Vocalist Charley Pride, the first modern Black superstar of country music, has died. He was 86.
Dolly Parton tweeted, “I’m so heartbroken that one of my dearest and oldest friends, Charley Pride, has passed away. It’s even worse to know that he passed away from Covid-19. What a horrible, horrible virus. Charley, we will always love you.”
All the performers on the CMA Awards telecast were said to have undergone repeated COVID-19 tests before appearing, and several dropped out as a result of testing positive. CMA representatives said at the time that none of the performers who tested positive had entered the footprint of the production area for the telecast. Morris tweeted, “I don’t want to jump to conclusions because no family statement has been made, but if this was a result of the CMAs being indoors, we should all be outraged. Rest in power, Charley.”
Country music historian Bill C. Malone wrote, “He was the right singer at the right time in history. Pride profited from the heightened mood of racial tolerance promoted in the United States by the civil rights movement and from the desires of the country music industry to improve its image and broaden its audience.”
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