Neil Diamond

Diamond has been married three times. In 1963, he married high-school sweetheart Jaye Posner. They had two daughters, Marjorie and Elyn, before separating in 1967 and divorcing in 1969. Later that year, he married production assistant Marcia Murphey. They raised two sons, Jesse and Micah, and divorced in the mid-1990s after 25 years together.

In April 2012, Diamond married his manager, Katie McNeil, in Los Angeles. The pair met while working on the 2009 documentary Neil Diamond: Hot August Night NYC.

In January 2018, Diamond announced his immediate retirement from concert touring following a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. The announcement forced the cancellation of the final leg of his 50 Year Anniversary World Tour in Australia and New Zealand. He continues to write and record music.

Born in Brooklyn, Diamond spent his childhood in New York and lived briefly in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while his father served in the military. At Erasmus Hall High School, he sang in the chorus alongside classmate Barbra Streisand. He later attended Abraham Lincoln High School and took up fencing. For his 16th birthday, he received his first acoustic guitar. A performance by Pete Seeger at Surprise Lake Camp inspired him to try songwriting.

Diamond entered New York University on a fencing scholarship as a pre-med student. Songwriting soon consumed his time. Just ten units short of graduation, he dropped out to accept a $50-a-week songwriting post at Sunbeam Music Publishing. After leaving Sunbeam, he rented a small room above the Birdland jazz club in Manhattan. He bought an upright piano, lived in the space, and honed his writing style.

Success came when other acts recorded his work. In 1965, Jay and the Americans reached the Top 20 with his composition "Sunday and Me". The Monkees quickly achieved hits with his songs "I'm a Believer" and "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You".

Diamond signed with Bert Berns's Bang Records in 1966, launching his solo recording career with "Solitary Man" and "Cherry, Cherry". Seeking artistic freedom, he later moved to Uni Records and relocated to Los Angeles in 1969. That year, he released "Sweet Caroline", which climbed into the Top 5. He scored his first solo Billboard Hot 100 number one in 1970 with "Cracklin' Rosie", followed in 1972 by "Song Sung Blue".

His August 1972 performances at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles produced the live double album Hot August Night. The record became a critical and commercial success, topping the charts in Australia for 29 weeks. That fall, he performed a sold-out 20-night solo stand at Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre. He then stepped away from touring for four years to focus on family and composition.

During that break, he composed the soundtrack for the 1973 film Jonathan Livingston Seagull, earning a Grammy Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 1976, he performed at The Band's farewell concert, The Last Waltz, and in 1978, he teamed up with Barbra Streisand for the chart-topping duet "You Don't Bring Me Flowers".

In 1980, Diamond took the leading role in a remake of The Jazz Singer opposite Laurence Olivier and Lucie Arnaz. While the film received negative reviews, its soundtrack sold millions of copies and produced hits like "Love on the Rocks", "Hello Again", and "America".

Diamond returned to critical prominence in 2005 with the stripped-down album 12 Songs, produced by Rick Rubin. Their 2008 follow-up, Home Before Dark, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. In 2011, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Kennedy Center Honors. His life and music were later adapted into the Broadway musical A Beautiful Noise, which opened in 2022.