Charley Pride

Charley Pride was born one of 11 children in Sledge, Mississippi. Although he enjoyed music as child and learned to pick out songs on guitar by ear, Charley had a desire to be a professional baseball player. Charley played for the Memphis Red Sox in the Negro American League and was shopped around to several farm teams for the major leagues. Eventually, it was discovered that he could sing and would sing the National Anthem before games while living in Montana. As his music career grew, a demo recording found its way to Chet Atkins at RCA in Nashville and Charley was on his way to country music fame.