Betty Davis Gray Mabry was born in Durham, North Carolina, on July 26,1944.
23 Facts About Betty Davis
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Betty Davis developed an interest in music when she was about ten, and was introduced to various blues musicians by her grandmother, Beulah Blackwell, while staying at her farm in Reidsville, North Carolina.
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When she was 16, Betty Davis left Homestead for New York City, enrolling at the Fashion Institute of Technology while living with her aunt.
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Betty Davis soaked up the Greenwich Village culture and folk music of the early 1960s.
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Betty Davis associated herself with frequenters of the Cellar, a hip uptown club where young and stylish people congregated.
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Betty Davis was a friend and early muse to fashion designer Stephen Burrows, who studied at the FIT at the time.
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Betty Davis worked as a model, appearing in photo spreads in Seventeen, Ebony and Glamour.
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Betty Davis secured a contract with Don Costa, who had written arrangements for Frank Sinatra.
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Betty Davis featured on the cover of Miles Davis's 1968 album Filles de Kilimanjaro, which included his tribute to her, "Mademoiselle Mabry", and she introduced him to psychedelic rock and the flamboyant clothing styles of the era.
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Betty Davis wrote music while in the UK and, after about a year, returned to the US with the intention of recording songs with Santana.
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Betty Davis released two more studio albums, They Say I'm Different and her major label debut on Island Records Nasty Gal.
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Betty Davis completed another album for Island Records in 1976, before being dropped by the label.
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Betty Davis spent a year in Japan, spending time with silent monks.
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Betty Davis's father died in 1980, which prompted her return to the US to live with her mother in Homestead, Pennsylvania.
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Betty Davis struggled to overcome her father's death, and subsequent mental illness.
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Betty Davis acknowledged that she suffered a setback at the time, but stayed in Homestead, accepted the end of her career, and lived a quiet life.
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In 2019, Davis released "A Little Bit Hot Tonight", her first new song in more than 40 years, which was performed and sung by Danielle Maggio, an ethnomusicologist who was a close friend and associate producer on Betty: They Say I'm Different.
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Betty Davis was separated from his first wife, dancer Frances Davis, and was dating actress Cicely Tyson.
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Betty Davis began dating Miles in early 1968, and they were married that September.
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The influence of Hendrix and especially Sly Stone on Miles Betty Davis was obvious on the album Bitches Brew, which ushered in the era of jazz fusion.
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Betty Davis briefly dated musician Eric Clapton, but she refused to collaborate with him.
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Betty Davis died from cancer at her home in Homestead, Pennsylvania, on February 9,2022, at the age of 77.
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Betty Davis' music has been featured in television series including Orange Is the New Black, Girlboss, Mixed-ish, High Fidelity and Pistol.