It was unlikely that anyone had ever heard a black person sing country music.

What qualifies me to tell people how to act or what to think? I'm Charley Pride, country singer. Period.

I learned to tune a guitar by ear. That method has served me pretty well.

Until MTV, television had not been a huge influence on music. To compete with MTV, the country music moguls felt they had to appeal to the same young audience and do it the way MTV did.

As far back as I can remember, the radio held a special fascination for me.

I'm not James Brown. I'm not Sam Cooke. I'm Charley Pride. I'm just me and that's what you got.

If Detroit was a watershed concert for me, traveling with Willie Nelson through Texas and Louisiana was a milestone of a different sort.