AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF EUGENE SMILEY, Sr.
I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child I was raised by grandparents in a small town
in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and by more relatives in Kansas City, Missouri. In my family, musi [+]AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF EUGENE SMILEY, Sr.
I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child I was raised by grandparents in a small town
in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and by more relatives in Kansas City, Missouri. In my family, music was
a very important part of our family values. At an early age, I was very much involved in music. My
Aunt Hazel and my Uncle Charles were my childhood mentors. I wanted to be just like them
when I grew up. My father was a gospel singer and sang tenor for a gospel group called The
Pilgram Travelers. They were the ones that followed their dreams and became successful and
famous doing what they loved to do.
I learned to play the piano when I was very young. I played piano for the youth church choir
and, as I got older, I began to listen to blues and R&B music. My parents didn't like it but
I did it any way. They had to face it. I was a part of my destiny. They didn't try to stop
me but they told me that this kind of music was the devil's music, and I would suffer and
pay a lot of dues. When they would leave me home alone, I'd play that devil music on the piano every chance I got. After graduating from Alexander High school in May 1960, I decided to make Kansas City my home.
In October of 1968, I left Kansas City and move to Chicago. There I became a member of a
young vocal group that later became known as "The Visitors". We recorded on the Dakar label
under the management of Mr. Carl Davis. Our biggest seller was "Until You Came Along" (which was No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1968 and stayed in JET magazine for 9 months). We also had a great sell in "I'm In Danger". Those were the good times. It couldn't get any better than that. I thought I
was on top of the world. My music career seemed to have taken off to a good start. I remember
Carl Davis telling me that it don't last forever. You will be on top as long as someone
is spending money on you to keep you on top. And that's the way the music business operates.
Carl also told me that he would teach me everything need to know to become successful
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