Tweet

Comments (0)

 1 of 3

Blinded by the Light

Between forty chart-topping singles, seven Grammy Awards, and four Academy of Country Music Awards, 66-year-old Ronnie Milsap is one of the most decorated stars of his genre. But that illustrious career almost never happened. Born blind, Milsap was abandoned by his mother and told that his blindness was a curse from God. But Milsap trusted in God nonetheless, and went on to attend school, aiming to become a lawyer—but he couldn't shake the music bug, and with a nudge from Ray Charles, Milsap ended up on studios and stages rather than in the courtroom. Now that Milsap is releasing his first-ever Christian collection—Then Sings My Soul: 24 Favorite Hymns & Gospel Songs (Star Song/EMI)—we thought it'd be a good time to catch up with the legend and talk about his rocky childhood, an enduring faith, and his latest project.

What is your recollection of your young childhood?

Ronnie Milsap: I remember my uncle and my father telling me that my mother didn't want me because I was blind. She thought being blind was a disgrace and a punishment from God. I understand that a lot of young mothers probably wouldn't know what to do in that situation, but over your life you learn to forgive everything.

Ronnie's childhood home

[After my mother abandoned me], I grew up with my grandparents in a very small house in the mountains of western North Carolina. There was a lot of love there, and they took me to church, which was the first time I learned I could memorize music very quickly. Also, the radio played a big role early in my life. I think I first took it apart when I was three or four because I was so interested in how it worked!

Eventually I was sent to a school for the blind in Raleigh, North Carolina when I was six, which is when I discovered I had an aptitude for music. When I was seven, I was playing violin, and at eight, was playing piano. I had something like twelve years of classical training in addition to academic studies.

You've spoken before about being afraid to go to that school because it felt like Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers.

Milsap: I felt that way because [of being told blindness was a punishment]. On my first day, my family had all gone home, and I thought, "Well, here I am all alone." I was only six years old, and I didn't know what exactly was going on. But once I met friends, I started feeling part of the group. When you're very young, it takes a while to adapt to that, but the classes were small, and the individual attention from the teachers was incredible. I remember every teacher I had there, from high school into law school, which was my original path because they didn't want me to study music.

Why didn't they want you to pursue music?

Milsap: They said, "You can't do that, because typically as a blind musician you will fail. You'll wind up out on the street and become a liability to the state. Plus you've made such great grades academically, you can have a scholarship wherever you want to go."

Young Ronnie

So I was going to be a lawyer. But then I went to a Ray Charles concert in Atlanta when I was in college, and I was brought backstage to Ray's dressing room. I got to meet him, explained what a mentor he was to me, and told him about my dilemma. There was a piano in the dressing room, so he said, "Will you play me something?" I played three songs. He said, "Well, son, you can be lawyer if want to, but you have a lot of music in your heart and if I were you, I'd follow what my heart tells me to do!" I felt like that was an endorsement from Ray Charles and I started looking around that summer for opportunities to play.

next page... |  1 of 3