Jay White Fast Facts

Friday, Dec. 20, 1996 | 3:43 a.m.

Hometown: Detroit

Occupation: Neil Diamond impersonator

Family: Married to wife, Pam. Daughter Stephanie is 11. Son, Neil, is 13. "I tell everyone I named after Neil Armstrong the astronaut, but nobody seems to believe that."

Past jobs: White used to manage a Big Boy restaurant, "which wasn't at all exciting," and even sold insurance, a job, "I did not enjoy." But he proudly boasts about the "few games" he played goaltender in the International Hockey League during his '20s.

Favorite Diamond tune: "America," he says. "I like the patriotism in that song. There's a lot of truth in it because anyone who lives in this country ... comes from somewhere else, when you think of our ancestors who came over on some boat, and here we all are now a hundred years later."

Is that him?: White is frequently mistaken for the real Neil. Once, while in a department store with his wife, "Three guys ran ... down the aisle pointing and talking. So she started following them," thinking they'd spotted some big celebrity. "She went, 'Oh my god, it's my husband."'

'If the shirt fits ...': Besides, Diamond's trademark shiny, red shirt, White also owns one in blue, white, silver and royal purple.

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