Bryan Ferry Artistfacts

September 26, 1945
Born to a working-class family in the Northern English town of Washington in Tyne and Wear, Ferry defied his blue-collar beginnings by studying fine art at Newcastle University. During this time, he was taught by British pop-art pioneer Richard Hamilton, whose famous collage "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?" inspired the Roxy Music song "In Every Dream Home a Heartache." Hamilton went on to refer to Ferry as "his greatest creation."
In 1967, after seeing the "King of Soul" Otis Redding perform live in London, Ferry decided to pursue a music career. Having failed an audition to become the lead singer for British prog outfit King Crimson, he set about forming a band with his university friend, bassist Graham Simpson. Saxophonist Andy Mackay and synthesizer master Brian Eno were subsequently added to the lineup after responding to a newspaper advertisement seeking additional members, and Roxy Music was officially born.
As well as fronting Roxy Music, Ferry is a successful solo artist, with original hits including "Slave To Love" and "Kiss and Tell." He's also released several covers throughout his career.

In a discussion with Roxy Music biographer Michael Bracewell, Ferry compared his approach to covering songs to French painter Marcel Duchamp: "I like the idea of Duchamp taking something like a bicycle wheel and just placing it in a different context and putting his signature on it, really. And I guess I was thinking that when I took a song that was by someone else, and did my version of it; that I was adding my stamp to it, my signature."
Ferry has been involved in multiple high-profile relationships, including with French singer Amanda Lear and American model Jerry Hall. Both women graced the front covers of Roxy Music albums prior to dating him, with Lear appearing on For Your Pleasure and Hall on Siren. Ferry and Hall eventually got engaged, but their love affair ended when Hall left him for The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger in 1977.

On June 26, 1982, Ferry married Lucy Helmore, who featured on the front cover of the Roxy Music album Avalon. They had four sons together - Otis (1982), Isaac (1985), Tara (1989), and Merlin (1990) - before divorcing in 2003. Ferry later tied the knot for the second time with Amanda Sheppard in 2012, but their marriage ended in divorce in 2014.
The Ferry family was on board British Airways Flight 2069, a passenger flight operating between London and Nairobi, on December 29, 2000, when a mentally unstable passenger stormed the cockpit and attempted to hijack the aircraft. The ensuing struggle caused the Boeing 747 to plummet toward the ground at high speed, but Captain William Hagan and his crew were able to apprehend the assailant and regain control of the plane. Ferry told ABC News after the incident: "I have taken many plane flights in my life, but this was the most eventful. I was very frightened, but I am very relieved to be back on solid ground."
Ferry's conservative political views have caused controversy on several occasions. In 2004, he was booed at the Q Awards after he spoke out in support of his son, Otis, who'd recently protested against the Labour government's plan to ban fox hunting by storming the House of Commons. In 2007, Ferry was forced to issue a public apology after he made comments praising Nazi iconography in a conversation with German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag.
The Roxy Music frontman made his feature film debut in 2005 as a murderous curb-crawler in the Cillian Murphy-starring movie Breakfast on Pluto. In 2017, Ferry went on to star as a Weimar cabaret singer in the Netflix neo-noir television series Babylon Berlin. He also contributed music to the show, including new jazz versions of the Roxy Music songs "Bitters End," "Dance Away," and "Chance Meeting." Ferry later compiled these songs on his 2018 album Bitter-Sweet.

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