Steve Winwood's Real Name: Stephen Lawrence Winwood

Quick answer: The musician is known as Steve Winwood. AllMusic says Stephen Lawrence Winwood was born on May 12, 1948, in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. Encyclopaedia Britannica independently lists Stephen Lawrence Winwood and Stevie Winwood as other forms of his name and gives the same birth date in Birmingham.

Real name and early life

AllMusic's biography, by Steve Huey, gives his full name as Stephen Lawrence Winwood and places his birth on May 12, 1948, in Handsworth, Birmingham. Britannica gives the same date and city, and a Library of Congress name record repeats the full name, date, and Handsworth birthplace.

Britannica says his father was a foundry worker and part-time musician, that piano was his first instrument, and that he first sang in public in a church choir. AllMusic says he played drums, guitar, and piano as a child and first performed at eight with his father and older brother, Muff, in the Ron Atkinson Band. Both sources say he joined the Spencer Davis Group with his brother at 15; AllMusic dates the move to 1963, and Britannica says he left school to do it.

Career highlights

Both sources credit the Spencer Davis Group with "I'm a Man" and "Gimme Some Lovin'," and AllMusic adds "Keep on Running." AllMusic says he left in 1967 to form Traffic with Dave Mason, Chris Wood, and Jim Capaldi. Britannica names the Traffic albums John Barleycorn Must Die (1970) and The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (1971) and says he briefly left to join Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton, and Ric Grech in Blind Faith.

Britannica says Traffic dissolved in 1974 and that he built a studio at his home in Gloucestershire to make his first solo album, Steve Winwood (1977). It lists Arc of a Diver (1980), with "While You See a Chance," Talking Back to the Night (1982), and Back in the High Life (1986), which contained "Higher Love." Britannica says he and producer Russ Titelman shared the record-of-the-year Grammy and that he won best male pop vocal performance for that song.

Britannica also lists Roll with It (1988), a 1994 Traffic reunion album, Far from Home, and the band's 2004 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It adds that in 2023 he performed "Higher Love" at the Windsor Castle concert for the coronation of King Charles III. AllMusic says he remained an in-demand session keyboardist throughout his career.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Steve Winwood, Stevie Winwood, or Stephen Lawrence Winwood are looking for the same musician. AllMusic says he once credited himself as Stevie Anglo on a 1965 single. Muff Winwood is his older brother.