Ben Harper, whose birth name is Benjamin Chase Harper, is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was born on October 28, 1969 in Pomona, California, United States.
Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his skills in guitar playing, vocals, live performances and activism. He has released twelve regular studio albums, mainly through Virgin Records, and has toured internationally.
Harper is a three-time Grammy Award winner and seven-time nominated, with awards for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Traditional Gospel Album in 2004 and Best Blues Album in 2013.
At the 40th Blues Music Awards ceremony, Harper’s composition with Charlie Musselwhite, ‘No Mercy In This Land’, was named ‘Song of the Year’.
BEN HARPER AGE | HOW OLD IS BEN HARPER?
Benjamin Chase Harper is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his skills in guitar playing, vocals, live performances and activism. He has released twelve regular studio albums, mainly through Virgin Records, and has toured internationally.
He is 49 years old in 2019, was born on October 28, 1969 and raised in Pomona, California, United States.
BEN HARPER FAMILY
He is the son of his late father, Leonard, of African American and Cherokee descent, his mother Ellen Chase-Verdries, is Jewish. His maternal great-grandmother was a Russian-Lithuanian Jewess. Harper has two brothers, Joel and Peter.
His parents divorced when he was five and he grew up with his mother’s family.
BEN HARPER EARLY LIFE
Harper was born in Pomona, California. His late father, Leonard, was of African American and Cherokee descent, and his mother, Ellen Chase-Verdries, is Jewish. His maternal great-grandmother was a Russian-Lithuanian Jewess. His parents divorced when he was five and he grew up with his mother’s family. Harper has two brothers, Joel and Peter.
Harper started playing guitar as a child. Her maternal grandparents’ music shop, The Folk Music Center and Museum, laid the foundation for the artist’s folk and blues, complemented by regular patrons Leonard Cohen, Taj Mahal, John Darnielle and David Lindley, and quotes from William Shakespeare and Robert Frost often made by his grandfather: 5
In 1978, at the age of 9, Harper attended the Bob Marley show in Burbank, California, where Marley was joined by former bandmate Peter Tosh for an encore. According to Harper, it was a major influence.
BEN HARPER EDUCATION
Harper started playing guitar as a child. His maternal grandparents’ music shop, The Folk Music Center and Museum, laid the foundation for the artist’s folk and blues.
In 1978, at the age of 9, Harper attended the Bob Marley show in Burbank, California, where Marley was joined by former bandmate Peter Tosh for an encore. According to Harper, it was a major influence.
BEN HARPER HEIGHT AND WEIGHT | HOW TALL IS BEN HARPER?
Benjamin Chase Harper is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his skills in guitar playing, vocals, live performances and activism. Ben Harper is 6 ′ 0½ ‘(1.84m) tall and weighs 170lbs (77kg)
BEN HARPER’S NET WORTH AND SALARY | HOW MUCH IS BEN HARPER WORTH?
Ben Harper is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his skills in guitar playing, vocals, live performances and activism.
He has released twelve regular studio albums, mainly through Virgin Records, and has toured internationally. Ben Harper has an estimated net worth of $ 10 million in 2019. Harper began playing guitar when he was in elementary school and began focusing on slide guitar in his early teens.
BEN HARPER CAREER
At the age of 12, Harper played his first concert. In the 1980s, in his teens, Harper began playing slide guitar, mimicking the style of Robert Johnson. Harper perfected his style by taking up the Weissenborn slide guitar.
: 11 Harper escaped from the Inland Empire after being invited by the Taj Mahal to tour with the artist. They recorded the Taj Mahal album Follow the Drinking Gourd, released in November 1990, and toured Hawaii.
In 1992, Harper recorded the Pleasure and Pain LP with Folk multi-instrumentalist Tom Freund. After this limited edition record, Harper secured a lifetime record deal with Virgin Records, who released his debut album, Welcome to the Cruel World in 1994.
This allowed him to be invited to the Rencontres Trans Musicales in Rennes in France in December 1993 where he first took to a big stage.
The first album was followed by Fight For Your Mind in 1995, with Juan Nelson on bass, which became a college radio favorite and included several songs that Harper still regularly plays live.
In 1999, at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Harper met Jack Johnson and sent a demo of Johnson’s songs to his producer, JP Plunier, who then produced Johnson’s first album, Brushfire Fairytales, in December 2000.
Jack Johnson became the opening act in late February 2001 for the last twenty-three cities of Ben Harper’s ‘Innocent Criminals’ tour in the United States.
Early in Harper’s career, his music received more attention in Europe and was widely played in Australia (first on Triple J radio). Harper has commented on several occasions that his career began in Australia.
Although he was a well-known and respected figure in the United States, he was also a star in countries like Australia, New Zealand, France, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, receiving a large amount of radio broadcasts and critical acclaim.
His popularity in Europe became broad enough to be the artist of the year (Artiste De L’Année) for French magazine Rolling Stone in 2003, and his Australian tour that year for Diamonds on the Inside had a big success with record sales.
In 2002, Harper was one of the featured singers covering Marvin Gaye’s Motown hits in the documentary, Standing in the Shadows of Motown (a story of the Funk Brothers).
Harper appeared on Toots and the Maytals’ True Love album, which won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album, and featured many notable musicians including Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Trey Anastasio, Gwen Stefani / No Doubt, Bonnie Raitt, Manu Chao, The Roots, Ryan Adams, Keith Richards, Toots Hibbert, Paul Douglas, Jackie Jackson, Ken Boothe and The Skatalites.
On April 3, 2004, Harper and Jack Johnson performed with Toots and the Maytals on Saturday Night Live (season 29, episode 16), a show hosted by Donald Trump.
In October 2004, Harper participated in the Vote for Change concert tour organized to benefit Moveon.org and encourage people in swinging states to vote during the 2004 US presidential election.
In the same month, Harper contributed a live recording of the song ‘Oppression’ to For The Lady, a charity album for jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner and supporter of Burmese democracy Aung San Suu Kyi.
In 2006, Harper released the double album Both Sides of the Gun which debuted at # 7 on the Billboard charts. Although uncredited, he appears briefly in David Lynch’s 2006 film Inland Empire, alongside his wife Laura Dern.
Harper is part of the No Nukes group which is against nuclear expansion. In 2007 the group recorded a music video of a new version of the Buffalo Springfield song ‘For What It’s Worth’.
Harper’s ‘Boa Sorte / Good Luck’ collaboration with Brazilian singer Vanessa da Mata reached # 1 in Brazil and Portugal. In Brazil, he also won the coveted Prêmio Multishow for ‘Best Song’ in 2008. Also in 2008, Harper starred on the charity album Songs for Tibet.
On August 27, 2010, it was reported that Harper had formed a band called Fistful of Mercy with Dhani Harrison and Joseph Arthur. Fistful of Mercy released their debut album, As I Call You Down, on October 5th 2010.
On May 17, 2011, Harper’s official website released the release of his next album, titled Give Till It’s Gone. The album is a continuation of the recording with Relentless7.
On October 1, 2012, a new Harper album with Charlie Musselwhite was announced titled Get Up! on Stax Records / Concord Music Group. The official release date for the album was January 29, 2013. Get Up! was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Harper. It is Harper’s twelfth studio album and the first new recording since 2011’s Give Till It’s Gone (Virgin).
In December 2012, it was announced that Harper had co-produced lead singer Natalie Maines from Dixie Chicks Mother’s first solo rock album. It was released on May 7, 2013.
In early 2015, it was announced that Harper and The Innocent Criminals would perform at the Boston Calling Music Festival in May 2015. Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals performed at the 2015 Rock Werchter Festival on June 28, 2015.
Harper ha quattro album e un singolo che sono stati certificati Gold dalla RIAA. Burn To Shine / Virgin, Fight For Your Mind / Virgin, Live From Mars / Virgin, Diamonds On The Inside / Capitol-Virgin and You Found Another Lover / Stax (single)
On February 12, 2016, Harper released (as a YouTube video) his new single ‘Call It What It Is’, the first track from his new studio album Call It What It Is due out April 8, 2016.
On April 8, 2019, Harper performed as a guest artist in the seventeenth season of American Idol during the second night of the episode ‘Top 20 Duets’. Harper sang with competitor Alejandro Aranda, playing ‘There Will Be a Light’.
At the 40th Blues Music Awards ceremony, Harper’s composition with Charlie Musselwhite, ‘No Mercy In This Land’, was named ‘Song of the Year’.
On March 20, 2019, Mavis Staples announced a new album ‘We Get By’, featuring eleven tracks written and produced by Harper. The title track, which features Harper on vocals and in the music video, was released on May 15, 2019.
BEN HARPER WIFE, DAUGHTER, SON, DIVORCE | WHO IS BEN HARPER MARRIED TO?
In 1996, Harper married his first wife, Joanna. They have two children together, son Charles (born around 1997) and daughter Harris (born around 2000). Harper and Joanna separated in 2000 and divorced in 2001.
Harper began dating actress Laura Dern after they met at one of her concerts in the fall of 2000. Harper and Dern were married on December 23, 2005, in their Los Angeles home. They have two children, son Ellery Walker (born August 2001) and daughter Jaya (born November 2004).
In October 2010, Harper filed for divorce from Dern, citing irreconcilable differences. They reconciled briefly and attended the 2012 Golden Globe Awards together, but Dern reactivated the divorce by filing a legal response in July 2012. The divorce was finalized in September 2013.
Harper married his third wife, social attorney Jaclyn Matfus, on January 1, 2015. Their son Besso was born in June 2017.
Harper is a skateboarder who trained with Rodney Mullen and also owns a warehouse for his personal skateboard. Harper is co-owner of the skateboard brand Roller Horror with professional skateboarder Mike York.
In September 2016, Harper appeared on The Nine Club skateboarding podcast hosted by Chris Roberts, where he discussed his relationship and history with skateboarding. In The Nine Club, he also reveals that he went to school and started skateboarding with Chris Miller in Pomona, California.
Harper’s cousin is the Washington State Supreme Court Judge Steven Gonzalez.
BEN HARPER CHILDREN
Ellery Walker Harper
We are
Jaya Harper
Charles Joseph Harper
We are
Harris Harper
Daughter
BEN HARPER ALBUM
Welcome to the Cruel World (1994)
Fight for Your Mind (1995)
The Will to Live (1997)
Burn to Shine (with The Innocent Criminals) (1999)
Diamonds on the Inside (2003)
There Will Be a Light (with The Blind Boys of Alabama) (2004)
Both Sides of the Gun (2006)
Lifeline (con The Innocent Criminals) (2007)
White Lies for Dark Times (with Relentless7) (2009)
Give Till It’s Gone (2011)
Get up! (with Charlie Musselwhite) (2013)
Childhood Home (Ben & Ellen Harper) (2014)
Call It What It Is (with The Innocent Criminals) (2016)
No Mercy in This Land (with Charlie Musselwhite) (2018)
BEN HARPER MOVIE
2001 Daria
2001 I am Sam
2002 Standing in the shadow of Motown
In search of Debra Winger
Anger of 2003
One Tree Hill
Joan of Arcadia
2004 Saturday Night Live
Pigiama party
2005 Trust the Man
Akeelah e l’ape
L’O.C.
CSI: NY
2003 Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Ben
Video di Harper)
2002 Standing in the Shadows of
Motown
2011 White Wash (film)
2013 I’m In I’m Out and I’m Gone: The Making of Get Up!
1996 For Ever Mozart
2016 Let’s Be Frank 2016
2013 Brave Miss World
2013 The Signal Hill Speed Race
2016 To the ocean
2009 Una pace alla volta
Larger Than Life: Dave Matthews Band
2013 Let others deal with love
2013 The Rider and the Storm
BEN HARPER PHILANTHROPY
Harper supports Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit organization that works to restore and revitalize music education in disadvantaged US public schools. In 2013, he donated items to their San Francisco Bay benefit concert.
On December 11, 2016, he played an acoustic benefit concert at San Francisco’s Bimbos supporting New Light India’s ‘Boys Home Project’. Founded in 2000 by Urmi Basu, New Light India provides shelter, educational opportunities, recreational facilities, health and legal assistance for the girls and women of Kalighat, known for its red light district.
BEN HARPER LOVE SONGS
Ben Harper Feel Love 2011
Ben Harper Born to Love You 2014
Ben Harper Pray That Our Love Sees the Dawn 2011
BEN HARPER SONGS
Good luck / good luck
Live Multishow Vanessa da Mata · 2009
With my two hands
Diamonds inside · 2003
Steal My Kisses
Live from Mars 2001
Burn One Down
Fight for Your Mind 1995
Diamonds inside
Diamonds inside · 2003
Jah Work
The will to live 1997
Amen Omen
Diamonds inside 2003
Best Way
Both Sides of the Gun · 2006
Another Lonely Day
Fight for Your Mind 1995
Waiting for an Angel
Welcome to the Cruel World 1994
Leave
Welcome to the Cruel World 1994
Excuse Me Sir
Fight For Your Mind 1995
Morning Wish
Both Sides of the Gun 2006
Ground On Down
Fight for your mind 1995
Don’t give up on me now
Give Till It’s Gone 2011
He is happy only in the sun
Diamonds inside · 2003
Sexual Healing
Live from Mars 2001
Forever
Welcome to the Cruel World 1994
Please bleed
Live from Mars 2001
The bottle wins again
No mercy in this land 2018
The Woman In You
Live from Mars 2001
Please,
whatever you want. Fight for your mind 1995
I Will Get Up
Welcome to the Cruel World 1994
When She Believes
Diamonds Within 2003
Glory and consequences
The will to live 1997
Gold for me
Fight for your mind 1995
Power of the Gospel
Fight for Your Mind 1995
I’m in, I’m out and I’m gone Get
up! · 2013
Like a king
Welcome to the cruel world 1994
Amato
Live from Mars · 2001
Rose from my friends
The will to live 1997
Scapegoat
Pleasure and pain 1992
TEXT BY BEN HARPER FOREVER
I don’t talk about a year
No, not three or four, I don’t want that kind of thing forever
In my life anymore it always seems Forever
Being around when it starts But forever never seems to
Be around when it ends So give me yours forever
Please for Always Not one less day will be fine
From you People spend so much time
Every single day Runnin ’round all over town
Givin’ away forever But no, not me
I won’t let mine forever wander And now I hope I can find
mine Home is forever So give me yours forever
Please forever Not one less day will be fine
By you as a …
