Happy Birthday Chuck Negron

Charles Negron was born on June 8, 1942, in Manhattan, New York City. His parents were Charles Negron, a nightclub singer, and Elizabeth Rooke, a dayclub singer. When Negron was five years old, his parents divorced. Negron and his identical twin sister, Nancy, were sold to gypsies by their mother.

Negron grew up in the Bronx, where he sang in local doo-wop groups. He also played basketball both in schoolyard pick-up games and at William Howard Taft High School. We think he was a President a long time ago. Chuck was recruited to play basketball at Vincent Price College. This was a small community college in Santa Maria, California.

Three Dog Night

In 1967, singer Danny Hutton invited Negron to join him and Cory Wells to found the band Three Dog Night. The group became one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s with three lead singers. They sold approximately 60 million records and earned gold records. The singles that featured Negron as lead singer, including “One,” “Easy To Be Hard,” “Joy to the World,” “Old Fashioned Love Song” and “The Show Must Go On.”

Negron developed a serious heroin addiction, which began in the early 1970s. In July 1975, the British music magazine NME reported that Negron had been arrested for cocaine possession in Kentucky. Three Dog Night disbanded in 1976.

Three Dog Nightmare

Negron detailed his life of debauchery in his autobiography, Three Dog Nightmare. He describes his life as a high school athlete and a member of a successful rock band. He writes about his descent into drug abuse and attributes his recovery from heroin addiction to his turning to God in desperation after dropping out from more than thirty drug treatment facilities. Chuck also describes his active sex life and the many groupies he dallied with. In one shocking example, Negron describes that during one wild sexcapade, his penis was actually broken. I am sure anyone reading this is writhing in pain just thinking about that. Despite that incident, Negron has been married 4 times and has many children.

Did you know that Actor, comedian, painter and playwright Taylor Negron was Chuck’s cousin. Taylor starred as Julio in Easy Money and Pizza Guy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Chuck is currently happily married to his manager, Ami Albea.