Background

Ronnie Lee Milsap was born on January 16, 1943 in Robbinsville, North Carolina. He was blind from birth because of a congenital disorder. He was raised by his grandparents in the Smoky Mountains. When he was five, he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he attended and lived at the Governor Morehead School.

He has been interested in music since his childhood days and began studying classical music in school. He was inspired by country music and gospel music. After primary school, he studied at the Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia, where he had a scholarship and wanted to become a lawyer. During his college years, he joined the R&B band “The Dimensions”. In the year 1964, he decided to leave his college to pursue a music career.

Career

His brilliant music career began in the year 1963, when he met DJ Pat Hughes in Atlanta. Soon after the meeting, he recorded his first songs, which were titled “Total Disaster” and”It Went to your Head”. He got his breakthrough in his career selling fifteen thousand copies. For a while, he worked as a keyboardist for J.J. Cale. He finally signed a deal with New York-based Scepter Records in the year 1965, where he recorded few singles.

During his amazing career he worked along with mega stars like Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, James Brown, and Stevie Wonder. Afterwards, he worked for Chips Moman by appearing with some performances at the Memphis nightclub T.J.'s. In the year 1971, he finally released his first album, which was titled “Ronnie Milsap”.

The next year he moved to Nashville, where he met famous country singer Charley Pride. Later, he signed a contract with RCA Records and made his new single “I Hate You”. Along with his new friend, he toured across the country and also got his first Grammy award in the year 1974. In the same year, he also released his third album “Pure Love”.

In the middle of the 70s, he was one of the biggest country music stars. In the year 1977, he released the most successful song of his career called “It Was Almost Like a Song”, which also was the title of his eighth studio album. This beautiful ballad brought to him a huge level of fame as well as his first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100. Since that time, he has become very popular and released a new album or even two for each year after. The last one was released in the year 2014 and was titled “Summer Number Seventeen”.

Personal Life

Ronnie has been married to Joyce Milsap since October 30, 1965. They met each other at a dinner party in the early 60s. Ronnie and his wife are blessed with one child together. Joyce is a big support for Ronnie and sometimes she appeared along with him on popular events. He has an estimated net worth of $14 million dollars and also earns a massive salary for his performances.