Leon Russell started talking later than most children. According to his mother, while he was watching the birds, and something was going on with the birds, Leon's first words were, "What's the matter, little birdie, you cry?". His mother was shocked because he never spoke. Both of Leon's parents played upright piano, and when he was four years old his mother heard him picking out the melody to "Trust and Obey", a hymn he had heard at church. He then began piano lessons and learned the alto saxophone, cornet, and baritone horn in his elementary school band.
Leon said was born with 'spastic paralysis', now called cerebral palsy. An injury at birth damaged his second and third vertebrae, causing a slight paralysis in the right side of his body, most notably affecting three fingers on his right hand which caused Russell to favor his left hand and develop his signature left-hand-dominant piano playing style.Â
Born Claude Russell Bridges on April 2, 1942 in Lawton, Oklahoma and died on November 13, 2016 in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee at the age of 74.
