From our March 28, 2018 show about DC Legends, here’s our interview with professor Gayle Wald the author of “Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Gospel artist Sister Rosetta Tharpe was instrumental in laying the foundation for the music genre that would later be named Rock and Roll. Tharpe’s first hit “Rock Me” was recorded in 1938, when Elvis Presley was 3 years old. Elvis along with Chuck Berry and many others would claim to be influenced by and admirers of Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s stage performance and innovative guitar playing.
On July 3, 1951, Tharpe married her third husband, Russell Morrison, in a ceremony at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. before twenty thousand gift-bearing fans.
In 1957 Sister Rosetta Tharpe moved to Philadelphia Pa. Lived there till she died on October 9, 1973. The true “Queen of Rock n Roll” wouldn’t receive a headstone on her gravesite till 2009.
