By 1975, Charlie Rich was one of the biggest names in American music, famous for his soulful voice, white hair, and rebellious streak.
But when he stepped up to the podium to hand off his Entertainer of the Year crown at the CMA Awards, nobody in the audience was prepared for what he was about to do. With the cameras rolling, the superstar turned a simple envelope opening into the most shocking broadcast moment in country music history.
According to History, as the envelope containing the winner's name was handed to him onstage at the Grand Ole Opry House on October 13, 1975, Rich tore open the paper. He subsequently pulled a pocket lighter from his coat and set the card on fire right on live television.
Silence fell over the room as the paper burned before Rich finally announced the winner: "My friend, Mr. John Denver." Denver accepted the award via satellite, seemingly unaware of what the audiences just witnessed.
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Following, two camps were evident. Those who were against pop music's invasion of country music traditions, or those who felt Rich was in the wrong, causing an instant backlash and damage to his career.
J.P. Foster, the accountant representing the firm that tabulated the votes for the awards show, told The Tennessean newspaper (as reported by the website Echoes of the Ozarks) that he felt something was amiss when he handed Rich the envelope containing the name of the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year,
“‘All you’ve got to do is tear the end off the envelope,’” Foster said he told the entertainer. “That didn’t appeal to him. I tore it open and pulled the slip out a little bit.”
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After Rich's stunt, country star Narvel Felts was quoted by Echoes of the Ozarks as saying, “Glen Campbell came and got him by one shoulder and Charley Pride by the other one, kind of trying to move him out of that place because Chet Atkins was coming up next. And then some person came out there, like a producer or something, saying something to Charlie and pointing his finger at him,” Felts concluded.
Almost 20 years later, Rich said in a 1992 statement to NPR’s Fresh Airhost Terry Gross in 1992, “It may have been that I had been overworked in ’73, ’74, ’75 and that sort of thing, and maybe I was rebelling; but not against John Denver and not against country music.”
Rich continued, “I just – like I say, it was just a mistake that I made that I guess was important. But, actually, I think everything works to the good, so maybe I was saying, ‘Well, I want to try something else besides country,’ or something. I don’t know.”
Per History, Rich's son, Charlie Rich Jr., was quoted as saying his father “used bad judgment. He was human after all. I know the last thing my father would have wanted to do was set himself up as judge of another musician.”
Charlie Rich had a career comeback in 1992 with the LP Pictures and Paintings. He died in July 1995 at 62.
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