-retirement from music, living with her family north of Detroit in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. In June 1988, she released the album ''Dream of Life'', which included the song "People Have the Power". Fred Smith died on November 4, 1994 of a myocardial infarction. Shortly afterward, Patti faced the unexpected death of her brother Todd and original keyboard player Richard Sohl. When her son Jackson turned 14, Smith decided to move back to New York. After the impact of these deaths, her friends Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Allen Ginsberg (whom she had known since her early years in New York) urged her to go back out on the road. She toured briefly with Bob Dylan in December 1995 (chronicled in a book of photographs by Stipe).

1996–2003: Re-emergence

In 1996, Smith worked with her long-time colleagues to record ''Gone Again,'' featuring "About a Boy", a tribute to Kurt Cobain. Smith was a fan of Cobain, but was more angered than saddened by his suicide. That same year she collaborated with Stipe on "E-Bow the Letter", a song on R.E.M.'s ''New Adventures in Hi-Fi,'' which she has also performed live with the band. After release of ''Gone Again,'' Patti Smith had recorded two new albums: ''Peace and Noise'' in 1997 (with the single "1959", about the invasion of Tibet) and ''Gung Ho'' in 2000 (with songs about Ho Chi Minh and Smith's late father). Songs "1959" and "Glitter in Their Eyes" were nominated for Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. A box set of her work up to that time, ''The Patti Smith Masters,'' came out in 1996, and 2002 saw the release of ''Land (1975–2002),'' a two-CD compilation that includes a memorable cover of Prince's "When Doves Cry". Smith's solo art exhibition ''Strange Messenger'' was hosted at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh on September 28, 2002.

2004–present

On April 27, 2004 Patti Smith released ''Trampin''' which included several songs about motherhood, partly in tribute to Smith's mother, who had died two years before. It was her first album on Columbia Records, soon to become a sister label to her previous home Arista Records. Smith curated the Meltdown festival in London on June 25, 2005, the penultimate event being the first live performance of ''Horses'' in its entirety. Guitarist Tom Verlaine took Oliver Ray's place. This live performance was released later in the year as ''Horses/Horses''.

On July 10, 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In addition to her influence on rock music, the Minister also noted Smith's appreciation of Arthur Rimbaud. In August 2005, Smith gave a literary lecture about the poems of Arthur Rimbaud and William Blake. On October 15, 2006, Patti Smith performed at the CBGB nightclub, with a 3½-hour ''tour de force'' to close out Manhattan's music venue. She took the stage at 9:30 p.m. (EDT) and closed for the night (and forever for the venue) at a few minutes after 1:00 a.m., performing her song "Elegie", and finally reading a list of punk rock musicians and advocates who had died in the previous years.

Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. From November 2006 - January 2007, an exhibition called 'Sur les Traces' at Trolley Gallery, London, featured polaroid prints taken by Patti Smith and donated to Trolley to raise awareness and funds for the publication of Double Blind, a book on the war in Lebanon in 2006, with photographs by Paolo Pellegrin, a member of Magnum Photos. She also participated in the DVD commentary for ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters''. From March 28 to June 22, 2008, the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris hosted a major exhibition of the visual artwork of Patti Smith, ''Land 250'', drawn from pieces created between 1967 and 2007. At the 2008 Rowan Commencement ceremony, Smith received an honorary doctorate degree for her contributions to popular culture. Smith is the subject of a 2008 documentary film, ''Patti Smith: Dream of Life''. A live album by Patti Smith and Kevin Shields, ''The Coral Sea'' was released in July 2008. On September 10, 2009, after a week of smaller events and exhibitions in the city, Smith played an open-air concert in Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, commemorating her performance in the same city 30 years earlier. In 2010, Patti Smith's book, ''Just Kids'', a memoir of her time in 1970s Manhattan and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, was published. On April 30, 2010 Patti Smith headlined a benefit concert headed by band-mate Tony Shanahan, for The Court Tavern of New Brunswick. Smith's set included "Gloria", "Because the Night" and "People Have the Power."

On May 17, 2010, Patti Smith received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Pratt Institute, along with architect Daniel Libeskind, MoMA director Glenn Lowry, former NYC Landmarks Commissioner Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, novelist Jonathan Lethem, and director Steven Soderbergh. Following the conferral of her degree, Smith delivered the commencement address and sang/played two songs accompanied by long-time band member Lenny Kaye. In her remarks, Smith explained that in 1967 when she moved to New York City (Brooklyn), she would never have been accepted into Pratt, but most of her friends (including Mapplethorpe) were students at Pratt and she spent countless hours on the Pratt campus. She added that it was through her friends and their Pratt professors that she learned much of her own artistic skills, making the honour from the institute particularly poignant for Smith 43 years later.

Smith is currently working on a crime novel set in London. "I've been working on a detective story that starts at the St Giles in the Fields church in London for the last two years," she told NME adding that she "loved detective stories" having been a fan of Sherlock Holmes and US crime author Mickey Spillane as a girl. Part of the book will be set in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011 announced that Patti Smith is one of the winners of the Polar Music Prize: "By devoting her life to art in all its forms, Patti Smith has demonstrated how much rock’n'roll there is in poetry and how much poetry there is in rock’n'roll. Patti Smith is a Rimbaud with Marshall amps. She has transformed the way an entire generation looks, thinks and dreams. With her inimitable soul of an artist, Patti Smith proves over and over again that people have the power."

On June 19, 2011, Patti Smith made her acting debut on the TV series "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", appearing in an episode called "Icarus".

Smith has recorded a cover of Buddy Holly's classic "Words of Love" for the CD ''Rave On Buddy Holly'', a tribute album tied to Holly's seventy-fifth birthday year which was released June 28, 2011.

Influence

Smith has been a great source of inspiration for Michael Stipe of R.E.M. Listening to her album ''Horses'' when he was 15 made a huge impact on him; he said later, "I decided then that I was going to start a band." In 1998, Stipe published a collection of photos called ''Two Times Intro: On the Road with Patti Smith.'' Stipe sings backing vocals on Smith's songs "Last Call" and "Glitter in Their Eyes." Patti also sings background vocals on R.E.M.'s songs "E-Bow the Letter" and "Blue".

In 2004, Shirley Manson of Garbage spoke of Smith's influence on her in ''Rolling Stone'''s issue "The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time", in which Patti Smith was counted number 47. The Smiths members Morrissey and Johnny Marr shared an appreciation for Smith's ''Horses,'' and reveal that their song "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" is a reworking of one of the album's tracks, "Kimberly". In 2004, Sonic Youth released an album called ''Hidros 3 (to Patti Smith)''. U2 also cites Patti Smith as an influence. In 2005 Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall released the single "Suddenly I See" as a tribute of sorts to Patti Smith. Canadian actress Ellen Page frequently mentions Smith as one of her idols and has done various photo shoots replicating famous Smith photos. In 1978 and 1979, Gilda Radner portrayed a character called Candy Slice on ''Saturday Night Live'' based on Smith.

Activism

In 1993, Smith contributed "Memorial Tribute (Live)" to the AIDS-Benefit Album No Alternative produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Furthermore, Smith has been a supporter of the Green Party and backed Ralph Nader in the 2000 United States presidential election. She led the crowd singing "Over the Rainbow" and "People Have the Power" at the campaign's rallies, and also performed at several of Nader's subsequent "Democracy Rising" events. Smith was a speaker and singer at the first protests against the Iraq War organized by Lou Posner of Voter March on September 12, 2002, as U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to the United Nations General Assembly. Smith supported Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election. Bruce Springsteen continued performing her "People Have the Power" at Vote for Change campaign events. In the winter of 2004/2005, Smith toured again with Nader in a series of rallies against the Iraq War and calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush.

Smith premiered two new protest songs in London in September 2006. Louise Jury, writing in ''The Independent'', characterized them as "an emotional indictment of American and Israeli foreign policy". Song "Qana"^[mp3] was about the Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese village of Qana. "Without Chains"^[mp3] is about Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen who was born and raised in Germany, held at Guantanamo Bay detainment camp for four years. Jury's article quotes Smith as saying:

In an interview, Smith stated that Kurnaz's family has contacted her and that she wrote a short preface for the book that he was writing. Kurnaz's book, "Five Years of My Life," was published in English by Palgrave Macmillan in March 2008, with Patti's introduction.

On March 26, 2003, ten days after Rachel Corrie's death, Smith appeared in Austin, Texas, and performed an anti-war concert. She prefaced her song "Wild Leaves" with the following comments and subsequently wrote a new song "Peaceable Kingdom" which was inspired by and is dedicated to Rachel Corrie.

In 2009, in her Meltdown concert in Festival Hall, she paid homage to the Iranians taking part in post-election protests by saying "Where is My Vote?" in a version of the song "People Have the Power".

Band members

Discography

;Studio albums

''Horses'' (1975)

''Radio Ethiopia'' (1976)

''Easter'' (1978)

''Wave'' (1979)

''Dream of Life'' (1988)

''Gone Again'' (1996)

''Peace and Noise'' (1997)

''Gung Ho'' (2000)

''Trampin''' (2004)

''Twelve'' (2007)

Bibliography

''Seventh Heaven'' (1972)

''Early Morning Dream'' (1972)

''Witt'' (1973)

''Ha! Ha! Houdini!'' (1977)

''Babel'' (1978)

''Woolgathering'' (1992)

''Early Work'' (1994)

''The Coral Sea'' (1996)

''Patti Smith Complete'' (1998)

''Strange Messenger'' (2003)

''Auguries of Innocence'' (2005)

''Poems (Vintage Classics)'' by William Blake. Edited by and with introduction by Patti Smith (2007)

''Land 250'' (2008)

''Trois'' (2008)

''Great Lyricists'' foreword Rick Moody (2008)

''Just Kids'' (2010)

References

Further reading

External links

Patti Smith Wins National Book Award - video report by ''Democracy Now!''

- Patti Smith interview,live and report Land 250 exhibition 2008

Category:1946 births Category:American female guitarists Category:American human rights activists Category:American poets Category:American punk rock singers Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:American spoken word artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:American rock music groups Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Female punk rock singers Category:Living people Category:Patti Smith Group members Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Gloucester County, New Jersey Category:Protopunk musicians Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:Rowan University alumni Category:Outlaw poets Category:The Minus 5 members Category:Postmodern writers

ar:باتي سميث bs:Patti Smith br:Patti Smith bg:Пати Смит ca:Patti Smith cs:Patti Smith da:Patti Smith de:Patti Smith el:Πάττι Σμιθ es:Patti Smith eu:Patti Smith fa:پتی اسمیت fr:Patti Smith fy:Patti Smith gl:Patti Smith ko:패티 스미스 hy:Փաթի Սմիթ hr:Patti Smith it:Patti Smith he:פטי סמית' sw:Patti Smith hu:Patti Smith mrj:Смит, Патти nl:Patti Smith ja:パティ・スミス no:Patti Smith nn:Patti Smith pl:Patti Smith pt:Patti Smith ro:Patti Smith ru:Смит, Патти simple:Patti Smith sk:Patti Smithová sr:Пети Смит fi:Patti Smith sv:Patti Smith tr:Patti Smith uk:Сміт Патті zh:帕蒂·史密斯

name	Rev. Billy Graham
birth name	William Franklin Graham Jr.
birth date	November 07, 1918
birth place
residence
nationality	American
occupation	Evangelist
religion	Evangelical Christian
denomination	Southern Baptist
spouse	(her death)
children	Franklin, Nelson, Virginia, Anne and Ruth
website	BillyGraham.org
signature	Billy Graham Signature.svg }}

church	Christianity (Baptist) Billy Graham was a immense inspirational individual. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless His soul in heaven.. From: SlyMaestroFoxx.
education	Diploma in Biblical Studies, Florida Bible Institute (Trinity Bible College), 1940 B.A. in Anthropology, Wheaton College, 1943
offices held	President, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
title	}}

William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. (born November 7, 1918) is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for the 20th century. He is a Southern Baptist. He rose to celebrity status as his sermons were broadcast on radio and television.

Graham has preached the Gospel in person to more people than any other person in history. According to his staff, more than 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, many to the altar call song "Just As I Am". As of 2008, Graham's lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion.

Early life

He was born November 7, 1918 to William Franklin Graham I (1888–1962) and Morrow Coffey (1892–1981), on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina. Graham was raised in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church by his parents. In 1933, when Prohibition in the United States ended, Graham's father forced Graham and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they vomited, which created an aversion, in both of them, to alcohol and drugs. According to the Billy Graham Center, Graham was converted in 1934 at age 16 during a series of revival meetings in Charlotte which were led by evangelist Mordecai Ham. However, he was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was "too worldly". He was persuaded to go see Ham at the urging of one of the employees, Albert McMakin, on the Graham farm. After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College (now Bob Jones University), then located in Cleveland, Tennessee, for one semester but found it too legalistic in both coursework and rules. At this time, he was influenced and inspired by Pastor Charley Young from Eastport Bible Church. He was almost expelled, but Bob Jones, Sr. warned him not to throw his life away: "At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks.... You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily." In 1937, Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College of Florida) on the site of today's Florida College in Temple Terrace, Florida. In his autobiography he writes that he "received [his] calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club," which is immediately in front of today's Sutton Hall at Florida College in Temple Terrace. Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park is today located on the Hillsborough River directly east of the 18th green and across from where Graham often paddled a canoe to a small island in the river, where he would preach to the birds, alligators, and cypress stumps. Graham eventually graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois with a degree in anthropology, in 1943. It was during his time at Wheaton that Graham decided to accept the Bible as the infallible word of God. Henrietta Mears of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood (Hollywood, California) was instrumental in helping Graham wrestle with the issue, which was settled at Forest Home Christian camp (now called Forest Home Ministries) southeast of the Big Bear area in Southern California. A memorial there marks the site of Graham's decision.

Family

On August 13, 1943, Graham married Wheaton classmate Ruth Bell (1920–2007), whose parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China, where her father, L. Nelson Bell, was a general surgeon. He met Ruth at Wheaton: "I saw her walking down the road towards me and I couldn't help but stare at her as she walked. She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry." Ruth thought that he "wanted to please God more than any man I'd ever met." They married two months after graduation and later lived in a log cabin designed by Ruth in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Montreat, North Carolina. Ruth died on June 14, 2007, at the age of 87.

They had five children together: Virginia Leftwich (Gigi) Graham Tchividjian (b. 1945); Anne Graham Lotz (b. 1948; runs AnGeL ministries); Ruth Graham (b. 1950; founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends); Franklin Graham (b. 1952; administers an international relief organization called Samaritan's Purse and will be his father's successor at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association); and Nelson "Ned" Graham (b.1958; a pastor who runs East Gates International, which distributes Christian literature in China). Graham has 19 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. Grandson Tullian Tchividjian is senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

As a guard against even the appearance of wrongdoing Graham had a policy that he would never be alone with a woman, other than his wife Ruth. This has come to be known as the Billy Graham Rule.

Ministry

Beginning

Graham transferred in January 1937 from Bob Jones College to Florida Bible Institute, and then finally to Wheaton College in 1939. Graham attended Wheaton College from 1939 to 1943, when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology. While attending college, he became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements.

Graham served briefly as pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, not far from Wheaton, in 1943-44. While there, his friend Torrey Johnson, pastor of the Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, told Graham that his radio program "Songs in the Night" was about to be canceled for lack of funding. Consulting with the members of his church in Western Springs, Graham decided to take over Johnson's program with financial support from his parishioners. Launching the new radio program on January 2, 1944, still called ''Songs in the Night'', Graham recruited the baritone George Beverly Shea as his director of radio ministry. While the radio ministry continued for many years, Graham decided to move on in early 1945, and in 1947, at age 30, he became the youngest person to serve as a sitting college president during his tenure at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Graham served as the president of Northwestern College from 1948 to 1952.

Initially, Graham intended to become a chaplain in the armed forces, but shortly after applying for a commission contracted mumps. After a period of recuperation in Florida, Graham was hired as the first full time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ International (YFCI) which was co-founded by Torrey Johnson and evangelist Charles Templeton. He traveled throughout the United States and Europe as an evangelist for YFCI. Unlike many evangelists then and now, Graham had little formal theological training; when his friend Chuck Templeton urged him to join him in applying to Princeton Theological Seminary, Graham declined to do so.

Hearst intervention

Graham scheduled a series of revival meetings in Los Angeles in 1949, for which he erected circus tents in a parking lot. The Los Angeles revival is considered to be the time when Graham became a national religious figure. Graham's rise to national prominence is partly because of the assistance he received from news mogul William Randolph Hearst, whose interest in Graham was that he respected Graham for being his own person and following what he believed, though the two never met. Most observers believe that Hearst appreciated Graham's patriotism and appeals to youth and thought that Graham would be helpful in promoting Hearst's conservative anti-communist views. Hearst sent a telegram to his newspaper editors reading "Puff Graham" during Billy Graham's late 1949 Los Angeles crusade.

The increased media exposure from Hearst's newspaper chain and national magazines caused the crusade event to run for eight weeks—five weeks longer than planned. Henry Luce put him on the cover of ''TIME'' in 1954. At the Los Angeles revival, a fellow evangelist accused Graham of setting religion back 100 years. Graham replied, "I did indeed want to set religion back, not just 100 years but 1,900 years, to the Book of Acts, when first century followers of Christ were accused of turning the Roman Empire upside down."

Crusades

Billy Graham has conducted many evangelistic crusades since 1948. He began this form of ministry in 1947 and continued until recently. He would rent a large venue, such as a stadium, park, or street. He arranged a group of up to 5,000 people to sing in a choir and then preached the gospel and invited people to come forward (a practice begun by Dwight L. Moody). These people, called inquirers, were then given the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a counselor who clarified any questions the inquirer may have had and would pray with that person. The inquirers were often given resources, such as a copy of the Gospel of John or a Bible study booklet. In Moscow in 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 people in his audience came forward upon his request.

Graham was offered a five-year, $5 million contract from NBC to appear on television opposite Arthur Godfrey, but he turned it down in favor of continuing his touring revivals because of his pre-arranged commitments. Graham had missions in London, which lasted 12 weeks, and a New York City mission in Madison Square Garden, in 1957, which ran nightly for 16 weeks. In 1959, he led his first crusade, which was in London.

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

In 1950, Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with its headquarters in Minneapolis. The association later relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. BGEA Ministries have included:

''Hour of Decision'', a weekly radio program broadcast around the world for more than 50 years

Mission television specials that have been regularly broadcast in prime time in almost every market in the U.S. and Canada

A syndicated newspaper column, ''My Answer'', carried by newspapers across the United States and distributed by Tribune Media Services

''Decision'' magazine, the official publication of the Association

''Christianity Today'' was started in 1956 with Carl F. H. Henry as its first editor

Passageway.org, the website for a children's program created by BGEA

World Wide Pictures, which has produced and distributed more than 130 films

Civil Rights Movement and Anti-Segregation

Graham's stance on civil rights and segregation was inconsistent in his early years. Like many white public figures, he had shown no concern for segregation until the civil rights movement began to take off in the early 1950s, and many of his early crusades were segregated. In response to the civil rights movement, he "zig-zagged" for some years - refusing to speak to some segregated auditoriums, while speaking to others. His memoirs disclose that in 1953 he dramatically tore down the ropes that organizers had erected to separate the audience. But he later retreated on the issue in Dallas, Texas and Asheville, North Carolina. Prior to Brown v. Board of Education, Graham assured audiences that the Bible had nothing to say about segregation. Subsequently, he emerged as an opponent of segregation and racism, reminding audiences of Christanity's pact with the marginalised and oppressed. (Michael G Long, ed., ''The Legacy of Billy Graham: Critical Reflections on America's Greatest Evangelist'', Westminster/John Knox Press, 2008, pp. 150–1) He also got in a fight with a southern KKK member about why integration of blacks into the Southern society was important. Graham said, "There is no scriptural basis for segregation… The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross." Graham paid bail money to secure the release of Martin Luther King, Jr. from jail during the 1960s civil rights movement; he invited King to join him in the pulpit at his 16-week revival in New York City in 1957. During that 16-week stint, Graham was heard by 2.3 million listeners, who gathered to hear him at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and Times Square. However, due to his anxieties about addressing the politics of racism and being seen to publicly cooperate with the civil rights leader, he never invited King to appear with him again. (Michael G Long, ed., ''The Legacy of Billy Graham: Critical Reflections on America's Greatest Evangelist'', Westminster/John Knox Press, 2008, p. 150)

Later years

Graham's visibility and popularity extended into the secular world. He created his own pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair. He appeared as a guest on a 1969 Woody Allen television special, where he joined the comedian in a witty exchange on theological matters. During the Cold War, Graham became the first evangelist of note to speak behind the Iron Curtain, addressing large crowds in countries throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, calling for peace. During the Apartheid era, Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government allowed attending audiences to sit desegregated. His first crusade there was in 1973, during which he openly denounced apartheid. In 1984, he led a series of summer meetings in the United Kingdom, called Mission England, using outdoor football grounds as venues.

Graham was interested in fostering evangelism around the world. In 1983, 1986 and 2000 he sponsored, organized and paid for massive training conferences for Christian evangelists from around the world; with the largest representations of nations ever held until that time. Over 157 nations were gathered in 2000 at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

At one revival in Seoul, South Korea, Graham attracted more than one million people to a single service. He appeared in China in 1988—for Ruth, this was a homecoming, since she had been born in China to missionary parents. He appeared in North Korea in 1992.

On September 22, 1991 Graham held the largest event he ever led in North America on The Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park. City officials estimated over 250,000 in attendance. In 1998, Graham spoke at TED (conference) to a crowd of scientists and philosophers.

On September 14, 2001, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Graham led a prayer and remembrance service at Washington National Cathedral, which was attended by President George W. Bush and past and present leaders. He also spoke at the memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. On June 24–26, 2005, Billy Graham began what he has said would be his last North American crusade, three days at the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City. But on the weekend of March 11–12, 2006, Billy Graham held the "Festival of Hope" with his son, Franklin Graham. The festival was held in New Orleans, which was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Graham said that his planned retirement was because of his failing health. He has suffered from Parkinson's disease for about 15 years, has had hydrocephalus, pneumonia, broken hips, and prostate cancer. In August 2005, a frail Graham appeared at the groundbreaking for his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then 86, Reverend Graham used a walker to assist with mobility during the ceremony. On July 9, 2006, Graham spoke at the Metro Maryland Franklin Graham Festival, held in Baltimore, Maryland, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

There had been controversy over where the burial place would be until a press release on June 13, 2007, saying that he and his wife would be buried alongside each other at the Billy Graham Library in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Graham's younger son Ned had argued with older son Franklin about whether burial at a library would be appropriate. Ruth Graham had said that she wanted to be buried not in Charlotte but in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, where she had lived for many years; Ned supported his mother's choice. Novelist Patricia Cornwell, a family friend, also opposed burial at the library, calling it a tourist attraction. Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site. At the time of Ruth Graham's death, it was announced that they would be buried at the library site.

On August 18, 2007, Graham, 88, was in fair condition in Mission Health & Hospitals of Asheville after undergoing treatment for intestinal bleeding, but his condition was not life-threatening.

In April, 2010, Graham, at 91 and with substantial vision and hearing loss, made a rare public appearance at the re-dedication of the renovated Billy Graham Library. Graham's grandson, Will Graham told reporters that his grandfather has "got a lot more energy and he's talking about preaching one more time," stating that it would probably be a televised event rather than a stadium crusade.

Billy Graham has preached Christianity to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings, including BMS World Mission and Global Mission. Graham has also reached hundreds of millions more through television, video, film, and webcasts.

On May 11, 2011, Billy Graham was admitted to Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, for treatment of pneumonia.

Politics

Politically, Graham is a registered member of the Democratic Party. He leaned Republican during the presidency of Richard Nixon. He did not completely ally himself with the religious right, saying that Jesus did not have a political party. He did not openly endorse political candidates, but he gave his support to some over the years.

He refused to join Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in 1979, saying: "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future."

According to a 2006 ''Newsweek'' interview, "For Graham, politics is a secondary to the Gospel.... When ''Newsweek'' asked Graham whether ministers—whether they think of themselves as evangelists, pastors or a bit of both—should spend time engaged with politics, he replied: 'You know, I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord. A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord, I'm sure, but I think you have some—like communism, or segregation, on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out.'".

Pastor to presidents

Graham has had a personal audience with many sitting US Presidents from Harry S Truman to Barack Obama. He visited in the Oval Office with Truman in 1950, urging him to counter communism in North Korea. However, Graham and his accompanying pastors were not aware of Washington protocol; they appeased the press corps waiting outside with details of the visit, with the three pastors even acquiescing to the calls of the press to kneel on the White House lawn, as if praying. Truman wrote about Graham in his autobiography ''Plain Speaking'':

But now we've got just this one evangelist, this Billy Graham, and he's gone off the beam. He's...well, I hadn’t ought to say this, but he’s one of those counterfeits I was telling you about. He claims he's a friend of all the Presidents, but he was never a friend of mine when I was President. I just don’t go for people like that. All he's interested in is getting his name in the paper.

This led to Truman calling Graham a "counterfeit" publicity seeker, and Truman did not speak to Graham for years afterward. Graham has often told the story, usually as a warning that he would not reveal his conversations with world leaders.

Graham became a regular in the Oval Office during the tenure of Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom he urged to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine, and it was at that time, on a Washington golf course, that he met and became close friends with Vice President Richard Nixon. Graham was invited by Eisenhower to visit with him when the former president was on his deathbed. Graham also counseled Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and the Bush family.

The single notable exception among modern presidents is John F. Kennedy, with whom Graham played golf, but Kennedy was Roman Catholic; Graham enjoyed a friendship with Nixon and prominently supported him over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Nixon wrote to Graham after that election: "I have often told friends that when you went into the ministry, politics lost one of its potentially greatest practitioners." Graham spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House, and he stayed for the first night of Nixon's.

After Nixon's victorious 1968 presidential campaign, Graham was an adviser, visiting the White House and leading some of the private church services that the President organized there. Nixon offered Graham the ambassadorship to Israel in a meeting they had with Golda Meir, but Graham turned down Nixon's offer. Nixon appeared at one of Graham's revivals in East Tennessee in 1970; the event drew one of the largest crowds to ever gather in Tennessee. Nixon became the first President to give a speech from an evangelist's platform. However, their friendship became strained when Graham rebuked Nixon for his post-Watergate behavior and the profanity heard on the Watergate tapes; they eventually reconciled after Nixon's resignation. Graham announced at that time, "I'm out of politics."

After a special law was passed on his behalf, Graham was allowed to conduct the first religious service on the steps of the Capitol building in 1952. When Graham was hospitalized briefly in 1976, three Presidents called in one day to wish him well: former President Nixon, current President Ford and President-elect Carter.

He was one of Reagan's personal guests at his inauguration and gave the benediction at George H. W. Bush's inauguration. He stayed at the White House the night before George H. W. Bush (who called Graham "America's pastor") launched the Persian Gulf War. Two days before the 2000 presidential election, Graham spoke at a prayer breakfast in Florida with George W. Bush in attendance. At a New York revival in 2005, Bill Clinton recalled how he had attended Graham's revival as a boy in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1959.

Graham has officiated at one presidential burial and one presidential funeral. He presided over the graveside services of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973 and took part in eulogizing the former president. Graham officiated at the funeral service of former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993 and the funeral of Richard Nixon in 1994. He was unable to officiate at the state funeral of Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, because of recent double hip replacement surgery, which former President George H. W. Bush acknowledged during his eulogy. Graham had been Reagan's first choice. Because of Graham's hospitalization, the Reverend John Danforth, a Missouri Republican Senator during Reagan's tenure, officiated at the funeral. Failing health prevented Graham from officiating at the state funeral of Gerald R. Ford on January 2, 2007, as well as the funeral of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in July 2007.

On April 25, 2010, President Barack Obama visited Rev. Graham at his home in Montreat, North Carolina where they “had a private prayer.”

As with other presidents in the past, Graham met with former President George W. Bush during December 2010, for a tour of his library.

Foreign policy views

Graham has been outspoken against communism and supportive of U.S. Cold War policy, including the Vietnam War. However, in a 1999 speech, Graham discussed his relationship with the late North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung, praising him as a "different kind of communist" and "one of the great fighters for freedom in his country against the Japanese." Graham went on to note that although he had never met Kim's son and current North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, he had "exchanged gifts with him." Graham has given a globe surmounted with doves to the North Korean Friendship Museum.

During a March 12, 1991, CBS broadcast of Billy Graham's Long Island, New York crusade, Graham said in reference to the Persian Gulf War, "As our President, President Bush, has said, it is not the people of Iraq we are at war with. It is some of the people in that regime. Pray for peace in the Middle East, a just peace." Graham had earlier said that "there come times when we have to fight for peace." He went on to say that out of the war in the Gulf may "come a new peace and, as suggested by the President, a new world order."

Controversy

Discussion of Jews with Nixon

In 2002, declassified "Richard Nixon tapes" confirmed remarks made by Graham to President Nixon three decades earlier. Captured on the tapes, Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews control the American media, calling it a "stranglehold" during a 1972 conversation with Nixon. His remarks were characterized as anti-Semitic by Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League and evangelical author Richard Land. When the tapes became public, Graham apologized. According to ''Newsweek'' magazine, "[T]he shock of the revelation was magnified because of Graham's longtime support of Israel and his refusal to join in calls for conversion of the Jews."

In 2009, more tapes were released, in which Graham is heard in conversation with Nixon referring to Jews and "the synagogue of Satan." A spokesman for Graham said that Graham has never been an anti-Semite and that the comparison (in accord with the context of the quotation in the Book of Revelation) was directed specifically at those claiming to be Jews, but not observing Jewish law.

Awards and honors

Graham has frequently been honored by surveys, including "Greatest Living American" and has consistently ranked among the most admired persons in the United States and the world. Between 1950 and 1990, he appeared most frequently on Gallup's list of most admired people. The United States Postal Service has said that Graham is one of the few Americans, along with the current President, who can be delivered mail that simply reads his name and the country: "Billy Graham, America."

In 1967, he was the first Protestant to receive an honorary degree from Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic school.

In 1971, Graham received an award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. After the Nixon tapes were released, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League called for Graham to return the award. He was honored by the American Jewish Committee with its National Interreligious Award for his efforts on behalf of Jewish-Christian relations; the committee called him one of the century's greatest Christian friends of Jews. In the same year, Graham's hometown of Charlotte held "Billy Graham Day" at which President Nixon made an appearance.

He has received the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Reagan, America's highest civilian honors.

In 1986, Graham was given North Carolina's highest honor, the North Carolina Award, for public service.

President Bill Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole awarded Graham the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in 1996.

On May 30, 1999, Graham was invited to give the pre-race invocation at the Indianapolis 500.

In December 2001, he was presented with an honorary knighthood, Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), for his international contributions to civic and religious life over 60 years.

On May 31, 2007, the $27 million Billy Graham Library was officially dedicated in Charlotte. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton appeared to celebrate with Graham. A highway in Charlotte bears Graham's name, as does I-240 near Graham's home in Asheville.

For providing a platform during his events for many Christian musical artists, Graham was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999 by the Gospel Music Association. Several songs by various artists have dedicated songs to or about Graham during his lifetime. Singer Michael W. Smith is active in Billy Graham Crusades as well as Samaritan's Purse.

In 2000, former First Lady Nancy Reagan presented the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award to Graham. Graham has been a friend of the Reagans for years.

Graham received the Big Brother of the Year Award for his work on behalf of children. He has been cited by the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for his contributions to race relations. He has received the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion and the Sylvanus Thayer Award for his commitment to "Duty, Honor, Country". The "Billy Graham Children's Health Center" in Asheville is named after and funded by Graham.

A professorial chair is named after him at the Alabama Baptist-affiliated Samford University, the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth. His alma mater Wheaton College has an archive of his papers at the Billy Graham Center. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. Graham has received 20 honorary degrees and refused at least that many more. In San Francisco, CA, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, has often erroneously been called the ''Billy Graham Civic Auditorium'' and falsely considered to be named in his honor, but is actually named after the rock & roll promoter Bill Graham.

The movie ''Billy: The Early Years'' premiered in theaters officially on October 10, 2008, less than one month before Graham's 90th birthday. Graham has yet to comment on the film, but his son, Franklin released a critical statement on August 18, 2008, noting that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association "has not collaborated with nor does it endorse the movie." Graham's eldest daughter Gigi, however, has praised the movie and has also been hired as a consultant to help promote the film.

Books authored

Graham has authored the following books:

''Calling Youth to Christ'' (1947)

''America's Hour of Decision'' (1951)

''I Saw Your Sons at War'' (1953)

''Peace with God'' (1953, 1984)

''Freedom from the Seven Deadly Sins'' (1955)

''The Secret of Happiness'' (1955, 1985)

''Billy Graham Talks to Teenagers'' (1958)

''My Answer'' (1960)

''Billy Graham Answers Your Questions'' (1960)

''World Aflame'' (1965)

''The Challenge'' (1969)

''The Jesus Generation'' (1971)

''Angels: God's Secret Agents'' (1975, 1985)

''How to Be Born Again'' (1977)

''The Holy Spirit'' (1978)

''Till Armageddon'' (1981)

''Approaching Hoofbeats'' (1983)

''A Biblical Standard for Evangelists'' (1984)

''Unto the Hills'' (1986)

''Facing Death and the Life After'' (1987)

''Answers to Life's Problems'' (1988)

''Hope for the Troubled Heart'' (1991)

''Storm Warning'' (1992)

''Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham'' (1997, 2007)

''Hope for Each Day'' (2002)

''The Key to Personal Peace'' (2003)

''Living in God's Love: The New York Crusade'' (2005)

''The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World'' (2006)

Notes

External links

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Billy Graham Training Center

Billy Graham Multimedia Center (Including sermons)

Billy Graham's impact on Britain Christianity magazine

Streaming video clip from 1957 event in Times Square

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Newsroom

Listen to Billy Graham Sermons

TED Talks: Billy Graham on technology, faith and suffering at TED in 1998

Oral History Interview with Billy Graham, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

Financial summary of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Category:1918 births Category:American autobiographers Category:American evangelicals Category:American evangelists Category:American humanitarians Category:American religious leaders Category:American television evangelists Category:Baptist writers Category:People with cancer Category:Christian writers Category:Writers from North Carolina Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Editors of Christian publications Category:Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Graham family Category:Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Living people Category:People from Charlotte, North Carolina Category:People with Parkinson's disease Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Southern Baptist ministers Category:Templeton Prize laureates Category:Trinity College (Florida) alumni Category:Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni Category:American anti-communists Category:Christian revivalists

af:Billy Graham ca:Billy Graham cs:Billy Graham cy:Billy Graham da:Billy Graham de:Billy Graham el:Μπίλλυ Γκράχαμ es:William Graham eo:Billy Graham fr:Billy Graham ko:빌리 그레이엄 id:Billy Graham it:Billy Graham (predicatore) lt:Billy Graham hu:Billy Graham mr:बिली ग्रॅहाम nl:Billy Graham ja:ビリー・グラハム no:Billy Graham pl:Billy Graham pt:Billy Graham ro:Billy Graham ru:Грэм, Билли simple:Billy Graham sk:Billy Graham fi:Billy Graham sv:Billy Graham tr:Billy Graham uk:Біллі Грем vi:Billy Graham war:Billy Graham zh:葛培理

Name	Ian Gillan
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Ian Gillan
Born	August 19, 1945Hounslow, London, England
Instrument	Vocals, harmonica, percussion, guitar, drums, congas
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal, blues-rock, progressive rock, jazz fusion
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter
Years active	1962–present
Associated acts	Episode Six, Deep Purple, Ian Gillan Band, Gillan, Black Sabbath, Gillan & Glover
Website	http://www.gillan.com/
Notable instruments	}}

Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945 in Hounslow, London) is an English rock music vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist for Deep Purple. During his career Gillan also fronted his own band, had a year-long stint as the vocalist for Black Sabbath, and sang the role of Jesus in the original recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera ''Jesus Christ Superstar''. In his prime, Gillan was known for his wide vocal range - particularly the high pitched screams evidenced in the song Child In Time.

Early life

Gillan was born at Chiswick Maternity Hospital, Hounslow, Middlesex. Gillan's father was a storekeeper at a factory in London. He grew up moving between council flats before settling in a three-bedroom semi-detached on a council estate in Cranford, Hounslow.

Career

Early years

Between 1962 and 1964 Gillan was in a band called The Javelins, where he was known as Jess. He then joined Wainwright's Gentlemen until 1965. Between 1965 and '69, when he joined Deep Purple, he achieved minor success with Episode Six.

Deep Purple, 1969-73

After Deep Purple members Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore saw one of his lead vocal performances with Episode Six, they approached him to replace Rod Evans in Deep Purple.

Gillan was a member of Deep Purple from 1969 through to 1973, appearing on such now-classic Deep Purple albums as ''In Rock'', ''Fireball'', ''Machine Head'', ''Made In Japan'' and ''Who Do We Think We Are''. He had initially joined the band for its 1969 ''Concerto for Group and Orchestra'', a one-off show with England's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra that was made into an album. During these years, he also was the voice of Jesus on the original 1970 album recording of Jesus Christ Superstar. He was offered the lead role in the 1973 film adaptation. Ian demanded to be paid not only for his role in the movie but insisted, without the consent of his manager, that the entire band be paid because filming would conflict with a scheduled tour. The producers declined and Ian continued on in the band. Citing exhaustion and a poor working relationship with the band, particularly Blackmore, Gillan left Deep Purple in the summer of 1973.

Namesake groups

After his departure from Deep Purple, Gillan retired from performing to pursue business ventures. However, encouraged by his reception at the Butterfly Ball in 1975, he decided to resume his singing career. He formed the Ian Gillan Band. The early band sound had a distinct jazz-rock aspect which proved unpopular and was replaced by a more high powered hard rock sound as Gillan changed the lineup and shortened the group's name to Gillan. Writing the bulk of new material with keyboardist Colin Towns, the release of Mr. Universe saw Ian Gillan back in the UK charts, although the independent record company the album came out on – Acrobat – folded soon after the album was released, prompting a contract with Richard Branson's Virgin Records. Through several more lineup changes the band released a string of UK hit singles and successful albums including ''Glory Road'', ''Future Shock'', ''Double Trouble'', and finally ''Magic''.

In 1982 Ian Gillan announced the band would fold as he needed to rest his damaged vocal cords. The tone and style of his singing changed considerably when he eventually returned. His voice had a more nasal tone and this can be heard on albums he has made from 1983 to the present day. His use of multi-tracked backing vocals also became highly prominent.

Black Sabbath

In 1983 he joined Black Sabbath (replacing Ronnie James Dio) for a year to record the ''Born Again'' album and tour (on which Black Sabbath played the Deep Purple standard "Smoke on the Water" as an encore). He was largely dissatisfied with his stint in Sabbath, notably the final mix of the ''Born Again'' album (though he liked the songs and their original mixes), and its cover, which featured a demonic-looking baby. He was quoted in ''Kerrang!'' in 1984 as saying "I looked at the cover and puked." In an interview supporting Deep Purple's reformation in 1984, he stated of ''Born Again'', "they had sent me a box of records. And when I saw the cover and heard the mix, I smashed every single one of them to pieces."

The album spawned only one semi-successful radio track, "Keep It Warm". In an interview on Part 2 of the VHS, ''The Black Sabbath Story'' (1992), he said, "I was the worst singer Black Sabbath ever had..." However, he stated in the same interview that he liked the members of Sabbath personally: "I love Tony, love Geezer."

Rejoining Deep Purple, 1984-89 and 1992-present

Gillan joined a reunited Deep Purple in early 1984, after the somewhat disappointing Black Sabbath album [by his own admission], ''Born Again'' in 1983. The 1984 comeback with Deep Purple was a highly-acclaimed and very successful album ''Perfect Strangers'' that was followed by one of the most successful rock tours of 1985. Another studio album with this formation, ''The House of Blue Light'' (1987), was followed by the live album ''Nobody's Perfect'' (1988). The live album actually featured one studio song, a re-recording of the 1968 hit "Hush", with Gillan on vocals, to commemorate Deep Purple's 20th anniversary. (The original 1968 release had been sung by Rod Evans.)

Gillan was sacked in 1989, being replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner for one Deep Purple studio album. He rejoined in 1992 to record the album ''The Battle Rages On'', at the urging of Lord and Paice, who wanted him in the fold for the band's 25th anniversary tour. During the 1993 tour for this album, Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple for good. The rest of Deep Purple carried on, eventually replacing Blackmore with Steve Morse, and Gillan remains in the band to the present day.

Solo activity in the 2000s

In June 2004 Gillan performed guest lead vocals on Smokescreen as part of Dean Howard – Volume One. Dean Howard (T'pau/Gillan/Repo Depo) co wrote some of the material that went towards Gillan's Dreamcatcher album.

In February 2005 Ian Gillan guested at Jeff Healey's concert in Toronto, Canada and was also among artists performing at the ''House of Rock'' concert in St. Petersburg, Russia. In April 2006 Gillan released a CD/multimedia project to document his 44-year career called ''Gillan's Inn''. Tony Iommi, Jeff Healey, Joe Satriani, Dean Howard, as well as current and former members of Deep Purple such as Jon Lord, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Don Airey and Steve Morse are featured on this 2006 CD and DVD. The project includes a re-recorded selection of his Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and solo tracks.left|thumb|200px|Ian Gillan at the Sunflower Jam, London, 2008. It was produced by Nick Blagona. In a recent interview, Gillan announced that his solo albums from the 1970s and 1980s would be re-issued late in 2006 through the Demon record company. These albums began to be released in early 2007.

Also, on September 11, 2006, Ian Gillan promoted the ''Gillan's Inn'' tour by having local guitarists compete through local radio stations to play on stage with the band during the famous song "Smoke on the Water". The promotion was titled "Smoke This!". On the September 11 show, Lars Ulrich, drummer for thrash metal band Metallica joined Gillan on stage for "Smoke on the Water," along with the local contest winner, David Gizzarelli. Joe Satriani was scheduled to join the lineup as well, but was called to the studio for last minute revisions.

In 2006 a single called ''Eternity'' was released for the Japanese Xbox 360 game ''Blue Dragon'', composed by Nobuo Uematsu and featuring the vocals of Gillan. That same song was reused in the fan-made, freeware RPG game Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden for battles against VinceBorg2050 (a combination of cyborg & Vince Carter). The ''Eternity'' file in the Barkley game music folder is labeled "jesus christ the guy from deep purple sang this".

On 31 March 2006 Gillan appeared at the Tommy Vance tribute concert in London. He was accompanied by Roger Glover, Steve Morris, Dean Howard, Michael Lee Jackson, Harry James, Sim Jones and Richard Cottle.

Also in 2006, Ian Gillan sang on two songs off the Jon Lord & Hoochie Coochie Men studio album, ''Danger. White Men Dancing'', released in late 2007.

On 2 April 2007, Gillan released a DVD ''Highway Star - A Journey in Rock''. The DVD has 6 hours of footage including documentaries and music clips.

In June 2007, he sang with the group Sed Nove and Ann Wilson in the Festival of Music in Paris.

In February 2008 Gillan released a double live album on Edel Records, ''Live in Anaheim'' that features Gillan and Deep Purple classic songs and several rarities. A companion DVD was released in May 2008.

On 3 May 2008 Ian Gillan performed at the Jeff Healey memorial concert in Toronto, Canada.

He released a new studio album entitled One Eye to Morocco in March 2009.

In recent years Ian Gillan has been performing occasionally with orchestras in Europe singing mainly Deep Purple hits (2007: Greece, 2008: Italy, 2009: Germany, Poland). During his visit in Poland, in August 2009, Ian Gillan was presented with the plaque at the Gdansk Walk of Fame.

On 2 October 2009, in honour of the 20th anniversary of 'Rock Aid Armenia', Gillan together with Tony Iommi, Geoff Downes, and the project organizer Jon Dee were received by the Prime Minister of Armenia who awarded them with the republic's Orders of Honour.

On March 26 and 27 2010, in Yerevan, Gillan performs with State Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia. At a press conference in Yerevan on March 27, Gillan said he considers Armenia his spiritual motherland.

Ian Gillan met Tony Iommi, Nicko McBrain and Jon Lord, Mikko Lindström from HIM and Jason Newsted at a studio in London to finish recording a song called ‘Out of my Mind’, which was released 6 May 2011. This is for the benefit of the music school to be built in Gyumri, Armenia – a project Ian Gillan has been working on with others since his concerts in Yerevan (17–20 May 1990)

On the flight back from Armenia last year, after each receiving the Armenian Presidential medal of Honour, Gillan and Tony decided to form the band WhoCares for ad hoc recordings (and possible performances) dedicated to raising money for specific causes.

Side projects

In 2010 Ian Gillan hosted a documentary about great Polish composer and pianist Fryderyk Chopin in Poland directed by Jerzy Szkamruk. ''Chopin's Story'' is about the rise of artistic genius of the composer and documents his Polish years. The film has won several international awards, including the Best Documentary award at Tourfilm International Festival in Florianopolis, Brazil. It will be aired on Polish channel Discovery Historia on June 21, 2011. A worldwide DVD release is also in the works.

Personal life

Family

In 1984, Gillan married his girlfriend Bron, to whom he had dedicated "Keep It Warm" from Black Sabbath's 1983 album ''Born Again''. They have twice since renewed their marriage vows. Gillan has two children and three grandchildren all of whom were brought up in Scotland. Gillan moved to southern Portugal in the late 2000s.

Gillan's mother, Audrey Parkinson, often visits him while he is touring with Deep Purple in the United Kingdom. She can often be seen sitting to the side of the stage.

Other

He is a passionate football fan, supporting Queens Park Rangers F.C. He is also a big fan of cricket.

Gillan is well-known for his intolerance of aggressive crowd security personnel at concerts. On 15 August 1998, he was charged with assault after striking a security guard on the head with a microphone.

In 2004, he was banned from driving for 16 months and fined £500 for being twice over the legal alcohol limit.

His surname is often misspelled as "Gillian". Gillan himself made light of this in the lyrics to "MTV", a track from Deep Purple's 2005 album ''Rapture of the Deep''.

Relationship with Blackmore

Gillan was room-mates with Ritchie Blackmore in the 1970s, but left the band in 1973 amid tensions with Blackmore and overall exhaustion. In a 2006 interview, Gillan said of Blackmore's final 1993 departure from Deep Purple, "he turned into a really weird guy, and the day he walked out of the tour was the day the clouds disappeared and the day the sunshine came out and we haven't looked back since." He added that "there are certain personal issues that I have with Ritchie, which means that I will never speak to him again. Nothing I'm going to discuss publicly, but deeply personal stuff."

In March 2009, Gillan claimed that prior to the 1993 reunion of the band, Blackmore had requested $250,000 be deposited in his bank account in order for him to continue with the reunion. The other members of the band did not receive anything. This claim was subsequently denied by Blackmore's solicitor in a statement released soon after.

Discography

With Episode Six

''Put Yourself In My Place'' (1987)

''The Complete Episode Six'' (1991)

''BBC Radio 1 Live 1998/1969'' (1997)

''Cornflakes and Crazyfoam'' (2002)

''Love, Hate, Revenge'' (2005)

: ''Compilation albums of songs recorded between 1965 and 1969''

With Deep Purple

Studio albums

''Numerical values indicate highest position achieved in the United Kingdom album charts.''

''Deep Purple in Rock'' No. 4 (1970)

''Fireball'' No. 1 (1971)

''Machine Head'' No. 1 (1972)

''Who Do We Think We Are'' No. 4 (1973)

''Perfect Strangers'' No. 5 (1984)

''The House of Blue Light'' No. 10 (1987)

''The Battle Rages On'' No. 21 (1993)

''Purpendicular'' No. 56 (1996)

''Abandon'' No. 75 (1998)

''Bananas'' No. 81 (2003)

''Rapture of the Deep'' No. 88 (2005)

Live albums

''Concerto for Group and Orchestra'' (1969)

''Made in Japan'' (1972)

''Deep Purple in Concert'' (1980) (Live 1970 & 1972)

''Scandinavian Nights'' (1988) (Live 1970)

''Nobody's Perfect'' (1988)

''In the Absence of Pink'' (1991) (Live 1985)

''Gemini Suite Live'' (1993) (Live 1970)

''Live in Japan'' (1993) (Live 1972)

''Come Hell or High Water'' (1994)

''Live at the Olympia '96'' (1997)

''Total Abandon: Live in Australia'' (1999)

''The Soundboard Series'' (2001)

''Live at the Royal Albert Hall'' (2000)

''Live at the Rotterdam Ahoy'' (2001)

''Live in Europe 1993'' (2006)

''Live at Montreux 1996'' (2006) (Live 1996 & 2000)

''They All Came Down To Montreux'' (2007)

With Ian Gillan Band and Gillan

''Child in Time'' (1976)

''Clear Air Turbulence'' (1977)

''Scarabus'' (1977)

''Live at the Budokan'' (1977, EUR: 1983)

''Gillan'' (aka ''The Japanese Album'') (1978)

''Mr. Universe'' (1979)

''Glory Road'' (1980)

''Future Shock'' (1981)

''Double Trouble'' (live) (1981)

''Magic'' (1982)

''The Gillan Singles Box Set'' (2007)

''The Glory Years'' (2008, DVD) (Recorded live 1981)

''Triple Trouble'' (2009) (Recorded live 1981/1982)

With Black Sabbath

''Born Again'' (1983)

Solo

Studio Albums

''Accidentally on Purpose'' (1988, as Gillan & Glover, with Roger Glover)

''Naked Thunder'' (1990, US: 1997)

''Toolbox'' (1991, US: 1997)

''Cherkazoo and Other Stories'' ('73/'75 solo sessions) (1992)

''Dreamcatcher'' (1997, US: 1998)

''Gillan's Inn'' (2006, Deluxe Tour Ed.: 2007)

''One Eye to Morocco'' (2009)

Live Albums

''Chris Tetley Presents: Garth Rockett & The Moonshiners'' (1989)

''Garth Rockett & The Moonshiners Live at the Ritz'' (1990, video)

''Ian Gillan Live'' (1990, 2001 on DVD as ''Classic Rock Legends - Ian Gillan'')

''Live at the Ritz '89'' (2000, as Ian Gillan & The Moonshiners)

''Highway Star - A Journey in Rock'' (2007, DVD)

''Live in Anaheim'' (2008, CD/DVD)

Singles

''South Arfica'' (1988)

''Eternity'' (2006)

''Out of My Mind'' (2011)

Compilation Albums

''What I Did On My Vacation'' (1986)

''Trouble - The Best of Ian Gillan'' (1991)

''The Best of Ian Gillan'' (1992, Germany only) (compilation 1990/1991)

''Rock Profile'' (1995)

''Unchain Your Brain: The Best Of Gillan '76 - '82'' (2008)

With The Javelins

''Sole Agency and Representation'' (1994)

Guest appearances & other projects

''Jesus Christ Superstar'' (1970, original album recording)

Sammy - ''Sammy'' (1972) - Co-producer

Jerusalem - ''Jerusalem'' (1972) - Producer

Pussy - ''Feline Woman / Ska Child'' (1972) - Producer

Cliff Bennett - ''Nightride'' (1981) - Co-producer

Zero Nine - ''Blank Verse'' (1982) - Co-producer

''Rock Aid Armenia - The Earthquake Album'' (1990, "Smoke On The Water '90")

Pretty Maids – ''In Santa's Claws'' (EP, 1990, "In Santa's Claws", "A Merry Jingle")

The Bolland Project – ''Darwin (The Evolution)'' (1992, "Overture", "Finale", "The Long Goodbye / The Final Curtain Falls")

Mihalis Rakintzhs – ''Getaway'' (1993, "Getaway", "My Heart Remains The Same", "I Think I Know")

Ray Slijngaard & Ian Gillan – ''Smoke On The Water Rock 'N' Rap Extravaganza'' (1998, "Smoke On The Water")

Jill Towers – ''Welcome to Dreamfield'' (1999) - Co-producer

Jill Towers - ''Miserably Happy'' (2001, harmonica on "I Know What U'r Lookin'")

Dean Howard – ''Volume One'' (2004, "Smokescreen")

''Rock School – Movie soundtrack'' (2005, "Highway Star")

Leslie West – ''Guitarded'' (2005, "Hang Me Out To Dry")

Michael Lee Jackson – ''In a Heartbeat'' (2006, "Have Love Will Travel")

Hoochie Coochie Men & Jon Lord – ''Danger. White Men Dancing'' (2007, "Over & Over", "If This Ain't The Blues")

Film & TV appearances

''Deep Purple - Heavy Metal Pioneers'' (1991, interviewee)

''The Black Sabbath Story, Vol. 2'' (1992, interviewee)

''Rock Family Trees - ep. 'Deep Purple''' (1995, interviewee)

''Classic Albums - ep 'Deep Purple: Machine Head''' (2002, interviewee)

''Roger Glover - Made in Wales'' (2004, interviewee)

''Heavy Metal Britannia'' (2010, interviewee)

''The Seventies - ep. '1970''' (2010, interviewee)

''Pictures of Home - Armenia Grateful 2 Rock'' (2010, interviewee)

Books

Gillan, Ian (1980), ''Candy Horizon'', book of poems

Gillan, Ian (1998), ''Ian Gillan: The Autobiography of Deep Purple's Lead Singer''. Blake Pub, ISBN 1857823206. (2nd ed./1st ed. – 1993)

Gillan, Ian (2006), ''Smoke This!: The Warblings, Rants, Philosophies, and Musings from the Singer of Deep Purple''. Immergent, ISBN 0978825403.

References

External links

Authorised links from Gillan.com

Official site for the Gillan's Inn Project

[ Ian Gillan AMG bio]

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:English male singers Category:English rock singers Category:English heavy metal singers Category:English songwriters Category:People from Hounslow Category:Deep Purple members Category:Black Sabbath members Category:English people of Scottish descent

bg:Иън Гилън cs:Ian Gillan da:Ian Gillan de:Ian Gillan es:Ian Gillan fa:ایان گیلان fr:Ian Gillan gl:Ian Gillan ko:이언 길런 hy:Յան Գիլան hr:Ian Gillan it:Ian Gillan he:איאן גילן ka:იან გილანი hu:Ian Gillan mk:Иан Гилан nl:Ian Gillan ja:イアン・ギラン no:Ian Gillan pl:Ian Gillan pt:Ian Gillan ro:Ian Gillan ru:Гиллан, Иэн simple:Ian Gillan sk:Ian Gillan sr:Ијан Гилан fi:Ian Gillan sv:Ian Gillan tr:Ian Gillan uk:Ієн Гіллан