Ronnie Milsap: A Legend in My Time opens February 6

“A Conversation With Ronnie Milsap” program February 7

NASHVILLE, Tenn., January 12, 2015 – Opening February 6, 2015, and running through August 2015, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s exhibition Ronnie Milsap: A Legend in My Time examines the 2014 Country Music Hall of Fame member’s career. One of the genre’s most consistent and enduring artists, Milsap emerged in the 1970s and went on to score 35 Billboard #1 country hits, win six Grammys and register major crossover hits on the Top 40, Adult Contemporary and even R&B Charts.

To celebrate the exhibit’s launch, a very special “Conversation with Ronnie Milsap,” hosted by museum writer-editor Peter Cooper, will take place in the museum’s 750-seat CMA Theater, Saturday, February 7,at 2:00 p.m. Milsap will discuss his early inspirations, his tumultuous path to success, his childhood abandonment and abuse, his sightlessness, and his remarkable country music career.

Soulful, instantly identifiable vocals; deft piano playing; genre-straddling stylistic choices; and dozens of #1 country hits, including “Smoky Mountain Rain,” “Pure Love,” “Stranger in My House,” “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends” and “It Was Almost Like a Song” led Milsap to Grammy wins, three Country Music Association Album of the Year, as well as Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year honors on the way to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Milsap arrived in Nashville on December 26, 1972, to headline the showroom at the King of the Road hotel. Having tried his luck at the Apollo Theater, the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip and the recording studios of Memphis working for Elvis, Milsap tried Nashville on the recommendation of Charley Pride. Ronnie was an immediate sensation. Within weeks, he had a manager. Within three months, he was recording hits for RCA Nashville.

Milsap is a major influence on contemporary country stars including Keith Urban, Blake Shelton and Hunter Hayes. An entertainer’s entertainer, he has drawn raves from industry giants Ray Charles, Reba McEntire, John Hiatt and Stevie Wonder.

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture.  With the same educational mission, the foundation also operates CMF Records, the museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B and Hatch Show Print®.