In church with Al Green

By Hazel Sheffield

The Reverend Al Green became one of the greatest soul singers of all time on the strength of just a handful of gold-certified hits in the early 1970s. His songs have passed into the popular canon: who hasn’t heard his caramel falsetto on “Let’s Stay Together” on the dance floor at a wedding? Starting with the success of “Tired of Being Alone” in 1971, Green’s smooth Motown vocals, mixed with the stabs of brass synonymous with Memphis’s Stax and Volt labels, earned him a reputation as the father of a new breed of soul music.

But not for long. In 1974, he was badly burned and emotionally traumatised when a girlfriend threw a pan of hot grits over him, rooted out his pistol and shot herself dead. The incident prompted Green to turn away from secular music almost entirely. At first he released gospel albums, then he retreated to the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, which he founded in a leafy Memphis suburb in 1976, the year he was ordained. His secular appearances have become more infrequent as the years have passed.