Well, February is winding down, so today's bios are the last for this month. I honestly enjoyed making this, though it was a fair degree of anxiety describing each person in a concise manner and reading the sometimes hard details of their lives. Hopefully, we can make everyone's life easier in this nation by remembering our interpersonal responsibility to each other as human beings, because as a T-Shirt worn by GregAlan Williams on Baywatch once said, "Love Sees No Color." I also feel I could've written about James Earl Jones, Kevin Michael Richardson, Phil Lamarr, Khary Payton (who has the same birthday as me) and GregAlan Williams, but my focus right now has been on music and baseball, places where it's more often hard work that separates failure from success, as opposed to entertainment, where someone can trash a project because it isn't up to their high standards. I, personally, don't have too high standards, but I can tell when a project is better than projects in the genre that came before it. Anyway, here are the last seven bios.
Normani
A modern-day Pop/R&B singer, Normani used to be part of the group Fifth Harmony, effectively leading the group during 2017 until its breakup in 2018. She served as an opening act for Ariana Grande on Grande’s Sweetener Tour, collaborating with her and Nicki Minaj for a song for the 2019 Charlie’s Angels movie. Normani also dueted with Sam Smith on the song “Dancing With A Stranger,” which was ultimately released on his 2020 album, and sang the song “Diamonds” with rapping provided by Megan Thee Stallion for the Birds of Prey soundtrack. Her biggest solo hit is “Motivation,” which was co-written by Ariana Grande and peaked at 33 on the US charts while being nominated for a Soul Train Music Award for Best Dance Performance. She takes inspiration from singers such as Aretha Franklin, Beyonce and Alicia Keys.
Alicia Keys
A modern-day Pop/R&B artist with worldwide fame since around 2003, Alicia Keys started her interest in music as a child, when her Mom would play records of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. She got to play Dorothy in a school production of “Wizard of Oz” and was also in a production of “Cats.” She was also skilled in the piano, learning the Suzuki method, which my brother was trained in for a while. She broke through in the early 2000s with “Songs in A Minor” and “The Diary of Alicia Keys.” She voiced herself in an episode of the Disney Channel cartoon The Proud Family and would go on to be a judge on the singing competition show “The Voice,” during the same season Miley Cyrus was a judge, which would lead to Alicia Keys appearing on Miley’s “Bright Minded” YouTube/Instagram show in 2020 in the same episode as Millie Bobbie Brown. In it, the two discuss how appropriate Keys’ song “Underdog” was for the times, and Alicia Keys would soon release the single “Perfect Way To Die,” which was also perfect for the times, as lead-up to her great 2020 album ALICIA. Shortly after this was released, she released a duet with Brandi Carlile, a Caucasian lesbian, called “A Beautiful Noise” about standing up and speaking out.
Stevie Wonder
A Father of Funk Music, a popular genre in the 1970s, Stevie Wonder wrote the song “Superstition,” which was covered by Jeff Beck on his Beck, Bogert, Appice album (where the British blues guitarist teamed with the rhythm section of Vanilla Fudge/Cactus) and by Glenn Hughes, a journeyman rock musician famous for being the bassist and one of the vocalists for Deep Purple from 1974-1976 and the bassist/lead singer for Black Country Communion and The Dead Daisies. Stevie Wonder also released a fantastic album called “Signed, Sealed and Delivered” in 1970, where he covered The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” and down the road, the title track would be covered by Peter Frampton. Stevie Wonder is still active in music today, releasing a song with Gary Clark Jr. on guitar last year calling for greater compassion and peacefulness between people called “Where Is Our Love Song?” That same year, a long time hit of his, “For Once In My Life,” was covered by Noah Cyrus.
Lil Nas X
Born Montero Lamar Hill, Lil Nas X is responsible for the infectiously catchy Country-Rap collaboration with Billy Ray Cyrus “Old Town Road,” one of my favorite songs of 2019 that I feel most people would rather I not talk about in public. The blend of distinctly different styles, Lil Nas X’s “Can’t Nobody Tell Me Nothin’” and Billy Ray’s “Hey, I’m gonna take my horse to the Old Town Road, gonna drive ‘till I can’t no more” make the song instantly recognizable and memorable. Lil Nas X is from the Atlanta, Georgia area and worked as a teenager online creating fan accounts and going to college. He released “Old Town Road” and had a fight with it on the Country Music charts, with the Cyrus family in his corner and Country Music traditionalists/probable racists opposing him. Lil Nas X also came out as gay while promoting the song. “Old Town Road” did reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus their first Grammy awards.
Billy Preston
A keyboardist famous for working with The Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison during their solo careers, Billy Preston was one of the other artists The Beatles signed to their Apple Records label. He recorded “That’s The Way God Planned It” and “Encouraging Words” on the label, having a passion for contemporary Gospel music. You can also hear him on The Beatles’ songs “Get Back,” “I’ve Got A Feeling,” “One After 909,” “Let It Be,” the Naked version of “The Long and Winding Road,” “Something” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” He was actually found by George Harrison during the tense January 1969 sessions that ultimately resulted in the “Let It Be” album and The Beatles mentioned that his presence helped break the tension they had built between them. He can also be heard on the studio version of the Ringo Starr track “I’m The Greatest,” which was written by John Lennon and also features Ringo on drums, John on piano, George on guitar and Klaus Voorman, who designed the Revolver album cover, on bass. Billy Preston was gay and didn’t come out until shortly before his death in 2006, his identity caused some internal conflict with his religious background. I personally hope that this can improve in the future.
Doug Pinnick
The bassist/lead singer for King’s X and supergroup KXM, Doug Pinnick, sometimes stylized as dUg Pinnick, is a heavy metal bassist and singer who was worked on a variety of projects. Due to King’s X sometimes being classified as a Christian Metal band, he was able to form a friendship with Ted Kirkpatrick, drummer of Torniquet and an Animal Right’s activist, singing on one of Torniquet’s songs and playing bass for Ted Kirkpatrick’s Black Sabbath tribute album, which featured vocal contributions by WWE wrestler/lead vocalist of Fozzy Chris Jericho on “War Pigs” and Tim “Ripper” Owens on “Children of the Grave.” He also sang “Taxman” on a recording that featured Steve Lukather of Toto fame on guitar and performed “Sunshine of Your Love” with Eric Gales in the supergroup Pinnick Gales Pridgen (see week 3 for more information on Eric Gales). Doug Pinnick used to identify as Christian, but after coming out as gay, his worldview shifted to be more agnostic. Again, I hope to help build bridges between the Church and the LGBTQ+ community, which is why these last five years have been kind of a personal hell for me and why I get obsessive over RWBY and the Black Eagles route of Fire Emblem; Three Houses.
B.B. King
Born Riley B. King, B.B. King was one of the most influential blues guitarists of the modern era, recording “3 O’clock Blues,” “Sweet Little Angel” and probably the most popular version of “The Thrill is Gone.” He opened for The Rolling Stones in 1969 and collaborated with U2 on the song “When Love Comes To Town,” which appears on the “Rattle and Hum” album. In 2000, B.B. King made a collaboration album with Eric Clapton which featured a new recording of “3 O’clock Blues” and “Key to the Highway,” a blues standard Clapton recorded with Duane Allman on his Derek and the Dominoes album. In 2003, for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 30th Anniversary, a ten-minute blues jam was unearthed, which featured bits from “Sweet Little Angel.” Peter Frampton recorded a new version of “The Thrill is Gone” in 2019 and the following year, William “Captain Kirk” Shatner recorded a hilariously deadpan version with blues guitarist/vocalist Pat Travers. That same year, Pat Travers appeared on B.B. King’s daughter, Shirley King’s, album, playing “That’s All Right (Mama),” one of Elvis’ first hits. B.B. King sadly passed away in 2015, but his daughter Shirley has learned and inherited well from her father.
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