On Christmas Day 1954 in Houston, Texas, Johnny Ace bought a gleaming new 1955 Oldsmobile and, barely an hour later, accidentally shot himself backstage at his own concert. The fatal gunshot made him the first artist in history to cross over onto the Billboard pop charts posthumously. This episode traces the brief, meteoric life of the early rhythm and blues pioneer born John Marshall Alexander Jr. in Memphis in 1929, the son of a preacher who chafed against every institution he encountered, from his father's church to a Navy stint marked by repeated absences without leave.

We follow him onto Beale Street, where he played piano alongside B.B. King, Bobby Bland, Junior Parker and Rosco Gordon in the loose collective known as the Beale Streeters, and stepped into the spotlight and King's WDIA radio show when the group splintered. We unpack th ...