Billy Ocean Billy Ocean Billy Ocean (born Leslie Sebastian Charles; 21 January 1950) is a Trinidadian-English recording artist who had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the most popular British R&B singer-songwriter of the early to mid-1980s. After scoring his first four UK Top 20 successes, seven years passed before he accumulated a series of transatlantic successes, including three US number ones. His 1985 hit "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" reached number one in the UK and number two in the US. In 1985, Ocean won the Grammy Award for
What Is This? following week. The group decided to change their name to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, played several more shows at various L.A. clubs and musical venues, and eventually recorded a demo tape, all while Slovak and Irons were still playing with What Is This?. A few months later, What Is This received a record deal with MCA Records and the Red Hot Chili Peppers received a joint deal with EMI America and Enigma Records. Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons decided to leave the Red Hot Chili Peppers and stay with What Is This? as the latter was their primary musical