Leslie Richard McKeown was born in Broomhouse, a suburb close to the south-western city limit of Edinburgh, on 12 November 1955.

[1][2] His father, Francis, worked as a tailor and was deaf;[1][3] his mother, Florence (née Close), was a seamstress[2] who moved to Scotland after getting married.

[8] For six months after her death, Florence's father, Hugh Henry Close, raised her, her two sisters and one brother by himself before marrying her step-mother.

[8] When Hugh Close died aged 52, Florence was kicked out by her step-mother but was then "begged" to be brought back in when she wanted her to do all the housework.

McKeown joined the Bay City Rollers in November 1973,[2] replacing founding lead singer Gordon "Nobby" Clark.

His arrival also coincided with an overhaul of the group's image introducing half-mast trousers, platform shoes and tartan.

[14] In 1982, McKeown, Alan and Derek Longmuir, Stuart Wood, Ian Mitchell, and Pat McGlynn reunited for a tour of Japan that lasted until the next year.

[15][16] He established the pop band Egotrip and released a solo album in 1979 titled All Washed Up,[17] which was successful in Japan.

[6] He rejoined the Bay City Rollers in 2015 for a series of reunion shows, the first of which, at Glasgow's Barrowlands, sold out in three minutes.

[2] One year later, in the Living TV show Rehab, covering celebrities fighting addiction,[13] he disclosed that he was a "secret bisexual" and admitted being unfaithful to his wife with both men and women.