Aaron Neville
Aaron Neville was born on January 24, 1941, in New Orleans, a city in the American South that has long been associated with distinctive musical traditions. Growing up there placed him within a particular cultural geography that would frame his life as a performer and recording artist.
Neville is an American singer and musician who works in the funk and rhythm and blues genres. As a recording artist working in English, he has built a career rooted in those two musical forms, both of which are central to his identity as a performer. His work across these genres marks him as a figure within American popular music more broadly.
Alongside his recording career, Neville has been recognized with honors outside the music world. He received the Laetare Medal, and he also received the James Cardinal Gibbons Medal. These two awards represent recognition of his standing that extends beyond his role as a performing artist, though the facts available here don't detail the specific criteria behind either honor.
Neville remains a living American singer and recording artist, based in the United States, whose career has been tied to funk and rhythm and blues. He was born in New Orleans on January 24, 1941, and the recognition he has received — including both the Laetare Medal and the James Cardinal Gibbons Medal — reflects a public profile that reaches across different areas of American life.
Quotes by Aaron Neville
I started listening to gospel when I was a little boy and my grandmother used to rock me on her lap.
There are so many songs in my heart and in my brain. I wake up at 2 in the morning, and I have to get up and sing them. There are so many of them, it's ridiculous.
People are living a lot longer these days and not preparing for it. I'm in the gym and, you know, using my voice.
My mother turned me onto St. Jude back in the days when I was wild and crazy. She took me to the shrine on Rampart Street.
I worked with the Neville Brothers for 40-some years on the highway, and up and down since I can remember - funk from New Orleans.
I used to always sing my way into the movies and the basketball games or whatever. I'd sing for whoever's on the door, and they'd let me in. I used to think I was Nat King Cole back in the day, you know. So I'd sing something like, 'Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you,' and they'd let me in.
'Yellow Moon' was a poem. My wife at the time, Joel - she's dead now - it was our 25th anniversary. She had the chance to go on a cruise with her sister. And I'm home with the kids and looking up, and I saw the big moon, and I just started writing.
