In 1946, Green was born Albert Greene in the small sharecropping town of Dansby, Arkansas. Robert and Cora Greene had eleven children, with Al being the sixth. Soon after Al’s birth, the family relocated to another tiny village called Jacknash, where he spent his formative years.
Robert Greene, a fourth-generation sharecropper who was also devout, was looking for an alternative to his life of farming a few hundred acres in exchange for a house and a share of the crops he produced.
Al Green parents: Meet Robert Greene, Cora Greene
The Greene family valued music, and Robert established a gospel quartet he dubbed the Greene Brothers with Al’s three elder brothers. Al accompanied them in his father’s truck until he was old enough to learn the songs and sing along while they performed at local churches in Arkansas.
Al’s father envisioned his family succeeding in the gospel music industry. The Soul Stirrers, Swan Silvertones, and Dixie Hummingbirds were the actual superstars among black audiences in the early 1950s.
