Early life:|His parents, Ezekiah Jackson and Mary Louise Craddock, were shop owners in Norfolk, Virginia. He grew up in Virginia under the influence of country, Rhythm and Blues and Gospel music. He received his first guitar as a gift from a friend at the age of 12.|In 1952 Gene left school and joined the Navy. In 1955 he was stationed in Korea, where he suffered a severe motorcycle accident that shattered his left leg. He refused to have it amputated, the leg was saved, but left him with a permanent limp and considerable chronic pain for the rest of his life. Early career:|He left the Navy and started playing in various country bands in his native Norfolk, Virginia. In 1956 he wrote “Be-Bop-A-Lula”, which helped him sign a contract at Capitol Records with his backing band The Blue Caps.|After “Be-Bop-A-Lula” had become a huge hit, Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps were unable to follow it up with the same level of commercial success but recorded critically acclaimed songs like “Bluejean Bop” and “Race with the Devil”. That year, Vincent was reputedly convicted of public obscenity and fined $10,000 by the state of Virginia for his live performance of the erotic song, “Woman Love”, although this is now believed to have been just a rumor.|The group had another hit with 1957’s “Lotta Lovin’.” Vincent also became one of the first rock stars to star in a film, The Girl Can’t Help It together with Jayne Mansfield.|There were numerous changes of personnel in his backing group, The Blue Caps. However, a dispute with the US Tax Authorities and The American Musicians’ Union over payments to his band and his having sold the band’s equipment to pay a tax bill led him to leave the USA and try his hand in Europe.|Following a tour through Europe in 1959, Vincent managed to attract a new huge and discerning audience there, especially in England and France. By that time his career had mostly ended in the US. Consequently, he moved to England in 1960. His stage shows became “must see” events and his bands through those years were to spawn some of the most respected players in the world today. It was during his early tours of Britain that he adopted the trademark leather outfit, at the suggestion of British Rock ‘n’ Roll impressario, Jack Good.|In 1960, while on tour in Britain, Vincent and songwriter Sharon Sheeley were seriously injured in a high-speed traffic accident in a private hire taxi travelling through Chippenham, Wiltshire on the A4. The car, a Ford Consul, suffered a blowout causing it to swerve and crash into a lamp post. Vincent broke his ribs, collarbone, and added further damage to his already weak leg, and Sheeley suffered a broken pelvis. Both Vincent and Sheeley survived, but the accident killed Vincent’s tourmate and Sheeley’s fiancé, Eddie Cochran. |Later career:|His attempts to re-establish his American career by recording in folk rock and country-rock styles proved unsuccessful, and he is most remembered today for his recordings of the 1950s and early 1960s which originally appeared on the Capitol Records label.|On the album “I’m Back and I’m Proud” recorded for long-time fan John Peel’s Dandelion label, Gene was backed by members of The Doors, whose lead singer, Jim Morrison, copied Gene’s ‘Leather Look’.|He has achieved a genuine legendary status and his work is respected, and often copied, by singers and groups worldwide. His major hit, Be-Bop-A-Lula has become what is considered to be one of the top three rock’n’roll records of all time and has rightly earned Gene a place in the history of modern music. Had he managed to survive through the Punk years, he would undoubtedly still be a leading figure in contemporary rock’n’roll.|On his final tour of the UK, he was backed by The Wild Angels, a British band who had previously worked at the Royal Albert Hall with Bill Haley & the Comets and Duane Eddy. Because of pressure from his ex-wife, the Inland Revenue and promoter Don Arden, Gene had to return rather swiftly to the USA. Gene Vincent died from a ruptured stomach ulcer while visiting his father in California, and is interred in the Eternal Valley Memorial Park, Newhall, California. He was the first inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame on its formation in 1997. The following year he was also posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. |
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