Don Ho was born in the little Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako of Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, German parentage but soon moved to Kaneohe. Don's climb to today's heady heights began in a cocktail lounge in the windward Oahu town of Kaneohe called Honey's, named after his mother. After returning from the Air Force, Don took over Honey's in Kaneohe, Hawaii. "When I took it over, the place was empty," says Ho. It was packed everyday during the war years. My dad said "Son, why don't you go make music." Ho gathered a couple of friends who knew how to play musical instruments and started a band.

Playing and learning from the talented musicians he hired for shows, Ho created his own musical image. In 1962, Ho began playing at Duke's in Waikiki. "That's when things started happening for us with records, TV shows and everything," says Ho. These were the days of Don's greatest development as an entertainer and a star. Backing him were the sensational five Aliis, playing piano, drums, two guitars, xylophone and doubling on half a dozen other instruments. The music was outstanding; the humor was fast and snappy. Tourists came, but so did locals and, after a while, visiting Hollywood stars--any of whom might take to the stage. Raising his glass in salute, Don would urge the audience to "suck'em up," and they did.

Those rowdy, rollicking years brought stardom to Don and made Duke's Hawaii's most popular nightclub. Don, the Aliis, Duke Kahanamoku, Kimo McVay, young singers like Robin Wilson, Angel Pablo, Sam Kapu and everybody else on stage had a ball every night. The audience felt it and shared it and kept coming back for more. During his years at Duke's, Don literally erupted on the national show biz scene, first and most suddenly in a two-week engagement at Hollywood's ultra-posh Cocoanut Grove in 1966. His opening night was a triumph, breaking all previous attendance records, and he went on to play to turn-away crowds nightly.

Don Ho has appeared in dozens of TV shows including The Tom Jones Special, syndicated, 1971; The Bob Hope Show, NBC, 1972; Don Ho, "Hawaii Bound," The Brady Bunch, ABC, 1972; as host of The Don Ho Show, ABC, 1976-77; Celebration: The American Spirit, ABC, 1976; Perry Como's Hawaiian Holiday, NBC, 1976; CBS All-American Thanksgiving Day Parade, CBS, 1980; TV Nation: Year-in-Review, NBC, 1994; Conan O'Brien Show, 1995; and Live! Regis and Kathy, 1995.

In the last few years, Don Ho has appeared on the nationally televised Grand Ole Opry, on E! Entertainment, The Discovery Channel ("Home Matters"), The Travel Channel ("The Tourist"), The History Channel ("Great American History Quiz"), "Bay Area Backroads," and many others. He performed the National Anthem at Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, and Houston Astro games on behalf of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, sang his greatest hits for a Hawaiian Airlines media party at Spago in Los Angeles, starred as himself in a TV commercial for Labatt which aired throughout Canada, and appeared in an inflight video for United Airlines worldwide. In 1999, he made promotional appearances in Memphis and Atlanta for Sprint and Northwest Airlines.