Singer/songwriter LeRoy Bell featured at The 2005 Villa Montalvo Songwriter Festival has had the pleasure to open for B.B. King, Keb Mo, LeAnn Rimes, Los Lonely Boys, Roberta Flack, The Temptations, Al Green, Mavis Staples, Sergio Mendes, Colin Hay, Patti Larkin and Leon Russell.
LeRoy Bell started singing and playing the guitar at the age of eight in Darmstadt, Germany. His father, a Sergeant in the United States army, moved the family back and forth from Europe to the U.S. several times before retiring in Tacoma, Washington.
Early on, LeRoy had the good fortune to have been mentored under the watchful eyes of his uncle Thom Bell. Thom, a celebrated producer-songwriter for The Stylistics (“Betcha By Golly Wow”, “You Make Me Feel Brand New”), The Spinners (“I’ll Be Around”), the Delphonics and The O’Jays, and one third of the legendary Mighty Three Music group.
He taught LeRoy and later Casey James the dos and don’ts of song writing. LeRoy and Casey also known as Bell & James went on to write songs for many great artists, such as Elton John, Rita Marley & The I Threes (wife of the late Bob Marley), Johnny Mathis, The Temptations, The Spinners, The O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass and Lou Rawls, just to name a few.
Later, Bell & James signed to A & M records as artists and released two albums one of which produced the top ten hit “Livin’ It Up Friday Night” which was recently sampled by P. Diddy & Co. for the latest Notorious B.I.G. album, “Born Again.”
LeRoy co-authored “Are You Ready For Love” for Elton John with Thom Bell and his former partner Casey James. He’s also written songs for The Spinners, The O’Jay’s, Rita Marley, Johnny Mathis and many more. His current CD “Spending Time’ (Martez Music) is available at CDBaby.com. The upcoming album “Two Sides To Every Story” is slated for release late ‘05/early ‘06.