Glen Campbell

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Lore & Background

Glen Campbell was born in Billstown, Arkansas, the seventh son of 12 children. He started playing guitar at age 4 after his father gave him a five-dollar guitar from Sears, with his uncle Boo teaching him the basics. By age 6 he was performing on local radio stations. He dropped out of school in the 10th grade at 14 to work, installing insulation and later at a gas station. In 1954, at age 17, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to join his uncle's band, Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys, and appeared on his uncle's radio show and K Circle B Time on KOB television. In 1960, he moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician, joining the Champs that October. By January 1961 he was writing songs and recording demos at American Music, and soon became part of the group of studio musicians later known as the Wrecking Crew. He played on recordings by the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and many others. He never learned to read music, but besides guitar, he could play the banjo, mandolin, and bass. Fellow Wrecking Crew member Leon Russell said Campbell 'was the best guitar player I'd heard before or since.' From December 1964 to mid-May 1965, Campbell was a touring member of the Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson, playing bass guitar and singing falsetto harmonies.

Reader's Guide

Glen Campbell's significance lies in his dual career as a top session guitarist and a solo country-pop star. As a member of the Wrecking Crew, he contributed to countless classic recordings, including the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds. His solo hits include 'Universal Soldier' (his first hit from 1965), 'Gentle on My Mind' (1967), 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix' (1967), 'Dreams of the Everyday Housewife' (1968), 'Wichita Lineman' (1968), 'Galveston' (1969), 'Rhinestone Cowboy' (1975), and 'Southern Nights' (1977). In 1967, Campbell won four Grammys in the country and pop categories: two for 'Gentle on My Mind' in country and western, and two for 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix' in pop. He won the CMA's top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year, and owned trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the CMA and the ACM. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), and Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. His acting role in the film True Grit (1969) earned a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer, and he sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Campbell announced he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2011 and retired in 2013 after recording his final song, 'I'm Not Gonna Miss You'. He died from the disease on August 8, 2017, at the age of 81.

Did You Know?

• Campbell was the seventh son of 12 children and started playing guitar at age 4 after his father gave him a five-dollar guitar from Sears.
• He never learned to read music but could play guitar, banjo, mandolin, and bass.
• From December 1964 to mid-May 1965, Campbell was a touring member of the Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson on bass guitar and falsetto harmonies.
• Campbell won four Grammys in 1967—two for 'Gentle on My Mind' in country and western, and two for 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix' in pop.
• He played a supporting role in the film True Grit (1969) and sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Roots in the Arkansas Delta

Glen Travis Campbell was born on April 22, 1936, in Billstown, a tiny settlement near Delight in Pike County, Arkansas. The seventh son of twelve children, he grew up on a sharecropping farm with his father John Wesley and mother Carrie Dell, whose family had emigrated from County Tipperary, Ireland. The household had no electricity, and cash was so tight that Campbell later described a dollar as looking "as big as a saddle blanket." The children supplemented the family's meager income by picking cotton for neighboring farmers, earning a dollar and a quarter per hundred pounds. Music, however, was abundant. His father gave him a five-dollar Sears guitar at age four, and his uncle Boo showed him the basics. By six, Campbell was already performing on local radio, and he kept sharpening his skills between stints in the cotton fields. He left school in the tenth grade at fourteen to work in Houston, then found his way to fairs, church picnics, and gospel choirs. In 1954 he joined his uncle's band in Albuquerque, and by 1958 he was leading his own group, the Western Wranglers, playing six or seven nights a week.

The Wrecking Crew and Session Stardom

When Campbell relocated to Los Angeles in 1960 to pursue work as a studio musician, he quickly became one of the most in-demand guitarists in the city. After joining the Champs that October and landing a daytime position at the American Music publishing company, where he wrote songs and cut demos, his reputation as a versatile session player spread rapidly. He became a core member of the loose collective of instrumentalists later dubbed "The Wrecking Crew," a group whose fingerprints were on countless recordings across genres. Campbell's name appears on sessions for an extraordinary roster: the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, the Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Jan and Dean, Phil Spector, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, the Everly Brothers, Paul Revere & the Raiders, and Elvis Presley, among many others. His bond with Presley deepened when he helped record the Viva Las Vegas soundtrack in 1964, and Campbell later noted that both men shared humble, cotton-picking roots. This years-long apprenticeship behind the microphone gave him an encyclopedic understanding of arrangement, timing, and feel that would later fuel his own solo breakthrough.

A Decade of Chart-Dominating Hits

Once Campbell stepped out from behind the studio microphone and into the spotlight as a solo artist, his chart record became staggering. Over his career, eighty of his songs cracked the Billboard Country Chart, the Hot 100, or the Adult Contemporary list; twenty-nine climbed into the top ten, and nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. His signature recordings span two decades: "Universal Soldier" (1965), "Gentle on My Mind" (1967), "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (1967), "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" (1968), "Wichita Lineman" (1968), "Galveston" (1969), "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975), and "Southern Nights" (1977). Industry recognition was equally sweeping. In 1967 he collected four Grammy Awards, with "Gentle on My Mind" earning two in country and western and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" collecting two in pop. He also claimed the CMA's Entertainer of the Year title for 1968 and held Male Vocalist of the Year trophies from both the CMA and the ACM. Across five decades, Campbell released sixty-four albums and sold over forty-five million records, including twelve gold, four platinum, and one double-platinum disc.

Final Chapter and Enduring Legacy

Campbell's later years carried both continued recognition and profound personal loss. In 2012, the Recording Academy honored him with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and three of his early hits were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000, 2004, and 2008. His screen work also left a mark: a supporting role in the 1969 film True Grit earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer, and the song he sang for that picture received an Academy Award nomination. He also hosted The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS from 1969 to 1972, bringing his easygoing charm to television audiences. In 2011, Campbell publicly disclosed his diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, and in 2013 he recorded what would be his final song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You," before retiring from performing. Glen Travis Campbell passed away on August 8, 2017, at the age of eighty-one, from the disease. His legacy endures in the sixty-four albums, the forty-five million records sold, and the generations of musicians who first picked up a guitar by playing along to his records.

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