“Country music — it's just about time for it to stop being used as a whipping boy. It's a good music. It's the basic music of America, I believe, combined with all the rest of categories that we have — jazz, blues, you name it. Like jazz has been kicked and blues has been kicked. Then it feeds down into the ethnic groups and you start slicing it up. So all that is happening now is a combination of things starting to jell. It's all one ball of wax to me.” — Charley Pride
Read MoreFueled by a few too many gin and tonics, Charlie Rich announces that John Denver is the CMA Entertainer of the Year but it does not end there. He reaches into his pocket, takes out a lighter, and sets the card on fire. Fortunately, John Denver was appearing via satellite from Australia and did not see it but a whole lot of other folks did. Charlie said it was an accident and blamed it on some painkillers but given the state of country music in 1975, it seemed too obvious of a statement to ignore. That statement was that the likes of John Denver were not welcome in country music.
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