Aaron Neville, with his smooth as silk and strong despite his emphasis on his higher register voice, became the most distinctive R&B artist of his generation. He is straight from New Orleans, USA who went to become a star in pop, country, and adult contemporary circles thanks to his collaborations with the likes of Linda Ronstadt and Trisha Yearwood.
Aaron Neville Announces His Retirement From Touring
A long road of his career has finally hit the end-line for Aaron Neville. At the age of 80, he officially announced his retirement from touring on his social media on 6 May 2021.
It has been a long since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 that Aaron hasn’t performed live. However, he often used to live stream solo performances from his residence at Freville Farm during the pandemic.
Neville steadily toured for decades with the Neville Brothers and as a solo artist. For years, he has talked about focusing only on his solo music.
During an interview in January 2021, he said he is working on his autobiography. He also expressed his desire to perform at the rescheduled 2021 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this fall.
But in his recent post on social media, he had only considered going to Jazz Fest “if I don’t have to fly.” He stated that he wants to be cautious due to the new COVID-19 and happily live his left time on earth.
He released his statement, which consisted of his gratitude for every people he has worked with within his professional career and his desire to slow down on the road of his music career. But it seems that he may still record some works and show up only in some selected “event or concert down the road.”
Is Aaron Neville Married?
Aaron Neville got married to Sarah A. Friedman on 13 November 2010 in New York City at the restaurant Eleven Madison Park.
In 2008, during a PEOPLE magazine photoshoot, Neville met photographer Sarah A. Friedman, who had been hired to take a portrait of the Neville Brothers. They dated for months before he proposed in New York, where she lives.
Aaron Neville with his wife, Sarah A. Friedman (©: Facebook/Aaron Neville)
According to PEOPLE magazine, the couple exchanged vows in front of about 15 guests, with the New Orleans native’s longtime priest, the Rev. Tony R. Ricard, officiating. The couple went to the Turks and Caicos Islands, their favorite Caribbean destination, later for their honeymoon.
On November 2017, to celebrate his seven wedding anniversary with Friedman, Neville posted a vintage-filtered portrait of him and his wife on his Facebook page, writing:
“To my beautiful wife Sarah Ann on our 7th wedding anniversary, 12 November, I’m so happy that you’re my wife and best friend. You make me so very happy, I’m so glad that you’re in my life. I love you very much, my shmoops forever. Your husband and best friend, Aaron Joseph.”
Aaron was previously married to Joel Roux-Neville, his high school sweetheart, since 1959. Unfortunately, he lost his previous wife to lung cancer on 5 January 2007 in Nashville, Tennessee.
He went through several dark events to reach the high places of his professional career where he is now. After Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge and levee breaches destroyed his home in eastern New Orleans, he moved his family to Nashville, Tennessee. Joel Roux-Neville, his then-wife and the mother of four children, passed away at the age of 48 in January 2007 following a long battle with cancer.
He returned to New Orleans to fulfill Joel’s wish to be buried in the city. After losing his sweetheart as a teenager, who stayed with him in his highs and lows, he was devastated.
Net Worth Of Aaron Neville, And His Career
The American R&B and soul singer Aaron Neville, with his decades-long career, has earned a lump-sum of wealth for himself. According to CelebrityNetWorth, he has an estimated net worth of $8 million.
He has released several albums and songs with his distinctive voice recorded in them. Some of his albums include, Like It ‘Tis (1967), Tell It Like It Is (1967), Orchid In The Storm (1985), Warm Your Heart (1990), The Tattooed Heart (1995), Devotion (2000), Believe (2003), I Know I’ve Changed (2010), Apache (2016), and more.
Whereas his songs include, Show Me The Way, Let’s Live, I’m Waiting At The Station, The Greatest Love, La Vie Dansante, Louisiana, and so on.
Aaron first began his career with an R&B group named The Hawketts, formed by him with his brothers, Cyril, Charles, and Art, in the mid-1950s. They first tasted moderate success with the song Mardi Gras Mambo which became a local hit in 1954. But he has had his lousy drug habits, which led him to his prison experience for few months in 1958. Upon release, he resolved to rebuild his musical career.
In 1960, Neville released Over You, which became his first single to get airplay outside New Orleans which gained No. 21 positions on the national R&B charts. His first major hit came in 1966, named Tell It Like It Is, which topped Billboard’s R&B chart for five weeks in 1967 and also reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It sold over one million copies and stabilized Aaron’s position in the singing field.
He sang a cover of the song Don’t Know Much with Linda Ronstadt in 1989, which earned high popularity, won the duo a Grammy Award, and was nominated for the Song of the Year. Aaron sang several hit duets with Lind, including All My Life, a song written by Karla Bonoff, which gave them even more popularity.
Along with his solo career, he formed the group Neville Brothers formed by him and his brothers, Cyril, Charles, and Art, in 1977. The group released many hit albums, including The Neville Brothers’ (1978), Fiyo on the Bayou (1981), Uptown (1987), Family Groove (1992), and more.
Neville’s other hits included Everybody Plays the Fool, his 1991 cover of the 1972 Main Ingredient song, that reached the number eight spot on the Hot 100; Don’t Take Away My Heaven, Hercules, and Can’t Stop My Heart From Loving You (The Rain Song).
He has also worked for television, movies, and sporting events. He sang the national anthem at the WWF’s SummerSlam 1993 and at WCW Spring Stampede in 1994, and in the movie The Fan (1996).
In 2009, along with the Mt. Zion Mass Choir, Neville brought out a version of the song A Change Is Gonna Come on the compilation album, Oh Happy Day.