Charley Pride honored with statue on Ryman's Icon Walk

On April 12, 2023, "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'" vocalist Charley Pride joined Little Jimmie Dickens, Loretta Lynn and Bill Monroe as iconic country music performers to be honored with life-sized bronze statues outside the Ryman Auditorium -- country music's "Mother Church" located between 4th Avenue and Rep. John Lewis Way on Lower Broadway.

"Charley Pride broke barriers and defied stereotypes, becoming one of the most successful and beloved country music artists of all time," said Ryman Hospitality Properties Executive Chairman Colin Reed -- who attended alongside Pride's widow Rozene Cohran and son, Dion.

"The Ryman Icon Walk honors not only his contributions and the groundwork he laid for countless other artists in country music, but also to the Ryman, where he performed many times throughout his career. Charley's influence will always be felt throughout the entire Nashville community, and his addition to the Ryman Icon Walk is our way of paying tribute to his incredible talent and enduring legacy."

Pride -- a Sledge, Mississippi-born sharecropper's son who became country music's first Black superstar -- died at age 86 on Dec. 12, 2020, in Dallas, TX, due to complications from COVID-19.

His five-decade-long career was a trailblazing, unprecedented one that inspired multitudes of country music artists and fans -- many of whom attended on Wednesday afternoon.

When Pride debuted during an episode of the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium on Jan. 7, 1967, the eventual Opry cast member and Country Music Hall of Famer was said to be "very nervous" as he performed Hank Williams' 1951-released "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" and his debut single, "The Snakes Crawl at Night."

Ironically, given that he is now featured and bronzed at the Ryman, Pride's debut was deliberately released without publicity photos to dissuade potentially racist country radio promoters and fans from listening to the song.

"My husband would've been honored to be celebrated [in this manner]," stated Cohran to The Tennessean. [Charley Pride] loved country music and became a star in the genre rather easily."

She then highlighted how executives and artists like RCA Records-affiliated [artist, executive and producer] Chet Atkins, producer "Cowboy" Jack Clement and singer-songwriters like Mel Tillis (who wrote many of Pride's hit singles) "didn't greatly object" to his presence and work in Music City.

Moreover, she added, "People often called [my husband] the 'Jackie Robinson' of country music [a reference to how Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey advocated for Robinson to integrate Major League Baseball in 1947]. The only difference? Robinson was picked for the role. So instead of country music picking [Charley Pride], he picked country music."

Alongside the bronze figure of Capt. Thomas Ryman on the Ryman Auditorium plaza, Pride's figure joins Grand Ole Opry star Dickens (who died in 2014), bluegrass music's founding father Monroe (who passed in 1996) and legendary female country star Lynn (who died in 2022) in being memorialized.

After Dickens' passing, Reed had the idea for the Icon Walk in 2015. Thinking it "unimaginable that he would never see the diminutive country performer at the Ryman again, Reed wanted to honor him and his presence there.

Mississippi-based sculptor Ben Watts has crafted all four artist statues surrounding the Ryman.

About honoring Pride, Watts recalls a moment in 2019 when after he presented Pride with a bust he crafted of him for Cleveland, Mississippi's Grammy Museum Mississippi, he briefly performed while backed by a version of one of his songs playing from a YouTube page.

"He still had such an unmistakable voice, I have been and will always be a great fan of his work," Watts added.

The statue features Pride holding a Fender Coronado Antigua II guitar -- a rendering of the instrument that the performer famously lost after it was sent to the wrong address after a performance and fellow Opry member and Country Music Hall of Famer Marty Stuart relocated in 2019, then reunited with the African-American legend in January 2020.

In a Dec. 2020 Rolling Stone interview, Stuart stated the following about the guitar.

"He played a Fender Coronado guitar in his heyday when he was first starting. And that guitar was offered to me by a collector. I did all my research and found out that it was absolutely Charley's -- so I bought the guitar for a goofy amount of money that Charley couldn't believe. And [when] we hung out together at the Ryman Auditorium...I took the guitar down ther; hee played it again. He was scratching his head about how much I paid for it. I said, 'I know, but I would've given twice as much...' it was pretty cool."

Jokingly, about Pride, Cohran relates a story with a hilarious punchline about the now forever-honored performer switching from being a barnstorming baseball pitcher to an emerging country music star.

"When I said it to him, he, unfortunately, took it the wrong way, but early in his singer career, I told him 'You're going to have a much better shot at [being a star] in country music than you ever did in baseball!'"

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Charley Pride honored with statue on Ryman's Icon Walk