Ricky Dillard

Gospel singer Ricky Dillard was born and raised in Chicago, where he inherited a love for gospel music from his mother and grandmother, and started singing in a church choir at an early age. Dillard soon began directing the youth choir in his church (starting at the age of five), and later the young adult choirs. It was around this time that Dillard came across two specific recordings that inspired him to pursue gospel singing even more zealously: James Cleveland and Aretha Franklin's "Amazing Grace" with the Southern California Community Choir, and one by the Institutional Ra...