Eikichi Yazawa

His father was a bicycle shop owner but died of radiation sickness when Eikichi was in the 2nd grade of elementary school.

When he was in junior high school, he listened to music such as The Ventures and The Beatles, which led him to a career as a rock musician.

Making ends meet by working a few jobs, he formed several bands: "The Base," "E-Set" and "Yamato" with changing members.

The band received wide recognition after their appearance on the October 1 episode of TV show "Live Young!"

On December 20 of the same year, Carol released their debut single "Louisiana", produced by Mickey Curtis who saw their performance on the program.

With their motorcycle jackets and pompadour hairstyle, and early rock ‘n’ roll style numbers, along with the cover versions of "Johnny B. Goode" and "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", the band gained notable popularity and greatly influenced Japanese popular music.

Their biggest hit Funky Monkey Baby (released on June 25, 1973) became a standard of Japanese rock music.

Thus, his first solo concert tour, E.YAZAWA Around Japan Part-1, ended disastrously, as Yazawa couldn't fill the venue in Sasebo city, Nagasaki, which only held 1,500 people.

His 33000 Miles Road Japan tour played 66 concerts and he steadily gained popularity as a superstar of Japanese rock.

After the remarkable success of his third album Open Your Heart, Yazawa played his first solo performance at Nippon Budokan on August 26, 1977 to a sold-out crowd of over 13,000 people.

5 on list of the "100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time" of Rolling Stones Japan,[4] go to #1 in the Oricon charts, but his autobiography Nari-Agari (trans.

Upstart) which was edited by video game designer and ad writer Shigesato Itoi, sold over a million copies.

He also ranked 1st of top-earning musicians by Japanese government, beating the Enka queen Hibari Misora.

The musicians included John McFee, Patrick Simmons, Keith Knudsen, Cornelius Bumpus, Willie Weeks, Richard Hayward, Kenny Gradney, and Mark Jordan.

In 1982, he released the single Rockin’ My Heart and his second English album, YAZAWA It's Just Rock’n’Roll, produced by Bobby and John McFee.

In September, he began his P.M.9 1982 E.YAZAWA Concert Tour with John McFee, Richie Zito, Dennis Belfield, Keith Knudsen, Mark Jordan, and Bobby LaKind.

Unfortunately, Yazawa's marketing in the U.S. was non-existent because Warner Pioneer didn't advertise or commit other resources for the album.

Yazawa realized this and decided to sign with EMI Music Japan and headed back to his home country.

This album was recorded in London, with U.K. musicians such as Jaz Lochrie, Alan Murphy, Micky Moody, and Jimmy Copley.

It was a very surprising commercial because he played an unfortunate worker, breaking the impression of rock music charisma.

In 1994, he starred in the drama Ari Yo Saraba (translated: Goodbye, Ants) as a high school biology teacher.

In 1997, he was invited to "Songs and Visions", the rock festival held in Wembley Stadium as the special guest and representative of Asia, alongside Rod Stewart, Jon Bon Jovi, Chaka Kahn, and Robert Palmer.

He sang "Don't Be Cruel" solo, snd "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Hey Jude" with other musicians.

In December 2005, Yazawa ran a sold-out Japan tour of "live houses" (Japanese-English for a live-music club) as a part of his "back to roots" approach to his 30th anniversary as a solo artist, following the breakup of rock band Carol in 1975.

'Ei-chan' delighted fans with a rendition of "Whiskey Coke," a hit from that year (and a Karaoke library mainstay), as well as numbers from his 2005 album, Only One.

John McFee, George Hawkins, and Guy Allison joined as the special guest in this historical concert.

Kyosuke Himuro, Hiroto Kōmoto, and Masatoshi Mashima joined as special guests to sing "Kuroku Nuritsubuse (lit.

Instead of this reduction, he formed the band called Z's with young musicians and hold the live in the provincial cities like Miyazaki, Shizuoka, Akita, and so on.

This tour's band including Geoff Dugmore, Jeff Kollman, Guy Allison, and Snake Davis.