Yahoo Finance Charley Pride to Be Celebrated as Lifetime Achievement Honoree at CMA Awards
Next month’s Country Music Association Awards will honor Charley Pride with its lifetime achievement award, the CMA announced Thursday morning.
The award was dubbed the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award after Nelson was the first recipient of lifetime honors from the CMA in 2012. Subsequently it has been given to Kenny Rogers in 2013, Johnny Cash (posthumously) in 2015, Dolly Parton in 2016 and Kris Kristofferson last year.
Pride, country music’s first Black superstar, will receive the award during the telecast Nov. 11. It airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and will be broadcast live from Nashville’s convention center, Music City Center, in lieu of the traditional full-audience telecast from the Bridgestone Arena.
Pride is both a former host of the CMAs and the winner of its top honor. He hosted the show alongside Glen Campbell in 1975. His entertainer of the year wins came in 1971-72, when he was also named male vocalist of the year.
Pride has already received most of the top honors country music reserves for legends. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000. The Recording Academy gave him its lifetime achievement award in 2017.
“Charley Pride is the epitome of a trailblazer,” said Sarah Trahern, CEO of the CMA, in a statement. “Few other artists have grown country music’s rich heritage and led to the advancement of country music around the world like Charley. … We could not be more excited to honor Charley with one of CMA’s highest accolades.”
In other developments on the Pride front, Dennis Quaid has announced that he is developing Pride’s story into a feature film. The singer was the subject of a PBS “American Masters” special, “Charley Pride: I’m Just Me,” in 2019.
Between the mid-’60s and late ’80s, Pride reached the top of the country chart 29 times. His best known songs include “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” and “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)” (1969).
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