while attending a rock music club called the "whisky a go go" in 1972, charley pride heard a performance by ronnie milsap, a r&b-minded singer who impressed him. pride spoke to milsap, suggesting that a change of genre might help his career, and that he would make a good country singer. at that time, milsap was living in memphis, tennessee and had been performing for about three years at a nightclub called "t.j.'s". he had already landed two or three record deals, but had enjoyed little success and was frustrated about a lack of progress in his career. tom collins heard milsap perform in memphis and offered a proposal, entailing milsap moving to nashville, embracing country music, signing with a new label, and the potential of booking a nashville venue for live performances. collins would produce the recordings, jerry bradley would sign him to the rca record label, and jack johnson would be his manager. to do so, milsap had to buy his way out of an existing management contract. milsap stated, "i lost my house, everything i had worked for, and was $20,000 in debt. i came to nashville broke, busted and in high spirits that i could make something of myself".