Lou Rawls

Rawls was born on 1st December 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. His father abandoned his family and Lou was raised by his grandmother. His first meeting with music was when he was seven years old, in a Baptist church choir. He was mostly influenced by the Chicago Regal theatre where he had the opportunity to see the best in black entertainment. Billy Eckstine and Arthur Prysock were only two of the best that Lou saw. He and classmate, Sam Cooke, would Harmonize in the school lavatory. He graduated from Dunbar Tech. School and joined the touring gospel singing group, the Pilgrim Travelers.

A paratrooper in the Army's 101st Airborne Division (1955 - 1958)

He left the group in 1956 and joined the US Army and became a Sergeant with the Screaming Eagle Paratroopers.

In 1958, he was involved in a serious auto accident that killed one and Rawls was pronounced dead on on the way to the hospital. Lou remained in a coma for over five days and suffered a memory loss for several months. Sam Cooke was also in the automobile and was left uninjured. Rawls was first noticed by Capitol Records producer Nick Benet after noticing his four octave range while performing at a Pandora's Los Angeles coffee shop.

He went on to perform at a number of LA clubs and later made his debut at the Hollywood Bowl in 1959 with Dick Clark.

He went solo in 1964 and has won four Grammys. In the mid 70s, he joined the Anheuser Busch Brewery as a corporate spokesman.

His performance of "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine", during the 1977 Grammy Awards was disrupted by a coughing fit. He gamely kept performing and managed to finish the song.

His telethon, which served as a fundraiser for the United Negro College and other black colleges, has raised more than $200 million since 1979. More than 10,000 scholarships have been provided.

Since 1980, he has presented a series of world wide concerts for American military bases that were co-sponsored by Anheuser Busch, the USO, and the US Dept. Of Defense.

Was awarded an honorary doctorate at Florida Memorial College in Miami, Sept 21, 2002

Released from Bernalillo County Jail (Albuquerque, New Mexico) after being arrested on one count of battery against his companion, Nina Inman. (16 January 2003)

Despite having absolutely nothing to do with the film itself, he appeared on the DVD commentary track for the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004).

He and his wife and manager Nina, who was 37 years younger than Lou, had a baby boy, Aiden Allen Rawls, in Akron, Ohio, on January 10, 2005. The baby weighed in at 6 pounds, 14 ounces. Nina and Lou used in vitro fertilization and another woman as the birth mother.