March 25, 2026 – “Charley Pride looked at two of America’s most segregated institutions — baseball and country music — and walked through both front doors anyway.
With this introduction from Nashville Stars Baseball Club director of marketing Will General, the Stars joined baseball and music fans from across the area on March 18 to celebrate this talented performer with the viewing of the movie “Charley Pride: I’m Just Me.” Shown at the National Museum of African American Music as part of Vanderbilt University’s Sports and Society Initiative, the documentary by filmmaker Barbara Hall tells a powerful story about determination and talent and character.
Featuring remembrances from artists like Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Stars Music & Entertainment Advisor Darius Rucker, as well as Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President and Stars Board Member Bob Kendrick, the movie captures a life that never lost hope, never stopped dreaming.
After the showing, Hall joined Kendrick to remember and discuss Pride’s life. Kendrick talked about Pride’s lifelong love of baseball, a love reflected in Pride’s support of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum from its birth. “Charley was one of those baseball veterans who believed in the Museum from the beginning because he knew what that baseball experience provided him. He knew those players because he was one of them, and what he learned playing with and traveling with them helped make him the music artist and ambassador he was.”
In pointing out the number of languages in which Pride recorded his songs and the countries he visited, Hall emphasized that Pride was a true ambassador. “We talk about Americana as a musical genre, but Charley embraced Americana as an experience and a way of living,” she said. “It wasn’t just about singing; it captured a spirit, a determination, and a grace that accepted everyone and celebrated all. That was Charley.”
The conversation with Hall and Kendrick was led by the producers of the event, Perry B. Johnson, Ph.D. and Dr. Courtney M. Cox, professors at USC and the University of Oregon, respectively, and collectively the energy behind The Sound of Victory (SOV). The Sound of Victory is an interdisciplinary initiative and creative collective rooted in research that activates moments, figures and events where music/sound and sport have collided around the world and throughout history.
SOV’s forthcoming book, The Sound of Victory: Music, Sport, and Society brings together international scholars, journalists and practitioners to critically examine this relationship. The volume will be out September 2026 from New York University Press.
General wrapped up his intro with telling words about two institutions. “Baseball and music have always been mirror images of each other in the American story,” he said. “Both built on improvisation and rhythm. Both places where Black artists and Black athletes were forced to build their own parallel universe because the doors of the mainstream were bolted shut. And both places where, once those doors finally cracked open, they walked through and changed everything forever.
“Charley Pride lived that dual truth more completely than almost anyone,” he continued. “He is the intersection of these two art forms, these two struggles, this one extraordinary American life.”
The Stars were honored to be part of this outstanding moment in Nashville, baseball and music history.