Brian McKnight
This season’s “Celebrity Apprentice” features R&B singer Brian McKnight. He will be playing for Youthville USA, an organization that’s goal is to recruit, train, and license foster parents.
Brian was born on June 5, 1969 in Buffalo, New York. His childhood was spent surrounded by music in both his Seventh-Day Adventist Church and in high school, where Brian was the band leader. Brian can play the piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussions, trombone, tuba, French horn, and trumpet.
Brian’s older brother Claude was in the band Take 6 and inspired by that, Brian sent out demo tapes to try to get a record deal. At age 19, he got that record deal with Wing Records. However, he actually ended up recording for the parent company, Mercury Records. In 1992, his self titled debut album hit the market. The single “One Last Cry” reached #13 on the pop charts and the album eventually went gold.
In 1995, Brian released I Remember You, but it failed to produce any chart topping hits. He released Anytime in 1997. The single “You Should Be Mine (Don’t Waste Your Time) reached #17 and “Anytime” peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album ended up selling over two million copies.
After Anytime, Brian left Mercury to sign with Motown. His next album, Back at One, sold over three million copies, with the single “Back to One” reaching #1 on the Billboard charts. In the past seven years, Brian has released four albums, including 2008’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas.
Over his career, Brian has sold over 20 million albums. He has collaborated with many other artists during this time including Sean “Puffy” Combs, Rascal Flatts, Josh Groban, For Real, Quincy Jones, Vanessa Williams, Nelly, Justin Timberlake, and Maria Carey. Brian won the Soul Train Best R&B/Soul Male Album Award (1999), the Image Award for Outstanding Male Artist (2000), and the American Music Award for Favorite Male R&B/Soul Artist (2001). He has also been nominated for sixteen Grammys.
Brian has made several appearances on television. He appeared in three episodes of “Sister, Sister,” “The Wayne Brady Show,” and “American Dreams.” Brian is the host of his own radio show, “The Brian McKnight Morning Show” with Pat Prescott on KTWV in Los Angeles. He also appeared in the Broadway show Chicago in October 2007.
Brian and his wife Julie divorced in 2003. The couple has two sons, Brian Jr. and Niko.
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