Sir Charles Jones

The King of Southern Soul

Sir Charles Jones, also known as “The King of Southern Soul”, is a native of Akron Ohio. He has many fond memories of a childhood in Ohio with his siblings and parents and spoke highly and proudly of his parents and respects them for the wholesome values they instilled. His roots are strong and tough, and it had to be that way. His purpose, he would later find out, would require that strength.

The family later moved to Birmingham, Alabama. This is when, the young Charles, noticed that he had a gift of singing. His parents saw it too. It was not until high school that the truth of his gift came to fruition. The high school band director, who had a stern no-nonsense approach, heard him singing in the hallways and took notice. Mr. Merriweather, as Sir Charles says, “put an instrument in my hand and told me that I was going to learn how to read music and he had my classes changed so that I could be in band. He woke up things in me that I knew I had, but I did not know I possessed that gift ten times better.” Mr. Merriweather, a seasoned musician, had an ear for greatness and was not giving young Charles a choice in the matter. That man saw something deep in Charles and pulled it out to surface. Greatness was most definitely on its way.

Sir Charles went on to explain the beginning years of his career, saying, “One of the biggest blessings to me was when I came under the guidance of Johnny Taylor, Tyrone Davis, Marvin Sease, Latimore, Shirley Brown, Bobby Blue Bland and others. I was so thankful to them for allowing me to grace their presence because they were the elite”. They did more than grace his presence, they were indeed investing in him, teaching him the industry. They kept him close and prepared him to accept the “torch” when they were gone. The blues and soul music genre can be viewed as a dying genre and they were teaching him to keep it alive. He had a mission now. Just like adding fuel to fire, when his mission and his gift aligned, it was then that Sir Charles Jones, The King of Southern Soul, was on solid ground.

Sir Charles also pays homage to the late Gerald Levert, who he said was one of his best friends in the industry and helped him “cross-over”. The two toured together at one time and as he explains, “I brought my Southern Soul fans and Gerald Levert brought his R&B fans and it all married well. We kept sold out shows”. They even played on The Grand Ole Opry Stage together.

As his past endeavors has shown, he does not mind venturing away from the normal routines and collaborating with artists of different genres. In fact, he and rapper, Boosie Badazz, have an upcoming tribute song dedicated to their mothers that will debut on Mother’s Day. He also has Badd Newz, a promising rapper that he has brought on board who is receiving rave reviews and acceptance within the much-protected blues and soul genre. To top it all off, he has a solo CD dropping on his birthday April 25, 2021 entitled, “Chosen One”. When asked what kind of content the fans could expect, he said, to expect much of the same and “there is one song called Eternity that I feel will be big”. Sir Charles explains how he believes in and portrays through his music, that “love does exist, and it will always remain.”

The Billboard charting King of Southern Soul revealed