Kelly Willis

Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, Willis was the youngest of three children. Her father was a U.S. Army colonel. Her mother had a strong interest in music in addition to singing and acting in amateur musicals. Willis began singing when she was nine, around when her parents divorced. After the divorce, Willis and her siblings lived with her father and moved to Kansas, North Carolina, and then northern Virginia for her father's military career. Her father worked at the Pentagon while she was in high school. She went to middle school in North Carolina and attended a high school in Annandale, Virginia.^[2]

During a high school visit to the beach, Willis entered a pay recording booth and sang a version of Elvis Presley's "Teddy Bear." Willis showed this demo to her boyfriend, drummer Mas Palermo, and joined his rockabilly band, the Vibrato Brothers, at 16. The band took her on as the lead vocalist and soon renamed themselves Kelly Willis & the Fireballs. After Willis's high school graduation, the band decided to move to Austin, but then broke up after a few months in Austin. Willis and Palermo, who had gotten married in 1989, formed a new band called Radio Ranch. In Austin, Willis attracted the notice of several influential Texas singer-songwriters including Nanci Griffith and Lyle Lovett. Griffith introduced MCA producer Tony Brown to Willis. Brown was impressed with Willis' vocal abilities and signed her to MCA in 1989.

MCA embarked on a big marketing campaign for Willis after she recorded her first album on the label, Well Travelled Love.^[3] She was interviewed by several national magazines including more unusual publications like Vogue and Mademoiselle. She sang on the soundtrack of the 1991 film Thelma and Louise. She also had a small part in Tim Robbins’ 1992 film Bob Roberts. Willis appeared in Dwight Yoakam's video for "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere" and as a member of Vince Gill's pickup band in his "Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away" video. She was nominated for Top New Female Vocalist of the year at the 1993 ACM Awards.^[4] Despite publicity and positive reviews from most reviewers, Well Travelled Love and Willis' later albums for MCA (Bang Bang in 1991 and Kelly Willis in 1993) sold modestly and received very little radio play. In 1994, MCA released Willis from her contract. In 1995, Willis collaborated with Jay Farrar on the song "Rex's Blues", which appeared on the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Bothered produced by the Red Hot Organization.

In 1996, Willis recorded an EP for A&M Records entitled Fading Fast. Willis then decided to record her next album on her own, resulting in the 1999 album What I Deserve, which Willis sold to Rykodisc after finishing it. What I Deserve was commonly seen in the press as Willis's response to her history with MCA and was praised by critics, becoming a hit for Willis. She was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards.^[5] In 2002, Willis released Easy.

In 2003, Willis and her husband Bruce Robison released the record Happy Holidays, a cover album of Christmas songs. Beginning in 2005, Willis and Robison appeared in television and radio commercials for the anti-allergy product Claritin.^[6] In the fall of 2007, Willis released Translated From Love.^[3] It was recorded at Robison's studio, Premium Recording Services, in Austin^[7] and produced by Chuck Prophet.^[3] The album was co-written by Willis, Prophet, and Jules Shear.^[3] It includes a cover version of Iggy Pop's "Success".^[3]

In early 2008, Willis announced that she would take an indefinite hiatus from live performances due to family obligations. Her later 2008 scheduled tour dates continued as planned until the final show on May 2, 2008.

Willis began to tour outside of Texas again in 2010. She headlined the Northern Rockies Folk Festival in Hailey, Idaho on August 7, 2010. Then she performed at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on October 2, 2010. In 2011, she toured the United States with Bruce Robison, performing new songs in preparation for an album with Robison. The album, Cheater's Game, was released on February 12, 2013. Willis and Robison began a tour supporting the release on February 13, 2013 in New York City.^[8] The couple followed up their first album together 14 months later, releasing Our Year.^[9]

In 2018, Willis released Back Being Blue, her first solo album in more than a decade. The album was produced by Robison.^[10] A year later a third collaborative album with Robison, Beautiful Lie, came out.

Willis married her high school boyfriend Mas Palermo in 1989; they divorced in 1991. In 1992, Willis met Austin singer-songwriter Bruce Robison. After dating for several years, Willis and Robison married in 1996.

Willis went through in vitro fertilization treatments and gave birth to her son Deral Otis in January 2001. Her experience with raising a child led to a different sort of album than the earlier What I Deserve. In 2002, Willis became pregnant again and gave birth to twins Abigail Esme and Benjamin James^[11] on March 24, 2003.^[12][13] On January 10, 2006, Willis had her fourth child, Joseph Willis Robison.^[14][15]

On January 21, 2022, Willis and Robison announced their upcoming divorce via their Facebook pages.^[16]

• Corcoran, Michael, "Happy holidays, from Kelly and Bruce; A songwriting duo's Christmas: The children will nestle all snug in their beds, while Mom and Dad's records dance in our heads." The Austin American-Statesman, November 25, 2003: E1+
• House, Silas, "Nothing to Fear", No Depression, July–August 2002, 72–81
• Manheim, James M. "Kelly Willis", Contemporary Musicians, Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale, 1994, 278–280
• Patoski, Joe Nick, "What She Deserves", Texas Monthly, March 1999, 114–116^[28]