Harold Elwin Bice, Jr. was born November 1, 1975 in Huntsville, Alabama. His parents were named Nancy and Harold Bice, Sr. Bo was fortunate enough to have been born with musical roots. Nancy was a gospel singer and Harold Sr. was a guitarist. Bo was nicknamed Bogart by his grandmother, because she thought he had eyes like Humphrey Bogart. Bice shortened the nickname to Bo because he didn't think Bogart was “cool.”
Bo's father left his mother when he was two years old. Raised for a number of years by his mother, they moved around the south until he was twelve. After his mother remarried a Coca-Cola executive named Earle Downes, the family relocated to England. Bo lived near Ozzy Osbourne for awhile. He has several step brothers and sisters from his parents' different marriages.
When Bice was 15, he won a local school musical competition in England. When he was 17, he dropped out of high school and moved back to Alabama, where he then earned his GED. Bo attended a bit of college, but decided to devote himself full-time to his music career in 1995. With his first band, Purge, he recorded his first commercial CD in 1995. He performed and recorded with a former Allman Brothers band member, Johnny Neal, and also opened for Warrant and Blackfoot before appearing on American Idol.
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