Darius Rucker Mourns Charley Pride: My Heart Is So Heavy theboot.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theboot.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Charley Pride, Pioneering Country Music Star, Dies at 86 of COVID-19
Pride received a lifetime achievement award at the CMA Awards last monthReid Nakamura | December 12, 2020 @ 1:04 PM Last Updated: December 12, 2020 @ 6:33 PM
Getty
Charley Pride, one of the first Black performers to break through in the country music scene, has died at the age of 86.
According to his representatives, Pride died of complications from COVID-19 on Saturday, just weeks after his final performance at the CMA Awards show back in November.
Known for hits like “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” and “Mountain of Love,” Pride went on to become the genre’s first Black superstar and the first Black inductee to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.
Country Music Legend Charley Pride Dies Of COVID-19 Complications In Dallas msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Charley Pride turned 70 on March 18. You should know this. Everyone should know this. When Johnny Cash hit that milestone in 2002, his record labels past and present staged a yearlong celebration. Virtually every album Cash had recorded up until that point was reissued, with previously unreleased songs included on the discs and glowing essays tucked into the CD booklets. Willie Nelson got the same treatment as he approached his 70th the next year. It was the proper way to celebrate the lives and legacies of two country music icons.
Charley Pride should have been treated to a similar celebration. He’s a country music icon, too. But RCA Records, his home for two decades, let March 18 pass without comment. No bonus tracks were unearthed. No appreciative treatises about his long and illustrious career were written. Nothing.