(lively music) - Country music's living legend, ladies and gentlemen, the pride of America, Charley Pride.

("Kiss An Angel Good Morning") ♪ Whenever I chance to meet ♪ Some old friends on the street ♪ ♪ They wonder how does a man get to be this way ♪ ♪ I've always got a smiling face ♪ ♪ Anytime and anyplace ♪ And every time they ask me why I just smile and say ♪ ♪ You've got to kiss an angel good morning ♪ ♪ And let her know you think about her when you're gone ♪ ♪ Kiss an angel good morning ♪ And love her like the devil when you get back home ♪ ♪ Kiss an angel morning - [Host] If Charley Pride is smiling, it's because he has a lot to smile about.

This is the story of Charley Frank Pride, born in Sledge, Mississippi in 1937.

He rose to stardom in the '60s, and today he continues to draw sellout crowds around the world.

His finest hour came in 1971 when he won country music's most coveted award.

- The entertainer of the year... yeah, he's due, ladies and gentlemen, my buddy Mr. Charley Pride!

(audience cheering and applauding and upbeat music) - Thank you.

I'm shaking again.

I, I don't know what, I don't talk too well.

All I can say is that I was talking with Lynn Anderson's husband, Glenn Sutton, back there, and when Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys were standing out here singing, it kind of brought back memories when I used to pick that cotton back at home and listen to this place, in this Ryman Auditorium.

So I'm just happy that everybody that's responsible for me having this, I love 'em, and thank you, everyone.

(audience applauding) - [Host] That same night he also won best male vocalist.

- Charley Pride!

- [Host] And went on to win it again in '72.

Billboard has named him top male vocalist for both albums and singles.

He has won Grammy Awards and Cashbox tapped him as top male vocalist for the decade of the '70s.

Out of 37 albums, 12 have gone gold, one is platinum, and the list goes on.

A solid success story, but none of it could have been predicted, not even by those who recognized his talent.

The timing was odd in the racially turbulent '60s and the small town setting was unlikely too.

But fate, as they say, was not to be denied.

- Well, all I can say is I wanna thank everybody who was responsible, and especially to all of my fans out there, appreciate it, very happy.

- [Host] The letters G-I-D symbolize a philosophy Charley adopted early in life.

It's his motto, "Get it done."

- A lot of artists you work with, if you don't take 'em by the hand, have them there at 8:30, have their clothes ready for 'em, they'll fall apart, Charley's not that way.

Charley can handle it, he could make it without a road manager, he could get in a-- not long ago we were going to Illinois and they canceled the flights, Charley was by himself.

Charley rented a car, drove 300 miles.

A lot of people would have said, "Cancel the gig."

But you know, Charley can handle it.

As Charley would say, he can get it done.

(audience applauding and cheering) - [Host] A polished performer, Charley Pride in his mid-40s is at home on the stage, whether in London, England, Sydney, Australia, or Austin, Texas.

In many ways, his songs tell his story.

♪ When I was a little bitty baby ♪ ♪ My momma would rock me in the cradle ♪ ♪ In them old cotton fields back home ♪ ♪ When I was a little bitty baby ♪ ♪ My momma would rock me in the cradle ♪ ♪ In them old cotton fields back home ♪ - These are the cotton fields back home to Charley Pride.

He worked in these fields sun up to sundown in sweltering heat alongside his brothers and sisters as he was growing up.

The going rate for cotton in those days was $3 for a hundred pounds.

They were sharecroppers, and on Saturday night after the work was all done, the family would gather around the old Philco radio and listen to the Grand Ole Opry.

This land where he worked so hard belongs to Charley now, and memories abound here.

♪ Precious memories ♪ And how they linger ♪ How they ever flood my soul ♪ In the stillness ♪ Of the midnight ♪ Precious sacred scenes unfold ♪ - What comes to your mind when you come back home and walk in these fields?

- Well, especially right along here, reminds me of, you talk about home, my mother passed away right over there.

The old shotgun house used to be over there.

And this was the 40 acres before we purchased this land, it's 119 acres, and this is where we lived when I was growing up.

When I come here, I just think about some of the things she used to tell me.

- [Judy] If you think about it, do you get a little sentimental when you come here, a little sad?

- I cried a lot when she first passed away, but now I don't, I don't unless someone makes me talk about her a lot.

But I think I'm trying to get to the point to where, some people have said I have never given up.

That's probably some of my problem.

So I don't know.

- [Judy] Your father said he thinks you're a lot like him, do you think you are?

- Well, I am, I'm like, I think, both my mother and my father.

I'm stubborn, he's stubborn, you talk about it, he's stubborn plus.

My dad's like the old Europeans, when the elder speaks, it's law.

Nobody has any say-so.

- [Judy] Matt Pride, in his 70s, has mellowed.

He still cuts hair on weekends in the one chair barbershop he opened in Sledge in 1949 and lives just down the road in a house Charley built for him.

- [Judy] What about Charley when he was a little boy?

What kind of a kid was he?

- Mischievous, getting in devilment all the time.

Got more whooping than the rest of them.

- [Judy] You had to spank him?

- Yeah.

- When he wanted to be a singer, did you have any faith that that could happen for him?

- Sure.

- [Judy] Why?

- Because he wanted to do it.

- Charley Pride put Sledge on the map, and in turn Sledge put Charley Pride on the map with a street bearing his name.

A crowd gathered at the barber shop on this special day.

Word had spread that Charley was back in town, on his way to a concert in nearby Senatobia.

You grew up in a family with 11 children.

- Yeah, seven boys, well, eight boys and three girls.

- [Judy] Did you ever feel a little crowded in those days?

- No.

- [Judy] Were you crowded, in fact?

- Well, let me put it this way, we were crowded, but we didn't realize it (chuckling).

We slept three and four to a bed.

Sometimes I would wake up I'd find a few toes sticking up in my nose.

- [Judy] Can you miss hard times?

Is it possible to think, "Oh, the good old days," even though they were hard?

- Well, when was the good old days, Judy?

I hear people talking about, "Those were the good old days."

I mean, I think about, when people say things like that, I think about the covered wagon days when those people used to be going, when Horace Greeley said, "Go west, young man," you hear those people going, "Yeah, yeah" in a covered wagon.

Can you imagine how long and how they suffered?

Now we can jump on a plane and go pfoo, and you're there.

These are the good old days now.

In other words, it makes me feel good when I can tell people that I've been on both ends of the stick, you know?

I mean, I've milked cows, I've cut wood, I've almost froze my fingers going with Daddy to get out and get winter wood.

Of course, we got winter wood when it was 110 in the shade.

Everywhere I go around the world I tell people where I'm from: Sledge, Mississippi.

And I do that for a lot of reasons.

It's to show that it's not where you're from.

If you're blessed with a talent or something, you wanna be something, you wanna work at it, you can achieve.

When I used to be picking cotton, some of the guys that I picked cotton alongside, they'd go to Chicago and New York, Detroit, and they get up there and they say, "Where you from?"

They'll say Arkansas, Tennessee, They won't say Mississippi because Mississippi has been gouged and pushed.

Sure, we've had atrocities and bad, this sort of thing, but also other states have had that.

So I do it for a number of reasons.

You'll see tonight how I do it.

- [Judy] With the concert just hours away and in hundred degree heat, he still takes time to sign autographs.

- Nell?

- See you tonight, I'm coming.

- [Judy] After a long, exhausting day in a locker room turned dressing room, Charley Pride is calm, in control.

While the opening act is onstage, word comes that the crowd is smaller than the packed houses he plays to elsewhere.

If a prophet is without honor in his own home, perhaps the same is true for a singer.

A true professional, he takes his disappointment in stride and vows to please the 1,300 fans who did show up.

- Gotta get ready!

- [Judy] With that, the routine is put in motion.

The moves are mechanical and the adrenaline flows in a scene that repeats itself 200 times a year.

As the countdown begins on stage, everything is in a state of readiness.

With no fanfare, a cue is given.

All at once the music begins and the huge room is filled with the voice they all came to hear.

♪ I've got a whole lotta things to sing about ♪ ♪ I've got a whole lotta things to say ♪ ♪ Like I love you and I need you ♪ ♪ Every night and day - [Judy] Like an old friend you can't wait to see, unannounced, from out of the shadows, he appears.

Once again, it's showtime.

♪ And I want you here beside me ♪ ♪ Every step of the way ♪ I was low as anyone could ever be ♪ ♪ Until you came along and gave your love to me ♪ ♪ Now that empty world that you just walked into ♪ ♪ It's filled with sunshine and music ♪ ♪ And the song is you - [Judy] As the evening progresses, he keeps his promise and repeats the story for the home folks that he tells around the world.

- You see, when I was picking cotton back home, I was picking cotton alongside of them, they'd go to New York, Chicago, them big cities.

They'd get up there and they'd say, "Where you from?"

- They said, "Tennessee."

(audience laughing) Arkansas.

Alabama, never Mississippi, see.

Because to admit you're being from Mississippi, the going thing is that you're not only poor but dumb too.

(audience laughing) So I figure, I figure if B.B.

King and Bo Didley, Tammy Wynette, Conway Twitty, to name a few, and the great Elvis, I feel that if they were poor and dumb, I'm gonna keep on being poor and dumb too.

(audience cheering and applauding) This song I'm about to sing about, the last part of it has a line in there about a dust covered ice cream cone.

I had it all eaten up 'fore it got dust covered.

(audience laughing) And the reason I say I'm not a flag waver or nothing like that, but I'll tell you this, it's a beautiful country to be able to be blessed with a voice to grow up and where I used to pull the cotton sack, I've been blessed with a voice enough to make enough money to go back, and where I used to pull the sack, I now own it, don't I?

(audience cheering and applauding) ♪ In a Mississippi cotton-pickin' Delta town ♪ ♪ One dusty street to walk up and down ♪ ♪ Nothin' much to see but a starvin' hound ♪ ♪ In a Mississippi cotton-pickin' Delta town ♪ ♪ That town in the Delta where I was born ♪ ♪ All we raised was cotton, potatoes and corn ♪ ♪ Now I picked cotton till my fingers hurt ♪ ♪ Draggin' the sack through that Delta dirt ♪ Used to do it.

♪ Now I worked hard the whole week long ♪ ♪ Pickin' my fingers to the blood and bone ♪ ♪ There ain't a lot of money in a cotton bale ♪ ♪ At least when you try to sell ♪ ♪ In a Mississippi cotton-pickin' Delta town ♪ ♪ One dusty street to walk up and down ♪ ♪ Nothin' much to see but a starvin' hound ♪ ♪ In a Mississippi cotton-pickin' Delta town ♪ - [Judy] The road out of that Delta town would eventually take him to Nashville and fame, but not without some detours.

At 17 he left the farm for Memphis to play baseball with the Negro American League, then joined the army, got married, and after his stint, played with the Los Angeles Angels, but only for a brief period.

Disappointed, he moved his growing family to Montana and got a job in a smelter.

- I started singing professionally locally in Montana, but I've always sang since I was little and people would tell me, like when I used to sing on the bus when I was playing baseball, they said, "Man, you're sounding good, you're pretty good.

"You ever thought about?"

I said, "I wanna play baseball.

"I'm gonna break those records, "I'm going to the Major Leagues, break all the records "up there and set new ones, that's want I wanna do."

They said, "Well, you're out there getting $2 a day, "running a hundred a month, "you can make a lot of money singing."

I said, "Well, it's not just the money.

"I wanna play baseball," so it was that kind of thing.

So I balled out of, I punched it trying to make it in baseball as long as I could, and finally a different organization said "You done got too old."

So I'm just glad I had the voice, you know?

- [Judy] It was that voice that caught the attention of Red Foley and Red Sovine.

Acting on their advice, he finally headed for Nashville.

♪ Everybody starts groovin' ♪ To the sound of the guitar strums ♪ ♪ Everybody starts groovin' ♪ To the beat of the rhythm and drums ♪ ♪ So come along and let yourself really go ♪ - [Judy] Nashville, Tennessee, a place where dreams come true or come apart.

Hordes of would-be stars descend on it annually, spending every dime to get that one big break.

Most get lost in the shuffle.

♪ Just sip that wine and have a really good time ♪ ♪ And listen to a country song ♪ Yeah - The name Chet Atkins will go down in country music history as one of the all-time greats.

They entered his name in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973.

When Chet Atkins heard Charley Pride sing, he was on his way to the big leagues all right, not in baseball, but rather in country music.

- All the great artists such as Hank Snow, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, all those people, they have a terrific edge to their voice.

And he had that, and I knew he had the quality.

Also, he didn't have any training.

That's the worst thing you can give a country singer is voice training.

He didn't have any of that, so I knew he had a hell of a chance to make it big.

In the record business, so many people follow trends.

And when you follow trends, you never do accomplish a hell of a lot, you just sell records and you compete.

But the only way you ever really do great things is when you innovate, when you come out with something different, like the Floyd Cramer piano style, for instance, like Elvis Presley, that's where you really do interesting and nice things and change the course of country music.

And so I also have been in business that long, I knew that to really excel and do great things you gotta have something different.

And he was certainly different.

- [Judy] RCA recording artist Ronnie Milsap is a star in his own right today, and he gives a lot of the credit to Charley Pride.

- I started making records at RCA in the spring of 1973.

And by the end of that year I was part of "The Charley Pride Show."

Playing before thousands of people and getting tremendous exposure.

I love Charley Pride.

Make no mistake, I think that he's one of a kind.

There are people like Hank Williams or Elvis Presley or Charley Pride, they just come along very, very seldom.

He told me a thing right when I was getting ready to leave his show after I'd been on it for 15 months.

I said, "Charley, I wanna tell you how much "I really appreciate you helping me out.

"You've been so kind and done a lot of things to help me "and I really wanna thank you."

And he said, "Pass it on," which was a nice thought, because the fellowship and the love between artists and people in this business, that's what gives a lot of upcoming people a break.

And without somebody giving you a break, sometimes maybe there never would have been a Charley Pride or Hank Williams, somebody's gotta give you a break.

And he gave me mine.

- [Judy] Unlike many other artists, Charley Pride started out on a major record label.

This is Studio B at RCA, and this is the room where most of early recordings were done.

Today, the setup is much more sophisticated, but that pure Pride sound, the voice with edge, is still the same thanks to RCA's Jerry Bradley.

He and Charley co-produced the hits that keep the fans happy.

Once a session is over, it's a matter of finding the right take.

- That's it!

There's all different kinds of ways to make a record.

A lot of people come in and they put the tracks down, and five pieces, and then the singer comes in and makes a rough take.

And then the producer puts some strings on it and some sweetening on it and then the artist comes back and they sing it again.

Charley doesn't like to make his records that way.

To be perfectly honest, I don't like to make records that way.

I like to get 90%, 95% of it done while you're in the studio.

The music turns the singer on, the singer turns the musicians on.

That's the way I like to make the record, and Charley likes to make it that way too.

- [Judy] Star status puts him in demand for interviews, like this one with a Chicago news team on assignment in Nashville.

His career dictates spending a lot of time here since Nashville is the undisputed hub of country music.

He was on hand for yet another country music award show.

We're here backstage at the Opry.

Can you walk in this place and still catch some of the awe that you had the first time you came here?

- Not just right here, 'because see I was at the old Ryman, where it all began.

You're always gonna have butterflies.

I'll have butterflies tonight, and that's good.

It keeps you on your toes and everything.

But not as much as I was that first night, no.

One, two, three, four.

(lively country music) - [Judy] After hours of waiting for the other acts to finish, it's his turn to rehearse for a show that will be seen by millions of people.

♪ Well I stopped into every place in town ♪ ♪ This city life has really got me down ♪ ♪ I got the honky tonk blues ♪ Yeah, the honky tonk blues ♪ Yeah, Lord, I got 'em ♪ I got the honky tonk blues ♪ Gonna tuck my worries underneath my arm ♪ ♪ Get right back to my pappy's farm ♪ ♪ I got the honky tonk blues, oh yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah, the honky tonk blues ♪ Yeah, Lord, I got 'em ♪ I got the honky tonk blues ♪ Don't wanna be bothered ♪ With the honky tonk blues Rehearsal is done, the waiting is over.

The Opry House comes alive as the audience arrives, dressed in its glittery best.

Celebrity guests converge on the artist entrance, bedecked in jewels and furs and black limousines.

A down-home version of Hollywood on opening night.

The clock strikes eight and the network has itself a show.

- [Man] This year's at hand and we've got lots of country music and great entertainers here with us in the Grand Ole Opry tonight.

Like our first guest, former entertainer of the year, the one and only Charley Pride.

(audience applauding) ("Honky Tonk Blues") ♪ Well I left home down on the rural route ♪ ♪ Told my pop I'm goin' steppin' out ♪ ♪ To get the honky tonk blues ♪ Yeah, the honky tonk blues ♪ Yeah, Lord, I got 'em ♪ I got the honky tonk blues ♪ Well, I went to a dance and wore out my shoes ♪ ♪ I woke up this morning wishin' I could lose ♪ ♪ The jumpin' honky tonk blues ♪ The weary honky tonk blues ♪ Yeah, Lord, I got 'em ♪ I got the honky tonk blues They gonna pick again.

- [Judy] Charley Pride the star is not so different from Charley Pride the man, the husband, the father.

He lives in Dallas, its tall buildings and super highways in sharp contrast to the simple life he knew in Sledge.

His comfortable home, with seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, sits on a large suburban lot, a testament to his successes on stage and off.

He invests in oil, owns a radio station, a bank, a Dallas talent agency, a Nashville publishing company, and hundreds of acres of land.

"People" magazine reported that he makes $4 million a year.

Charley says that figure is high now, but in three to five years it could happen.

He stays in shape by playing tennis in his backyard and by eating only one meal a day.

His wife Rozene is very family oriented and she and her sister have a publishing business in Dallas.

- I believe you're trying to beat me.

- [Judy] Their son Dion has started a singing career in pop music, and also had a part in a movie.

- It's in, it's in, ha ha!

- [Judy] Their older son Craig is out of college and plans to stay behind the cameras.

He wants to enter the broadcast production field.

Angela is still in school and has the usual teenage interest in rock idols and rollerskating.

People tell me that the divorce rate is pretty high among people who are in show business.

How do you explain the fact that yours has lasted so long and obviously so well?

- Well, I think first of all she has put up with me being the way I am-- - [Judy] And how is that?

- Well, I'm good and I'm bad too.

I have my good side and I have my bad side.

- I'm a strong believer in family.

I think divorces are now too easy to come by.

People divorce, there is no, it's like changing dresses or changing your doctor, that's the way they change partners now.

And I guess I'm just one of those, when it comes to family, I want my kids to have one dad, and I don't feel that I need two or three husbands.

- Here you are surrounded by fame, fortune, and a family that cares about you.

I'd like to know what else there is out there that would challenge you when you seem to have it all already.

- I think that my career has been really good.

I've been very blessed with the success of my career.

And right now, my business ventures and all that I'm into are doing real good and we're trying to make them prosper.

I'm just trying to do the best I can with the ability that I've been given beyond just a singer or whatever.

I wanna go as far as I can go, as far as my talents will take me.

- He gets it done, I mean, if he comes in town to record, he puts his mind to recording and he stays here till it's done, and then if he goes to do TV, he sticks with it till that's done.

And personal appearances, same thing.

- He is a major artist I think for the reasons I mentioned.

Great voice quality, he's got it, and his intelligence toward looking for good material, that's where it all is too, you know.

You can't get by with just a good voice, you need a good song very often.

And he is lucky enough to get those, so I expect him to have a long and successful career in country music.

- You can do most anything you wanna do if you would just get to it.

- So I'm just poking along trying to get it done.

♪ 'Cause I was just born to be ♪ Exactly what you see ♪ Nothing more or less ♪ Not the worst or the best ♪ I just try to be ♪ Exactly what you see ♪ Today and every day ♪ I'm just me ♪ Today and every day ♪ I'm just me (audience cheering and applauding) ♪ When I was a little bitty baby ♪ ♪ My mommawould rock me in the cradle ♪ ♪ In them old cotton fields back home ♪ ♪ When I was a little bitty baby ♪ ♪ My momma would rock me