Desmond child

My mother, the beautiful Cuban songwriter and poet, Elena Casals, married a visiting American petroleum explorer in glamorous 1950’s Havana. He soon took his new bride to live in the untamed jungles of Venezuela where she became very unhappy. Desperate and lonely, she fell in love with my father, a dashing young Hungarian fortune seeker, who had made his way there after WW2. Once her husband found out about her affair, to avoid scandal, he quit his job at the oil company and moved them to a remote dairy farm in northern Florida, where I was born. Heartbroken and desolate again, she wrote sad songs to her lost love, singing about that faraway place and time that would never be again. As I played at her feet underneath her piano, I thought everyone wrote songs about their lives and passions… so it was natural for me to become a songwriter. I guess the notes don’t fall too far from the keys and why I ended up in New York City to seek fame and fortune, meet the great loves of my life… and write songs about it. 

Desmond Child

My mother, the beautiful Cuban songwriter and poet, Elena Casals, married a visiting American petroleum explorer in glamorous 1950’s Havana. He soon took his new bride to live in the untamed jungles of Venezuela where she became very unhappy. Desperate and lonely, she fell in love with my father, a dashing young Hungarian fortune seeker, who had made his way there after WW2. Once her husband found out about her affair, to avoid scandal, he quit his job at the oil company and moved them to a remote dairy farm in northern Florida, where I was born. Heartbroken and desolate again, she wrote sad songs to her lost love, singing about that faraway place and time that would never be again. As I played at her feet underneath her piano, I thought everyone wrote songs about their lives and passions… so it was natural for me to become a songwriter. I guess the notes don’t fall too far from the keys and why I ended up in New York City to seek fame and fortune, meet the great loves of my life… and write songs about it.