Monday, June 28, 2004 11:45 AM CDT
Ronnie Milsap, RW&B Days headliner, followed Ray Charles' advice to become star
By JANICE HUNT, Staff Writer
The world lost a musical legend with the recent death of Ray Charles. Ronnie Milsap lost a friend.
"For years, I've been in touch with him," Milsap said. "He was a mentor and a teacher and a friend. Someone I could call."
The men, both blind, shared many interests, but most of all, they shared a love of music.
They first met in 1963 in an encounter that forever changed the course of country music history.
Milsap was a college student when he worked his way backstage after one of Charles' concerts. The two talked in Charles' dressing room.
"I told him I was about to go to law school," Milsap said. "I told him I loved music, loved his music.
"He said, ‘Play something,'" Milsap recalled. The young man sat down at the piano and impressed the veteran musician.
"You've got a lot of music in your heart," Charles told Milsap. "You need to follow your heart."
Milsap did just that, leaving academics behind for a career that has been one of the most successful in country music history.
Two years later, in 1965, the two men met up again after Milsap made his first national recording. The A side enjoyed success, and Milsap was planning to release the B side as well, but Charles changed those plans.
"I got your record, and I love the B side," Charles told Milsap, adding that he wanted to record it.
Charles' rendition of the song, "Let's Go Get Stoned," went on to sell a million copies.
One of Milsap's fondest memories of Charles involved playing together at Ford Theater in Washington, D.C., with President Ronald Reagan in attendance.
Milsap and Charles were both playing grand pianos, with their backs to each other, when Milsap heard a shuffling of feet in the audience, indicating a standing ovation.
"I said, ‘Ray, we gotta stand up and take a bow,'" Milsap recalled.
"Huh-uh, huh-uh, huh-uh!" Charles responded.
So Milsap got up, put his arm around him, and together, they took a bow.
On June 10, Charles took his final bow, succumbing to acute liver disease at the age of 73.
"He blazed a lot of trails, not only for me," Milsap said. "It shows even if you can't see, you can get your music out that's in your heart.
"It's a tremendous loss."
At the time of this telephone interview, Charles' memorial was just two days away, and Milsap was going to be unable to attend, as he had a show scheduled in North Carolina.
"Brother Ray would be the first to say, ‘Ronald, you go play your show,'" Milsap said.
Charles isn't the only music legend who helped Milsap get going in the industry.
Before moving to Nashville, Milsap lived in Memphis, where he got the opportunity to play piano and sing backup vocals on Elvis Presley songs, including "Don't Cry Daddy" and "Kentucky Rain."
Presley knew how he wanted things to sound in the studio and knew how to get it, Milsap said.
"Can I get a little bit of thunder on the piano over there?" Presley once asked Milsap in the studio.
"I wasn't as close to him as the Memphis Mafia, but I got to be around him for several years," Milsap said of Presley.
In 1977, not long before his death, Presley sent Milsap a note to compliment him on his newest album, "Almost Like a Song," and he was supportive of Milsap's move to Nashville, Milsap said.
Milsap is grateful to have worked with such legendary artists as Charles and Presley.
"I'm just happy to be part of something I love so much," Milsap said. "It's my vocation, it's my avocation. It's part of my life.
"To be able to do this (for a living), to be able to maintain a certain lifestyle, I couldn't even dream something this big," Milsap said, recalling his days of childhood poverty.
Taking another cue from Charles, Milsap has no plans to put away his keyboard anytime soon.
"Ray definitely blazed a trail in telling us all it's better to keep on moving," Milsap said. "He loved his music so much. He didn't retire."
Milsap hopes to follow his mentor's last great example.
Contact Janice Hunt at jhunt@jg-tc.com or 238-6866.
Milsap takes the stage this Sunday at Red, White and Blue Days
CHARLESTON -- Ronnie Milsap knows the crowd will be a bit more red-white-and-blue-minded than usual when he sits down at his keyboard in Morton Park at 2:30 p.m. July 4.
"You bet it's going to be patriotic," Milsap said of his song lineup.
However, he won't ignore the songs that his longtime fans want to hear, he said. And there are many of those -- 40 No. 1 singles, to be exact.
A sampling of the country music veteran's hits:
- "I'd Be a Legend in My Time" (1974)
- "Daydreams About Night Things" ('75)
- "I'm a Stand By My Woman Man" ('76)
- "What a Difference You've Made in My Life" ('77)
- "Let's Take the Long Way Around the World" ('78)
- "Smokey Mountain Rain" ('80);
- "There's No Gettin' Over Me" ('81)
- "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World" ('81)
- "Any Day Now" and "he Got You" ('82)
- "Stranger in My House" (‘'83)
- "Prisoner of the Highway" ('84)
- "She Keeps the Home Fires Burning" ('85)
- "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby" ('86)
- "Houston Solution" ('89)
He's also won a list of Grammy, Country Music Association, Billboard and Association of Country Music awards, including 1977 CMA Entertainer of the Year.
The veteran entertainer is prepared for and accustomed to playing outside in the early-July heat. "You just can't wear those real nice Armani suits for those," Milsap said with a laugh. "You save those for the symphony shows."
-- Janice Hunt
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