Max Boyce rose to fame in the mid-1970s with an act that combined musical comedy with his passion for rugby union and his origins in a South Wales mining community.
27 Facts About Max Boyce
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Max Boyce's family was originally from Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley.
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At the age of fifteen, Max Boyce left school, went to live with his grandfather, and worked in a colliery "for nearly eight years".
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Max Boyce first learned to play the guitar as a young man, but he showed no particular flair for the instrument, nor an actual desire to become a performer.
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Max Boyce started out performing in local sports clubs and folk clubs around 1970, where his original set began to take on a humorous element, interspersed by anecdotes of Welsh community life and of the national sport, rugby union.
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Nevertheless, Max Boyce remained virtually unknown beyond the music clubs of the South Wales valleys for the time being, where he continued to perform.
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Max Boyce's performance was warmly received by the crowd, as can be heard in the final recording.
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Max Boyce released several albums over the next few years, receiving further gold discs for The Incredible Plan in 1976, and I Know 'Cos I Was There in 1978.
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When Swansea City were promoted to the English Premier League in 2011, Max Boyce was asked to perform for their first game and produced a special version of "Hymns and Arias" for the occasion.
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Max Boyce's rise to fame was confirmed by an appearance on the long-running biographical series This Is Your Life on 22 February 1978.
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Max Boyce had gone to watch Glynneath RFC play against Hawick Trades, and was surprised by the host of This Is Your Life, Eamonn Andrews, at the end of the match, whilst he was being interviewed.
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In 1982, Max Boyce went to the United States to be filmed participating at a training camp held by the Dallas Cowboys in California.
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Max Boyce returned to America in early 1984 to try his hand at being a cowboy in the rodeos of the Midwestern United States.
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The result of his bull riding and rodeo clown antics was Max Boyce Goes West, which became a four-part series that was broadcast in June 1984.
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Max Boyce's team, consisting of Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Billy Connolly and Cartier chairman Alain Perrin, only managed to score a single goal during the tournament.
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In 1990, Max Boyce entered the world of theatre by taking on the title role of Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk alongside Ian Botham.
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Max Boyce's career has enjoyed a resurgence since the late 1990s.
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At Christmas time in 1998, BBC Wales screened An Evening With Max Boyce, which broke Welsh viewing records.
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Not long after, Max Boyce was included on the 2000 New Year Honours list, and received an MBE from Prince Charles in a ceremony at Cardiff Castle on 15 March that year.
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Max Boyce held concerts in Adelaide and Melbourne, but the highlight was his sold-out performance at the Sydney Opera House, which was later released on DVD as Max Boyce: Down Under.
21.
On 29 May 2006, Max Boyce headlined at a concert in Pontypridd to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Welsh national anthem, "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau".
22.
Max Boyce returned to Treorchy in early 2011 to perform a show at the Parc and Dare Theatre, shown on St David's Day on BBC1 Wales.
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Max Boyce was joined onstage by guests including Boyd Clack, and the audience featured such Welsh icons as Gareth Edwards.
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Max Boyce has a wife and children, who live away from the public eye in his hometown of Glynneath, in South Wales.
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Max Boyce has been the president of Glynneath RFC and the Club President of Glynneath Golf Club, where the "Max Boyce Classic" is held every two or three years.
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Max Boyce was inducted into the Gorsedd of Bards at the 1971 National Eisteddfod of Wales in the Lliw Valley.
27.
In 2014, Max Boyce was diagnosed with heart problems and underwent a quadruple heart bypass.