Another Remembrance, Met Him In Australia

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

It’s been a while since any celeb I met passed away, and how apropos of 2020 that the Country superstar Charley Pride died yesterday of complications related to Covid-19. The story is that he appeared at an awards ceremony in November and may have caught it there, but the Country Music Academy has sworn that he tested negative days before and after the ceremony took place. But being 86 years old certainly made him vulnerable, and I had no idea he was that old. It means that he was already in his 30’s when he had his first Country top 10, Just Between You And Me (a gorgeous song by the way) in 1967, and also broke a major barrier by becoming the first and still most successful African-American Country singer.

Thirty years after his breakthrough hit, my path crossed with his, when we were both in Sydney, Australia in February, 1997. We were guests on a daytime talk show called MidDay with Kerri Anne on Australia TV Channel 9. Interesting show, as the host Kerri Anne Kennerley was only the host of the show in its final three years (1996-98), though it had been running for 11 years prior, yet she won the Australian equivalent of Daytime Emmy Awards in all three of those years. She drank from a small glass of champagne while hosting, something I’ve never seen anywhere else before or since. She not only was kind, but the exposure I got from her show did help the turnout at the venue I was working.

So what were we doing in Australia? Pride was on a month-long tour of the country while I was working a six-week gig with two other American comics, Bruce Smirnoff and Lenny Schultz, at a dinner club in Double Bay, one of the wealthier districts of Sydney. I was staying at the Ritz Carlton, the same hotel where six months later, INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence killed himself. Hutchence’s younger brother was a regular at our shows, as his wife was a budding comedienne who did guest sets on a few of our shows. The shows were hosted by Austen Tayshus, an Australian whose novelty record Australiana was one of the all time top selling singles in Australian chart history, but who squandered a lot of the money he’d made. I wound up doing the MidDay show twice during my stay in Sydney, and met Charley Pride on the first go-round.

What a sweet man he was! But that’s been pretty much the story of every country singer I’ve ever met except Barbara Mandrell, who I opened for in Phoenix and who rejected my efforts to say hi. I was a bit surprised that, as the biggest name guest on the show, he chose to stick around awhile after singing Kiss An Angel Good Morning and Is Anybody Going To San Antone, his two biggest hits. Most in his position would do their bit and take off, but not Charley. He stayed and watched my segment and had nothing but kind words to say about my performance. I was able to tell him my two favourite songs of his were Wonder Could I Live There Anymore and I’m Just Me, both of which I’ve listened to in the last few hours and they’re still great.

When I appeared on the MidDay show the second time, it became the only time ever in all my TV spots that I had the chance to do my “human jukebox” act to a live studio audience. Just to be safe, there were a couple of audience plants, though they really weren’t necessary. But even before that was another lovely meeting with another singer I admired who was possibly even nicer than Charley Pride. That was B.J. Thomas, whom I talk about elsewhere, best known for Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. There was an extra bonus here in that some of his road crew were from San Francisco and recognised me from Rick & Ruby. Thomas didn’t know about my past as far as I could tell, but somehow felt compelled to hang out with me in MY dressing room while waiting for the show to begin. Most of the time, acts I worked with didn’t want to be bothered with performers less famous than themselves, and I can recall a few times as an opening act where the headliner came just shy of telling me to f off (and sadly that applies to a gig I did with Spinal Tap, who I’d like to think were just being “in character,” but it was hard to tell).

The Australian gig was mostly pleasant, and the owner of the venue wanted me back, but they never drew enough of an audience with local acts to warrant paying to fly acts from the US. They had one more run of American acts and managed to survive only about six months after I left. A shame, but at least I can say I entertained 7500 miles away from my home, and was for the most part well appreciated. Plus I got to meet a Country Music legend in Charley Pride. Hearing his songs today, I was reminded that while he may not have been a Soul singer, the man definitely had Soul!

December 13th, 2020



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