After Dinner Speakers: Glen Campbell, Michael Wincott, Pamela Armstrong

Glen Campbell is an old school country boy who has become one of the most successful stars in the music business over the course of 25 years. Born in Delight, Ark., Glen Travis Campbell is the seventh son in a family of 12. Each of his siblings played an instrument, and Campbell was no exception. He learned to play a Sears mail-order guitar when he was four years old. By the age of 14, Campbell had left home to pursue a music career. He landed in Houston, where he started a three-piece band. Soon after, he moved to Albuquerque to join his uncle's swing band. There he was exposed to everyone from the Sons of the Pioneers to such eclectic tastes as the jazz of Django Reinhardt and Barney Kessell and church choir music. When Campbell turned 24, he moved to Los Angeles and began working as a session musician, while occasionally touring with the Champs, who found fame with the 1958 hit "Tequila." Campbell released his first hit, "Turn Around, Look at Me," on the Crest Label, and quickly signed with Capitol, where he showcased his bluegrass album, Bit Bluegrass Special. During this time, Campbell continued to play session work on records by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Merle Haggard, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and the Mamas and the Papas. He even toured with the Beach Boys in 1965. But by 1967, Campbell began to make it in his own right. A reworking of a loosely structured, rambling set of lyrics netted him what was to become his signature song, "Gentle on My Mind." He followed that hit up with the Jimmy Webb ballad "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Never one to stagnate himself in one medium, Campbell guest hosted the Smothers Brothers show for a summer in 1968, after which he was offered his own show, called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, which ran until 1972. The extra exposure garnered him even more fame, and throughout the 1970s he released several more gold singles, including "Galveston" and his signature song, "Rhinestone Cowboy." Campbell also made appearances in the motion pictures True Grit and Norwood, and in 1985, he hosted his own HBO special. By 1987, Campbell signed with MCA, and released another hit-yielding effort called Still Within the Sound of My Voice. In recent years, Campbell has made a journey back to his gospel roots. His last albums came out on Christian label New Haven Records.