Mary Elizabeth Harries is his mother. Max Boyce was born in Glynneath. He has always lived there, but his family were originally from Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley. A month preceding Boyce's birth, his father Leonard Boyce died in an explosion in the coal pit where he was working. At the age of fifteen, Boyce left school, went to live with his grandfather, and followed his father's footsteps by working in a colliery "for nearly eight years". In his early twenties, he managed to find alternative work in the Metal Box factory, Melin, Neath as an electrician's apprentice, but his earlier mining experiences were to influence his music considerably in later years.