A Special Edition - The Man Behind the Music and The Last Hero

Ray Charles Robinson Jr., the eldest son of musical legend Ray Charles, confronts his father’s legacy in his new memoir: You Don’t Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles. The book is a window into the private life of the music icon, his personal struggles, and family life. He shares glimpses of his father’s long-term addiction to heroin, his affairs with women, and the struggle his mother faced in keeping the family together.

The memoir paints a painful and intimate picture of what it was like to be the son of one of the greatest musicians of all time. Ray Charles Robinson Jr. is an author and an independent film producer. He was the co-executive producer of Ray Charles: 50 Years of Music and co-producer of the motion picture Ray. He joins us this Sunday night for Cover to Cover.

Also on Cover to Cover this Sunday following the interview with Ray Charles Robinson Jr., ESPN Senior Writer Howard Bryant joins us to talk about his book: The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron. After surveying the damage done to the National Pastime by the steroid era in his book, Juicing the Game, Bryant wanted to focus on a more positive story from the world of baseball. After four years of research and writing, he has delivered a sweeping, definitive and inspiring biography.

In his book, Bryant thoroughly chronicles Aaron's life from his impoverished boyhood in racially divided Mobile, Alabama through his often difficult but long and incomparably productive major league career and beyond. According to Bryant, Aaron's life represents a portrait of America from his birth during the Depression, when Blacks were still prohibited from playing Major League Baseball, through the present, when he is universally recognized as one of the greatest players in the game's history, and an African-American occupies the White House.

As a long-time sports writer, Bryant provides an informed appraisal of Aaron's Hall-of-Fame career, but as an author concerned with sport's significance in the greater context of American history and race relations, Bryant is equal to that task as well, having written an exceptional account of a fascinating subject.

Join us for a special one hour edition of Cover to Cover starting this Sunday night at 8 on GPB Radio.