![american masters charley pride american masters charley pride](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71ToHY3vxPL._SL1500_.jpg)
Johnson then drove the singer to Nashville’s bus station so that he wouldn’t knock on any other publishing company’s doors that day.
![american masters charley pride american masters charley pride](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmE1MmM1NGQtM2M2Yy00ZjhhLWFkY2UtY2VhNzgyZWQ0NTBkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM2Mzc2NzQ@._V1_QL75_UY281_CR178,0,190,281_.jpg)
While there, he would meet his future manager Jack Johnson and record a demo. In 1962, local Montana DJ Tiny Stokes arranged for Pride to audition for country stars Red Foley and Red Sovine, but another country legend would play a major role in developing his early career.Īfter an unsuccessful tryout for the New York Mets, Pride took a bus back to Montana, stopping in Nashville at the then-powerhouse Cedarwood music publishing company, run by superstar artist Webb Pierce. He would soon go on to play at a nightspot in nearby Anaconda for twice that amount. At the Main Tavern, Pride earned about 20 dollars a day. Pride worked in a Montana smelting plant that also had a baseball team, the East Helena Smelterites, but he continued to sing in local clubs when he had the chance.īetween innings at a baseball game, his landlady heard him singing and helped him secure a gig at a club in Helena. They recently celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary. Pride went home for Christmas and the couple married on December 28th, 1956, his father’s birthday. “He thought I was gonna go out with somebody else,” Rozene says of their courtship, which was interrupted by his service in the army. When Pride first met his future wife, Rozene Cochran, he bought a record for her, “It Only Hurts for a Little While,” by the Ames Brothers. When Pride was drafted into the army in 1956, he served 14 months in Colorado, where he played on the baseball team and sang in the barracks. While playing for Memphis in 1956, Pride won 14 games, made the All-Star team and pitched against future baseball legends Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks. He also played for the Louisville Clippers, the Birmingham Black Barons and Missoula Montana’s Timberjacks, as well as several other teams. Pride debuted instead in the Iowa State League in 1952 and would go on to play for Memphis as a pitcher-outfielder.
![american masters charley pride american masters charley pride](https://imagesvc.meredithcorp.io/v3/mm/image?q=85&c=sc&poi=face&w=2000&h=1000&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.onecms.io%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F6%2F2019%2F02%2Fcharley-pride-2-2000.jpg)
I’ve been wanting to do that for so many years!”Īs a baseball player, he tried out for the Memphis Red Sox in the Negro American League, but didn’t make it the first time. Planting a prolonged kiss on Nelson, Pride tells his longtime friend and supporter, “I got you back. While the unexpected show of affection shocked the crowd, it also demonstrated Nelson’s colorblind endorsement of the singer, causing fans to rethink their assessment of Pride, who recreates the moment on Nelson’s bus during the documentary. Willie Nelson once kissed Pride on the lips onstage at the Big D Jamboree in Dallas. "We are honored to share the inspiring, and largely untold, story of this barrier-breaking performer with viewers nationwide.Here are 10 things we learned from American Masters’ Charley Pride: I’m Just Me. "At a time when African-American singers were more notable for R&B hits, Charley Pride followed his passion for country music, overcoming obstacles through determination and raw talent to make a lasting impact on the genre and create a legacy that continues today," said Michael Kantor, executive producer of American Masters. Narrated by Grammy-nominated country singer Tanya Tucker, the film features original interviews with country music royalty, including Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker and Marty Stuart, as well as on-camera conversations between Pride and special guests, including Rozene Pride (his wife of 61 years), Willie Nelson and fellow musicians.
AMERICAN MASTERS CHARLEY PRIDE SERIES
But with boldness, perseverance and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with music industry insiders into a legacy of hit singles, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The singer arrived in Nashville in 1963 while the city roiled with sit-ins and racial violence. In the 1940s, radio transcended racial barriers, making it possible for Pride to grow up listening to and imitating Grand Ole Opry stars like Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. The new documentary reveals how Pride's love for music led him from the Delta to a larger, grander world. American Masters - Charley Pride: I'm Just Me traces the improbable journey of Charley Pride, from his humble beginnings as a sharecropper's son on a cotton farm in segregated Sledge, Mississippi to his career as a Negro American League baseball player and his meteoric rise as a trailblazing country music superstar.