Musical Family: The Campbell's

Time again for the next segment of Like Father, Like Son, except today, I’m going to expand it a bit to include a daughter.  If you recall, in the first segment, we talked about Willie & Lukas Nelson. Then we talked about Leonard & Adam Cohen, and last time we talked about Tim & Jeff Buckley. Today, we’re going to talk about yet another musical family.


The other day, I was listening to an interview with Alice Cooper (for those of you who are not familiar with Alice Cooper, be patient, I’ll talk about him all in due time). He was talking about his good friend, Glen Campbell.

Say What?!?  Yes, friends, Alice Cooper and Glen Campbell were close friends. They golfed together once a week. Their families were practically raised together, and they spent a lot of time with each other.

Alice Cooper reminded us that Glen Campbell was not all about Country/Western music. 

You may recall, that Glen Campbell was once part of The Wrecking Crew, a group of session musicians, who backed musicians of all genres. Glen was one of two of these session musicians who went on to have a successful solo career. Leon Russell was the other (Sadly, he too, has recently passed). Glen Campbell played on recordings by Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, the Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Jan and Dean, Frank Sinatra, Ronnie Dove, Phil Spector and Elvis Presley.

It was the other day, I believe, when I was reading Cathy’s blog, when the thought occurred to me that it seemed those who had variety shows, often got their families involved, and those family members were also talented musicians.  Many of you recall Glen Campbell from Hee Haw, but did you know he had his own variety show, ‘The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour’?  I also recall seeing him on various other variety shows such as Donny & Marie and Sonny & Cher, The Mike Douglas Show, etc.

Here are three songs that Glen Campbell is best known for (there are more, but I limited it to just three):

Wichita Lineman



Rhinestone Cowboy



Southern Nights




Alright, so I mentioned that those with variety shows liked to get their families involved. Glen Campbell had 4 wives (not all at once!) and 8 children (5 boys, 3 girls).

His son Dylan (who often changes the spelling of his name) has recorded a few songs. Here is one:

High Rent Hotel




Ashley Campbell was part of Glen’s crew, touring and playing with him on stage.  She has written a very touching song. I dare you not to get misty eyed…

Remembering




It should be noted that three of his children joined him for his final tour.  I’m going to close this post with Glen’s final song. Because Glen was not able to sing or perform this song, his son Shannon sings it for us:

I’m Not Gonna Miss You





That wraps it up for today’s post about the Campbell’s.  Are there any other parent child musicians that you would like to learn about or hear their music? Let me know in the comments below.