For decades, Janie Price helped manage Ray Price’s career from behind the scenes. After he died in December 2013, she faced a new role: speaking publicly about the album he had completed but could no longer promote.
Ray and Janie married in 1970, and she served as his personal business manager throughout their marriage. She arranged interviews and handled the practical work around his career, but was accustomed to handing the phone to Ray rather than answering questions herself.
That changed as the release of Beauty Is… approached. Steve Popovich Jr. contacted Janie after Ray’s funeral to ask her to help introduce the record. In a 2014 interview, she described telling him she was not ready to leave the house. He gave her time and called again, while the album’s release drew nearer.
Ray had worked on Beauty Is… during his final year, as he was being treated for pancreatic cancer. He completed the album with producer Fred Foster and had selected a record label, according to Janie. With much of the music and release planning in place, promoting it required someone to explain Ray’s intentions and meet the people who wanted to hear about him. That work now fell to her.
A song she had waited years to hear
One selection carried a particular history for Janie. She had suggested “An Affair to Remember” to Ray for years, but he had not found an album where he thought it fit. Foster felt it belonged on Beauty Is…, and Ray recorded it as a duet with Martina McBride.
Janie’s long-running request was finally part of a Ray Price album. By the time she began speaking to the press, the performance was already complete: she could share the story of the song, but there was no longer a chance to persuade Ray to record it.
Beauty Is… was released in 2014, and Janie began giving interviews about the record. She also met listeners who came to share memories of Ray and the place his voice held in their lives. The public work was different from the business management she had done for years. Before, an interview could end with Ray taking the receiver. Now the questions were hers to answer.
Janie could not finish the album’s work in the studio; Ray had done that. Her part was to carry its story beyond the recording sessions and help listeners understand what he had intended for the record. The calls that once brought her husband to the phone now came to her.
