There are worse things than being thought a Republican.

I loved Mississippi and do to this day. The rainbows that stretch from horizon to horizon after a summer rain are the most spectacular I have ever seen.

There were no guarantees that country music, whose roots were in the South, were ready for Charley Pride.

Besides good schools, a good airport, and the Cowboys, Dallas had golf courses, and golf was fast becoming an obsession with me.

I always wanted to grow up fast. I longed for more than the Mississippi Delta could give.

After 14 months of military service, I had a wife, a child, half an apartment, no car, and no job.

I was sometimes jeered by black soldiers who wanted me to sing something besides country music.