American Masters – Charley Pride: I’m Just Me is streaming for free through Dec. 26 via PBS and the PBS Video app.
The film, which is narrated by Tanya Tucker, originally aired on PBS in 2019. It chronicles Charley’s improbable journey to country stardom, from his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in Mississippi and his career as a Negro League baseball player. The film includes interviews with Charley, Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Darius Rucker, Brad Paisley, Marty Stuart, Whoopi Goldberg and more.
Charley, 86, died on Dec. 12, 2020, in Dallas, Texas, due to complications from Covid-19. A three-time Grammy winner, Charley is considered country music’s first African-American superstar. He signed to RCA Victor in 1967 and earned a string of No. 1 hits, including “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me),” “(I’m So) Afraid of Losing You Again,” “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” “Amazing Love” and many more. Charley won the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award in 1971 and Top Male Vocalist in 1971 and 1972. Charley became the Grand Ole Opry’s first African-American member in 1993. Charley was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 for outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording. Charley was presented with the 2020 Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award in Nashville at the 54th CMA Awards on Nov. 11.
Watch the film’s trailer below.
photo by TCD
