Charlie Pride

Charley Pride
Pride performing at the Capital Centre on the 1981 Inauguration Day
Background information
Birth name	Charley Frank Pride
Born	(1934-03-18) March 18, 1934 (age 83) Sledge, Mississippi, U.S.
Genres	Country, gospel
Occupation(s)	Singer, musician, recording artist, performer, business owner
Instruments	Voice, guitar
Years active	1966‒present
Labels	RCA Records 16th Avenue Music City
Website	charleypride.com

Charley Frank Pride (born March 18, 1934) is an American country music singer, musician/guitarist, recording artist, performer, and business owner. His greatest musical success came in the early to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. During the peak years of his recording career (1966–87), he garnered 52 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, 29 of which made it to number one. He has appeared with country music star Brad Paisley and was featured in the 2016 CMA Awards.

Pride is one of the few African Americans to have had considerable success in the country music industry and one of only three (along with DeFord Bailey and Darius Rucker) to have been inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

In 2010, Pride became a special investor and minority owner of the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball club.

Pride was born in Sledge, Mississippi, one of 11 children of poor sharecroppers. His father intended to name him Charl Frank Pride, but owing to a clerical error on his birth certificate, his legal name is Charley Frank Pride. Eight boys and three girls were in the family. He married Rozene Cohan in 1956.

When Pride was 14, his mother purchased him his first guitar and he taught himself to play. Though he loved music, one of Pride's lifelong dreams was to become a professional baseball player. In 1952, he pitched for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League. In 1953 he signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees. During that season, an injury caused him to lose the "mustard" on his fastball, and he was sent to the Yankees' Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Later that season, while in the Negro Leagues with the Louisville Clippers, another player (Jesse Mitchell) and he were traded to the Birmingham Black Barons for a team bus. "Jesse and I may have the distinction of being the only players in history to be traded for a used motor vehicle," Pride mused in his 1994 autobiography.