He once dreamed of breaking records set by baseball greats Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson, but life threw Charley Pride a curve ball.
“Whoever thought I’d end up with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Walk of Fame, right between Gladys Knight and Leonard Bernstein?” said the 74-year-old country singer, who performs on Saturday, June 2, at Red Deer’s Centrium.
As one of 11 children of poor Mississippi sharecroppers, Pride initially set his sights on playing baseball. He certainly never expected he’d one day be a Grammy Award-winning singer who’s played the Grande Ole Opry and been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
“Someone of this pigmentation?” said Pride. The singer remains one of the few African Americans to have achieved monumental success in the Caucasian-dominated country music industry.
Back in his youth, even his older sister would laugh while he crooned Hank Williams tunes around the house.
Pride, who had taught himself to play guitar at age 14, recalled his sister telling him, “‘Why are you singing their music? You aren’t going to get nothing doing that. . . .’
“Well, I’ve bought her two SUVs, so who’s laughing now?”
The long-married father of three never thought of becoming a professional singer until his baseball hopes dried up. He was pitching in 1952 for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League, and was later signed to a farm team of the New York Yankees. But his promising sports career was derailed by an arm injury, and later by his two-year stint in the military.
After working briefly in construction, Pride was encouraged by country singers Red Foley and Red Sovine to try recording some songs with Sun Records.
When his smooth baritone voice was heard by record producer Chet Atkins, he immediately signed Pride to RCA Records in 1965. Pride’s third single, Just Between You and Me, reached No. 9 on the U.S. country charts and won the singer a Grammy.
A lot of people were shocked, he recalled, to find out that he was black because “I sounded just like them.”
He maintains he didn’t put any special effort into singing like a white guy — he just delivered country songs the way he’d heard them on his father’s battery-operated radio.
Pride’s dad didn’t allow any station switching, he recalled, “because he didn’t want us to run the battery down.” So Pride grew up listening to singers such as Bill Munroe and his Bluegrass Boys and began emulating their style.
Between 1969 and 1971, Pride had eight No. 1 singles, including All I Have to Offer You is Me, Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone, (I’m so) Afraid of Losing You Again, and the blockbuster crossover hit Kiss an Angel Good Morning, which became Pride’s signature song.
Over the course of his career, Pride has scored more than 36 No. 1 country singles and remains one of the best-selling country artists of all time, with more than 70 million albums sold. In RCA records, he’s second in sales only to Elvis Presley.
“I was fortunate to have achieved success without getting any of the hoot calls Jackie Robinson got,” said Pride, who explains that bigots would holler and release black cats onto the field whenever Robinson would get up to bat.
While discrimination existed for the Texas-based singer, it was a more discrete form, revealed when certain promoters hesitated to book him for gigs. “That subtlety is still there. It’s still ingrained in our culture,” said Pride, who makes no secret of whom he’s going to support in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
He believes America’s first black president, Barack Obama, is getting a rough ride from Republicans in part because of his colour.
“I hope he gets back in. I think he will . . . I plan to vote for him. I’ve never strictly voted Republican or Democrat in the past and I’ve never told people who I’m going to vote for, but I’m doing it now.”
After a half-century of touring, Pride clearly still gets a kick out of performing. “I’m in the business of selling lyrics, feelings and emotions, and I think I can say, without bragging, that I do a good job. There’s a lot of appreciation from fans.
“I’ve been coming up to Canada since 1968 . . . and someday I’d like to go straight through, playing in all 10 provinces in one shot,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pride is eagerly awaiting the filming of his life story.
A Hollywood bio-pic was meant to go ahead in 2008 with acclaimed actor Terrance Howard in the title role, but was put off by the writers’ strike. Now wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson (“The Rock”) has signed on to play Pride, and the country singer hopes filming will start soon.
“I don’t want to have my arms crossed and be looking up through the grass,” he joked.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com