Wilson Pickett
*Wilson Pickett was born on this date in 1941. He was a Black singer.
Pickett was born in Prattville, Alabama, the youngest of 11 children. He once called his mother "the baddest woman in my book; she used to hit me with anything, skillets, stove wood; one time, I ran away and cried for a week.” Pickett grew up singing in Baptist church choirs and eventually left to live with his father in Detroit. He began his musical career with The Falcons in early 1959. Five years later, he signed as a solo artist with Atlantic Records and recorded "In the Midnight Hour" (1965).
He also gave Stax Records bona fide hits "Mustang Sally," “634-5789”, "Funky Broadway," and "Land of 1000 Dances". By the early 1970s, Pickett had released several more hits, including a cover of "Hey Jude" and "Sugar, Sugar." His last hit song was "Fire and Water" in 1972. Pickett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. In 1993, he was convicted of drunk driving and sentenced to one year in jail after hitting an 86-year-old man with his car. Pickett had been previously convicted of various drug offenses.
After his release, he returned to the studio and received a Grammy nomination for the 1999 album It's Harder Now. Pickett died of a heart attack at a hospital near his Reston, Virginia home on January 19, 2006.
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