Blood, Sweat and Tears

There was a time when David Clayton-Thomas seemed unlikely to be a success. As a teenager in Willowdale, Ontario, frequent clashes with his authoritarian father led to his living on the streets by the time he was 14, then to his spending the rest of his youth bouncing in and out of jails and reformatories. But when a battered old mail-order guitar was left to him by an outgoing inmate, Clayton-Thomas discovered a talent for music that allowed him to believe in a different kind of life. This is the remarkable story of his journey to international stardom as the legendary front man for Blood, Sweat & Tears. In his brutally truthful memoir, Clayton-Thomas reveals what it was like to headline at Woodstock, to tour behind the Iron Curtain, to watch brilliant musicians tear their own band apart with in-fighting, and to make his fortune only to lose it all ... and start over again. This is a story of grit, courage, and determination. It is, above all, a story of survival.

DAVID CLAYTON-THOMAS has sold more than forty million records to date. His 1968 debut album with Blood Sweat & Tears sold ten million copies worldwide and won five Grammy Awards. Clayton-Thomas’s hit songs include “Spinning Wheel,” “Lucretia MacEvil” and “You Made Me So Very Happy.” His rendition of “God Bless the Child” is considered a classic. In 1996 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. “Spinning Wheel” was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007, and in 2010 David Clayton-Thomas received his star on Canada ’s Walk of Fame. He lives in Toronto .