Soul singer Al Green was hospitalized with second-degree burns on his back and arms, after a distraught lover through boiling grits on his back early in the morning today (October 18, 1974) and committed suicide.
The incident happened around 1:00 AM at the soul singer’s mansion just outside of Memphis, Tennessee.
Mary Woodson, of Madison New Jersey, was a mother of three and had been seeing Al Green for almost a year.
Green even admitted to having the tune “Sha La La La” Woodson, who was also already married unbeknownst to the singer at the time.
But Woodson became distraught after Al Green refused her marriage proposal, just moments before she shot herself.
Woodson, 29, left a suicide letter in her purse, addressed to Al Green.
“All I wanted to be with you and love you until I die. I love you, Al. I’m not mad, just unhappy because I can’t be with you,” Mary Woodson wrote in her suicide letter to Al Green.
Al Green was at the top of at the height of his career with the tragedy struck,.
According to reports, by 1974, Al Green had earned eight gold and three platinum singles, in addition to seven gold and three platinum albums.
Shortly after the incident, Al Green became an ordained minister and eventually gave up singing secular music, to become the pastor of his own congregation in 1977.
Waxfact: Shortly after the incident in 1974, sex tapes featuring Al Green was being shopped to various media outlets.
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