Aaron Joseph Neville (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer renowned for his distinctively smooth, vibrato-heavy tenor and a genre-crossing career that spans R&B, soul, gospel, jazz, country, and pop. He gained national prominence with his 1966 single "Tell It Like It Is", which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
As a solo artist, Neville achieved three consecutive RIAA platinum-selling albums in the 1990s and topped the Billboard Jazz chart with Nature Boy: The Standards Album. He has earned four Grammy Awards, four Top 10 Gospel albums, and a Grammy nomination for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his 1993 cover of "The Grand Tour". His duets with Linda Ronstadt, including "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life", both topped the Adult Contemporary chart and won Grammy Awards. He has also performed the United States national anthem at the Super Bowl on two occasions, including a 2006 rendition alongside Aretha Franklin and Dr. John.
In addition to his solo work, he is a founding member of the Neville Brothers, alongside his brothers Art, Charles, and Cyril. Neville contributed to notable compilations such as Rhythm, Country and Blues (with Trisha Yearwood) and The Bodyguard soundtrack. In 2023, he won his fourth Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance for "Stompin' Ground", a collaboration with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. That same year, he was named one of Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Contents
Career
The first of Neville's singles that was given airplay outside of New Orleans was "Over You", released in 1960. His first hit single was "Tell It Like It Is", released 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 No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (behind "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees). It sold more than one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
Neville released his first solo album since the late 1960s in 1986 with the independent release Orchid in The Storm. In 1989, Neville teamed up with Linda Ronstadt on the album Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind which included four duets by the pair. Amongst them were the No. 1 Grammy-winning hits "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life". "Don't Know Much" reached No. 2 on the Hot 100, and was certified Gold for selling a million copies, while the album was certified Triple Platinum for US sales of more than three million.
Following the success of Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind, Ronstadt produced his 1991 album Warm Your Heart including the hit single "Everybody Plays the Fool", a cover of the 1972 Main Ingredient song, which reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and another duet with Ronstadt "Close Your Eyes". Warm Your Heart was certified platinum in 1997 for more than a million sales in the U.S.
During 1993 and 1994, Neville expanded his repertoire as a recording artist and ventured into making country music. In 1993, Neville released the platinum-selling The Grand Tour on A&M Records with lead single "Don't Take Away My Heaven" reaching No. 4 on the Adult Contemporary chart (where previous hits "Don't Know Much", "All My Life", and "Everybody Plays the Fool" all reached number one). The follow-up single "The Grand Tour", a cover of country music legend George Jones' 1974 hit, peaked at No. 38 on the Billboard country singles chart, and was highly acclaimed by fans and critics, resulting in a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards in 1994. He followed the album up with another platinum seller Aaron Neville's Soulful Christmas.
Neville's next country music project involved appearing on 1994's Rhythm, Country and Blues, an album of duets featuring R&B and Country artists performing renditions of classic country and R&B songs. Neville recorded a version of "I Fall to Pieces", a major crossover hit for Patsy Cline originally released in 1961, with Trisha Yearwood that resulted in Neville and Yearwood winning the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards. As a result, Neville became one of the only African American recording artists to win a Grammy within the Country genre.
Personal life
Neville is from New Orleans, Louisiana. He has mixed African-American, white, and Choctaw heritage. His uncle, George "Big Chief Jolly" Landry, was lead singer of the Mardi Gras Indian group the Wild Tchoupitoulas.
Neville got his facial tattoo (of a sword) when he was 16 years old. Speaking to Billboard in 2019, he recalled that "My dad made me scrub it with Brillo Pads and Octagon Soap. The skin came off, but the tattoo stayed. But some years later, I had an album out called The Tattooed Heart [in 1995], and we were doing a special thing in a tattoo parlor, so I let them go over it and outline it – freshen it up."
Neville married Joel (pronounced Jo-EL) Roux Neville on January 10, 1959. Together they had four children: Ernestine, Aaron "Fred" Jr., and musicians Ivan and Jason. Neville is also the uncle of journalist Arthel Neville.
In 2008, during a People magazine photo shoot, Neville met photographer Sarah Ann Friedman. They were married in New York on November 13, 2010.
Neville is Catholic, with a devotion to St. Jude, to whom he has credited his success and survival. He wears a St. Jude Medal as a left earring.
Discography
Compilation albums
Greatest Hits (1990)
The Very Best of Aaron Neville (2000)
20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Aaron Neville (2002)
Brother to Brother (2003)
Love Songs (2003)
Aaron Neville & Friends (Sky Blue Music, 2007)
Gold (2008) 2-CD
Singles (Lead Artist)
A "It's All Right" peaked at No. 12 on Hot Contemporary Jazz Songs chart
Awards and honors
32nd Grammy Awards – Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal – "Don't Know Much" with Linda Ronstadt (winner)
33rd Grammy Awards – Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal – "All My Life" with Linda Ronstadt (winner)
34th Grammy Awards – Best Male Pop Vocal Performance – Warm Your Heart (nominee)
36th Grammy Awards – Best Male Pop Vocal Performance – "Don't Take Away My Heaven" (nominee)
36th Grammy Awards – Best Male Country Vocal Performance – "The Grand Tour" (nominee)
37th Grammy Awards – Best Country Collaboration with Vocals – "I Fall To Pieces" with Trisha Yearwood (winner)
41st Grammy Awards – Best Traditional R&B Performance – "To Make Me Who I Am" (nominee)
65th Grammy Awards – Best American Roots Performance – "Stompin' Ground" with Dirty Dozen Brass Band (winner)
Filmography
Everybody's All-American (1988)
Zandalee (1991)
The Fan (1996)
Mulholland Falls (1996)
Boycott (2001)
Sandy Wexler (2017) Netflix
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019)
