Episode Details

Ray Charles went blind at seven, lost both parents by fifteen, and became addicted to heroin before he turned twenty. He also invented soul music by fusing gospel, blues, and jazz in a way that scandalized the church and electrified everyone else. His voice is one of the most recognizable sounds in American music.

This episode traces how Charles turned personal catastrophe into artistic revolution and built a career that spanned five decades and every genre he touched.

• How he fused sacred gospel with secular blues and created soul
• The heroin addiction and the arrest that forced him to get clean
• His crossover into country music with Modern Sounds in Country and Western
• Why his version of Georgia On My Mind became a civil rights anthem