Percy Sledge, who recorded the classic ballad, 'When a Man Loves a Woman," died today in Baton Rouge.
Not long after that first recording went No. 1, Sledge began to move to Macon where he worked with manager Alan Walden.
But two days before he was scheduled to move into a home in east Macon, someone burned it down. He returned to central Georgia again 50 years later in 2013. That's when he performed in Washington Park, where he received a key to the city.
Sledge's success included a long touring career averaging 100 performances a year and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. He was 74-years-old.
Randall Savage sat down with Allan Walden, Sledge's manager, to learn more about the singer and how he was discovered.
Quinn Ivy out of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, he was a disc jockey turned producer and Quinn produced "When a man loves a woman."
"Well, after he had produced the demo, I heard it over the telephone and I immediately jumped on an airplane and flew to Alabama to sign Percy Sledge because I believed in it from the very instant I heard it," said Walden.
Walden says when he flew to Alabama to sign him, he found him working at the Calbert County Hospital.
"He was an orderly at the time," Walden said. "I went in to sign him, he had just come out of the room from giving the patient an enema. And he still had his rubber gloves on, and he took his rubber gloves off and he washed his hands and he turned around and we shook hands and I said 'Percy Sledge, you're gonna be a star.' And his reply was 'do you think I can quit this job?'"
Walden says his song "When a Man Loves a Woman" went No. 1 very quickly.
"Faster than any other black record in history," Walden said. "It sold more copies than any other African American record in history period. It sold 1.3 million copies in 10 days time which was completely unheard of for any sort of record."
Walden says Sledge was a gentle soul, and he will be missed.
______________________________________________________
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Percy Sledge, who recorded the classic 1966 soul ballad "When a Man Loves a Woman," has died. He was 74.
East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana Coroner Dr. William "Beau" Clark confirmed to The Associated Press that Sledge died early Tuesday morning.
Sledge's first recording took him from hospital orderly to a long touring career averaging 100 performances a year and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.
Between 1966 and 1968, Sledge used his forlorn, crying vocal style to record a series of Southern soul standards.
In later years, Sledge continued to be an in-demand performer in the United States and Europe as "When a Man Loves a Woman" kept popping up in movies, including "The Big Chill" and "The Crying Game."
Sledge has strong ties to Macon.
Mayor Robert Reichert gave him a key to the city in October 2013 when Sledge was the headlining act during a concert in Macon's Washington Park.
Macon-based Capricorn Records owner Alan Walden gave Sledge his big break while Sledge was an orderly at a hospital
"He had just given an enema, and he was still wearing the rubber gloves," Walden said during an interview with 13WMAZ during Sledge's 2013 Macon concert . "And he peeled off his rubber glove and I shook his hand and I said, 'Percy Sledge, you're gonna be a star,' and he said ,'Do you think I can quit this job?.'"
Shortly after that, when a 'Man Loves a Woman' became Walden's first No. 1 single as a manager.
After the death of Otis Redding the next year, Walden decided to focus on Sledge's career and offered to help him move from Alabama to Macon.
Walden had helped Redding purchase his 'Big O' ranch, but because of segregation, had to include a clause in the contract that said if any white citizens in the neighborhood objected, that the contract would be voided.
Because residents had no issue, they didn't feel the need to include the same clause for Sledge, and found him a home in the then mostly white Shurlington neighborhood in East Macon.
But two days before Sledge moved in, someone burned the house to ground in what they believed to be arson.
It's the kind of unwelcoming attack that could have made Sledge not want to revisit Macon, but Sledge kept a positive attitude.
"It's just life must go on," Sledge to WMAZ during an interview before the concert. "So I prayed that God got it out of my mind and just kept on going."
