Pride was impressed with Milsap's singing and encouraged him to change course and focus on country music. In December 1972, Milsap relocated to Nashville after a chance meeting with country music star Charley Pride who was in the audience for a Milsap gig at the nightclub Whiskey A-Go-Go on Sunset Blvd. He recorded and released his debut album, Ronnie Milsap, on Warner Brothers in 1971. That same year, Milsap made the lower reaches of the pop charts with the single "Loving You Is a Natural Thing".
During this time, Moman helped Milsap land work as a session musician on numerous projects including several recordings with Elvis Presley such as " Don't Cry Daddy" in 1969 and " Kentucky Rain" in 1970. In the late 1960s, after moving to Memphis, Tennessee, Milsap worked for producer Chips Moman and became a popular weekly attraction at the Memphis nightclub T.J.'s. Milsap cut another Ashford & Simpson tune, " Let's Go Get Stoned", that was relegated to a B-side. It would be his only successful single during his time with Scepter. 19 on the R&B chart in November of that year. In 1965, Milsap signed with New York-based Scepter Records, recording several obscure singles for the label over the next few years, and working briefly with other soul musicians like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.Īlso in 1965, Milsap scored his first hit with the Ashford & Simpson-penned single, "Never Had It So Good", which peaked at No. Around this same time, Milsap auditioned for a job as a keyboardist for musician J. The single sold 15,000 copies with the help of Hughes, who played the record on his radio show.
Milsap recorded his first single, "Total Disaster/It Went to Your Head", which enjoyed some local success in the Atlanta area. In 1963, Milsap met Atlanta disc jockey Pat Hughes who became an early supporter of his music career. He met Joyce Reeves one night at a dinner party during this period, and the two were married in 1965. In the fall of 1964, Milsap declined a scholarship to law school and left college to pursue a full-time career in music. During this time, Milsap joined a popular local R&B band called the Dimensions that played gigs in the Atlanta area, and became a regular attraction at the rough and rowdy Royal Peacock Club.
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Milsap was awarded a full college scholarship and briefly attended Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia, with plans to become a lawyer. In concert, Milsap has often paid tribute to the musicians of the 1950s who inspired him including Ray Charles, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Presley. With the national breakthrough of Elvis Presley in 1956, Milsap became interested in rock and roll music and formed a rock band called the Apparitions with fellow high-school students. When he was 14, a slap from one of the school's houseparents caused him to lose what very limited vision he had in his left eye. Soon afterward he began studying classical music formally at Governor Morehead and learned several instruments, eventually mastering the piano.
When he was 7, his instructors noticed his musical talents. ĭuring his childhood, Milsap developed a passion for music, particularly the late-night radio broadcasts of country music, gospel music, and rhythm and blues. Abandoned by his mother as an infant, he was raised in poverty by his grandparents in the Smoky Mountains until he was sent to the Governor Morehead School for the blind in Raleigh, North Carolina, at age 5. A congenital disorder left him almost completely blind from birth. Milsap was born January 16, 1943, in Robbinsville, North Carolina, United States.
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