Born to poor sharecroppers, one of eleven children in Sledge, Mississippi, Pride is a timeless everyman, revered by his musical peers and adored by countless millions of fans around the globe. Charley Pride unofficially started his music career in the late 1950s as a ballplayer with the Negro American League’s Memphis Red Sox singing and playing guitar on the team bus between ballparks. Self-taught on a guitar bought at the age 14 from Sears Roebuck, Pride would join various bands' onstage as he and the team roved the country. After a tryout with the New York Mets, Pride decided to return to his Montana home via Nashville. It was there he met Jack Johnson, who upon hearing the singer perform, sent him on his way with the promise of a management contract and a newly forged relationship that would last for over a decade.
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Once I lived a life of wine and roses and I drank a lot back then for one concern
Success for me lay just around the corner
I thought my social friends would help me make me turn
But now I'm paying for the days of wine and roses a victim of the drunken life I chose
Now all my social friends look down their noses
Cause I kept the wine and threw away the rose
[ steel ]
I stood by and watched the bottle take control of me
The turn I made was not the one I'd planned
And I watched my social standings slip away from me
While I watched the bottle slowly take command
But now I'm paying for...