HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Natchez native and six-time Grammy Award-winner Glen Ballard, a significant figure in the music industry, will be bestowed with a star on the prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fame this Thursday.
The celebration will be accessible to all, as it will be live-streamed on the official Hollywood Walk of Fame website, walkoffame.com, at 11:30 a.m. PDT or 1:30 p.m. CDT.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce administers the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the City of Los Angeles.
Ballard is considered one of music’s most accomplished producers and songwriters. His records have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.
In 2023, Ballard was selected to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Ballard produced and co-wrote Anis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, which sold 33 million copies worldwide, and in 2019, a musical Jagged Little Pill featuring all the songs from the album debuted on Broadway.
Ballard has written and produced songs for Wilson Phillips, Dave Matthews, Christina Aguilera, George Strait, Josh Groban, Quincy Jones, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Shakira, Kate Perry, Van Halen, and others.
His catalog includes “Man in the Mirror” for Michael Jackson, which he co-wrote and arranged, “You Oughta Know,” “Hold On,” “The Voice Within,” “The Space Between,” and “Believe” for the feature film The Polar Express.
Through his Los Angeles-based production company, Augury, Ballard is developing a diverse slate of projects in which music plays a central role. His most recent television project is the Netflix Original series The Eddy. This music-driven multicultural drama debuted in 2020 about a jazz band trying to survive in chaotic modern-day Paris. Ballard wrote and composed original songs and music for the limited series and served as an executive producer alongside Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle, BAFTA and Tony award-winning writer Jack Thorne, and Emmy-winning producer/director Alan Poul. Ballard wrote original lyrics and music for GHOST the Musical, which debuted in 2011 and has since been touring worldwide.
Ballard’s international production company, Augury, produces the stage adaptation of 1985’s Back to the Future, having worked on the project’s development for more than 14 years. In collaboration with Grammy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated film composer Alan Silvestri, Ballard created original music and lyrics for the production, which includes 17 new songs and is directed by John Rando. The show first opened in Manchester, UK, at the Opera House in March 2020. Back to the Future: The Musical debuted in London’s West End at the Adelphi Theatre. The show was nominated for seven 2022 Olivier Awards, including Best Original Score, and won Best New Musical. It also won four 2022 WhatsOnStage Awards, including Best New Musical. Back to the Future: The Musical is now playing on Broadway, where it opened in August 2023 at the Winter Garden Theatre and continues its run there, in the West End, and on a US tour.
Ballard began writing songs and performing in local bands in his early years in Natchez. He studied literature at Ole Miss before coming to Hollywood. In his first decade in Los Angeles, he worked for Elton John and Quincy Johns, becoming a staff songwriter at Universal and one of music’s most sought-after producers and songwriters.
Ballard is a supporter of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
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