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Ray Charles on the Mend
The 73-year-old genre-bending music master has undergone successful hip-replacement sugery, his company announced Tuesday.
Charles begged off his 2003 tour in July, citing nagging pain in his left hip. It was the first time in 53 years that the piano-pounding icon canceled a tour.
He underwent the hip-replacement procedure last week in Los Angeles and is currently convalescing at his Beverly Hills spread.
"I feel terrific and am so thankful to the good Lord that all is going well for me," said Charles in a statement.
A full recovery is expected. Per the statement from his company, Charles is "up and walking every day and is also returning to work" in his landmark studio in Los Angeles. Charles will take on "a light workload" at his RPM Studios, producing albums for his Crossover Records label and putting the finishing touches on a long-in-the-works gospel CD and recording a duets album.
And he still plans to launch a new tour in March.
"I can't wait to get back on the road, which is my second home. I want to thank the folks in person for all their prayers and good wishes," added Charles. "All my life, I've been touring and performing. It's what I do."
The bum hip might have sidelined him, but it's only been a temporary setback for the surprisingly spry Charles.
While hospitalized, he inked a $1 million check to establish an Afican-American studies program at Dillard University in New Orleans.
Later this month, Charles will put the wraps on his blues songwriting contest. Charles has been soliciting lyrics from teenage blues fans through his Sir Charles Blues Lab Website (blueslab.org). Contestants have until December 15 to submit their tunes. Charles, Alicia Keys, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist will judge the entries, with five winners being flown to Charles' L.A. studio to record their music under his guidance.
Charles, who performed his 10,000th show in May, also participated in Piano Blues, the Clint Eastwood-directed installment of the PBS documentary series Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues.
The Georgia-born Charles has been a pioneer in soul, R&B, rock 'n' roll and even country and western in a career stretching all the way back into the '50s. His greatest hits include "Georgia On My Mind," "Unchain My Heart," "What'd I Say" and "I Can't Stop Loving You."
The singer, blind since the age of seven, has won 13 Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was one of the original inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. He's also a card-carrying member of the Jazz Hall of Fame and has received the prestigious Presidential Medal for the Arts and Kennedy Center Honors, among a case full of trophies.
A movie based on his life, Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Story, starring Jamie Foxx in the title role, has wrapped principal photography and should be in theaters next year.
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