Early Life
Pickett was born March 18, 1941 in Prattville, Alabama, and grew up singing in Baptist church choirs.
He was the fourth of 11 children and called his mother "the baddest woman in my book," telling historian Gerri Hirshey: "I get scared of her now. She used to hit me with anything, skillets, stove wood — (one time I ran away and) cried for a week. Stayed in the woods, me and my little dog." Pickett eventually left to live with his father in Detroit in 1955.
Read more about this topic: Wilson Pickett
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