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Judith Sills Biography & Facts

Judith Lynne Sill (October 7, 1944 – November 23, 1979) was an American singer-songwriter. She was influenced by Bach, and wrote lyrics drawing on Christian themes of rapture and redemption. Sill was the first artist signed to David Geffen's label Asylum. She released her eponymous debut album in 1971, followed by Heart Food in 1973. In 1974, Sill recorded demos for a third album, which was never completed. Sill struggled with addiction through much of her life, and died of a drug overdose in 1979. She did not find commercial success, and no obituary was published; however, several artists have since cited her as an influence. Her demos were released with other rarities on the 2005 collection Dreams Come True. Biography Early life Judith Lynne Sill was born in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, on October 7, 1944, and spent her early childhood in the Oakland, California area. Her father, Milford "Bud" Sill, an importer of exotic animals for use in films, owned a bar in Oakland, in which Sill learned to play the piano. When Milford Sill died of pneumonia in 1952, Sill's mother Oneta moved with Judee and her older brother Dennis to Los Angeles, where Oneta met and married the Tom and Jerry animator Kenneth Muse. In a 1972 Rolling Stone interview, Sill described her home life after her mother's remarriage as unhappy and frequently violent due to physical fights between Sill and her parents. She transferred from a public high school (Birmingham High School in Van Nuys) to a private school, where she met other rebellious teenagers, some of whom were allegedly involved in crime. Either during high school or after her graduation (depending on the source), Sill and a man she had met committed a series of armed robberies of businesses such as liquor stores and gas stations. Sill and her robbery partner were soon arrested and she spent nine months in reform school, where she served as church organist and "learned a lot of good music" including gospel music. After being released, Sill briefly attended San Fernando Valley Junior College as an art major. She also played piano in the school orchestra and worked in a piano bar. In 1964, her mother died, and she left college and moved out of her stepfather's home. She started taking LSD and other drugs, moved in with an LSD dealer and joined a jazz trio. In April 1966, Sill married the pianist Robert Maurice "Bob" Harris. The couple lived in Las Vegas for a time, but both developed crippling heroin addictions within months. When Sill moved back to California, she resorted to crime to support her addiction, including robbery, sex work, forgery and fraud. A string of narcotics and forgery offenses sent her to jail, and she learned that her brother Dennis had suddenly died of a liver infection. When she was released, she immediately set to work as a song composer. Music career Sill encountered Graham Nash and David Crosby and toured with them for a time as their opening act. After some initial interest from Atlantic Records, David Geffen offered her a contract with his new Asylum label. She sold her song "Lady-O" to the Turtles, and was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. Harris worked on her first album and was involved with the Turtles. Graham Nash produced her first album's first single, "Jesus Was a Cross Maker", released to radio on October 1, 1971. The album Judee Sill was released on September 15, 1971. It featured Sill's voice in multiple overdubs, often in a four-part chorale or fugue. She worked with the engineer Henry Lewy, noted for his work with Joni Mitchell throughout the 1970s. She opened for Jimmy Webb during two stints at the Troubadour to promote the just-released album, and though well-received in her live performances the album was not a commercial success. In January and February 1973, she was the support act on a tour of the UK by Roy Harper. Sill took over the orchestration and arrangements on her second album Heart Food, which included "The Donor". Heart Food was released in March 1973 and was critically acclaimed, but sold poorly, leading to the end of her association with Geffen and Asylum Records. Sill's friends have said that she lacked the resilience to cope with poor album sales and bad reviews of her work, and that she was dropped after she refused to perform as an opening act, a task she disliked. Sill and Geffen's personal relationship also deteriorated during this period, with Judee allegedly camping out on Geffen's front lawn to protest his lack of support for her album Heart Food. Their relationship came to an end after Sill, who was openly bisexual, allegedly referred to the then-publicly closeted Geffen using a homophobic epithet (whether this occurred onstage, or on the radio, and what exactly was said, is up for debate). She continued to write songs, and in 1974, began to record new material for a third album at the studio of Michael Nesmith. By this time, Sill was once again suffering from drug abuse and other health problems, and her music was not regarded as marketable. She also was beginning to lose interest in music and focus on other pursuits, including theosophy and animals. In the mid-1970s, she worked for a time as a cartoonist with a Los Angeles animation studio. Her 1974 recordings were never finished. Twenty-six years after Sill's 1979 death, the unfinished songs were mixed by Jim O'Rourke and released, along with a collection of rarities and home demos, as the album Dreams Come True on the Water label. Personal life and death Sill's personal life was turbulent, and she was affected by the early deaths of her father, mother and brother. Sill said she had been married twice, saying in interviews that she was briefly married either during or just after high school to a classmate, that her parents had the marriage annulled, and that he later died in a rafting accident. A friend wrote that she claimed to have married her robbery partner as a teenager. Sill's second marriage was to Robert Maurice "Bob" Harris on April 27, 1966, in Clark County, Nevada. They divorced in 1972. She married Samir Ben Taieb Kamoun, a Tunisian actor, mime, and Charlie Chaplin impersonator, on January 24, 1979, in Clark County, Nevada. Sill was openly bisexual. Her romance with the singer-songwriter J. D. Souther inspired her song "Jesus Was a Cross Maker". Souther later wrote the song "Something in the Dark" about her. She had a long-term relationship with the poet David Omer Bearden, who contributed lyrics to Heart Food and toured and performed with her; Sill dedicated Heart Food to him. As Asylum's first published artist, Sill also had a close friendship with David Geffen, and wrote "David Geffen, I love you" in the sleeve for her first album. Their relationship soured after comments she made in frustration about not receiving enough promotion for her second UK tour. After a series of car accidents and failed surgery for a back injury, Sill struggled with drug addiction and dropped out of the .... Discover the Judith Sills popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Judith Sills books.