Will Millar
| Will Millar | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1940 (age 77–78) Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland |
| Genres | Irish folk |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1960s-2000s |
| Associated acts | The Irish Rovers |
| Website | willmillar |
Will Millar (born 1940) is an Irish-Canadian singer best known as a co-founding member of The Irish Rovers. Until his departure in 1995, he was the group's front man. He plays guitar, banjo, mandolin and tin whistle.
Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Millar and his sister Sandra Beech performed as The Millar Kids before the family emigrated to Canada in 1957 when Millar was 17. Millar formed a Calypso Band, Kalypso Kews, that performed for two years in Toronto's Yonge Street at the Calypso Club. Millar moved to Calgary, Alberta and hosted a children's television show as well as forming an Irish folk trio.
In the 1960s, Millar invited his brother, then 15, George, his cousin Joe and Jimmy Ferguson to stay with him in Calgary. He brought them on his television show and started performing with them at Calgary's first folk club, The Depression.
Under the guidance of Les Weinstein, Millar's manager, he took the new group to San Francisco and after an audition they made the Purple Onion in San Francisco and the Ice House in Pasadena their home base club. In 1968, under the production of Bud Dant of Decca Records, the group's recording of the Shel Silverstein song "The Unicorn" went to #1 in Canada and #3 on the Billboard pop chart in the U.S. and became the Irish Rovers' signature song.
Between 1970 and 1973, Millar travelled back and forth between Ireland and Canada to manage an Irish Georgian manor and to host a TV show. Their CBC-TV show included guests such as Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, Waylon Jennings, Pat Boone and Roger Miller.
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