NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — For one country singer, two very different career paths defined his life. He began breaking barriers and hoped to open doors for others. Now, he's ready to share his story in some big ways.
"You hold the pen in your hand to write your chapters," said Cleve Francis, speaking from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Francis grew up in Jennings, Louisiana. In a segregated time, his mother had limited opportunities.
"She had about a third or fourth grade education," Francis remembered. "They had to abandon school to pick corn or cotton whenever the season came around."
Still, she wanted her son to pursue dreams. When Francis was about nine, his mother started saving quarters in a jar.
"She got to about $12.50," he remembered. "She was able to make a down payment on that guitar that you see."
He motioned to a guitar behind him in the room.
"That was my first guitar."
Francis had a passion for music, but like I said, his story isn't like anyone else's.
Dr. Cleve Francis became a cardiologist, though his story would eventually to take him to Nashville.
Recording music on the smaller Playback Records label, Francis shot a video for a song called Love Light. It ended up getting plays on CMT. It was 1992, and Francis was wondering if he could find a place in country music.
"I talked to patients, they said, 'you need to try this cause if you don't, you're going to wonder the rest of your life what would happen if you did,'" Francis remembered.
Francis signed with Liberty Records and became one of the few Black country artists on a major label since Charley Pride. That was commanding attention from artists like Frankie Staton.
"I was excited for him," Staton nodded. "We always believe when we see a Black artist break through, it's going to open the door for other people."
By the late 90s, Francis and Staton were hosting showcase nights at the Bluebird Cafe for their Black Country Music Association. They were trying to give a chance to up-and-coming Black artists.
"I was just dealing with, 'it has nothing to do with you people,'" Staton remembered. "Right behind them, someone comes along saying, 'we've been waiting on Black people to get into country music!' We had a huge African American presence, and I'm like, 'you closet country music lovers, I knew you were there!'"
"The public had grown up since the 1920s thinking this was a big divide, there was a tree branching into white and Black music," Francis added. "It was artificial. It was totally in response to our racial history. It wasn't the truth."
Francis had four singles make Billboard's country charts when something in his medical career made him question continuing in music.
"I almost missed detecting an aortic aneurysm, which is one of the true emergencies in our field," Francis said. "I missed a very key finding on a physical exam, and luckily, we went back and found it and saved the patient's life, and I thought, 'okay, I cannot do both of these things.'"
Now retired from his cardiology practice, Francis is releasing his autobiography co-published through the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Do My Heart Good: My Odyssey Through Country Music, Medicine, and History will be released October 6. Pre-orders are available here.
Francis has donated a few things to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
"I was giving them the boots, and they said, 'we're ready for the guitar now,'" Francis said, referring to the guitar his mother bought. "This guitar, it cried with me, and it knows what we went through."
Francis took the stage to perform on the Grand Ole Opry Friday night.
"I am so proud of him, I don't know what to do," Staton said.
"I see myself as a legacy, the legacy of my mother, these people who are not in this time, but their dreams have come through me," Francis said.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
Every night, Forrest Sanders brings us stories showcasing the best of humanity. This story profiles, perhaps, Tennessee's most eccentric resident who made an impact on an aspiring journalist. I'm always in awe of Forrest's storytelling; I truly appreciated his vulnerability with this one.
- Carrie Sharp
