Throwback Thursday - Pride at the Opry

It's the first Throwback Thursday of 2021 and we head to 1967 for an historic music night.

54 years ago tonight, Charley Pride became the first African-American solo singer to perform at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville (the first African-American performer was regular cast member, harmonica performer DeFord Bailey).

Pride, the child of a sharecropping family in Mississippi, grew up listening to radio broadcasts from the Opry, wanting one day to perform there like one of his idols, Hank Williams (Pride performed a Williams song on that night in 1967).

“I was so nervous, I don’t know how I got through those two songs,” he said later. “It’s hard to remember that far back because it’s been a while, but I can remember how nervous I was, that I can tell you. It was something.”

In 1993, Pride became only the second member of the Opry, along with Bailey (there are three members now with the addition of Darius Rucker).

Throughout his career, Pride released dozens of albums and sold more than 25 million records.

Sadly, Charley Pride died last year due to complications from Covid-19. He was 86 years old.

Did you know...As a young man before launching his singing career, he was a pitcher and outfielder in the Negro American League with the Memphis Red Sox and in the Pioneer League in Montana.