Biography
Gillen was born on May 12, 1959 in New York, but was raised in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. He was an only child and started singing while in high school. He played the New Jersey club circuit with various bands, most notably Vendetta and Harlette. In 1985, he joined Bobby Rondinelli's band, Rondinelli.
In 1986, Black Sabbath started touring for the Seventh Star album when after only a few shows, singer Glenn Hughes got into a fist-fight and lost his voice due to the related sinus and throat injuries. Gillen was offered the job to replace Hughes, which meant leaving Rondinelli to accept the offer. After finishing the Seventh Star tour, Black Sabbath recorded their next album The Eternal Idol with Gillen. However, due to mix of financial burden, writing difficulty (Bob Daisley was recruited for writing as Gillen turned out to be not much of a composer), mismanagement and miscommunication that plagued the band, Gillen and Black Sabbath drummer Eric Singer quit before the album was ever released. Gillen was eventually replaced by Tony Martin, and the vocal track of The Eternal Idol was hurriedly rerecorded note-for-note with Martin before the album was finally released in 1987. However, demo versions of The Eternal Idol featuring Ray do exist on the bootleg circuit. Also, in an interview Tony Martin revealed that the sinister laugh heard on the track Nightmare is in fact Ray's voice. The album was re-released on November 1, 2010 in Europe in a 2-disc expanded set including a bonus disc with Gillen's recording.
During the time of the Seventh Star tour, Gillen was asked by project director and co-producer Wilfried F. Rimensberger to join Mel Galley's Phenomena for the recording of the album Dream Runner, which features vocals from Glenn Hughes, John Wetton and Max Bacon. He recorded 4 tracks. Ray is also featured in Phenomena's 'Did it all for Love' music video although he was not involved in the actual recording of that song.
After the Phenomena recordings, Ray Gillen joined John Sykes' (previously with Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and a different band called Badlands) new band Blue Murder. Gillen sang demos but parted company when Sykes decided to handle vocals himself.
Gillen then contacted Jake E. Lee to form a band. In 1988 Gillen started to form Badlands with Jake E. Lee (former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist) and recruited his friend Eric Singer with whom he had played in Black Sabbath. Ray recorded three albums (Badlands, Voodoo Highway, and Dusk) with Badlands and toured from 1989 until 1992. In 1993 Rimensberger was planning a remake of his first Metalhammer Loreley Festival but this time specifically to stage Phenomena's first ever life performance, with Ray Gillen on vocals. It was going to be the launch event for a series of concerts across Europe in 1994. Ray called from New York and told Rimensberger in Munich that he can't as he was too ill to perform.
Gillen went to New York City to form the band Sun Red Sun with old friends, but he died from an AIDS related disease in a New York Hospital on December 1, 1993. He was survived by a daughter, Ashley (born July, 1984).
Read more about this topic: Ray Gillen
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