Kevin Sharp (December 10, 1970 – April 19, 2014) was an American country music singer, author, and motivational speaker. Sharp came on the country music scene in 1996 with his first single: a cover of Tony Rich's "Nobody Knows", which topped the Billboard country chart for four weeks. The same year, Sharp released his first album, Measure of a Man.
His gentle tenor voice helped him score a handful of country hits in the late 1990s Having survived a form of bone cancer in his teenage years, Sharp became actively involved in the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He wrote an inspirational book about his life and his fight with cancer, and occasionally toured the United States as a motivational speaker.
Kevin Grant Sharp was born in Redding, California. He first hit the stage at age three, performing at church with his musical parents and seven siblings. At age seven, he and his family moved to Weiser, Indiana, the home of the National Fiddle Festival, to begin a restaurant. Learning much about music from the fiddlers who packed Weiser every year for the festival, Sharp, who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sang in local musicals and choral groups while in Bella Vista High School.
The family moved back to California in 1985, but he stayed active in music, singing in choral groups and a Sacramento light opera company while excelling at sports as well. He dreamed of a college football scholarship, but began to experience periods of fatigue and dizziness in 1989.
He was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Kevin Sharp was given little chance of recovery. Through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses, Sharp met the record producer David Foster, with whom he soon became friends. After two years of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, when still in his early 20s, the cancer went into remission by the early 1990s, although he permanently lost all of his hair as a result of the radiation treatment.
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| Kevin & family |
After remission, Sharp worked at Great America in Santa Clara, California, while working on a demo tape, which he sent to various talent shows, and later to David Foster. Foster introduced him to A&R representatives and, by 1996, Sharp was signed to Asylum Records. His first album, Measure of a Man, was released in September 1996. The album's first single, a cover version of the R&B artist Tony Rich's "Nobody Knows", spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. He became a spokesperson for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and was awarded the foundation's Wish Granter of the Year award, in 1997. He was named New Touring Artist of the Year by the Country Music Association and nominated for Top New Male Vocalist award by the Academy of Country Music.
In 1998, Sharp collapsed backstage at the TNN Music City News Country Awards, and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, due to problems with steel rods in his hip. As a result, he had to cancel several tour dates. Measure of a Man produced two more top 10 country singles, "She's Sure Taking It Well" and "If You Love Somebody". The album's fourth single, "There's Only You", peaked at No. 43. His second album, Love Is, released in 1998 on Asylum, failed to produce any successful singles, and Sharp was dropped from Asylum's roster. It was during this year that he married Traci Williams from Oklahoma, but in later years the marriage ended in divorce.
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| Kevin & Traci |
Sharp continued to perform as a musician, as well as a motivational speaker, and was also a spokesperson for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Sharp wrote a book, Tragedy's Gift, and published it in 2004. His third album, Make a Wish, was released on the independent Cupit Records label in 2005, although none of its four singles charted. Around .this time he underwent surgery due to problems with his digestive system,
Sharp's health worsened in 2011, and he endured more numerous surgeries for leg infections. Still, he worked to spread his hopeful message whenever possible. He died at his mother’s home in Fair Oaks, California, on April 19, 2014, at the age of 43, of complications from stomach surgeries and digestive issues.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Los Angeles Times & enewsdaily)