Aaron Neville

Aaron Neville (born Aaron Joseph Neville on January 24, 1941) is an American singer whose smooth, vibrato‑laden tenor has made him a definitive voice across R&B, soul, gospel, jazz, country, and pop. He first broke out of the New Orleans scene in 1960 with the single “Over You” and achieved national fame in 1966 when “Tell It Like It Is” topped the Billboard R&B chart for five weeks and rose to No. 2 on the Hot 100, later earning a gold disc and a place in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Throughout the 1990s Neville recorded three consecutive platinum‑selling solo albums, topped the Jazz chart with Nature Boy: The Standards Album, and amassed four Grammy Awards, including two for his duets with Linda Ronstadt such as “Don’t Know Much” and “All My Life”. His willingness to cross genre boundaries led to a Grammy nomination for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1994 for his cover of “The Grand Tour”, and in 2023 he won a fourth Grammy for Best American Roots Performance on “Stompin’ Ground” with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, cementing his status as a versatile interpreter. In addition to studio work, Neville has sung the U.S. national anthem at two Super Bowls, performed at the 2005 Hurricane Katrina relief concert, and appeared in films such as The Fan and documentaries like Make It Funky!. Personal milestones include a 1959 marriage to Joel Roux Neville, with whom he fathered four children, and a 2010 marriage to photographer Sarah Ann Friedman; he remains a devout Catholic with a lifelong devotion to St. Jude. His career, spanning over six decades, continues to influence artists across multiple musical traditions.