Biography

Farhad Mehrad (January 20, 1944 – August 31, 2002) widely known in Iran as Farhad was an award winning Iranian rock singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist and icon. He rose to prominence among Iranian rock and folk musicians before the Iranian Revolution, but after the revolution he was banned from singing for several years. His first concert after the Iranian Revolution was held in 1993. To this day he is considered one of the most influential and respected Iranian artists of all time.

Early life

Farhad was born in Tehran. His father was Reza Mehrad, an Iranian diplomat who worked in the Arabic countries for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Being the youngest child, he always behaved differently from his family members and everyone assumed he was trying to act like an adult.

When Farhad was three years of age, his love for music was noticed when he stayed outside his brother’s room, listening to his violin lessons. His family bought Farhad a cello and he started taking lessons. After 3 lessons, his cello broke and as Farhad describes “the instrument broke into pieces so did my soul”. That was the end of the cello for Farhad and his love and passion for music ended up to be only listening to his brother playing the violin.

When he went to school he found a passion for literature. He decided to study literature in high school but with the absence of his father, his uncle forced him to study science despite his weak results on all other subjects other than literature and English language. His interest being ignored; he quit high school in grade 11 because he had no love for what he was studying.

First band

After quitting high school he met an Armenian music band(The four elfs). Using their instruments, he learned music by experience and after a while he became the guitar player in the band. The band went to southern Iran to perform for the Iranian Oil Company Club – one of the biggest organizations in Iran with many foreign employees. Before the start of the first night’s performance, the band made Farhad the singer, the excuse was the vocalist’s absence. Farhad’s attention and fuss for correct pronunciation of the words, and his knowledge of world literature came as a good advantage; when he performed a few songs in Italian, French and English, it was hard to believe his mother tongue was Persian.