Chuck Negron | |
---|---|
Negron performing live in 2008
|
|
Background information | |
Birth name | Charles Negron |
Born |
Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
June 8, 1942
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
|
Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 1960–present |
Labels | Dunhill |
Associated acts | Three Dog Night |
Website | chucknegron |
Charles "Chuck" Negron (born June 8, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter, best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the rock band Three Dog Night, which he helped to form in 1968.
Charles Negron was born on June 8, 1942, in Manhattan, New York to a Puerto Rican father and a British mother. He grew up in The Bronx, where he sang in local doo-wop groups and played basketball both in schoolyard pick-up games and at William Howard Taft High School. The latter talent led to his being recruited to play basketball at Allan Hancock College, a small community college in Santa Maria, California; later, he played at California State University, Los Angeles.
In 1967, Negron's pal, singer Danny Hutton, invited Negron to join him and Cory Wells; they founded the band Three Dog Night. The group became one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, having sold approximately 60 million records and earned gold records for such songs as "One", "Easy to be Hard", and "Joy to the World".
The rock and roll lifestyle took its toll on Negron, and by the time Three Dog Night disbanded in 1976, Negron had a serious heroin addiction which began in the early 1970s. In July 1975, the British music magazine, NME, reported that Negron had been arrested for cocaine possession in Kentucky.
He overcame his addiction in September 1991 and embarked on a solo career, recording the albums: