1. Leon Russell's recordings earned six gold records and he received two Grammy Awards from seven nominations.
101 Facts About Leon Russell
1. 2.
Leon Russell collaborated with many notable artists and recorded 33 albums and 430 songs.
3.
One of his early fans, Elton John, said that Leon Russell was a "mentor" and an "inspiration".
4.
Leon Russell wrote and recorded the hits "Tight Rope" and "Lady Blue".
5.
Leon Russell performed at The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, along with Harrison, Dylan, and Clapton; for this he earned a Grammy Award.
6.
Leon Russell was born on April 2,1942, the second of John Griffith and Hester Evel Bridges' two sons at Southwestern Hospital in Lawton, Oklahoma.
7.
Leon Russell's mother said that he started talking later than most children.
8.
Leon Russell's mother said she was "shocked, because he never spoke".
9.
Leon Russell said that the condition helped him become "very aware of the duality involved in our plane of existence here".
10.
Leon Russell had a limp caused by the same condition that was once thought to be due to polio.
11.
Leon Russell said "I felt like the world had cheated me big time" but added "If I hadn't had the problem, I probably wouldn't have gotten into music at all and would have been an ex-football player, selling insurance in Des Moines".
12.
Leon Russell then began piano lessons in Anadarko, Oklahoma, a 38-mile trip each way.
13.
Leon Russell's classmates included Elvin Bishop, Anita Bryant, and David Gates.
14.
Leon Russell collaborated later with Gates after high school in the band The Fencemen.
15.
Leon Russell credited his awareness of the precursors of American soul music to a homemade AM crystal radio.
16.
Leon Russell was offered a chance to tour with Jerry Lee Lewis after graduating.
17.
Blackwell said that Leon Russell was "especially good at playing Erroll Garner-style jazz during dinner, but then, after everybody got through eating, he'd break into Jerry Lee Lewis".
18.
Leon Russell backed groups in Tulsa including Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks, often until early morning, after having worked through the night.
19.
Leon Russell was primarily a session musician in his early career.
20.
Leon Russell played piano on Phil Spector productions including recordings by the Ronettes, the Crystals, and Darlene Love and in the 1963 A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector album.
21.
Leon Russell would sit at the piano and he would always say, 'I don't know what to play'.
22.
Leon Russell was a wonderful musician and had a major effect on all of my recordings.
23.
In 1962 Leon Russell played piano on Walter Brennan's lp Old Rivers, produced by Snuff Garrett.
24.
Leon Russell was hired by Snuff Garrett and together they formed a production company, Snuff Garrett Productions in 1964.
25.
Leon Russell was a production assistant, arranger and creative developer for the company.
26.
Leon Russell acted as Garrett's arranger and conductor of the Midnight String Quartet's debut album Rhapsodies For Young Lovers.
27.
In 1969, it was reported Leon Russell had been the vice-president of Viva.
28.
Leon Russell said the music he created while collaborating with Garrett motivated him to leave.
29.
Leon Russell released his first solo record, the single, "Everybody's Talking 'Bout the Young", for Dot Records in 1965.
30.
In 1965 Leon Russell built his first recording studio, Skyhill Studios inside his 2,900 sq.
31.
Leon Russell had seen and worked in similar home recording studios owned by Les Paul, Ernie Kovacs and others.
32.
Leon Russell hired fellow Tulsan JJ Cale as his in-home studio manager.
33.
Leon Russell's recording studio home featured sound proofing, double walls and extensive wiring.
34.
Leon Russell co-produced and arranged recordings by Canadian folk-rock singer Tom Northcott, including a cover version of Donovan's "Sunny Goodge Street".
35.
In 1968 Leon Russell formed The Asylum Choir, a two-man group with Marc Benno.
36.
Leon Russell operated from 1969 to 1981, with offices in Los Angeles and Tulsa.
37.
In March 1970 Leon Russell was hired by Joe Cocker to help quickly mount a concert band and rehearse a 48 date tour.
38.
Leon Russell had only a week to locate, audition, hire and rehearse a 10-piece band and the Space Choir which would consist of ten backup singers.
39.
Leon Russell said Cocker, reportedly using copious illicit drugs at the time, "was pretty wrecked when we started out".
40.
Leon Russell hired many of the musicians from Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett's band.
41.
Leon Russell both conducted and performed in the tour, playing either piano or lead guitar.
42.
Singer and former Ikette Claudia Lennear, who performed during the tour, said Leon Russell had the unique musical talent of being able to fuse together "white gospel and Black gospel".
43.
Leon Russell purchased the top hat and Holy Trinity basketball jersey shirt he wore on the tour at a used clothing store near his Skyhill Studios in Los Angeles.
44.
Leon Russell explained "I'm an actor - I was just trying to make a show".
45.
In 1970, Leon Russell played piano on Dave Mason's album Alone Together, notably on the song "Sad and Deep as You".
46.
In November 1970, Leon Russell performed at the Fillmore East, with Elton John on the same bill.
47.
Leon Russell's album Prince of Peace: Radio Broadcast 1970 is a soundboard recording of a concert at Fillmore East in late 1970.
48.
Leon Russell produced some tracks for Bob Dylan in March 1971 when Dylan was experimenting with his new sound.
49.
At the invitation of George Harrison, Leon Russell played piano on Badfinger's third album, Straight Up in the summer of 1971.
50.
Leon Russell performed piano, vocals, bass and backing vocals at the two shows of the war-refugees' benefit on August 1,1971.
51.
Bob Dylan surprised Leon Russell by asking him to play bass for some of Dylan's portion of the concert; Leon Russell and Harrison sang harmonies on the chorus of "Just Like a Woman".
52.
Leon Russell helped the blues guitarist Freddie King revive his career by collaborating on three of King's albums for Shelter Records during the early 1970s.
53.
Leon Russell recorded the song "Get a Line on You" at Olympic Studios in October 1969, with contributions from Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, and probably Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor.
54.
In 1972, Leon Russell did a concert tour with his Shelter People entourage.
55.
In 1975 Leon Russell released Live In Japan on Shelter Records.
56.
Leon Russell made it into the 1975 Top 40 with "Lady Blue", from his album Will o' the Wisp.
57.
In 1976, Leon Russell released the Wedding Album, a studio album with his then wife, Mary Leon Russell, otherwise known as Mary McCreary.
58.
In 1978, Leon Russell released his Americana album on the Warner Bros.
59.
Leon Russell released Life And Love, an album on Paradise Records, in 1979.
60.
Leon Russell purchased multiple properties in the early 1970s in his home state of Oklahoma, including the historic The Church Studio in 1972 located on the corner of 3rd Street and Trenton in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
61.
Leon Russell said to Harrod Blank "I don't know how you did it but this is so much better than what I remembered".
62.
In 1973 Leon Russell created the fictional musical personality Hank Wilson, and recorded the album Hank Wilson's Back Vol.
63.
Leon Russell helped the Gap Band, a trio of Tulsa brothers, kick off their chart success in 1974.
64.
Leon Russell suggested that Linn add longer-length loops as well as sampled hand claps, explaining a recording session that included clapping quickly becomes a burden for performers during multiple takes.
65.
Leon Russell used Linn's drum machine for all of the percussion on his Life and Love album.
66.
Leon Russell explained that one of the big factors in a drummer's feel was the degree of shuffle timing in his playing.
67.
Leon Russell departed Shelter Records in 1976 to start his own record label, Paradise Records.
68.
Leon Russell built and owned Paradise Studios in Burbank, California; the recording studio had two audio sound stages and a television production stage.
69.
Leon Russell toured with the New Grass Revival in 1980 and 1981, releasing two more albums with Paradise Records before the label folded.
70.
On May 1,1982, Leon Russell played at Joe Ely's Third Annual Tornado Jam in Lubbock, Texas to a crowd of 25,000.
71.
On May 15,1980, Russell joined with New Grass Revival to record a live album at Perkins Palace in Pasadena, California, released in 1981 as The Live Album.
72.
In 1982, Leon Russell played piano and percussion on New Grass Revival's Commonwealth album.
73.
Leon Russell released a country blues album, recorded in Hendersonville, Tennessee at his Paradise Studios, called Solid State.
74.
Leon Russell released the compilation album Best of Leon Russell: A Song for You.
75.
In 1988 and 1989 Edgar Winter and Leon Russell went on a tour of the United States and Canada.
76.
Leon Russell released Delta Lady on Del Rack Records in 1991.
77.
Leon Russell released a new album Anything Can Happen recorded at Paradise Studios, released on Virgin Records in 1991.
78.
Leon Russell released a new album under his country artist name Hank Wilson, Legend in My Time: Hank Wilson Vol.
79.
Leon Russell released Face in the Crowd in 1999, a blues album on Sagestone Entertainment Records.
80.
Also in 2000, Leon Russell Records released the rock album Crazy Love on CD.
81.
In 2001, Leon Russell teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Matt Harris to make the latter's album Slightly Elliptical Orbit.
82.
In 2002, Leon Russell released a 95-minute DVD titled A Song for You, that features 25 Leon Russell classic songs from the Shelter People to 2001.
83.
In 2006, Leon Russell did a 12-city concert tour of the United States.
84.
Leon Russell played at Diversafest, Tulsa's music conference and festival, in 2007.
85.
In Your Dreams was released on CD by Leon Russell Records in 2008, as was A Mighty Flood, a gospel album with original songs by him.
86.
On January 31,2010, Leon Russell joined the Zac Brown Band to play the song "Chicken Fried" at the Grammy Awards.
87.
In November 2009, Leon Russell worked with John and Bernie Taupin on The Union, a double album record credited equally to Leon Russell and John.
88.
The recordings were interrupted in January 2010 when Leon Russell was hospitalized and underwent surgery for a brain fluid leak, as well as treatment for heart failure and pneumonia.
89.
John and Leon Russell appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.
90.
Leon Russell played in Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2013.
91.
Leon Russell had first played at the picnic in 1973.
92.
On June 23,2013, Leon Russell performed on the CMT Crossroads broadcast with Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Jamey Johnson, Norah Jones, Ashley Monroe and Neil Young.
93.
On March 16,2015, a restored version of a previously unreleased 1974 documentary about Leon Russell, A Poem Is a Naked Person by filmmaker Les Blank, was screened at the South by Southwest Film Festival.
94.
Leon Russell had a nationwide concert tour in 2016 and was planning to tour into 2017.
95.
In 2010, Leon Russell had surgery for cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhoea and was treated for heart failure.
96.
Leon Russell died in his sleep at his Mount Juliet, Tennessee home on November 13,2016, at the age of 74.
97.
Leon Russell's body is interred at Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa.
98.
Leon Russell was a mentor, inspiration and so kind to me.
99.
Leon Russell's music takes me back to the most wonderful time in my life, and it makes me so angry that he's been forgotten.
100.
Leon Russell sang in a Southern accent but it was very blown-out and exaggerated, very free and loose.
101.
Leon Russell had six children: a daughter from a relationship with Carla McHenry; a son and daughter from his first marriage to Mary McCreary; and three daughters from his later marriage to Janet Lee Constantine.