Recently, while writing a newspaper article, I learned that (a) I needed to know the middle name of the singer Al Green (b) there is some disagreement on how he spells it.

He was born Albert Greene on April 13, 1946 (he dropped the final E from his last name shortly after he began his professional singing career). But his middle name is rendered as “Leornes” by some sources (including Wikipedia) and “Leorns” by others (most notably Jimmy McDonough’s definitive 2017 book Soul Survivor: A Biography of Al Green). Contacted through his PR representative, the Reverend Green declined to clear the matter up.

Wikipedia didn’t have any backup for “Leornes” (and I worry that the name has got caught in a citation loop, where the Wikipedia page refers to other sources that in turn draw on the Wikipedia page). But I corresponded with Mr. McDonough, who kindly shared some of his source material, which proved to be court documents, all of which consistently spelled the name “Leorns.” With his permission, I’m sharing them here:

Unless somebody comes up with superior evidence to the contrary, I’m going with “Leorns.”

posted 8 January 2023 in Outside and tagged Al Green, fact checking. no comments yet