Al Green formed his first gospel group at the age of nine in Forest City, Ark., and has been singing the gospel ever since. The Green Brothers toured throughout the South in the mid-1950s before the family relocated to Grand Rapids, Mich. There, Green began singing soul music on his own, incorporating gospel and his signature wild moans and wails. In 1976, when Green was at the peak of his popularity, he bought a church in Memphis, Tenn., and became an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle. At first he continued to record secular material, but by the ’80s, he was concentrating solely on gospel. Throughout the ’80s he released a series of gospel albums on Word/Myrrh. From 1981-89, Green won seven gospel Grammy Awards. In 1982 he appeared in the gospel musical, “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God,” with Patti Labelle. Green was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. In February 2002, the National Recording Academy’s National Trustees bestowed the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award to Al Green in a special televised segment on the 44th Annual Grammy Awards Show.
