Culture MUSIC But, in the words of Pride’s Country *Naresh Jariwala*raucous applause that erupted as he Music Hall of Fame member biography, must have been the night it happened. “He would be a country legend even without the racial anomaly.” And he There are a lot of words for a talks about his race as though it were moment like this, from sweet to savvy some sort of outlying issue, rather to pure stagecraft. But the part of the than the central narrative thread that story that doesn’t get told nearly as onlookers so obviously expect (or much is that Pride and Johnson had want) it to be. He’s an American, he says, worked it out ahead of time. “What and he sang so well that by the time he happened is that Johnson says, you was done, audiences didn’t care if he know, we’ve got to come up with some- was green. “I didn’t dwell on it,” he tells thing—when you come up there and me, then shares another favorite anec- shock ’em, then you try to go into a dote, versions of which one can find song, they’re shocked before they hear recounted throughout Pride’s career. half of the song!” What Pride said in Detroit was what he and Johnson He was in a huge group show in scripted—a line that got white coun- Detroit, performing alongside the likes try audiences laughing with the black of Merle Haggard, Red Foley and Buck man on stage and comfortable enough Owens. He’d driven from Montana, to let his singing do the rest. where until recently he’d worked as a smelter for the Anaconda Company That’s the kind of effort it takes and played for the semi-pro baseball to make things feel effortless. In the team, the East Helena Smelterites. myth-making that happens over a When he arrived, minutes before the career more than half a century long, first show, everyone from the nervous maybe it’s inevitable that some of the promoter to Ralph Emery—the show’s crucial yet complicated storylines fade, MC and “the biggest DJ in the business while others—arguably, the most fac- at that time”—seemed worried that ile—are slowly etched in stone. simply bringing Pride out would not be enough; “I need to say something In the Grand Ole Opry’s biography to make ’em love you ’fore you get out of Pride, when it recounts that night there!” Pride remembers Emery saying. in Detroit, the vignette ends, “Race, however, ultimately didn’t matter to Because, of course, Pride’s early the country music audience.” That’s records identified him only as “Coun- the stuff voiceovers are made of, but try” Charley Pride, sans photograph, one can’t help but think that if it were which meant that whether the 10,000 true—beyond Pride’s own remarkable concertgoers had heard his three sin- career—today’s country music would gles or not, they had no idea what he be as full of black and brown artists as actually looked like. today’s baseball fields are with black and brown players. But Pride told Emery just to say his name. That was greeted with cheers. When most of us hear about Pride, Then, at the sight of the man himself, wherever we do, it’s often as the great the room fell silent. And Pride, with- black country artist, like it’s the color out missing a beat, said, “Ladies and that really counted. But when Pride gentlemen, I realize it’s kind of unique, talks about himself, it’s as a “tradition- me coming out here on a country alist,” a guy who came up with Ernest music show wearing this permanent Tubb, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash tan.” Fifty-something years later, and the like and draws the line for Pride sounds as giddy mimicking the their kind of country after George Strait. He mentions, wistfully, that 46 N E W S W E E K . C O M NOVEMBER 22, 2019
)520723 -$621.(03,1ʔ*(77< 0,&+$(/2&+6$5&+,9(6ʔ*(77< )5$1.&$552//ʔTRADITIONALISThe and Conway Twitty were born phone in Dallas has somehow sum- 1%&83+272%$1.ʔ1%&81,9(56$/ʔ*(77< 52'*(50$//,621ʔ)257:257+67$5ʝClockwise from bottom left:just miles apart, and it reminds himmoned New York City’s first fall storm. 7(/(*5$0ʔ75,%81(1(:66(59,&(ʔ*(77< $/%80$57 &2857(6<2)&+$5/(<35,'(Pride at the Texas Rangersof something else people say—that spring training 2016; Pride in rather than sing country, he was sup- Of course race did matter—in the *Naresh Jariwala*1970; with wife Rozene Cohran posed to sound like B.B. King, because sense that Pride’s willingness to set at the 2019 Country Music Hall they were born about 65 miles apart. it aside from his music made it pos- of Fame Medallion Ceremony; “So they say you’re supposed to be sing- sible, perhaps, for him and his music and with comedian Robert Klein ing blues, and I say no—I’m supposed to reach heights they might never on The Tonight Show in 1976. to be singing what I want to sing!” have been able to otherwise, however deserving they were. When I ask Pride to reflect on the younger generation of artists and But listening to Pride, that deci- the challenges they face, shamelessly sion sounds authentic, not like one he angling toward country-rap star Lil made to sell records. I suppose that’s Nas X, he simply riffs—passionately— why, looking back, I’m not even sure on work: “[‘Cowboy’ Jack] Clement”— that I knew Pride was black when I was Pride’s longtime producer—“he said a child; it’s like something I found out to me, ‘Charley, come at the song as and forgot over and over, a discovery the greatest song that has been sung; that would slip quickly away because if it’s a B song, make it an A song; if it’s it didn’t seem all that material to this an A song, make it a double-A, make it music that I loved. I don’t know how to a triple-A—make it a single.’…I never feel about that now, honestly, when it’s forgot that, and I believe that’s why I so clear that transcending identity is a sold so many albums.” luxury most people don’t have. We’re so conditioned these days to There is, though, something kinetic think in terms of identities, little bits about knowing it’s possible—and some- of data that seem to dictate everything thing so magical in recognizing how, from who’ll follow us on Instagram to even today, Pride never doubts it. In fact, what we think we’re capable of. Which he’s set to kick off 2020 charming yet makes chatting for hours with some- another audience at the Nugget Casino one who relentlessly resists that very Resort in Sparks, Nevada, on January 10. strange—as strange as feeling like a resonant, remembered voice on the “I’m not arrogant or nothing like that,” he says, “but I believe—I’m just a believer.” REVIEW Charley Pride Sings Music in My Heart 2017 Heart Songs 1971 Essential Listening :KHQPRVWDUWLVWVZRXOGEHFRP $WUXHVKRZFDVHRI3ULGHŠVGHHS IRUWDEOHUHWLULQJ3ULGHFRQWLQXHV GETTING STARTED WITH CHARLEY PRIDE O\\WUDGLWLRQDOVRXQGWKLVDOEXP QRWMXVWWRWRXUEXWWRPDNHQHZ \\LHOGHGWKH1RFURVVRYHUKLW PXVLF5HFRUGHGE\\3ULGHLQKLVV The Country Way 1967 ţ.LVVDQ$QJHO*RRG0RUQLQŠŤ WKLVDOEXPLVSDLUHGZLWK3ULGHŠVɿUVW ZKLFKVROGRYHUDPLOOLRQVLQJOHV PXVLFYLGHRLQGHFDGHVŜIRUWKH 2IWHQ FRQVLGHUHG3ULGHŠVEHVWWKLV DQGHDUQHG3ULGHWKH&RXQWU\\ VRQJţ6WDQGLQJLQ0\\:D\\Ť DOEXP IHDWXUHV WZRHDUO\\7RSKLWVŜ 0XVLF$VVRFLDWLRQŠVţ7RS0DOH ţ'RHV 0\\ 5LQJ +XUW<RXU)LQJHUŤDQG 9RFDOLVWŤDQGţ(QWHUWDLQHURIWKH ţ7KH 'D\\ WKH :RUOG6WRRG6WLOOŤŜDQG <HDUŤDZDUGVLQ DQGWKH 3ULGHŠV UHQGLWLRQRIţ&U\\VWDO&KDQGH ţ%HVW0DOH&RXQWU\\9RFDO3HUIRU OLHUVŤ ZKLFK EHFDPHDQXQH[SHFWHG PDQFHŤ*UDPP\\LQ XQLW\\ DQWKHP IROORZLQJ3ULGHŠVGHFLVLRQ WR SHUIRUP DW %HOIDVWŠV5LW]&LQHPD GXULQJ WKH KHLJKWRIţ7KH7URXEOHVŤ NEWSWEEK.COM 47
Culture Illustration by BR I T T SPENCER PARTING SHOT Priyanka Chopra a lot has changed for the bollywood actress priyanka chopra The Sky is Pink LV\\RXUɿUVW since her last big Hindi cinema role in 2016. The 37-year-old star success- %ROO\\ZRRGɿOPLQWKUHH\\HDUV fully crossed over from Bollywood to Hollywood with a starring role in ABC’s :RXOG\\RXVD\\WKLVLVDFRPHEDFN\" Quantico (2015–2018) and the movie Baywatch (2017). She is half of one of the I was on Quantico for three seasons world’s most-photographed celebrity couples with husband Nick Jonas. Chopra and it took 11 months in a year to recently returned to her Bollywood roots in the Hindi-language biopic The Sky is shoot; that’s why I couldn’t do a full- Pink, which opened on October 11, about real-life teenage motivational speaker ʀHGJHGIHDWXUH,ŠPUHDOO\\H[FLWHGWREH Aisha Chaudhary, who gained fame for speaking out about suffering from pul- EDFNLQ+LQGLFLQHPD,WŠVP\\ɿUVWORYH monary fibrosis. Chopra, who plays Aisha’s mother Aditi in the film, says “they are a normal family who has thrived under extraordinary circumstances.” Chopra <RXZHUHɿOPLQJThe Sky is Pink shot the movie while planning her December wedding to Jonas, who took over ULJKWEHIRUH\\RXUZHGGLQJ+RZGLG the final preparations for their big day because she was on set until just before \\RXMXJJOHERWKFRPPLWPHQWV\" the wedding. Nick said that “I’d committed to the movie, and I should focus on ,ZDVɿOPLQJXQWLOIRXUGD\\VEHIRUH that.” Chopra now plans a romantic comedy inspired by her own wedding. P\\ZHGGLQJ$OOWKHODVWPLQXWH KHDY\\OLIWLQJ1LFNGLG+HFDPHGRZQ ţ,ŠPUHDOO\\ HDUO\\>WR-RGKSXU,QGLD@DQGKHGLGDOO H[FLWHGWREH WKHSUHSZLWKP\\PRP,WŠVZRQGHUIXO EDFNLQ+LQGL WRKDYHDSDUWQHUOLNHWKDW FLQHPD,WŠVP\\ <RXŠUHPDNLQJDZHGGLQJWKHPHG ˽UVWORYHŤ URPDQWLFFRPHG\\ZLWK0LQG\\.DOLQJ *Naresh Jariwala* QH[W:KDWFDQ\\RXVD\\DERXWLW\" ,WŠVDEXGG\\FRPHG\\LQVSLUHGE\\P\\ ZHGGLQJ:HŠUHSURGXFLQJWRJHWKHU DQGVKHŠVZULWLQJ,WŠVJRLQJWRKDYHDQ DOO6RXWK$VLDQVWDUFDVW,WŠVP\\TXHVW to create opportunities as a producer if ,FDQHVSHFLDOO\\IRU6RXWK$VLDQWDOHQW 'R\\RXIHHOLWŠV\\RXUUHVSRQVLELOLW\\ WRUHSUHVHQW%ROO\\ZRRGDQG6RXWK $VLDQDFWRUVLQ+ROO\\ZRRG\" ,QGLDQPRYLHVDUHRQHRIWKHELJJHVW industries in the world—we make WKRXVDQGVRIPRYLHVD\\HDU,ŠP KRSLQJWKDW,ŠPDFRQGXLWIRUWKDWWR EHFRPHDORWPRUHPDLQVWUHDP,ORYH WKHIDFWWKDWZKHQ,GLG>1HWʀL[PRYLH@ Isn’t It RomanticZHHQGHGZLWK DELJGDQFHVRQJWKDWZDVYHU\\ %ROO\\ZRRG—Tufayel Ahmed 48 N O V E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 9
*Naresh Jariwala* NEVER PEDESTRIAN harrysoflondon.com
Search
