Neil Diamond

American singer and songwriter, a bass-baritone popular from the '60s with compositions that include "Sweet Caroline," "Song Sung Blue" and "Touching You, Touching Me." An introverted child, he began writing songs at 16 and was firmly committed to music by 1965. In 1966 he had three hit singles, and the first of seven gold albums by 1968. He did international tours, and in 1980, a movie, "The Jazz Singer." His fortune in the '90s is estimated at $60 million. Intense, restless and energetic, he is the force behind the sale of 110 million records, over 800 sold-out concerts and three decades of stardom. Along with success, he remains a workaholic. Diamond met his high school sweetheart, Jaye Posner, at 17 and they married in 1963; when they divorced in 1969, their two daughters were four, Marjorie, and one, Elyn. In 1969 he married Marcia Murphey, a TV producer. Jesse was born in 1970 and when he was two, Diamond took a four-year hiatus from performing in order to write and record and learn to be a husband and father. After the four years of analysis, he felt more connected to his work and creativity as well as to the people most important to him. He and Marcia had a second son, Micah, in 1978. In 1978, a pain in his left leg began to intensify. A CAT scan revealed an enormous tumor inside his vertebrae, crushing the spinal cord. He was taken into surgery to remove the tumor, which proved benign. He and Marcia, 48, separated in October 1994 after 24 years of marriage and a $150 million settlement. Driven by his work, after 28 years as a performer, Diamond was still competing with himself, striving to make every show better than the last. In 1996, Diamond began a lengthy, live-in, relationship with Australian Rae Farley, after the two met in Brisbane, Australia. Diamond became engaged to Katie McNeil on 8 September 2011, and in 2012 they married. On 22 January 2018, Diamond announced that he would immediately retire from touring due to having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Link to Wikipedia biography