Can I get an Amen?
AMEN!
The Reverend Al Green is the winner of 11 Grammy Awards, including the venerable Lifetime Achievement Award.
He is both a BMI Icon Award recipient given to songwriters to honor their “unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers” as well as a Kennedy Center Honors recipient, given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture.
He is included in the Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, ranking at No. 65, as well as its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time, ranking at No. 10.
But he didn’t start out there…
The story of Al Green is a tale of transformation and redemption. From a troubled youth filled with drugs, violence, and chronic womanizing to a Grammy-winning gospel artist and ordained pastor, Green’s journey is nothing short of miraculous.
The son of a devoutly religious sharecropper, Al Green was kicked out of the house when he was a teenager after his father caught him listening to a Jackie Wilson record.
Following his expulsion from the family home, Green sought shelter with a friend who was making her living in the sex trade. It’s alleged Green himself began hustling as a means to get by, indulging in some serious recreational drug use for the first time. But even this couldn’t alter Green’s all consuming passion for music.
“I listened to Mahalia Jackson, all the great gospel singers. But the most important music to me was those hip-shakin’ boys: Wilson Pickett and Elvis Presley. When I was 13, I just loved Elvis Presley. Whatever he got, I went out and bought.” – The Reverend Al Green
By the end of the 60s, Green had little to show for all his efforts in pursuit of the music dream. It would not be until he began working with Memphis, Tennessee bandleader, record producer and arranger Willie Mitchell of Royal Studios and Hi Records that things really started to cook.
By the early 1970s, the unique sound that Green & Mitchell teamed up to create had put Green on the map of popular American music.
And yet all this success was not enough. Green continued to struggle with his demons, his insatiable appetite for partying, womanizing and drugs.
The cracks began to show as early as 1974 when a former girlfriend broke into his house while he was bathing and poured a pot of boiling hot food on him, giving Green second-degree burns on his stomach, arms, and back. After attacking Green she shot herself in front of him, committing suicide.
Two years later, Green bought a church.
The Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, located at 787 Hale Road in Memphis, is not far from Elvis Presley’s Graceland. And although Green was ultimately ordained the pastor of his church, it would be another three years before Green swore off popular music and his wicked ways.
In June 1977, he married Shirley Kyles, but divorced not long after with Green acknowledging under oath that he had been abusive during their relationship.
In 1979, amidst the cocaine fueled hedonism of the Studio 54 era, Green injured himself falling off a stage while performing in Ohio. Viewing the incident as a message from God, Green gave it all up. His change had come.
From 1980 onwards Green recorded and performed only gospel music, earning eight of his eleven Grammy Awards in the genre.
In spite of the 15 years Green spent dedicated to serving his higher power through gospel music, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. In the same year Green released his first pop album in close to 20 years, “Your Heart’s In Good Hands”.
In 2002 Green reunited with producer Willie Mitchell for “I Can’t Stop”, his first album for Blue Note Records, as well as it’s follow-up, “Everything’s OK”, in 2005.
In 2008, Green released his most recent album to date, “Lay It Down”. The Grammy nominated album, recorded by hip-hop producers Questlove and James Payser, received near universal acclaim.
Another ten years would come and go before Green would be heard from again, this time with a 2018 cover of Freddy Fender’s 1975 hit song “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” for the Amazon Music “Produced By” series.
Another half decade later Green would turn his gaze towards music again, this time in the summer of 2023 for Fat Possum Records. The result, Green’s interpretation of what is often considered the finest song Lou Reed ever wrote, “Perfect Day”, is a master class in how to make another writers song your own.
Reed’s piece de résistance, “Perfect Day” has long been appropriated by priests and ministers alike in their Sunday morning sermons. It’s only fitting The Reverend himself has now applied his own particular brand of gospel juju to this hymn of praise for the perfect moment.
Green currently lives in Memphis, where he serves as a pastor to his church and has six children.
To be continued…
Editor’s choice: Interested readers take note. The latest album dedicated to the artistry of Lou Reed, The Power Of The Heart: A Tribute To Lou Reed, was released on Record Store Day, April 20, 2024 and features many fine recordings featuring seasoned veterans of song Joan Jett, Rickie Lee Jones, Mary Gauthier, Lucinda Williams, Roseanne Cash, Keith Richards and others.
And finally,
Apparently not everyone is not a fan. Lou must have done something to piss her off. Oh well…