| Born and raised in Columbus, Ga. Sharon Turner began playing the piano at age 7. After years of formal piano lessons she became interested in pop music in her late teens. She also sang bluegrass for a year before settling into rock and roll as her primary genre for creating music. Her earliest influences were the Beatles and the Guess Who. In her teens, she loved Bachman Turner Overdrive, Kansas, John Cougar Mellencamp and Styx. By her late twenties she had developed a taste for country music as she began to listen to The Judds and The Dixie Chicks. She soon gravitated back to contemporary music and today she is an avid fan of Third Day, Casting Crowns, Audio Adrenaline and Stephen Curtis Chapman.
Her earliest live performances were in musicals. She began singing in resident theater companies around south Georgia in her early teens. For years, her main focus was acting. In fact, she attended the University of Georgia on a Drama scholarship. While in college, she started to play small gigs on the piano and eventually started to sing pop music. She played with several bands around Atlanta including Mr. P's Garden and Underground Blue. It was there that she met "a cool but quiet guy" named Chris Robinson. They collaborated on several songs before his band signed a major record deal and changed their name to "The Black Crows." It was during this time that Sharon picked up the drums. Soon, she had a loyal following in clubs and other venues across the South East.
In 1992, she felt the Lord calling her to perform Christian music. She wrote her first Christian song "The Quiet Time of Midnight" after moving to Montana from Georgia. During the 90's she released 3 singles and toured churches across the country. She is most remembered for her release of "Shine Jesus Shine" which catapulted her to the forefront of Christian music and drew her back to Nashville. After studying under such great songwriters as Phil Vasser and Joe Chambers, she gravitated back westward and in 2003, she settled down permanently in the Kansas City area. Though she often plays a mixture of popular Christian music, she places a high emphasis on her original music which is both hard felt and emotionally stirring. Because she arranges her own music, her songs are full of percussion, piano and energy. She is just as passionate about her beliefs as she is about the music and is quick to give testimony as the spirit leads her. "Like most artists I always wanted to play huge venues with huge crowds, but now, I realize that my music isn't about the size of the crowd its about the size of the message."
Besides music, she enjoys painting with oils and pastels, hiking the rocky mountains, racing motorcycles and riding horses. She graduated from The University of Georgia with a Broadcast Journalism degree and spent 14 years as an entertainment reporter/news director and air personality at various radio stations across the country. She has produced radio programs for The Westwood One Radio Network, Abc Rock Radio and the BBC. She has lived in 17 states, owned 7 motorcycles, won 4 Addys and raised 2 children, 9 horses, 5 puppies and 3 goats.
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