Mark Gray PhotoOver his career, singer/songwriter Mark Gray
endured many ups and downs. He was born in Vicksburg,
Mississippi, the youngest of seven children. His mother died
when he was two, and he was raised on Lookout Mountain, Georgia
by his aunt and uncle. It was there that he began singing gospel
music and learned to play piano. He returned to his father's
250-acre Mississippi farm when he was 15 and later became a
finalist on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. He also began singing
commercial jingles.  In 1972, Gray was selling spots for an R&B
radio station while singing with the Revelations, a gospel group
he founded, on weekends. The Revelations were performing in
Meridian, Mississippi when they were spotted by the Oak Ridge
Boys, who asked Gray to join their publishing company and appear
on their tours. Gray moved to Nashville, but took a substantial
cut in income and spent several impoverished years. He
eventually left the Oaks to join another gospel group, the
Downings. He became so popular that the grou