Al Green

Albert Leornes Greene was born on 13 April 1946 in Forrest City, Arkansas, and moved with his family to Grand Rapids, Michigan, as a child, singing gospel music in a family group before pursuing secular music, eventually shortening his surname to Green and signing with Hi Records in Memphis in the late 1960s.

Green's collaboration with producer Willie Mitchell at Hi Records produced a series of major hits during the early 1970s, including 'Let's Stay Together' and 'Tired of Being Alone,' establishing a distinctive, smooth soul sound combining Green's exceptional falsetto vocal control with Mitchell's sophisticated, understated production, making Green one of the most commercially successful soul artists of the decade.

In 1974 Green experienced a serious assault when a former girlfriend, in a state of severe personal crisis, attacked him with hot grits before taking her own life, a traumatic event that Green has cited as contributing to his subsequent, increasingly intense religious reflection and eventual full commitment to ministry.

Green became an ordained pastor in 1976, founding the Full Gospel Tabernacle church in Memphis, and gradually shifted his musical focus toward gospel recordings, eventually stepping back substantially from secular music for an extended period during the late 1970s and 1980s as his religious commitment deepened.

Green won multiple Grammy Awards for his gospel recordings during this period, demonstrating that his vocal talent translated successfully across both secular and religious musical contexts, and gradually returned to occasional secular recording and performing in subsequent decades, balancing his ongoing ministry with periodic returns to the soul music that had made him famous.

Green continues serving as pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle while maintaining his musical legacy through occasional performances and recordings, and remains widely regarded as one of the greatest soul vocalists in music history, his career's distinctive arc from secular soul stardom through personal crisis to sustained religious ministry reflecting a genuinely singular trajectory within American popular music.