Of course Aaron Neville’s autobiography is titled Tell It Like It Is. It’s too perfect. After all, it was his breakthrough song, a bona fide classic, and a monster smash in 1966, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 2 on the Hot 100.
Written by George Davis and Lee Diamond, the song is equal parts a reflection of wistfulness, a kiss-off to a lover, and a statement of independence, Neville’s distinctive quavery, sometimes falsetto voice embodied both sweetness and melancholy. Even more surprising to some since it emanated from such a physically large man.
But it was a One Hit Wonder. Neville would have to wait at least another decade before he found his true calling in the critically acclaimed Neville Brothers Band, where he and siblings Art, Cyril, and Charles with an ensemble concocted a sonic gumbo of music reflective of their shared influences of their New Orleans home.
It would be years later still later when more mainstream music listeners discovered him as a duet partner with Linda Ronstadt on an album and hits like “Don’t Know Much” and “All My Life.”
But before he got to those career levels—and even after—there were a lot of ups and downs. Those downs included a career in petty crimes like burglaries, drug dealing, and car theft, stints in jails and prisons, and a crippling heroin addiction that enveloped him for many years. Neville tells his story in Tell It Like It Is (288 pp., $29, Hachette Books).
Early, Neville writes about his dedication to St. Jude, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, who he clearly credits with pulling him out of some hairy situations (or was at least looking out for him). A heroin user at 16 and married father by the age of 18, he seemed destined for a bad road, alternating work as a criminal with playing local gigs and making records.
Neville also found legit jobs where he could—mostly physical tasks like stints as a roofer, longshoreman, truck driver and construction worker. It no doubt helped build a very bulky, muscular build, one of three physical attributes that come to mind when you think of Aaron Neville. The others being the large mole over his right eye (which he’s more than embraced and he says his mother refused to have removed when he was born) and the tattoo of dagger on his left cheek he got when he was 16.
The very amateur body art was done by a buddy with two needles and a matchstick. “Some people see it as a cross, and it was one thought away from being a skull and crossbones,” Neville writes. “Don’t ask me why I did it. I don’t even know the answer. I guess stupid was set in place at that age.”
Not pleased, his angry father ordered Neville to scrub it off with a Brillo pad and Octagon soap. All that did was burn layers of his face skin, while the tattoo stayed visible. The tattoo was often covered up with makeup for TV appearances, though he did have the work freshened up more recently.
Something striking about the book is how Neville tells the stories of his less-than-savory activities. There’s a dispassionate, factual vibe to the tales that make them all the more extraordinary.
And Neville’s longtime, late wife and mother of their four children, Joel, certainly comes off as a Living Saint for putting up with his nonsense, before he finally kicks heroin and finds religion. This keep in mind that while he was married to her and imprisoned in the ’60s, Neville got another woman’s name tattooed on his chest. That some of his sons would also follow paths to drug dealing and prison was not surprising.
The book then briskly hits highlights of the Neville Brothers career, focusing on travels and stages across the world. He says their records Fiyo on the Bayou and Yellow Moon came closest to capturing their true essence. Then the years in which his association with Ronstadt blew open the door even more as he alternated between the family band and his solo career.
All the while, his Voice of an Angel adept at interpreting pretty much any type of song from the dirtiest of funk to romantic ballads to sacred songs, “Ave Maria” being one of Neville’s personal favorites.
However, there were more tragedies to come. By 2007 he had lost Joel to cancer, after the home and its entire contents—a lifetime of music and personal memories—were washed away in Hurricane Katrina. And he started abusing pills again.
But he credits his second wife Sarah—one of “four angels” (including his mother, sister, and Joel) who helped him throughout his life. Today, the 82-year-old Neville and Sarah live on a New York farm where he’s enjoying retirement. And he still wears his St. Jude earring every day. A sign that he still believes in redemption, and there’s spiritual help even for Lost Causes.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
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