Eikichi Yazawa

1949–1967: Early life in Hiroshima

Yazawa was born in Hiroshima, on September 14, 1949. His father was a bicycle shop owner but died of radiation sickness when Eikichi was in the 2nd grade of elementary school. His mother had disappeared, leaving her husband and son behind when Eikichi was 3 years old. He was mainly raised by his paternal grandmother in poverty until he graduated high school. Being bullied in school, such as having a cake thrown at his face, he started to think and practice his philosophy of "being big" which allowed him to survive the poverty and the bullying. When he was in junior high school, he listened to music such as The Ventures and The Beatles, which led him to a career as a rock musician. He started to learn the guitar, and on New Year's Day of 1968, he composed his first song, “I Love You, OK”.

1981–1987: Career in the United States, performing with the Doobie Brothers

Yazawa moved to Los Angeles and started to find musicians to record his new album. In 1981, he released his first English album, Yazawa. The album was produced by Bobby LaKind of the Doobie Brothers, and Paul Barrere of Little Feat. The musicians included John McFee, Patrick Simmons, Keith Knudsen, Cornelius Bumpus, Willie Weeks, Richard Hayward, Kenny Gradney, and Mark Jordan. He also released the album Rising Sun for the Japanese market.

In 1982, he released the single “Rockin’ My Heart” and his second English album, Yazawa It's Just Rock'n'Roll, produced by Bobby and John McFee. “Rockin’ My Heart” was recommended by Billboard magazine in its February 19, 1983 issue. He also released the album P.M.9 for the Japanese market. In September, he began his ‘P.M.9 1982 E.Yazawa’ Concert Tour with John McFee, Richie Zito, Dennis Belfield, Keith Knudsen, Mark Jordan, and Bobby LaKind. This tour included two Budokan concerts. John and Keith would be long term musicians of Yazawa's concerts until 1996.

The next few years included Yazawa releasing an album in Japanese, 1984’s E’, which was the first of his albums produced by Andrew Gold. In 1985, he sang at Live Aid, where his performance of “Take It Time” was broadcast worldwide. During this period, Yazawa's music style could almost be described as AOR, under the influence of his American friends. Unfortunately, Yazawa’s marketing in the U.S. was near non-existent. Distributed through Elektra Records, the label had no obligation to advertise Yazawa’s music. Following this period, he decided to sign with EMI Music Japan and return to Japan. In 1987 he released his last album in English, Flash in Japan (later released in Japan in 1999). During that year’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Knight 2’ tour, bassist George Hawkins joined Yazawa's band and would play with them until 2016.