Entertainment

Singer Sledge Remembered at Funeral for Talent, Kindness

Published

11 years ago

April 22, 2015

In this March 14, 2005 file photo, Percy Sledge accepts his award during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York. Sledge was remembered for phenomenal talent and extraordinary kindness during a funeral service on Tuesday, April 21, 2015, in Baker, La. Sledge, who recorded the classic 1966 soul ballad “When a Man Loves a Woman,” died, April 14, at the age of 74. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

BAKER, La. (AP) — Percy Sledge was remembered for phenomenal talent and extraordinary kindness during a Tuesday funeral service marked by warm reminiscences from fellow musicians, family members and friends he made during a five-decade career that launched with his first and biggest hit, “When a Man Loves a Woman.”

“Heaven’s choir just got a whole lot more soul,” said Rev. Dane Blankenship, a Baton Rouge area pastor and hospice chaplain who spent time with Sledge during his final days.

Sledge, an Alabama native who lived much of his life with second wife Rosa in Baton Rouge, died last week at age 74 after battling liver cancer.

Upbeat spirituals from a trio of gospel singers opened and closed the three-hour service, billed as a celebration of Sledge’s life, at Bethany Church in Baker, near Baton Rouge. Sledge’s body lay in an open casket, adorned on the outside with musical notes and a treble clef. His name and likeness were emblazoned in black on the white interior lid.

Preachers from the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, area, where Sledge’s signature song was recorded in 1966, read Bible verses. Performers included his daughter Sanricca, who sang a Whitney Houston song, and son Howell, who sang a hymn.

Testimonials came from his children and from friends he made inside and outside of the music business.

“There’s not a kinder person in the world. There’s not a more giving person in the world and there’s not a smile like that in the world anywhere,” said Alabama record producer David Johnson, who met Sledge in 1966 and worked on a recent gospel album with him.

“I’ll love him until I’m up there in heaven with him.”

Longtime R&B and gospel singer Dorothy Moore sang a song about departing: “When you hear of my home-going, don’t worry ’bout me … I’m just another soldier, oh yeah, going home.”

Little Rock, Arkansas, car dealer Frank Fletcher recalled a decades-old friendship with Sledge and said he asked the singer to appear every time he opened a business. “I bought 13 car dealerships I really didn’t need because I got him to come every time.”

Sledge’s hits included “Warm and Tender Love” and “Take Time to Know Her.” But “When a Man Loves a Woman” — his first hit — became a standard that sustained his long touring career in the U.S., Europe and South Africa and led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was the first No. 1 hit from Muscle Shoals, and the first gold record for Atlantic Records.

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Activism

OP-ED: AB 1349 Puts Corporate Power Over Community

Since Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2010, ticket prices have jumped more than 150 percent. Activities that once fit a family’s budget now take significant disposable income that most working families simply don’t have. The problem is compounded by a system that has tilted access toward the wealthy and white-collar workers. If you have a fancy credit card, you get “presale access,” and if you work in an office instead of a warehouse, you might be able to wait in an online queue to buy a ticket. Access now means privilege.

Published

5 days ago

January 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Bishop Joseph Simmons, Senior Pastor, Greater St. Paul Baptist Church, Oakland

By Bishop Joseph Simmons, Senior Pastor, Greater St. Paul Baptist Church, Oakland

As a pastor, I believe in the power that a sense of community can have on improving people’s lives. Live events are one of the few places where people from different backgrounds and ages can share the same space and experience – where construction workers sit next to lawyers at a concert, and teenagers enjoy a basketball game with their grandparents. Yet, over the past decade, I’ve witnessed these experiences – the concerts, games, and cultural events where we gather – become increasingly unaffordable, and it is a shame.

These moments of connection matter as they form part of the fabric that holds communities together. But that fabric is fraying because of Ticketmaster/Live Nation’s unchecked control over access to live events. Unfortunately, AB 1349 would only further entrench their corporate power over our spaces.

Power over live events is concentrated in a single corporate entity, and this regime operates without transparency or accountability – much like a dictator. Ticketmaster controls 80 percent of first-sale tickets and nearly a third of resale tickets, but they still want more. More power, more control for Ticketmaster means higher prices and less access for consumers. It’s the agenda they are pushing nationally, with the help of former Trump political operatives, who are quietly trying to undo the antitrust lawsuit launched against Ticketmaster/Live Nation under President Biden’s DOJ.

That’s why I’m deeply concerned about AB 1349 in its current form. Rather than reining in Ticketmaster’s power, the bill risks strengthening it, aligning with Trump. AB 1349 gives Ticketmaster the ability to control a consumer’s ticket forever by granting Ticketmaster’s regime new powers in state law to prevent consumers from reselling or giving away their tickets. It also creates new pathways for Ticketmaster to discriminate and retaliate against consumers who choose to shop around for the best service and fees on resale platforms that aren’t yet controlled by Ticketmaster. These provisions are anti-consumer and anti-democratic.

California has an opportunity to stand with consumers, to demand transparency, and to restore genuine competition in this industry. But that requires legislation developed with input from the community and faith leaders, not proposals backed by the very company causing the harm.

Will our laws reflect fairness, inclusion, and accountability? Or will we let corporate interests tighten their grip on spaces that should belong to everyone? I, for one, support the former and encourage the California Legislature to reject AB 1349 outright or amend it to remove any provisions that expand Ticketmaster’s control. I also urge community members to contact their representatives and advocate for accessible, inclusive live events for all Californians. Let’s work together to ensure these gathering spaces remain open and welcoming to everyone, regardless of income or background.