One of the sessions they have during CRS week is called "Life of a Legend." Each year they choose someone who has been in the music business for a while and has made a noticeable impact on the industry as a whole. They set it up in a moderated format with the moderator asking some leading questions for the artist to answer and expand on. At the end of the session they open up the floor for questions from the attending audience. It is always a very interesting session to attend and this year was no exception. The artist was Ronnie Milsap and the host, or moderator, was none other than WSM legend Eddie Stubbs. It was a great combination and I settled back to hear what Ronnie had to say about his career and the steps that led him to where he is today.
They started out with the introduction of Eddie Stubbs and his very impressive career in radio. Stubbs then introduced Milsap along with his very impressive list of awards and accomplishments. These two gentlemen have known each other for years, so the conversation was more comfortable and friendly as opposed to a strict interviewer/interviewee relationship. Since this was Country RADIO Seminar, a lot of the questions and answers given related directly to the radio impact on Milsap and the career choices he made. But before they started, they had to talk about the t-shirt Milsap was wearing. It was a solid black with STUBBS in large white letters across the chest. Milsap admitted to being a longtime fan of Eddie Stubbs and when his assistant told him about the t-shirts on sale at the Hall of Fame gift shop, he asked for a couple.
The first question was about the impact the radio had on him growing up. Milsap talked about learning how to tune in all the different AM frequencies on the family radio by the time he was three or four and how the radio opened the door to a whole new world for him. He admitted to learning how to tear apart the radio and reassemble it with more wire in order to gain better reception, tuning in areas as far away as Dallas and New Orleans. Milsap chuckled as he told about being trained in Classical Violin while in school. And while he excelled at the music the school gave him to perform, for practice he would do some bluegrass licks of Flatt & Scruggs or the Stanley Brothers instead of the classical pieces he was supposed to be studying. It was very apparent that music has been a part of Milsap's life for as long as he can remember. Most people now associate Milsap with the piano, but they may not be aware that he is proficient on almost any instrument you want to hand him. String, woodwind, and keyboard - he can play them all.
As they wound through his growing up years and his growing love of music, Milsap said that his instructors continued to discourage studying music as a career. Said Milsap, "I was told I'd just be a liability to the state!" followed by a quick laugh. He reluctantly listened to what they had to say and started focusing on an academic career, his good grades earning scholarships for college. He wanted to go somewhere different for college, a bigger city, and ended up in Atlanta. He enrolled in college with his mind on a law degree. A trip to a local concert changed that for him. He went to see Ray Charles in concert and managed to end up backstage to meet Charles. After hearing that Milsap wanted to be a musician but had let everyone talk him into an academic study instead, Charles sent Milsap over to the piano in the dressing room. After listening, he said that a law degree was fine if that is what Milsap wanted to do but his suggestion was to follow what was in his heart. That was all the encouragement Milsap needed to start pursuing his dream in earnest ending up signed on Scepter Records as an R & B singer.