Michael Bolton
- Original name:
- Michael Bolotin
- Born:
- February 26, 1953, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. (age 72)
- Awards And Honors:
- Grammy Award (1991)
- Grammy Award (1989)
Michael Bolton (born February 26, 1953, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.) is an American pop singer and songwriter with a voice covering four octaves and a popular appeal that extended his stay at the top of the music charts beginning in the 1980s.
Early life
Michael Bolotin was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to George Bolotin, a local Democratic Party official, and his wife Helen, a homemaker. He demonstrated an interest in music at an early age and learned to play the saxophone at age 7. By age 11 he had learned to play guitar, and a year later he began writing songs. After his parents divorced, he delved deeper into music as an escape. At age 14 he formed a group, the Nomads, that became so popular in the New Haven area that within a year they were signed to a singles contract by Epic Records. With his parents’ permission, Michael dropped out of school at age 16 in order to pursue music full-time.
Struggling rocker
Although Bolotin had grown up listening to Motown and blues, he spent the next eight years playing everything from heavy metal to Southern rock. On the basis of a demo tape, he signed a two-album deal with RCA Records. A legal battle over an advance soured the relationship from the start, and, after two unsuccessful albums, Michael Bolotin (1975) and Every Day of My Life (1976), he was released from his contract. In 1979 he took advantage of his rocker image to become lead singer for Blackjack, a heavy metal group, which released two failed albums for Polydor Records.
By 1982 Bolotin was unemployed and living outside New Haven with his wife, Maureen McGuire, and their three children. He caught a break when he was released from his Polydor contract, and he soon signed a solo recording contract with Columbia Records. With the release of Michael Bolton (1983), a collection of rock songs, Michael Bolotin officially became Michael Bolton. While the album was not a big success, the single “Fool’s Game” was well received.
Songwriting and solo success
By the mid-1980s Bolton was appearing as an opening act for such hard-core rock acts as Ozzy Osbourne and Krokus, but it was his songwriting that eventually ignited his career. He penned songs for such diverse artists as Gregg Allman, the Pointer Sisters, Kiss, Kenny Rogers, and Laura Branigan. The ballad he wrote for Branigan, “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You,” became an adult contemporary hit in 1983. His second album for Columbia, Everybody’s Crazy (1985), did not sell as well as his first. Several years later he scored a hit with The Hunger (1987), which features the singles “That’s What Love Is All About,” “Walk Away,” and his rendition of Otis Redding’s 1968 soul classic “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay.”
Bolton scored another hit with Soul Provider (1989), which sold more than seven million copies and spawned five hit singles, including his own rendition of “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.” The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned him a Grammy Award in 1990 for best male pop vocal performance. That same year Bolton joined saxophonist Kenny G for a sold-out tour of North America. He continued the momentum with Time, Love & Tenderness (1991), a compilation of romantic ballads that soared to the top of music charts three weeks after its release, eventually sold more than nine million copies, and brought Bolton his second Grammy, for his version of the 1966 Percy Sledge classic “When a Man Loves a Woman.”
Later albums
In 1992 Bolton released Timeless, a collection of songs made famous by such artists as Sam Cooke, the Bee Gees, Sam & Dave, and the Beatles. His recording of “You Are My Sunshine” was included on the compilation album For Our Children: The Concert (1993). Bolton cowrote all but two of the songs on The One Thing (1993). That album spawned the soulful Grammy-nominated hit “Said I Loved You…But I Lied.” His most complete work, however, is his Greatest Hits 1985–1995 (1995), which presents the highlights of his durable recording career.
His later albums include All That Matters (1997), My Secret Passion: The Arias (1998), Only a Woman Like You (2002), ’Til the End of Forever (2005), One World One Love (2009 U.K.; 2010 U.S.), Gems: The Duets Collection (2011), Ain’t No Mountain High Enough: A Tribute to Hitsville U.S.A. (2013), and A Symphony of Hits (2019). He wrote an autobiography, The Soul of It All: My Music, My Life (2013).
Personal life, charity work, and cancer diagnosis
Bolton and McGuire divorced in 1990. He began a relationship with soap opera star Nicollette Sheridan in 1992, which ended five years later. The couple rekindled their romance in the 2000s and were engaged before splitting up again in 2008.
In 1993 he founded Michael Bolton Charities, which is dedicated to assisting women and children whose lives have been affected by domestic violence and sexual, physical, or emotional abuse.
Bolton underwent emergency brain surgery in December 2023 after being diagnosed that month with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He announced the surgery and a break from touring to fans on Instagram in early 2024, and that year he had radiation and chemotherapy treatments and underwent a second brain surgery. In April 2025 he and his children spoke publicly about his cancer experience for the first time. His daughter Holly told People magazine, “He was in recovery [from the first surgery] in the hospital room singing within minutes. I remember one of the nurses had no idea who he was, and she’s like, ‘Do you know he sings like this?’ ”