Singer James LaBrie is celebrating his birthday today.
(Photo: Symphonynorth.com)
He was born in a small town in Ontario, Canada on May 5, 1963 as Kevin James LaBrie.
He started singing and playing drums at the age of five.
As a teenager he was part of a number of local bands in which he played drums and sang.
At the age of 17 he stopped playing drums and began to focus on singing, when at the age of 21 he even started taking singing classes.
At age 18, his family moved to Toronto Canada.
In the late 1980s he joined the glam metal band "Winter Rose" in which singer Sebastian Bach also had been a member. The band released their debut album in 1989, with LaBrie and guitarist Richard Chycki writing most of the album's songs.
In 1991, LaBrie joined "Dream Theater", and since then he has released 13 studio albums and 8 live albums with them.
One of the interesting songs he wrote for the band "Vacant" was written about an incident that happened to his daughter. A few days before her 7th birthday she went into a coma for few hours. Although doctors expressed concern that she had suffered a stroke, his daughter woke up
And came back to herself in such a surprise that defined by the doctors as a medical miracle.
In 1994, LaBrie suffered from severe food poisoning during a family vacation in Cuba. He later suffered a severe injury and tore his vocal cords and three different doctors advised him to retire completely from singing.
Contrary to recommendations and with the help of training, LaBrie managed to return to singing later that year in a way that enabled the release of the album "Awake" and preforming in the tour planned for the promotion of the album.
LaBrie continued with his singing training and only in 2003 announced that he had completed the rehabilitation process and his voice had returned to normal.
In parallel with his work with Dream Theater, LaBrie has a solo career in which he released 5 albums and an EP, two of them under the name "MullMuzzler".
(Photo: Frank Hoensch)
LaBrie also has quite a few collaborations, including with "Fates Warning", Trent Gardner, "Shadow Gallery", "Frameshift", "Last Union" and more.
In 2004, he played the role of "Me" in "Ayreon's" rock opera "The Human Equation", both on the album and in the performances that accompanied it. LaBrie continued to collaborate with "Ayreon" when he played the role of "The Historian" in the 2017 rock opera "The Source".
Since 2004, LaBrie has been part of the "Symphonic Rockestra project", in which he performs together with two opera singers combining elements of rock and metal. In 2008 they released the album "Concerto in True Minor".
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