Eric "Ricky" McKinnie

Eric "Ricky" McKinnie (born July 12, 1952) is a blind American gospel singer,[1] drummer,[2] radio show host, recording studio owner, stage actor, and songwriter, best known for performing with the Blind Boys of Alabama, a gospel group that has won six Grammy Awards and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy.

McKinnie and his family lived in the Carver Homes housing projects before moving to the southwestern Atlanta neighborhood of Pittsburgh and later Kirkwood.

During McKinnie's time with the group, the Gospel Keynotes recorded hit singles "Jesus, You Been Good to Me" and "That's My Son Hanging on the Cross."

[3] In the 1980s, McKinnie hosted the radio and television show Rock with Ricky, but was forced to shelve this to work more closely with the Blind Boys of Alabama.

McKinnie, who was not with the Blind Boys of Alabama during productions of Lee Breuer and Bob Telson's The Gospel at Colonus in Atlanta in 1987 and on Broadway in 1988, performed with the group on September 4–9, 2018 at Central Park's Delacorte Theatre in New York in a limited run of free shows that prompted celebration among fans and critics alike.

Ricky McKinnie has been included in two volumes of the New York Times best-selling Six-Word Memoirs Series, including Six Words: Fresh Off the Boat: Stories of Immigration, Identity, and Coming to America (2017), for which McKinnie was a guest speaker at Six Words Fresh Off the Boat: A Backstory Show in Atlanta on May 23, 2018, at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta.