- Born
- Birth nameEric Victor Burdon
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Eric Burdon has one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in rock and roll. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 1994, and hailed by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Greatest Voices of All Time, Burdon's music forged new territory while also topping the charts for over 5 decades.
Highly prolific, Burdon has released nearly 50 records in those 50 years, as front man of The Animals and WAR and simply as Eric Burdon. Through the changing sounds and genres, what remains constant is his courage as an artist to explore new sounds, leading into new territory with his unrivaled and unique voice. Eric Burdon has shared the stage with legends such as Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Witherspoon and Otis Redding, and recently cited by cutting edge musicians like Patti Smith and Iggy Pop in their personal top tens.
Eric began his musical journey as a young man growing up in Newcastle, England. Listening to his idols, Ray Charles and Bo Diddley, Eric immersed himself in American blues and jazz. As front man and driving force of the British Invasion band The Animals, Burdon helped shape rock and roll's DNA, and Eric's imposing yet soulful vocals are the driving force of the iconic favorite "House of the Rising Sun".
A long string of hits followed, including "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and the Vietnam-era anthem, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place." Pioneering the psychedelic San Francisco sound, Burdon's classics include "San Franciscan Nights" and "Monterey".
Burdon continued through the years to perform with different iterations of the Animals, while also founding and fronting the funk group War, one of the first multiracial bands, and topped the charts again with his groundbreaking hit single "Spill the Wine".
In the following decades Burdon has become and accomplished painter and author, and he continues to record and tour as a solo artist. 2012 will see the release of his new album, "Til Your River Runs Dry."- IMDb Mini Biography By: Elizabeth Freund
- SpousesMarianna Proestou(1999 - present)Rose Jolinda Marks(September 17, 1972 - February 9, 1982) (divorced, 1 child)Angels G King(September 7, 1967 - March 1971) (divorced)
- In 1994 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of The Animals).
- Lead singer for the musical group The Animals.
- Famous for his deep, raw, agonized singing voice.
- Has one child, a daughter Alex, from his second marriage to Rose Marks.
- Went on to sing for fusion and heavy rock bands after The Animals disbanded in 1966. The original members of the band reformed in 1977 and 1983, but without critical or popular success.
- [on Bo Diddley] Bo's one of the guys who invented rock 'n' roll. He took two cultures that existed in separate forms--country and western and the kind of blues that used to be known as "race music"--and put them together. His beat was a jungle beat. That's what he called it.
- Why would I want to celebrate a band that has driven me so much pain and anguish? And the fact that in Britain it's been ruled by a high court judge that I cannot enter Britain as an Animal anymore. I'm getting sued by my fellow members of the early band to the point of where I can't . . . I'm not supposed to call myself Eric Burdon and The Animals anymore in Britain . . . so that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
- [Bruce Springsteen] wanted to produce me. For some reason I said no, I didn't think it was the right time for me. I can't even come up with a reason why I should say no to Springsteen because I love the guy's work and the more I know about him and the people around him, he's a really stand-up guy. For a long time I would have a thought now and again, "Man, why did I turn Bruce down? What did I do that for?" But I do a lot of things on the spur of the moment and afterwards I think, "What did I do that for?" Maybe my dyslexia has something to do with that, I don't know. If you put me in a room with two buttons, a green button and a red button, and it says "Red button, do not press" . . . I will. I'll press it. And I'm supposed to press the green one.
- Yeah, I love jazz. But most of the jazz that I love is of the past. If I listen to jazz, I'm listening to Duke Ellington. If I'm listening to jazz voicings, I'm listening to Big Joe Turner, Joe Williams, people like that. The concept of the voice within the structure of the music world is a very special thing for me because that's what I do, so I have to make it a special thing. But it is a special thing and the fact that the first, real, original instrument was the human voice when centuries ago the inhabitants of the planet would copy the sound of birds in the trees and all that. That's where singing came from and then it became a way of passing on messages and spreading the news when there was no newspapers, when there was no Internet. There was strolling minstrels who sang the news, they would sing the weather forecast, they would sing the cricket results in their bars. So y'know, the voice is a very special thing and that's why I still make the challenge of getting up in front of an audience and hoping that they'll like what I have to say and the way that I have to say it.
- I didn't like punk music but I agreed with what they were saying.
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