Raised in a physically abusive home, he got hurt a lot by his mother, his father, – and his sister.
Then a devastating tragedy struck — an event so painful it left him crying for two years.
But somehow, he managed to transform that suffering into creativity and purpose.
”I hated those fuckers”
Today, this star is inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Known as the “American Troubadour,” he has sold over 50 million albums, and there is no doubt he is a true legend. One particular hit transformed him into a multi-millionaire and catapulted him into global fame, and today this 80-year-old icon no longer really needs to work at all.
But his journey to fame and fortune was anything but easy.
The songwriter was born on October 2, 1945. His father was of Scottish descent and his mother had Italian roots. He grew up in New Rochelle, New York, where he worked as a newspaper delivery boy during his childhood.
He has said he hated growing up in what he describes as a small house in an upper-middle-class neighbourhood of New Rochelle. He recalls a culture of constant judgment and status anxiety.
“If you didn’t drive the right car, if you didn’t have enough money, if you didn’t wear the right shoes. I hated those fuckers.”
In recent years, he has openly spoken about a difficult childhood marked by violence at home.
“I was hurt a lot by my mother, my father, and my sister. I was hit a lot,” he revealed while speaking with Daily Mail.
In interviews, he has also described his sister in stark terms, referring to what he called the “dreadful, ugly secret” of Betty Anne. Fifteen years his senior, she struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction, something he has described in painful terms, saying she “ruined” parts of his childhood.
“You couldn’t talk about her because you couldn’t tell the truth about what was happening to her. It was a disaster to see it. She was always so shackled. It was terrible,” he told The Guardian.
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