"Love At First Sound": Blind From Birth Ronnie Milsap Found Love Of His Life By Ear

Jan 29, 2020

The country and pop music fusion is pretty popular these days thanks to megastars such as Taylor Swift, but Ronnie Milsap was the crossover king from about 1970 to the 1980s. Many of Milsap's fans know about his six Grammy awards, and they also know that he has been blind since birth, but what they may not know is that his life has been marked with tragedy as well as respite.

Born in the midst of World War II in an impoverished region of the Carolinas, Milsap was raised by grandparents because his single mom did not feel that she could care for him. Thankfully, the family owned a vacuum tube radio that played nightly blues, gospel, and country music shows, which young Milsap was fascinated with. Even more thankfully, neighbors suggested that Milsap should take advantage of a school for the blind in Raleigh, and that is where he relocated to at the age of five.

Milsap has always had a thing for sound. What little he could see out of one eye at school, where he practiced piano along with other instruments, he ended up losing when a teacher slapped him at the age of 14. By the 1960s, Milsap was playing rhythm and blues, not country, with a band in Atlanta, where he met Joyce Reeves. In interviews, Milsap has explained that his heightened sense of hearing helped him to decipher the sweet sound of his future wife's voice, which to him sounded angelical. They have been married for more than five decades, and they had one son who passed away in 2019.

Ronnie and Joyce decided to have just one child because they feared congenital issues. Still, the couple enjoys the blessing of three grandchildren. Milsap has confessed that keeping the marriage together and alive has not always been easy; however, Joyce has also been an important factor in his musical success because she has a very sharp sense of song structure and can provide constructive criticism. For her part, Joyce has stated that she was always attracted to her husband; after all, he is a tall, good-looking man, and she has always been amazed at how perceptive he can be. People who cannot see use all of their senses to live their lives, and this brings about a heightened state of perception.

If you are touched by Milsap's story, post it on your social media feed so that country music fans can learn more about this happy couple. Do you have any exceptional love stories to share?