Van Morrison Receives Honorary Knighthood

[Miles Archer]

Van Morrison Receives Honorary Knighthood



http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/van-morrison-receives-honorary-knighthood-20150613

Van Morrison joined an elite group of musicians Friday, one that includes Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and Bono. The Belfast-born singer-songwriter was awarded an honorary knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth during her annual Birthday Honours celebration. The newly-titled Sir George Ivan Morrison was selected to receive the highest honor for an individual in the United Kingdom for his "services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland."

"Throughout my career I have always preferred to let my music speak for me, and it is a huge honor to now have that body of work recognized in this way," Morrison said in a statement responding to the news, the BBC reports.

On June 18th, Morrison is also scheduled to receive the Johnny Mercer Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala in New York City. The two new distinctions join many others for the 69-year-old musician, who has also won six Grammys, a Brit Award, and an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

In March, Morrison released Duets: Re-Working the Catalogue, an album that revisits deep cuts from albums spanning the course of his career with help from the likes of Steve Winwood, Bobby Womack and Mavis Staples. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, he joked about the hardship of dealing with the vast output of his prolific creative life. "I didn't know I was going to have this body of work," he said. "It was probably the Nineties when it started to become unmanageable [laughs]. It's even more unmanageable now. But the more you create, the more you have to manage later on. Because I'm the only one who knows what it is."

[DiverDave]

1. Van the man

I'm gonna listen to some ear candy:

On edit: How could I forget this one?

[Cooley Hurd]

2. That's awesome - but what about Ringo???

[bigtree]

3. awesome

...one of my all-time favs

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It's 'a knighthood', not 'an honorary knighthood'

British citizens, such as Van the Man, get knighthoods; non-British citizens, such as Kevin Spacey, get honorary knighthoods.

[Miles Archer]

6. Is he actuallly a British citizen?

He was born in Belfast and moved to California in the 70s. I wasn't aware of him having British citizenship.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Being born in Belfast would make him a British citizen

unless he gave it up, and he's listed in the British announcements, as a resident of County Down in the full list, while Kevin Spacey (full name 'Kevin Spacey Fowler' - who knew?) is in the overseas list.

[marmar]

5. And all the knight's magic, seems to whisper and hush.....

Congrats, sir.

[madokie]

8. I have to listen to Van Morrison quiet often

I remember it was Van Morrison and Them at the beginning

We are huge Van the Man fans here

[Autumn]

9. Awesome. I like Van Morrison. Or should I say Sir Van Morrison.