If you go
› What: Ronnie Milsap in concert.› When: 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20; doors open at 7 p.m.› Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.› Admission: $39, $49, $75 and $99.› Phone: 423-757-5580.› Website: www.tivolichattanooga.com.
Ronnie Milsap, one of country music's biggest hitmakers, will bring his Farewell Tour to Chattanooga's Tivoli Theatre on Friday, Jan. 20, just four days after his 74th birthday.
The piano-playing singer, blind since birth, boasts a remarkable run of hits, awards and crossover success during his heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. Starting with his second studio album, "Where My Heart Is," in 1973, Milsap had singles in the Top 40 charts through 1992. In 10 of those years - '74, '76, '77, '78, '80, '81, '82, '85, '86 and '87 - every single he released hit No. 1.
Milsap also picked up six Grammy Awards and multiple honors from the country music industry. He was the Academy of Country Music's Top Male Vocalist in 1982 and won its Pioneer Award for lifetime achievement in 2002. He was the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year in 1977 and claimed repeat wins for Album and Male Vocalist of the Year.
His 40 No. 1 country hits rank him third among best-selling country artists, behind George Strait and Conway Twitty. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1976 and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
Born Jan. 16, 1953, in Robbinsville, N.C., Milsap was classically trained in music while attending the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, though it's said he notoriously frustrated his teachers by banging out Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard rock 'n' roll on the keyboard when he was supposed to be practicing Mozart and Beethoven.
He worked in Atlanta and Memphis, often as a session musician for soul singers, before a chance encounter with country music star Charley Pride convinced him to move to Nashville and take a chance on country music.
The hit list
Ronnie Milsap’s Top 10 hits on the Billboard country charts (all are No. 1’s unless otherwise noted).>› 1973: “I Hate You” (10)› 1974: “Pure Love,” “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends,” “(I’d Be) A Legend in My Time”› 1975: “Too Late To Worry, Too Blue To Cry” (6), “Daydreams About Night Things,” “Just in Case” (4)› 1976: “What Goes on When the Sun Goes Down,” “(I’m a) Stand by My Woman Man, “Let My Love Be Your Pillow”› 1977: “It Was Almost Like a Song,” “What a Difference You’ve Made in My Life”› 1978: “Only One Love in My Life,” “Let’s Take the Long Way Around the World”› 1979: “Back on My Mind Again” (2), “Nobody Likes Sad Songs,” “In No Time at All” (6)› 1980: “Why Don’t You Spend the Night,” “My Heart,” “Cowboys and Clowns,” “Smoky Mountain Rain”› 1981: “Am I Losing You,” “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me,” “I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World”› 1982: “Any Day Now, “He Got You,” “Inside”› 1983: “Stranger in My House” (5), “Don’t You Know How Much I Love You,” “Show Her”› 1984: “Still Losing You,” “Prisoner of the Highway” (6)› 1985: “She Keeps the Home Fires Burning,” “Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night)”› 1986: “Happy, Happy Birthday Baby,” “In Love,” “How Do I Turn You On”› 1987: “Snap Your Fingers,” “Make No Mistake, She’s Mine” (with Kenny Rogers), “Where Do the Nights Go”› 1988: “Old Folks” (with Mike Reid, 2), “Button Off My Shirt” (4)› 1989: “Don’t You Ever Get Tired (Of Hurting Me),” “Houston Solution” (4), “A Woman in Love”› 1990: “Stranger Things Have Happened” (2)› 1991: “Are You Lovin’ Me Like I’m Lovin’ You” (3), “Since I Don’t Have You” (6), “Turn That Radio On” (4)