Al Green — Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, Memphis

Al Green founded the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church at 787 Hale Road in Whitehaven, Memphis, in 1976, and has served as its pastor ever since. The church was Green's response to a profound spiritual crisis: in October 1974, his companion Mary Woodson poured boiling grits on him while he was in the bathtub before shooting herself with his pistol. Green survived with burns across his back; the incident prompted him to abandon secular music and devote himself to gospel. He was ordained as a full pastor in 1976 and the church has been his primary vocation since.

Green's secular career, from his emergence with Hi Records in the early 1970s — 'Tired of Being Alone,' 'Let's Stay Together,' 'I'm Still in Love with You,' 'Here I Am (Come and Take Me)' — was one of the great runs in American soul music. Producer Willie Mitchell's lush, immaculate Hi Sound and Green's exquisitely controlled falsetto created recordings that have never dated. He returned periodically to secular recording from the 1980s onwards, including the acclaimed gospel-informed pop of 'Put It Right Here' and his collaboration with Annie Lennox.

The Full Gospel Tabernacle holds Sunday services that are open to the public and regularly attract music tourists. Green himself often preaches. The church is in Whitehaven, the same South Memphis neighbourhood where Elvis Presley's Graceland is located — the two pilgrimage sites are only a few miles apart, making for a natural double-header.