Russell Hitchcock

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Australian musician, who co-founded the super successful soft-rock group "Air Supply." Proclaimed the most successful pop group of the 1980s by Billboard Magazine, radio stations around the world considered their music a "staple," and Hitchcock became a star. The group broke up in the late 1980s. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Hitchcock had a four-year-older sister, Gail. He spent his early childhood in Brunswick and other suburbs of Melbourne, and attended South Brunswick State School. At age seven, he was in a major accident when a truck hit him. As a teenager, Hitchcock was athletic, playing baseball and bowling. After five years at Princes Hill High School, he dropped out, because he "didn’t like being told what to do," and says he still doesn’t. He began working at age 16 for a Menswear store, and by age 20, he was a buyer for a computer company in Melbourne, three years later receiving a promotion and transfer to Sydney. Hitchcock’s real success began when his girlfriend Karen convinced him to audition for a role in "Jesus Christ Superstar," in 1976, and he won the part. With Graham Russell, a fellow cast member, he formed Air Supply in the late 1970s. Their first release was 1976’s "Love and Other Bruises," and they got their first international exposure in the late ’70s when they performed as the opening act for Rod Stewart on his North American tour. Named "Best Pop Rock Group of 1981" by the American Music Awards, the duo’s sweet ballads and heavily orchestrated music took Air Supply to the top of the charts, including a string of seven straight Top Five singles. "The One That You Love" was their only number one hit in the U.S. Hitchcock and Russell reunited in 1991, releasing several albums over the next few years, but failed to recapture the success they previously enjoyed. Link to Wikipedia biography