Biography

Best known as the leader of the progressive art and soft rock "project" that bears his name, Alan Parsons is also a highly regarded producer and engineer. He initially established himself in the studio working on notable albums by the Beatles and Pink Floyd before co-founding the Alan Parsons Project with instrumentalist/composer Eric Woolfson. Borrowing conceptual sci-fi themes from writers like Isaac Asimov and exploring a hybridized blend of rock, classical, AM pop, and synth-based music, the Project helped define the sound of art and prog rock with albums like 1977's I Robot, 1980's The Turn of a Friendly Card, and 1982's Eye in the Sky; the latter of which hit number seven on the Billboard 200. Parsons also continued to produce and engineer, contributing to albums by Pilot, Ambrosia, Paul McCartney, Al Stewart, and others. While the Project parted ways following 1987's Gaudi, Parsons continued to tour and release his own albums, including 1999's The Time Machine, 2004's A Valid Path, and 2022's From the New World. Along with his 13 Grammy nominations, Parsons took home his first award in 2019 for Best Immersive Audio Album for the 35th Anniversary Edition of Eye in the Sky. Born in Britain on December 20, 1948, he began his musical career as a staff engineer at EMI Studios, and first garnered significant industry exposure via his work on the Beatles' 1969 masterpiece Abbey Road. Parsons subsequently worked with Paul McCartney on several of Wings' earliest albums; he also oversaw recordings from Al Stewart, Cockney Rebel, and Pilot, but solidified his reputation by working on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Influenced by his work on Stewart's concept album Time Passages, Parsons decided to begin creating his own thematic records; along with songwriter Eric Woolfson, he soon founded the Alan Parsons Project. Although Parsons played keyboards and infrequently sang on his records, the Project was designed primarily as a forum for a revolving collection of vocalists and session players -- among them Arthur Brown, ex-Zombie Colin Blunstone, Cockney Rebel's Steve Harley, the Hollies' Allan Clarke, and guitarist Ian Bairnson -- to interpret and perform Parsons and Woolfson's conceptually linked, lushly synthesized music. The Project debuted in 1975 with Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a collection inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe; similarly, the science fiction of Isaac Asimov served as the raw material for 1977's follow-up, I Robot. With 1980's The Turn of a Friendly Card, a meditation on gambling, the Alan Parsons Project scored a Top 20 hit with "Games People Play"; 1982's Eye in the Sky was the Project's most successful effort, and notched a Top Three hit with its title track. While 1984's Ammonia Avenue went gold, the Project's subsequent LPs earned little notice, although records like 1985's Vulture Culture, 1987's Gaudi, and 1996's On Air found favor with longtime fans. Time Machine followed in 1999. After taking a five-year hiatus, Parsons returned in 2004 with A Valid Path. During the 2000s and 2010s, he toured with the Alan Parsons Live Project, and a 2013 concert in Medellín, Colombia by the Alan Parsons Symphonic Project was released as Live in Colombia in 2016. In 2019, Parsons issued The Secret, his first studio album since 2004. That same year, he took home his first-ever Grammy Award-winning Best Immersive Audio Album for Eye in the Sky (35 Anniversary Collector's Edition). 2022 saw the release of From the New World, which included guest appearances by Joe Bonamassa, Tommy Shaw (Styx), David Pack (Ambrosia), and James Durbin. ~ Matt Collar & Jason Ankeny, Rovi