Exile (American band)

Exile is an American band founded in Richmond, Kentucky, in 1963. Originally known as the Exiles, the band played cover songs and local events in the state of Kentucky for a number of years before becoming a backing band on the touring revue Caravan of Stars. After a series of failed singles, Exile achieved mainstream success in 1978 with "Kiss You All Over", a number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. This iteration of the band mostly played soft rock and pop music, with Jimmy Stokley handling most of the lead vocals alongside lead guitarist J.P. Pennington.

After Stokley was fired due to his declining health, Mark Gray and Les Taylor joined as vocalists, although Gray departed after only three years to begin a solo career. Exile began a transition to country music in the beginning of the 1980s with Pennington and Taylor as both lead vocalists and guitarists alongside Sonny LeMaire (bass guitar, harmony vocals), Marlon Hargis (keyboards), and Steve Goetzman (drums). This lineup was featured on their 1983 album Exile, their first as a country band and their first on Epic Records. Between then and 1987, Exile had ten number-one singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, as well as a number-one country album with Kentucky Hearts in 1984.

Hargis, Pennington, and Taylor left the band between 1987 and 1989, with LeMaire and multi-instrumentalist Paul Martin alternating on lead vocals for two albums on Arista Nashville between 1990 and 1991. During the early 1990s, both Pennington and Taylor recorded as solo artists. Exile disbanded in 1995; LeMaire later founded the band Burnin' Daylight before writing songs for other artists. Individual members of Exile played a number of informal shows between the late 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, but the early-1980s lineup of Pennington, Taylor, LeMaire, Hargis, and Goetzman did not re-establish until 2008. Exile has continued to tour and record under this lineup ever since.

Exile's sound is defined by vocal harmony with rock and pop influences, and the band is noted for their successful transition from rock to country. Many of their country music releases were co-written by Taylor and Pennington. Songs of theirs have also been covered by Alabama, Huey Lewis and the News, Dave & Sugar, and the Forester Sisters.