Marcie Free | |
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| Born | April 12, 1954 South Bend, Indiana |
| Genres | Hard rock, glam metal, heavy metal, AOR |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer-songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, piano, guitar, drums |
| Years active | 1973–1995, 2009–present |
| Labels | Now & Then, Frontiers |
 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2024) |
Marcie Michelle Free (born Mark Edward Free; April 12, 1954) is an American rock singer, best known as the lead singer of King Kobra, Signal and Unruly Child.
Free started singing professionally at the age of 19 while living in Flint, Michigan.[ citation needed ] In 1975, Free moved to Las Vegas, which eventually led to her relocating to Los Angeles in 1979.[ citation needed ]
Free met Carmine Appice in 1983, shortly before Appice was fired from Ozzy Osbourne's backing band. Appice recruited her to be the vocalist for his new project, King Kobra; while King Kobra was initially intended to be a solo project, Appice eventually decided to recruit two guitarists and a bassist to build a full band. [1] The band was signed to Capitol Records in 1984.[ citation needed ] Free recorded two albums with King Kobra, Ready to Strike and Thrill of a Lifetime , before leaving King Kobra in November 1986 to pursue other musical interests.[ citation needed ]
In 1987, producer Peter McIan began to form a solo project called The Fugitive Kind with help from Erik Scott, a keyboardist, bassist, and producer, as well as Mark Baker, a songwriter. The group also recruited drummer Jan Uvena. Free joined the group later, after which Ron Fair, then a new senior A&R representative at EMI Records, renamed the group Signal. Prior to the adoption of the name Signal, Free unsuccessfully proposed several alternate names for the group, one of which was Unruly Child, which she would use for a later group. [2] Signal released one album on EMI, Loud and Clear, in 1989. The album featured several outside songwriters, and Free did not have much involvement in the songwriting on Loud and Clear. Signal was short-lived, as shortly after the band released their only album, EMI executives dropped Signal from the label and did not spend any money to promote the album after its release. Free left Signal in October 1990, and the band broke up shortly afterwards. [2]
In 1990, Free joined up with guitarist Bruce Gowdy and keyboardist Guy Allison, forming the group Unruly Child. Unruly Child signed with Atlantic/Interscope Records in 1991 and released their self-titled debut album in 1992. In 1993, Free sang the theme song, "(To Be) The Best of the Best", for the action film Best of the Best II . Also in 1993, a solo album consisting of demos Free had sung for a mother/daughter songwriting duo named Judithe and Robin Randall was released on Now & Then Records, an independent label in the United Kingdom.[ citation needed ] The album, entitled Long Way from Love, was re-released on Frontiers Records in 1998. This album version included some of the live performances Free gave while in Manchester, England, for the first rock festival known as "The Gods of AOR" in October 1993.[ citation needed ]
Shortly after the release of Long Way from Love, Unruly Child, having lost their record deal with Atlantic/Interscope, reformed under the moniker Twelve Pound Sledge. They were writing new material in hopes of re-signing with another American label. That never happened, though songs from these sessions were later released in 1995, as a solo album Free released on independent labels in Germany and Japan, entitled Tormented.[ citation needed ]
In September 2009, Free, Gowdy, and Allison reunited as Unruly Child and signed a recording contract with Frontiers Records.[ citation needed ] They released a new album, Worlds Collide, in 2010. Unruly Child released a new album in 2014 entitled Down the Rabbit Hole on the band's own label "Unruly Records". [2] [ failed verification ]
On June 24, 1989, Free married Laurie Richardson. They have since divorced. [2]
Free came out as a trans woman in November 1993. Free experienced gender dysphoria prior to her transition and changed her name to Marcie Michelle Free. [3] Free stated that prior to her transition, she struggled with self-harm ideation and that transitioning was a "[decision] between life and death," but "very rewarding," and that "[if she] would've continued [her] life as Mark [she] would have died for sure." [2]
After Free came out as transgender, her career suffered and "[her] whole musical world quickly fell apart," and she cited her post-transition career struggles as one reason for the temporary dissolution of Unruly Child. [2] Free also stated that people in the music industry with whom she had prior connections shunned her after her transition. [4]
Between the breakup of Signal and the formation of Unruly Child, Free worked as a courier in Los Angeles. [2] In 1995, Free temporarily retired from the music business and moved back to Michigan to be close to her family.[ citation needed ] Free stated that during Unruly Child's hiatus, she "[lived] life and [worked] as a normal person does every day." [2]
Free experienced alcoholism but became sober around 2008, crediting her "close personal relationship with God" for her sobriety. [4]
Free has cited Aretha Franklin as one of her greatest inspirations and has included thanks to Franklin in the liner notes of some of her albums. [5] Some of the artists Free grew up listening and singing to include The Four Seasons, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Grand Funk Railroad, Three Dog Night, Smokey Robinson, and Led Zeppelin, as well as several big band artists. [5]
Geoffrey Arnold Beck was an English guitarist. He rose to prominence as a member of the rock band the Yardbirds, and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to an instrumental style with focus on an innovative sound, and his releases spanned genres and styles ranging from blues rock, hard rock, jazz fusion and a blend of guitar-rock and electronica.
Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad, also known simply as Frida, is a Norwegian and Swedish singer who is best known as one of the founding members and lead singers of the pop band ABBA. Courtesy titles Princess Reuss and Countess of Plauen are also in use because of her third marriage. Born in Bjørkåsen, Norway, to a Norwegian mother and a German father, she grew up in Torshälla, Sweden, and started her first solo career there, as a jazz singer in 1967, through a talent competition called New Faces.
King Kobra is an American heavy metal band founded by drummer Carmine Appice after his tenure with Ozzy Osbourne from 1983 to 1984.
King Kobra III, released in 1988 on New Renaissance Records, was the first and last album by the Edwards, Michael-Phillips, Northrup, Hart and Appice line-up of King Kobra. After the demise of the original line-up, remaining members Carmine Appice and David Michael-Phillips teamed up with Johnny Edwards, Jeff Northrup and Larry Hart, all 3 members of the Sacramento, CA band Northrup at the time.
Blue Murder were an English hard rock band led by guitarist-vocalist John Sykes. The group was formed in 1987 following Sykes's dismissal from Whitesnake. The initial line-up was rounded out by bassist Tony Franklin and drummer Carmine Appice. In its nascent stage, vocalist Ray Gillen and drummer Cozy Powell were attached to the project. In 1989, Blue Murder released their self-titled debut album, which cracked the Billboard 200 chart and spawned a minor hit with "Jelly Roll". Nevertheless, the record proved to be a financial disappointment for both the band and their label Geffen Records.
Carmine Appice is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his associations with Vanilla Fudge; Cactus; the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice; Rod Stewart; King Kobra; and Blue Murder. He is also Vinny Appice's older brother. Appice was inducted into the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. He is also a more than capable (fretless-) bass player, as can be heard on the "Guitar Zeus" albums, for example.
John James Sykes is an English guitarist, best known as a member of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang. He has also fronted the hard rock group Blue Murder and released several solo albums.
Luba is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and recording artist from Montreal. She was professionally active from 1980 to 1990, 2000 to 2001, and is active again as of 2007. At the beginning of her career, Luba performed with the traditional Ukrainian music group Via Zorya, with whom she released a self-titled album in 1973. In the 1980s, she sang with her own band, Luba, which released the album Chain Reaction in 1980. She went on to have a solo career using the mononym Luba. Two of her albums have been certified Platinum by the Canadian music industry. She has had nine top-40 hits on the Canadian pop charts. Her most successful song is a cover of Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman", which reached number 6 on the Canadian pop chart and number 3 on the Canadian adult contemporary chart, in 1987.
Icon is an American rock band that formed in 1979 and initially disbanded in 1990, but later reformed in 2008. As of 2024, Icon currently consists of all five members of the classic lineup: Dan Wexler (guitar), Stephen Clifford, John Aquilino (guitar), Tracy Wallach (bass) and Pat Dixon (drums).
Philip Raphael Soussan is an English bass guitarist, songwriter and producer, known as a member of Last in Line, Ozzy Osbourne, Vince Neil Band and Big Noize, as well as writing and producing for Dokken and Toto.
John Douglas Edwards is an American rock singer who sang for the bands Buster Brown, Montrose, King Kobra, Wild Horses, Northrup, Royal Jelly and is best known as the second lead singer of the rock band Foreigner.
Jay Schellen is an American drummer who is the current drummer of the English progressive rock band Yes, having toured with the band as an additional drummer since 2016 before becoming an official member in 2023, following the death of longtime drummer Alan White. Schellen has also worked with a number of other heavy rock and progressive rock bands, including with Hurricane, Asia, World Trade, Circa, and Unruly Child.
Guy Allison is an American musician. He was the touring keyboardist for the Doobie Brothers from 1996 to 2015 and was featured on their 2000 release Sibling Rivalry.
Marcie & The Cookies were an Australian musical ensemble, made up of Marcie Jones and the three Cook sisters. The all girl, vocal only group, were a rarity in Australia's "mod" music scene of the 1960s, dominated as it was by all male rock bands and solo artists.
Ready to Strike is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band King Kobra, released in 1985 by Capitol Records.
Thrill of a Lifetime is the second album by the American hard rock band King Kobra, released in 1986 by Capitol Records. The album features "Iron Eagle ", the theme song of the 1986 film Iron Eagle. The music video of the song features Louis Gossett Jr. as Charles "Chappy" Sinclair from the film as the band members going through vigorous boot camp training.
Frontiers Music is an Italian record label, predominantly producing hard rock. It was founded in 1996 by Serafino Perugino and is based in Naples.
Black Roses is a 1988 horror film directed by John Fasano and starring John Martin, Ken Swofford, Julie Adams, and Carla Ferrigno. The film's soundtrack features many bands of the era, including King Kobra, Tempest, Hallow's Eve and Lizzy Borden, among others. Most of the music for the band Black Roses was performed by the members of King Kobra, with Marcie Free on vocals and Carmine Appice on drums.
Unruly Child is an American hard rock band, founded in 1991.
King Kobra II is a 2013 album by the hard rock band King Kobra. It was the second release by the band King Kobra since its reformation by founding member Carmine Appice.
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