Kourosh Yaghmaei (Persian: کورش یغمایی also spelled as Kourosh Yaghmaee; born 3 December 1946) is an Iranian singer-songwriter, composer and record producer, who started his career in the early 1970s. Regarded as one of the greatest Persian psychedelic rock musicians in the history of Iranian rock music, he is known as "the Godfather of Iranian psychedelic rock", as well as "the king of rock".
Born in 1946 in Shahrud to Parsi parents, he later grew up in Tehran. Most of his songs are a combination of Persian classical poems, his own lyrics, and contemporary poems. His styles of music are a mixture of Persian traditional music and the protein 1970s rock influenced by bands and artists such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. He has significant styles in blues and rock as well as Iranian folk music. He is best known internationally for his unique presentation of the early Iranian rock throughout the 1970s. He began his solo career in 1973 with his first single "Gol-e Yakh" ("Ice Flower") which was a huge success with more than 5 million copies sold in the domestic market. Later he started solo career with the album Gol-e Yakh (1973) which also included this song. Several of his songs are well known by the Iranian diaspora and his hit singles such as "Gol-e Yakh", "Havar Havar" ("Shout Shout"), "Khaar" ("Thistle"), "Leila", "Paiz" ("Autumn"), "Reyhan" etc. In 2011, his first compilation album Back From the Brink: Pre-Revolution Psychedelic Rock From Iran: 1973-1979 was released by Now-Again Records. Vogue described Yaghmei as "psyche singer, stylish, moustached and funky". He was banned for 17 years since 1979.
Kourosh Yaghmaei was born on 3 December 1946 in Central District of Shahrud, Semnan, Iran to a well-off family. His name Kourosh (Old Persian: 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 Kūrauš; Kourosh) originated from the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great (c. 600 – 530 BC). He is second son as a part of the Yaghmaei family. His elder brother Kamran Yaghmaei and younger brother Kambiz Yaghmaei are also musicians. His grandfather was a landowner and one of his distant ancestors was a popular Iranian poet. They had moved to Tehran so that Yaghmaei grew up there and studied at Shahid Beheshti University.

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