Ronnie Milsap
Ronnie Milsap
Ronnie Lee Milsapis an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. He became country music's first successful blind singer, and one of the most successful and versatile country "crossover" singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music markets with hit songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. His biggest crossover hits include "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Smoky...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCountry Singer
Date of Birth16 January 1943
CityRobbinsville, NC
CountryUnited States of America
I learned when I started to study piano that I could play by ear. I could hear a song on the radio a couple of times and hear the song and the lyrics and sing it for you after a couple of plays.
I love the 'Delilah' show. I've been listening to it for years and years. It's incredible. She's always got a song for the right occasion. Many people call in, maybe their spirit it a little down, and she lifts them up. She is really somebody special. She's a lifeline to a lot of people.
I'm a singer, not a vocal stylist. My breathing is correct; my enunciation is precise. Because of that, I can sing anybody's music. Yet there are stylists whose technical skills are so underdeveloped they can sing only their own songs their own way. They might be remembered for their hits longer than I am. I'll probably be working longer than they are. I can sing whatever the times and the trends demand.
I was an original Elvis fan. He was the voice of my generation. I was listening to him on the radio when he released his great Sun records with Scotty Moore on electric guitar and Bill Black on bass.
I always know I'm a country singer, and regardless of where I've fallen into different places with my music, I know that, really, I'm a country singer.
When I was doing mainstream country, there was no way that an executive was going to ask you to do a gospel album.
I wanted to live in Nashville. I wanted to sing country.
I often thought that if I had been working with Mark James at American Studios, I would have had a pop hit before I ever moved out of Memphis. But that didn't happen.
I was signed to RCA to be a country singer.
I became involved in a residential school for the blind in Raleigh - the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh.
I love to play my music. That's what my heart wants me to do is to play music, and I love doing that when I got my band and my crew and all those folks with me, and that whole thing cranks up; it's really something to enjoy.
I was fortunate to be raised by loving grandparents.
I'm a Christian man that lives it every day, believing somebody will look and live by example.
I was up playing violin at seven and translating that information to play guitar, piano at eight.