- Born
- Birth nameChristopher Anton Rea
- Height5′ 7½″ (1.71 m)
- He was born in Middlesborough to Irish and Italian parents in 1951. His first ambition was to be a journalist which ended when a college teacher tore up one of his essays after which he went to work in his father's ice cream factory. Away from music Chris' passion was for motor racing and Ferrari cars and he holds a full racing licence, doing 18 laps in a Jordan Formula One car and raced a BMW touring car shoot out in the TOCA shoot out at Donington Park side by side with Nigel Mansell. .Having given up motor racing he almost lost his life when a medical ailment imobilised him for 18 months, However confined to bed he used his time to dictate the script for La Passione. He had no need to work though as his father owned an ice cream business which Chris is the only inheritor, His ambition was to travel to his Italian homeland and to own a Ferrari.- IMDb Mini Biography By: tonyman 5
- SpouseJoan Lesley Allport(? - present) (2 children)
- Husky voice
- Writing songs about driving and the road
- His 1989 album "The Road to Hell" is his most famous and successful.
- He began learning to play guitar at the age of 21.
- Between 1978 and 2005, he spent 362 weeks on the British albums chart and 120 weeks on the singles chart.
- He plays guitar, piano, keyboards, accordion, harmonica, Hammond organ and mandolin.
- His father was Italian.
- I think Tupac Shakur was a genius. I want to do a hip-hop album with slide guitar some day.
- I can take my children to see Madonna and I can enjoy it, but I never for once ever thought I was in the same business.
- I'm a musician that was successful, I was never a rock star.
- I love creating things and passionately believe we (the artists) should be looking to try new ways of bringing what we do to the public. There should be no rules whatsoever and, for God's sake, there are alternatives to TV talent shows. Sometimes, those who have had extremely good fortune in music allow only X Factor [The X Factor UK (2004)] type TV shows etc. to set the musical and cultural agenda of this county by actually doing nothing new or different themselves.
- I was late to the guitar. I didn't pick up the instrument 'til I was 21. Think about how much the likes of Mark Knopfler or Eric Clapton had done before I even started.
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