Marcie Michelle Free (born Mark Edward Free on April 12, 1954) is an American rock singer, best known as the lead singer of

King Kobra King Kobra is an American heavy metal band founded by drummer Carmine Appice after his tenure with Ozzy Osbourne from 1983 to 1984. History For their first two albums, the band consisted of four relatively unknown musicians: vocalist Marcie F ...

, Signal and

Unruly Child Unruly Child is an American hard rock band, founded in 1991. Band members Principal members * Marcie Free – lead vocals (1991-1992, 2010-present) * Bruce Gowdy – guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals (1991-1992, 1998-2003, 2010-present) * La ...

History

Free started singing professionally at the age of 19 while living in Flint, Michigan (1973). In 1975, Free moved to Las Vegas, Nevada which eventually (in 1979) led to her relocating to Los Angeles, CA where she met

Carmine Appice Carmine Appice ( , born December 15, 1946) is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his associations with Vanilla Fudge; Cactus; the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice; Rod Stewart; King Kobra; and Blue Murder. He is also Vinny Appice's ...

(

Vanilla Fudge Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band known predominantly for their slow extended heavy rock arrangements of contemporary hit songs, such as their hit cover of The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On". The band's original line–up—vocalist a ...

Beck, Bogert & Appice Beck, Bogert & Appice was a rock supergroup and power trio formed by English guitarist Jeff Beck, evolving from the Jeff Beck Group. It included bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, Americans who had played together in Vanilla Fudge an ...

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...

) in 1983. Together they formed

and were signed to Capitol Records in 1984. Free recorded two albums with King Kobra, ''

Ready to Strike ''Ready to Strike'' is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band King Kobra, released in 1985 by Capitol Records. The single "Hunger" was written by members of the Canadian metal band Kick Axe and was released by them in 1986 in '' T ...

'' and ''

Thrill of a Lifetime ''Thrill of a Lifetime'' is a television reality series (before that term was coined) created by Sidney M. Cohen (who also directed many of the episodes) and Willie Stein. It was telecast from 1981 to 1988 in Canada on the CTV network. ''Thril ...

'', before leaving in November 1986 to pursue other musical interests. In 1987, Free formed a band with guitarist Danny Jacob, bassist and keyboardist Erik Scott and drummer

Jan Uvena Jannaro "Jan" Uvena (born August 29, 1950) is an American musician, best known for playing drums with a number of notable rock bands, including Alice Cooper's backing band, Iron Butterfly, Alcatrazz, and Signal. Uvena retired from the music bu ...

, which would later take the name Signal. Signal recorded one album for

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

, 1989's ''Loud and Clear'', before disbanding soon after. In 1990, Free then joined up with Bruce Gowdy, (Stone Fury/World Trade) and Guy Allison (World Trade) (keyboards), forming a group known as

. Unruly Child signed with Atlantic/Interscope Records in 1991 and released their self-titled debut album in 1992. In 1993, Free sang the theme song, "(To Be) The Best of the Best", for the action film, ''

Best of the Best II ''Best of the Best II'' is a 1993 martial arts film directed by Robert Radler, and starring Eric Roberts and Phillip Rhee. It is the first sequel to the 1989 film ''Best of the Best''. The plot follows four of the characters from the original ...

''. Also in 1993, a solo album consisting of demos Free had sung for a mother/daughter songwriting duo named Judithe and Robin Randall was released on an independent label in the UK called Now & Then Records. The album entitled ''Long Way from Love'' was re-released on Frontiers Records in 1998. This album version included some of the live performances Free gave while in Manchester, England for the first rock festival known as "The Gods of AOR" in October 1993. Shortly after the release of ''Long Way from Love'', Unruly Child, after losing their record deal with Atlantic/Interscope, had reformed under the moniker Twelve Pound Sledge and were writing new material in hopes of re-signing with another U.S. label. That never happened, though songs from these sessions were later released in 1995, as a solo album on independent labels in Germany and Japan, entitled ''Tormented''. Suffering with

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until ...

all her life, Free came out to the world as Marcie Free in November 1993. In 1995, Free retired from the music business and moved back to Michigan to be close to her family. However, she still sings professionally on the side and in September 2009, Free, Gowdy and Allison reunited as Unruly Child and signed a recording contract with Frontiers Records. A new album with that label, ''Worlds Collide'', has been released to critical acclaim. Unruly Child's triad (Free, Gowdy, Allison) continues to write and record. They released a new album in 2014 entitled ''Down the Rabbit Hole'' on the band's own label "Unruly Records".

Discography

Studio albums

*''Long Way from Love'' (1993)

with King Kobra

* ''

'' (1985) * ''

'' (1986)

with Signal

* ''Loud & Clear'' (1989) * ''Signal Live'' (2000)

with Unruly Child

* ''

'' (1992) * ''Tormented'' (1995) as Marcie Free * ''Worlds Collide'' (2010) * ''Down the Rabbit Hole'' (2014) * ''Can't Go Home'' (2017) * ''Big Blue World'' (2019) * ''Our Glass House'' (2020)

Guest appearances

* David Cassidy – ''

David Cassidy David Bruce Cassidy (April 12, 1950 – November 21, 2017) was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was best known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his stepmother, Shirley Jones), in t ...

'' (1990) * Desmond Child – ''

Discipline Discipline refers to rule following behavior, to regulate, order, control and authority. It may also refer to punishment. Discipline is used to create habits, routines, and automatic mechanisms such as blind obedience. It may be inflicted on ot ...

'' (1991) * Julio Iglesias – ''

Crazy Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or t ...

'' (1994) * Bobby Kimball – ''Rise Up'' (1994) * Venus & Mars – ''New Moon Rising'' (1998) * Venus & Mars – ''Grand Trine'' (2009)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Free, Marcie 1954 births Living people Musicians from South Bend, Indiana American heavy metal singers LGBT people from Indiana American LGBT singers Transgender women musicians King Kobra members American women heavy metal singers Transgender singers