I didn’t have to live in my car or sleep out in somebody’s yard, although I would have. “I finally had something that everybody told me I needed to have if I was going to move to Nashville,” he says. In Music City, he got a steady gig playing piano and singing at the King of the Road hotel, a popular hangout for both tourists and musical types. He backed Presley on his 1970 hit, “Kentucky Rain,” and remembers the King shouting out to him during that session, “Hey, Milsap, some more thunder on the piano.” He eventually became proficient in several styles, including classical.īefore his move to Nashville, Milsap had worked in Memphis, playing everything from private parties to recording sessions with Elvis Presley. He got me a record deal with RCA and was very helpful in the early years of my development as an artist.”īorn blind, Milsap studied music in a state school for the blind from the time he was 7.
Johnson, who had managed the great Charley Pride.
I was very fortunate to have a manager like Jack D. “It’s what I came to Nashville to do in 1973. After that, it was a matter of finding the right songs and securing a record label for the project.Ĭountry Again is on the Bigger Picture label, which also includes the Zac Brown Band on its roster.Ĭiting his “Appalachian roots” - he was born and educated in North Carolina - Milsap says he’s always been “emotionally tied” to country music. When Stubbs agreed to serve as his executive producer, Milsap consented. “He said, ’We need you to do that,'” Milsap recalls. Speaking to CMT.com from his office in Nashville, Milsap credits Eddie Stubbs, the WSM-AM disc jockey and resident music historian, with inspiring him to record a distinctively country album. So forget “country again” and think “Milsap again.” That’s the real triumph of this album. More to the point, however, is the fact he has developed such a powerful, warm and emotionally-embracing vocal style that it seems petty to reduce him to a particular musical category. Milsap has always been country in his sensibilities - in his love for narratives and scenes of wounded hearts - even when his medium was pop, rock ’n’ roll or R&B. No adjustment of expectations is called for. Longtime fans of Ronnie Milsap needn’t worry about what’s implied by the title of his new album, Country Again.
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