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Leon Russell was born in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1941. He studied classical piano as a boy and took up trumpet in his teens. Not too many years later, he was on the road as a sideman to Jerry Lee Lewis and Ronnie Hawkins and ended-up on the west coast. Leon remained in Los Angeles and quickly became one of the city's more prominent studio musicians also often working as an arranger, conductor and producer. Russell was one of Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' session people, he also played on The Byrds', 'Mr. Tambourine Man,' and arranged and co-wrote most of the big hits of pop star, Gary Lewis including 'She's Just My Style' and 'Everybody Loves a Clown.' Leon Russell gained a higher public profile when the 1969 Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett album,'Accept No Substitute' became a major hit.