EXCLUSIVE: Yorkshire 'homecoming' for Star Trek legend's musical Lady - Sunny Ozell plays Sheffield City Hall

Yorkshire 'homecoming' for American singing sensation Sunny Ozell - married to Star Trek legend Sir Patrick StewartYorkshire 'homecoming' for American singing sensation Sunny Ozell - married to Star Trek legend Sir Patrick Stewart
Yorkshire 'homecoming' for American singing sensation Sunny Ozell - married to Star Trek legend Sir Patrick Stewart
America singer songwriter Sunny Ozell will play a Yorkshire 'homecoming' concert this weekend - she's the wife of famous white rose county son and Star Trek legend Sir Patrick Stewart.

And she's been telling how they were married by his X-Men co-star Sir Ian McKellen.

The marriage also makes her a real life Lady Stewart. Not that she uses the title, except for some fun with her Hollywood royalty other half, she revealed in an exclusive chat.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

AUDIO: Listen to Sunny Ozell's full chat with Graham Walker about her music, tour, album and how Sir Ian McKellen married her and hubby Sir Patrick - CLICK HERE.Sunny, aged 37, who plays Sheffield City Hall ballroom on Sunday, said of her official Lady title: "I never use it.

"Patrick is vey modest about using the Sir thing and I just inherited it by marriage, so more than anything it's just kind of a funny little thing that we call one another from time to time.

"He calls me 'His Ladyship', which is just hilarious,"

VIDEO: Watch the music video for her hit Git Gone, taken from her album Take It With Me, embedded on our YouTube player

Her Sheffield City Hall gig is a rescheduled tour date, supporting British folk rock singer songwriter Teddy Thompson and American singer Kelly Jones. Ticket details below and at www.sheffieldcityhall.co.ukSunny, getting her own rave reviews for debut album Take It With Me, is hoping her support act slot will be springboard to her own headline UK tour.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad
Sunny Ozell playing Sheffield City Hall on Sunday, May 22.Sunny Ozell playing Sheffield City Hall on Sunday, May 22.
Sunny Ozell playing Sheffield City Hall on Sunday, May 22.

Originally from New York, she spent years honing her craft, performing in jazz clubs, perfecting her unique blend of jazz, blues and American roots music, with a fair bit of soul and country thrown in.

She takes her style from the great american songbooks, from Leon Russell to Randy Newman to T-Bone Burnett.

Her famous hubby Sir Patrick, 75, a Royal Shakespeare Company actor, is best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men superhero movies.

He was born just up the road in Mirfield, between Huddersfield and Wakefield.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad
Sir Ian McKellen, left, who married his close pals Sunny Ozell and Sir Patrick StewartSir Ian McKellen, left, who married his close pals Sunny Ozell and Sir Patrick Stewart
Sir Ian McKellen, left, who married his close pals Sunny Ozell and Sir Patrick Stewart

But although he won't be around to see her Sheffield gig - he's making a film in the the US - she says she will definitely be returning to explore the region with him again this summer, when Sir Patrick and Sir Ian McKellen appear at the city's Lyceum.

The two acting giants star together in Harold Pinter play No Man's Land, from August 3 to 13. For details and tickets CLICK HERE.

Sunny won't be heading straight for the shops at Meadowhall. Sir Patrick's not daft. He's not told her about it.

She said: "I'm more inclined towards old churches and dusty museums.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad
Sunny Ozell playing Sheffield City Hall on Sunday, May 22.Sunny Ozell playing Sheffield City Hall on Sunday, May 22.
Sunny Ozell playing Sheffield City Hall on Sunday, May 22.

"We've been to Huddersfield, Mirfield, up to Hebden and York. It's beautiful countryside and I'm really looking forward to coming and seeing more of it."

The couple met in New York while he was performing in Macbeth and they married in 2013 beside Lake Tahoe in Nevada - with Sir Ian officiating the wedding ceremony.

She became close to Sir Ian when the theatrical knights were performing Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Sunny said: "He's such a beautiful human being. I realised Ian was really the only person to marry us and he agreed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"I got him ordained as a Universal Life minister, making sure of course that an atheist could be a minister and he did a beautiful job of the ceremony. It was so special. There wasn't a dry eye in the house."

And is Sir Patrick a real life romantic knight?

Sir Ian McKellen, left, who married his close pals Sunny Ozell and Sir Patrick StewartSir Ian McKellen, left, who married his close pals Sunny Ozell and Sir Patrick Stewart
Sir Ian McKellen, left, who married his close pals Sunny Ozell and Sir Patrick Stewart

"He's very romantic. A lovely, lovely man," she laughed.

Sunny is planning a follow up album and more of the same, working with the same group of talented musicians who are have become family to her.

Star of the tour, Teddy, features on the single I Cant Help If I’m Still In Love With You, taken from her album.

She hails from Reno, Nevada where she spent most of her childhood. At the age of 10 she began her classical training and became the only child member of the adult chorus in the Reno Opera Company.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

During her days at university in Boulder, Colorado, she began singing with blues bands in her spare time as well as with what she describes as "a 10-piece Afro-Cuban funk mess."

In 2004, she decided to break away and make the move to the Big Apple.

At first she found the scale and intensity of New York daunting, though after a while everything slid into place and she found her calling in the music scene performing with players she greatly respected.

Now, whether she's singing Randy Newman's lyrically charged Louisiana 1927, the rolling gospel of Pops Staples's Move Along Train, or reinventing Howard Jones's 1986 electropop chartbuster No One Is To Blame, she finds a way to breathe her own luminous personality into the music.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She can also convince you the T Bone Burnett/Roy Orbison composition Kill Zone - a rarity tucked away on Burnett's 2008 album Tooth Of Crime - and other songs such as Julian Velard's Family Tree, and David Mead's Only In The Movies have up to now, been criminally denied their richly-deserved place in the spotlight.

She added: “I’m really excited to be opening Teddy’s shows. He’s such an amazing singer. I am really lucky to have had him sing on my record. He has not toured the UK in some time, so there will be a lot of excitement surrounding these gigs, and I’m thrilled to be a part of them, especially at such beautiful and eclectic venues.

"I’m hoping to meet some of the fans that I have picked up since my release, and also win some new ones along the way!"

* Tickets for Teddy Thompson with Kelly Jones and guest Sunny Ozell at Sheffield City Hall Ballroom on Sunday, May 22, are £17.50 each, booking fees may apply. Buy in person, call 0114 2789 789 or visit www.sheffieldcityhall.co.ukFor more about Sunny visit her official web site at www.sunnyozell.com and follow her on Twitter @sunnyozell.

MAY 2016 TOUR DATES

23 EXETER, Phoenix

24 BATH, Festival (Forum)

26 LIVERPOOL, The Music Room

27 EDINBURGH, Queens Hall

28 MANCHESTER, RNCM

News you can trust since 1895
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice