Curtis Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down after lighting equipment fell on him during a live performance at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, on August 13,1990.
13 Facts About Curtis Mayfield
2.
Curtis Mayfield won a Grammy Legend Award in 1994 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.
3.
Curtis Mayfield is a double inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of The Impressions in 1991, and again in 1999 as a solo artist.
4.
Curtis Mayfield died from complications of type 2 diabetes at the age of 57 on December 26,1999.
5.
Curtis Lee Mayfield was born on Wednesday, June 3,1942, in Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Marion Washington and Kenneth Mayfield, one of five children.
6.
Curtis Mayfield's career began in 1956 when he joined the Roosters with Arthur and Richard Brooks and Jerry Butler.
7.
Curtis Mayfield had written much of the soundtrack of the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s, but by the end of the decade, he was a pioneering voice in the black pride movement along with James Brown and Sly Stone.
8.
In 1970, Curtis Mayfield left the Impressions and began a solo career.
9.
Curtis Mayfield worked with The Staples Singers on the soundtrack for the 1975 film Let's Do It Again, and teamed up with Mavis Staples exclusively on the 1977 film soundtrack A Piece of the Action.
10.
In 1973 Curtis Mayfield released the anti-war album Back to the World, a concept album that dealt with the social aftermath of the Vietnam War and criticized the United States' involvement in wars across the planet.
11.
In 1982, Curtis Mayfield decided to move to Atlanta with his family, closing down his recording operation in Chicago.
12.
Curtis Mayfield wrote and recorded the soundtrack to the 1972 blaxploitation film Super Fly with the help of producer Johnny Pate.
13.
Curtis Mayfield died from complications of type 2 diabetes at 7:20 AM on Sunday, December 26,1999, at the North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell, Georgia.