It has beautiful lyrics, but the delivery was so real. You can’t believe Charlie didn’t write “Kiss Angel Good Morning” because he sings it with such a feeling. Whenever we did “why things happen” Jimmy AllenTogether the new EP, I remember listening and leaving, “Man, no one looks like Charlie Pride.” We never lived together in the room when we recorded it. That’s one of those thoughts when I heard he died. I always thought that the three of us would sing that song together.
Our first meeting, we talked for hours. He was hosting Opry and I was on it. I was praising her, saying how beautiful it was to see her catalog. She was in the ’60s and’ 70s and she had these hit films and was entertaining that year – this black man I know was doing what he was told not to do by all means. He said, “Darius, one crazy thing for me is that I never cover up Ebony Or Jet,“And I said, ‘Neither do I.’ And he and I laughed. He’s always stuck with me. African-American proves that not celebrating Charlie’s pride as much as we can, it was sad.”
Charlie’s age or my age African-American growing up, you didn’t make it until you covered Ebony Or Jet, And never making a cover for both of us, it was one of the things we thought we would do it together one day.
Even when I start playing in Hooty and Bluefish, I can’t imagine what it was like for Charlie: “You can’t play this music,” black people would say, “Why? You’re playing that music?” That’s another thing that made him wonder what he did.
Before I would actually sit down and talk to him, I would always tell myself when I get into country music: I can handle what happens, because it’s not even close to what happened like Charlie. [including George Jones drunkenly writing “KKK” on his car].
He and George were great friends later in life, but you hear those stories and you go, “Wow, it wasn’t just the guy who didn’t want to be a fan, it was the people you had to move on with. Got out. “
It is as if God put him there because he knew he had the nature to do what he needed to do. Like Jackie Robinson in Bezab in Lama. A greater power than we knew someone needed to do it and he was the person to do it because he could handle it. It is shocking that there is no Charlie Pride movie. That’s the ultimate American story.
I couldn’t have done what I do, I don’t think, if it wasn’t for Charlie before me. I think I had a reason to get a chance, because a lot of people on the radio were going to see and go, “Wow, it’s been 25 years”, and so I had a good song and they gave it a chance. Charlie opened the door. I try to push him a little more and help these kids.
There is no doubt that I feel a responsibility to help the people I make. I think the way Charlie was with me. I want to help right now and if I can help those boys anywhere, anytime I am. Other artists of color or any artist. Jimmy, Ken [Brown], Mickey [Guyton] … I feel a little special bond with them because we are doing something that we have all been told we shouldn’t have done.
I’m so glad he received the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at CMA this year. Charlie knows what he’s done and what an impact it has on the music, but I think it was one of those testimonials you want to see when you’re alive. He got it and it was great to see him in the spotlight again and become a superstar.
At CMA, we were talking about how I would like to come to Texas and hang out – not doing music or anything, just sitting and drinking some tea or coffee. When he came home he called me and I was doing something and didn’t answer and I called him back and he didn’t answer. You look back and you go, “Wow, that’s so sad.”
He’s one of those people that when you make Mount Rushmore of country music, Charlie Pride should be on it. For the fact that he did and the way he did and when he did. The word icon is used a lot, but icon is the only word I will use to describe it.
–As Melinda Newman said
Darius Rocker, a CRA Award and three-time Grammy Award winner, co-hosted the CMA Awards this year, becoming the second black artist to do so since co-hosting Pride in 1975.
