Donovan facts: Songs, children and famous friendships of the psychedelic folk rock icon

21 May 2025, 13:38

In recent decades, Donovan has more than burst free from the shadow of Bob Dylan.

Madonna, Beyoncé, Adele... you have to be a pretty special sort of singer to get away with being mononymous. Donovan most definitely qualifies.

The Scottish singer-songwriter was a flower power icon but also a musician who has evolved and endured.

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After breaking through in the UK in the mid-1960s, Donovan had some serious success over the Atlantic.

He's never really stopped, and since the turn of the century has been as busy as he was since his hippie heyday.

Below we round up everything you ever wanted to know about Donovan.

How old is Donovan and what is his full name?

Donovan was born Donovan Phillips Leitch in Maryhill Glasgow on May 10, 1946. He turned 79 on his last birthday.

He and his parents Donald and Winifred moved the Hatfield, Hertfordshire when Donovan was young.

When he was three years old, he contracted polio. He was bed-bound for large swathes of his childhood and left with a limp as a result of the virus.

NEW * Sunshine Superman - Donovan {Stereo} 1966

As he lay in bed his dad read him poetry, which may have played a crucial role in him becoming an artist.

"If I hadn't had that experience maybe I wouldn’t have gone on to write and sing my own songs for the past half a century," Donovan told the Daily Express in 2016.

How did Donovan get into music?

With a headful of poetry and his parents' love of folk music, Donovan picked up a guita when he was 14.

He signed up for art school but realised if he was going to be a proper beatnik like his heroes, he needed to drop out and go On The Road, which is just what he did.

Donovan returned home and played around Hatfield and St Albans, writing his first folk songs. He travelled to Manchester and Torquay and played there.

Donovan - Mellow Yellow

As for his influences, as well as American folkies Woody Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliot, there were also more local players like Mac MacLeod and Mick Softley.

He got his first record contract with Pye in 1964 and the following year released his debut single 'Catch the Wind'/'Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?'.

The single was an instant hit, going to number 4 in the UK and number 23 in the US.

What was Donovan's relationship with Bob Dylan?

Catch the Wind Donovan FULL SONG HiQ Hybrid JARichardsFilm

As Donovan continued to release melodic folk-rock hits featuring plenty of acoustic guitar and harmonica, it was inevitable that people would draw parallels with Bob Dylan.

Dylan was the folk rock player of the moment, and it's fair to say that many other major artists were somewhat overshadowed by his success. That included the likes of Joan Baez and, yes, Donovan.

It was a bit unfair. Of course, Donovan was inspired by Bob Dylan. How could he not be?

But he wasn't a "Dylan clone" as he was unfairly tagged by some unthinking critics.

Dylan Meets Donovan

Donovan pointed out that Dylan himself was inspired by British and Celtic folk singers from a previous generation, and that in turn the newer British folkies were also taking notes from by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, all of whom preceded and influenced Dylan himself.

" It was not only Dylan who influenced us – for me he was a spearhead into protest, and we all had a go at his style," Donovan told the BBC.

"I sounded like him for five minutes – others made a career of his sound. Like troubadours, Bob and I can write about any facet of the human condition. To be compared was natural, but I am not a copyist."

Did Donovan and The Beatles ever cross paths?

Donovan On teaching guitar technique to Beatles

In the 1960s, if you weren't being unfairly compared to Bob Dylan, then someone was putting you up against The Beatles.

As well as Joan Baez and The Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, Donovan was actually quite pally with The Beatles.

Donovan even taught John Lennon his finger-picking guitar style, which the Beatle used to great effect on The White Album on songs like 'Dear Prudence', 'Julia' and 'Happiness is a Warm Gun'.

Don't believe it? None other than Paul McCartney revealed the influence when having a natter with Radio Luxembourg back in 1968.

"John picks the guitar because he learned off Donovan when we were in India," Macca said. "Donovan showed him how to fingerpick."

DONOVAN "Mother Nature's Son" - A Tribute to Paul McCartney

And Paul was taking notes himself.

“McCartney wanted it too, but he was a leftie, so I couldn’t teach him," Donovan said in 2018.

"But he's so smart, Paul, he was just walking around whilst I was teaching John and he was listening and he wrote 'Blackbird'. And I was so pleased I could share that."

It's also been claimed that it was Donovan who pitched in with the "Sky of blue and sea of green" lyric in 'Yellow Submaine'.

And after The Beatles split, Donovan claimed to have helped George Harrison establish himself as a songwriter with All Things Must Pass.

"I became George's mentor for songwriting," Donovan told Record Collector.

NEW 📀 Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan {Stereo} Summer 1968

"He was in the shadow of John and Paul for so many years and I said, 'Look, I'll show you a few tricks, how to encourage the songs.'

"There's a way to encourage the song to come. You can tease it, like fishing. I told him how to play a chord then put your ear on the guitar, listen to the open chord and try a tempo."

It's also worth mentioning that beyond The Beatles, Donovan was sometimes backed by the Jeff Beck Group, and also by then-session players John Bonham, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, who'd become megastars together as Led Zeppelin soon after.

What are Donovan's biggest songs?

Season Of The Witch

Donovan has released around 30 albums across his career, with the first being What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid and 1965 and the most recent being 2022's Gaelia.

His biggest songs include:

• Catch The Wind
• Colours
• Universal Soldier
• Turquoise
• Sunshine Superman
• Mellow Yellow
• Season of the Witch
• Epistle to Dippy
• There is a Mountain
• Wear Your Love Like Heaven
• Jennifer Juniper
• Hudy Gurdy Man
• Atlantis
• Barabajagal (with Jeff Beck)
• I Am the Shaman (produced by David Lynch and Dean Hurley)

What films has Donovan starred in?

People Call Me the Pied Piper

Donovan has focused mainly on writing and making music during his career, but he has also had a few signifcant movie roles.

He popped up singing one of his own songs in 1969's If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, before playing the titularr piper in 1972's all-star musical fantasy The Pied Piper, which also featured Donald Pleasence, John Hurt, Roy Kinnearm, Peter Vaughan and Diana Dors.

ANd keeping those Beatles connections going, he popped up in Bee Gees' 1978 folly Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Donovan also appeared as himself in Bob Dylan doc Don't Look Back and an episode of animated comedy Futurama.

What religion is Donovan?

Donovan's mum was Catholic and his dad was Protestant.

He was raised as a Protestant but moved away from Christianity as a teenager after reading works of Celtic mythology, Zen Buddhism and Chinese philosophy.

He's said to be a pagan these days, with his own personal belief system mashing up a number of different traditions.

“Every other song of mine celebrates the Goddess," Donovan said in 2022.

David Lynch and Donovan Uncut Interview on Transcendental Meditation (2007)

"She is Mother Nature. And we have been placed in this extraordinary position, almost on the edge of extinction, by this totally, overly male view that every resource, every river, every breeze, every cloud, every metal in the land should be raped and pillaged and sold as a commodity."

Donovan is a big proponent of Transcendental Meditation, having discovered the practice while visiting India and guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968.

It was their shared interest in TM that led Donovan and David Lynch to collaborate on his late-era song 'I Am the Shaman'.

Who is Donovan married to and who are his famous children?

Before he was married, Donovan had a serious relationship with American model Enid Karl for several years..

They had two children together, both of whom became famous actors.

Born in 1967, Donovan Leitch (Jr) starred in the 1988 remake of The Blob.

Born three years later, Ione Skye starred opposite her brother in Gas Food Lodging, before roles in Samantha, Wayne's World, One Night Stand and The Rachel Papers.

Donovan split from Karl the year Ione was born and marriedLinda Lawrence. They went on to have two children, Astrella and Oriole.