David Foster

Married four times, David Foster is the father of five biological daughters and the grandfather of four granddaughters and three grandsons. His first child’s name is Allison Jones Foster who was born when Foster was 20 in 1970. He was forced to give her up for adoption right after birth. He wouldn’t meet her again for the next 30 years.

He married his first wife singer/writer B. J. Cook in 1972 and has a daughter named Amy Foster-Gillies (born 1973) with her.

After their divorce in 1981, he wed Rebecca Dyer on October 27, 1982. She gave birth to their daughters Sara in 1981, Erin in 1982, and Jordan in 1986. Foster and Dyer divorced in 1986.

David Foster was born on November 1, 1949, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, as the only son of Maurice (Morry) Foster and Eleanor May Foster, née Vantreight. He has five sisters: Jaymes, Ruth, Jeanie, Maureen, and Marylou. His father worked as a maintenance yard superintendent to support their big family while his mother stayed at home and took care of them.

In 1963, he joined the University of Washington's music program. He became part of Chuck Berry’s backup band in 1966. Still a teenager, he travelled to England with the Victoria-based group ‘The Strangers’ and later came back to Toronto to work with Ronnie Hawkins.

David Foster joined Skylark, a pop group, where he played the keyboard. They released their self-titled debut album in 1972. ‘Wildflower’, a song from the album became a top ten hit in 1973. The group disbanded in 1973 and Foster subsequently worked with George Harrison in the latter’s albums ‘Extra Texture’ (1975) and ‘Thirty Three & 1/3’ (1976), and contributed to Earth, Wind & Fire’s album ‘I Am’ (1979).

The 1980s was a busy decade for the musical maestro. He produced two albums for The Tubes: ‘The Completion Backward Principle’ (1981) and ‘Outside Inside’ (1983). He also played an important role in the rise of the American rock band ‘Chicago’, producing ‘Chicago 16’ (1982), ‘Chicago 17’ (1984), and ‘Chicago 18’ (1986). He closely worked with the band’s vocalist Peter Cetera in writing the chart-topping song ‘Glory of Love’ (1986).

In an article published in ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine in 1985, Foster was named “the master of... bombastic pop kitsch". In 1986, he received his first Oscar nod for ‘Glory of Love’. Sung by Cetera, the song was featured in ‘The Karate Kid Part II.’ Two years later, he composed the theme song for the XV Olympic Winter Games, titled ‘Winter Games’.

Foster and his then-wife Linda Thompson co-wrote ‘I Have Nothing’, which was sung by Whitney Houston in the film ‘The Bodyguard’ (1992). He entered into a contract in 1995 with Warner Brothers that helped him set up his own boutique label, 143 Records, with his then manager Brian Avnet serving as the chief executive.

He collaborated with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds in the composition of ‘The Power of the Dream’, the official song for 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

David Foster collaborated with American singer Natalie Cole to produce the 1991 album ‘Unforgettable... with Love’ which did exceptionally well in the Pop, Jazz, and R&B markets, topping the US Billboard 200 and U.S. Billboard Top Jazz Albums charts and reaching #5 position on the U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

It also won six Grammy Awards in 1992 and was pivotal in Foster’s claiming the Producer of the Year, Non-Classical accolade. As of 2009, the album has achieved RIAA 7x platinum certification.