Debby Campbell - Life With My Father Glen Campbell

Copyright 2013 Omnibus Press

This edition 2014 Omnibus Press

(A Division of Music Sales Limited, 14-15 Berners Street, London W1T 3LJ)

EISBN: 978-1-78323-002-0

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To my children Jenny, Jesse and Jeremy; and my grandchildren Morgan, Olive and Micah. I read these words somewhere and they absolutely jumped at me to express how I feel: I just want you to know that you give me the balance to live right, because so much of what is best in us is bound up in family, that it remains the measure of our stability. You are my heart.

I want you to never forget you are family!

Debby Campbell would like to thank:

My mom for opening up to me after all these years and telling me her story. I love you.

My stepdad Jack for being the amazing man you are and have always been.

My sisters Donna and Denise for your unconditional love.

MaryAnne Beaman, you are my sister in every sense of that word! I love and adore you! Margaret Cloyd (you are amazing).

Karl Olson.

Venita and Harold Norvell (my uncle passed away on my birthday this year), Jeanne French Newman, Peggy Hobart, Lisa Wopschall, Annie Nouna, Georgia Wright, June Sovay, Carla McCammon, Martha and John Hannah, Lynne OLeary, Debra Moreno-Lowther, Mae Abner, my family in Arkansas and Texas, Jeanne Lyons Williams, Ron Jacoby, Susan and Gary Andrews, Francine Ventura, Tim and Mary Kimbrell, and my co-writer Mark Bego.

Special love to my Aunt Barbara Frazier whom I look up to with the highest respect and admiration. You have taught me so much all these years and I am so blessed to have your unconditional love. Your entire family glows from within.

My husband Tom: for not giving up on us even when I had, and for loving me when I didnt love myself.

AND TO MY DAD: Thank you for your openness and love. We built such a beautiful friendship out of respect and love. Thank you for some of the most memorable years of my life. This horrible disease is stripping you of your memories. I will hold them in my heart for both of us! I love you.

Mark Bego would like to thank: David Barraclough and Chris Charlesworth, our fantastic editors; MaryAnne Beaman, Mary and Bob Bego, Debby Campbell Cloyd, Tom Cloyd, Dan DiFilippo, Chris Gilman, Suzy Frank, Frank Hagen, Peter Haury, Randy Jones, Sergio Kardenas, Deborah Moreno-Lowther, Dave Marken, our incredible literally agent Scott Mendel, Nics Martini Lounge in Beverly Hills, Larry Nicola, Luke Nicola, Michela Nicola, Peter and Aleo in NYC, David Salidor, Carlos Smith, Patrick Wood.

by Mark Bego

I T was September 23, 2011, and I was celebrating my birthday in Beverly Hills, California at my favorite nightclub, Nics Martini Lounge. Three of my friends Debra Moreno-Lowther, Frank Hagen, and Suzy Frank came to help me celebrate, and they brought with them a lovely lady I had never met before: Debby Campbell. As we chatted, she told me she was Glen Campbells oldest daughter, and that after 24 years of singing in her dads touring concert show, only five days ago she had been unceremoniously fired due to family politics.

As I sat there listening to an abbreviated cocktail party version of her life story, I knew right then and there that she had a compelling tale to tell, and a book that she needed to write. We made a pact right then and there to put her story on paper. After we formalized our working relationship, we not only began doing taped interviews to get her story down on paper, I also asked her to start a journal of her thoughts and feelings as they occurred to her. Debbys Journal Entries are some of the most compelling and touching parts of this book.

The finished book that you now hold in your hands is one that is multi-faceted. Not only is it a deeply frank and painfully touching tale of what it was like to grow up with an international superstar as a parent, but it has another very important dynamic as well: as the saga of a child of divorce, and her emotional journey towards building a relationship with an estranged parent. The headline-grabbing revelation of Glen Campbells June 2011 disclosure that he was suffering from Alzheimers Disease only makes Debbys story all the more heartfelt and timely.

For me, much of Glen Campbells music has been part of the soundtrack of my life, and I am certain that it has been part of yours too. However, as Debby and I started working together, I learned so much more about Glens life and career, and Debbys pivotal role in it.

In the world of contemporary country music, there are few performers in the last 50 years whose careers have exceeded the accomplishments of Glen Campbell. He first came to prominence in the music business as a recording session guitar player in Los Angeles. As part of the constantly evolving studio band they called the Wrecking Crew, Glen played guitar, Leon Russell was on keyboards, David Gates on bass, and Hal Blaine was on drums. Together, and with additional musicians, they played on hit recordings for a whos who of the recording business, including Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Freddy Cannon, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Phil Spector, the Monkees, the Beach Boys, Bobbie Gentry, Anne Murray, Kenny Rogers and Linda Ronstadt.

Signed to his own recording deal in the early sixties at Capital Records, Glen went on to score one hit solo recording after another, including: Universal Soldier (1965), Burning Bridges (1966), Gentle On My Mind (1967), By The Time I Get To Phoenix (1967), I Wanna Live (1968), Wichita Lineman (1968), The Dreams Of An Everyday Housewife (1968), Wheres The Playground Susie (1969), Try A Little Kindness (1969) and Galveston (1969).

In 1967 Campbell became the first person to win two Grammy Awards in the Country category and the same night won two Grammys in the Pop category (two Grammys for By The Time I Get To Phoenix and two Grammys for Gentle On My Mind). The following year, album Gentle On My Mind won the coveted Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

Then he landed a top-rated primetime TV variety show of his own: The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, which ran from 1968 to 1972. When he co-starred opposite John Wayne in the 1969 film True Grit, Glen became a bona fide movie star.

True Grit was such a big box-office hit that Glen reunited with his female co-star from that film Kim Darby to star in the 1970 film