Charley Pride
Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 1 February 1973
CHARLEY PRIDE has come a long way from Sledge, Mississippi, where he and ten brothers and sisters picked cotton alongside their parents. In 1971 the Country Music Association named him Entertainer of the Year as well as Male Vocalist of the Year and he won the latter award again in 1972. He has albums out on RCA Records, seven of which are "Gold Albums" indicating sales of more than a million dollars. This past year he made 16 national TV appearances and grossed several million dollars. In 1970 Billboard magazine gave him its "Trendsetter Award" for his, "...unique talents as a singer, together with his innate feel of country music [which] pioneered in removing the color line from country music." Charley Pride is a black man who has climbed to the top of the country music world.
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