Leon Russell
Photo by Flickr upload bot, available under Creative Commons license.
Rating
Active
1956
Born
April 2, 1942 in Lawton
Died
November 13, 2016
Location
Lawton, OK, United States
Biography
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges on April 2, 1942 in Lawton, Oklahoma) is a singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist. Russell attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Known as a session musician and artist in his own right, Russell has played with artists as varied as Jerry Lee Lewis, Phil Spector and The Rolling Stones. With a solo career spanning the genres of rock, blues, and gospel, Russell began his musical career at 14, lying about his age to land a gig playing backup at a Tulsa nightclub to play with Ronnie Hawkins behind Jerry Lee Lewis.
Biography by Last.fm, available under cc by-sa license.
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I also read that he wrote it for Claudia Lennear, the beautiful, black backup singer.
That makes more sense to me but for some reason it usually is said about Rita.
I can't find anything where Leon actually said who inspired it. Maybe Rita just said she was the muse.
- Comment by cherilb
1 year
ago
