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Charley Pride, the first black country music star whose rich baritone on hits like Kiss an angel good morning helped sell millions of records and made him the first black member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, he has died. He was 86 years old.
Pride died Saturday in Dallas, Texas, from complications from Covid-19, according to Jeremy Westby of public relations firm 2911 Media.
CHARLIE NEIBERGALL / AP
Charley Pride performs during his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame at the awards show at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville in 2000.
“I am so heartbroken that one of my dearest and oldest friends, Charley Pride, passed away. It’s even worse to know that you passed away from Covid-19. What a horrible, horrible virus. Charley, we will always love you, ”Dolly Parton tweeted.
Pride released dozens of albums and sold more than 25 million records during a career that began in the mid-1960s. Kiss an angel good morning in 1971 included Anyone going to San Antone?, Burgers and fries, Mountain of loveand Somebody loves you baby.
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He earned three Grammy Awards, over 30 No. 1 hits between 1969 and 1984, won the Country Music Association’s Best Male Vocalist and Artist of the Year award in 1972, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.
The Smithsonian of Washington acquired Pride memorabilia, including a pair of boots and one of his guitars, for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Ronnie Milsap called him a “trailblazer” and said that without his support, Milsap could never go to Nashville. “Hearing this news rips a piece of my heart out,” he said in a statement.
Until the early 1990s, when Cleve Francis arrived, Pride was the only black country singer signed to a major label.
Charlie Neibergall / AP
Charley Pride, right, receives his Country Music Hall of Fame plaque from Merle Haggard. Pride, the son of Mississippi sharecroppers who became one of the biggest stars in country music and the first black member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, has died at age 86.
In 1993, he joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
“They used to ask me how it feels to be the ‘first country singer of color,'” he said. The Dallas Morning News in 1992. “Then he was the ‘first black country singer’; then the “first black country singer.” Now I am the “first African American country singer.” That is the only thing that has changed. This country is so race conscious, so devoured by colors and pigments. I call it ‘skin problems’, it’s a disease. “
Pride grew up in Sledge, Mississippi, the son of a sharecropper. He had seven brothers and three sisters.
In 2008, while accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Mississippi Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts, Pride said it never focused on race.
“My older sister once said, ‘Why are you singing HIS music?’” Pride said. “But we all understand what the syndrome has been for you and us. Look, I never accepted that as an individual, and I really think that’s why I am where I am today. “
As a young man, before launching his singing career, he pitched and outfielded in the American Black League with the Memphis Red Sox and in the Pioneer League in Montana.
After playing minor league baseball for a couple of years, he ended up in Helena, Montana, where he worked at a zinc smelter plant by day and played country music in nightclubs by night.
After auditioning with the New York Mets, he visited Nashville and got into country music when Chet Atkins, head of RCA Records, listened to two of his demo tapes and signed him on.
To ensure that Pride was judged on his music and not his race, his first singles were sent to radio stations without a publicity photo. After his identity became known, some country radio stations refused to play his music.
However, for the most part, Pride said it was well received. Early in his career, he reassured white audiences when he joked about his “permanent tan.”
“Music is the best communicator on planet Earth,” he said in 1992. “Once people heard the sincerity in my voice and heard me project and saw my delivery, it just dispelled any apprehensions or bad feelings they might have had.”
John Russell / AP
American country music legend Charley Pride with his wife Rozene. Pride died Saturday of complications from Covid-19.
Throughout his career, he sang positive rather than sad songs often associated with country music.
“Music is a beautiful way of expressing yourself and I really believe that music shouldn’t be taken as a protest,” he told The Associated Press in 1985. “You can go too far in anything (singing, acting, whatever) and politicize yourself. to the point where you stop being an entertainer. “
In 1994, he wrote his autobiography, Pride: The Charley Pride Story, in which he revealed that he was mildly manic depressive.
He underwent surgery in 1997 to remove a tumor from his right vocal cord.
He received the Living Legend Award from The Nashville Network / Music City News, in recognition of 30 years of achievement, in 1997.
“I would like to be remembered as a good person who tried to be a good entertainer and made people happy, who was a good American who paid his taxes and made a living,” he said in 1985. “I tried to do my best and contribute my part “.
He is survived by his wife, Rozene, whom he married in 1956; three children, Kraig, Dion and Angela; and several grandchildren.
