 Eddie Campbell was born William Edgar Campbell on December 23, 1940, in Lodi, Texas, and raised in Phoenix, Arizona.Campbell was singing with the local gospel group the Heavenly Travelers when his brother Lloyd introduced him to Ernie L. Johnson Jr.

Ernie L. Johnson Jr. was born October 22, 1945, in Lubbock, Texas.After the family relocated to Arizona, Johnson's father, Ernest Johnson Sr., begin singing with a local gospel group called the Crusaders.