Charley Pride, Country Music's First Major Black Star, Dies At 86

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Country music legend Charley Pride died on Saturday at age 86 from complications due to COVID-19. Pride, who gave his final performance last month at the CMA Awards in Nashville, was the first Black performer inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

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Charley Pride, who sold millions of records and was the first Black performer to become a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, among many other honors, has died at age 86. A statement posted on the singer's website said Pride passed away in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday from complications due to COVID-19.

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A sharecropper's son from Mississippi, Pride became one of the first Black men to become a major star in genre where most of the biggest hitmakers are white. Rising to prominence in the 1960s and '70s, Pride recorded dozens of songs that topped the country music charts, including "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" and "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone."

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Pride had at least 30 no. 1 hits on the country music charts, and won nearly every major award in available to a country musician. In all, Pride won three Grammys, including "Best Male Country Vocal Performance" in 1972 as well as several awards from the Country Music Association, who named him their Entertainer of the Year in 1971. His final performance was on November 11 at the CMA Awards, where he performed "Kiss and Angel Good Mornin'" with Jimmie Allen.