Glen Campbell

• Born: April 22, 1936
• Birthplace: Billstown, Arkansas
• Died: August 8, 2017
• Place of death: Nashville, Tennessee

American country singer and guitarist

A respected session player for artists from Elvis Presley to the Beach Boys, Campbell became a country singer who crossed over successfully to a pop career.

The Life

Glen Travis Campbell was born to Wes and Carrie Campbell, one of twelve children in a family of poor farmers. Taught to play a five-dollar Sears and Roebuck guitar by his uncle Boo, Campbell quickly became well known among local musicians by the time he was eight years old. Remarkably proficient with the twelve- and six-string guitar, Campbell became adept at playing everything from jazz standards to country and pop tunes. Never a dedicated student, Campbell dropped out of school at the age of fourteen to tour with two of his uncles and their band of musicians. In 1955, at the age of nineteen, he married Diane Kirk. The marriage, which lasted four years, produced a daughter, Debra Kay, from whom Campbell remained estranged until the 1980s.

Campbell eventually outgrew playing with his uncles on the circuit of proms, weddings, dance halls, and local radio shows, and he moved to California in the late 1950s. He met and married Billie Jean Nunley, with whom he had another daughter, Kelli Glen, and a son, William Travis. Campbell’s solo recording career took off in the late 1960s, but it was his 1968–72 television variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, that made him an international star. Campbell’s television success led to a brief stint in Hollywood, where he costarred with John Wayne in the Western True Grit (1970).

Success had a downside, however, as drugs and alcohol contributed to the end of Campbell’s marriage to Nunley as well as to a much-publicized affair with and a brief marriage to Sarah Davis, wife of country-pop star Mac Davis, in 1975. In the late 1970s, Campbell and rising teen country singer Tanya Tucker began a tumultuous affair. In 1982 Campbell married Kim Woolen, who helped lead him to sobriety and stability, though he suffered a relapse in 2004 when he was arrested for drunk driving and sentenced to ten days in jail. Nonetheless, the marriage to Woolen survived this episode. In 2005 Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Campbell continued to perform regularly at the Glen Campbell Goodtime Theatre in Branson, Missouri, into the 2000s. In 2010 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which he made public in 2011. He subsequently held a farewell tour with several of his children backing him on stage. The tour concluded in 2012, and Campbell entered the studio to record a final album. A documentary film, Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me, was filmed during this process and released in 2014. As the musician's health worsened he entered a long-term care facility, and a steady stream of tributes to him were held by fellow artists across a wide range of genres. Campbell died at the age of eighty-one on August 8, 2017, in Nashville, Tennessee. A further outpouring of tributes throughout the entertainment industry followed in the wake of his death, with many identifying him as an underappreciated master guitarist as well as a popular singer.

The Music

In 1960 Campbell joined Dash Croft and Jimmy Seals in the revamped pop band the Champs, which had already hit a peak with the Top 40 instrumental single "Tequila." A year later, Campbell became a staff writer for American Music, and he cowrote, with Jerry Capehart, "Turn Around, Look at Me." Campbell recorded and released this song as his first solo effort on Capehart’s Crest label, but it would be a new vocal group, the Vogues, fashioned after the Lettermen, who turned the song into a smash hit seven years later.

Session Work. While he continued to write songs and to play in a variety of bands, Campbell supplemented his income by becoming an in-demand session guitarist and vocalist. He played guitar and occasionally bass, and he supplied background vocals on hundreds of studio recording sessions for some of the most important pop stars of the 1950s and 1960s, including Jan and Dean, the Crystals, Ricky Nelson, Bobby Darin, Wayne Newton, the Kingston Trio, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Jack Jones, and Frank Sinatra.

Campbell’s most famous early association, however, was with the Beach Boys. Having already played and sung on several Beach Boys recordings, Campbell was asked to fill in for Brian Wilson in 1964 when the increasingly reclusive pop songwriter refused to tour with the group. In 1965 the group asked Campbell to become a permanent member but he declined. He was ready to devote all his energy to his fledgling solo career.

Songs by Webb. After releasing several unsuccessful singles in the mid-1960s Campbell was immensely successful with a release of John Hartford’s folk song "Gentle on My Mind," though his most successful partnership would be with pop songwriter Jimmy Webb. His recordings of two classics by Webb—"By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (1967) and "Wichita Lineman" (1968)—sealed the connection between the two in the public mind. Both songs dominated the pop, country, and easy-listening charts. Webb’s unique blend of down-home lyricism, urbane melodies, and slightly psychedelic arrangements (such as the organ flourishes at the end of "Wichita Lineman") satisfied the upscale ambitions of Campbell’s traditional country audience while attracting new recruits from both the pop and rock music audiences.

In 1969 Campbell hit it big again with two more Webb songs, "Galveston" and "Where’s the Playground, Susie?" In 1970 he recorded Webb’s "Honey Come Back," a song that had only moderate success on the country charts. Campbell, who once called Webb the "best songwriter ever born in America," would eventually record more than thirty Webb songs. Although Campbell’s recording career faded as he entered the 1980s, he still achieved Top 10 country radio hits as late as 1987 with "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" and Webb’s "Still Within the Sound of My Voice."

Rhinestone Cowboy. Campbell’s biggest-selling single was 1976’s "Rhinestone Cowboy." This song, and the follow-up hit, "Country Boy (You’ve Got Your Feet in L.A.)," seemed to be based on Campbell’s image as a pop singer who had abandoned his country roots. "Rhinestone Cowboy" tells the tale of a country singer resigned to acting out a role to make a living, while "Country Boy (You’ve Got Your Feet in L.A.)" is critical of that compromise. Both songs were smash hits, selling millions of copies, making them Campbell’s biggest-selling records. Another major success for Campbell in the 1970s was "Southern Nights," written by Allen Toussaint, which like "Rhinestone Cowboy" became a number one hit.

Later Career. Campbell continued to record prolifically throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but generally failed to find the same level of critical and commercial success he had previously enjoyed. He did make a few more notable film appearances for which he recorded songs, including voicing the lead character in the animated film Rock-a-Doodle (1991). And even as his own star power faded somewhat, Campbell remained a significant presence in the music industry, helping artists such as Alan Jackson break onto the scene and inspiring many others. In the twenty-first century, Campbell experienced something of a career revival, embracing a more modern style and covering and collaborating with various contemporary artists. This approach was showcased on his 2008 album Meet Glen Campbell, which received generally strong reviews. Campbell's final studio album, Adiós, was recorded following his diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease and farewell tour, and released in 2017 shortly before his death.

Musical Legacy

Despite his significant performances as a session guitarist in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Campbell will likely be remembered as the singer of the Webb classics "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman," and "Galveston," as well as other major pop hits such as "Rhinestone Cowboy." His contributions to country music are unparalleled. He was one of the first major country artists to successfully cross over and dominate the country and pop charts. Significantly, he introduced many country artists of the late 1960s to a larger audience by insisting that they be regular guests on his successful CBS television variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. His promotion of country-music performers also paved the way for the "new country" explosion of the 1980s and 1990s. Through his efforts, the careers of Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, and Alan Jackson (whom Campbell discovered) were made possible.

Campbell's musical legacy was recognized with his 2005 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was also honored with ten Grammy Awards and several more nominations throughout his career, as well as many other awards.

Principal Recordings

albums:The Astounding Twelve-String Guitar of Glen Campbell, 1964; By the Time I Get to Phoenix, 1967; Gentle on My Mind, 1967; Oh Happy Day, 1968; Wichita Lineman, 1968; Galveston, 1969; Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell, 1970; Try a Little Kindness, 1970; The Last Time I Saw Her, 1971; Glen Campbell, 1973; I Knew Jesus (Before He Was a Star), 1973; Houston (I’m Comin’ to See You), 1974; Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb, 1974; Arkansas, 1975; Rhinestone Cowboy, 1975; Bloodline, 1976; Southern Nights, 1977; It’s Just a Matter of Time, 1986; Still Within the Sound of My Voice, 1988; Meet Glen Campbell, 2008; Ghost on the Canvas, 2011; See You There, 2013; Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me, 2015; Adiós, 2017.

Bibliography

Campbell, Glen, with Tom Carter. Rhinestone Cowboy. New York: Villard, 1994. In this frank autobiography, Campbell gives the details of his life. He recounts the poverty of his youth, his life as an adolescent on the road with his uncles in the Southwest, his recording sessions as a guitarist with some of the best singers and bands of the early 1960s, his affairs with Davis and Tucker, and his redemption as a Christian.

Doyle, Patrick. "Glen Campbell, 'Rhinestone Cowboy' Singer Who Fused Country and Pop, Dead at 81." Rolling Stone, 8 Aug. 2017, www.rollingstone.com/country/news/glen-campbell-dead-at-81. Accessed 29 Mar. 2018.

Eng, Monica. "Glen Campbell’s Redemption: Star Talks of Life, New Beginnings." Chicago Tribune, July 26, 2005. Eng interviews Campbell shortly after he moved from Phoenix, where he was arrested and jailed for drunk driving, to Malibu, California. Campbell reports that he is sober and enjoying clean living.

Flippo, Chet. "Glen Campbell Sounds Off on Country Music, Bryan White, Down Under." Billboard 18, no. 32 (August 10, 1996): 29. Campbell criticizes the glitzy new Nashville sound and performers, though he singles out some, such as White, for praise.

Pollak, Michael. "Glen Campbell, Whose Hit Songs Bridged Country and Pop, Dies at 81." The New York Times, 8 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/arts/music/glen-campbell-dead.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2018.