Rev. Al Green, touring machine

When a pint-sized Al Green started singing at the age of 10, he was just another Arkansas sharecropper’s son with a big voice, bigger dreams and no hands for farming the land.

He joined a fledgling quartet that toured the South and led to flash-in-the-pan high school bands and regional gigs while still trying to find his voice.

But it wasn’t until he sang “Tired of Being Alone” on his second album (“Al Green Gets Next to You”) in 1970 that he started turning heads and making waves on the pop charts. By the time the R&B and soul hits started rolling in the ’70s — “Tired of Being Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “I’m Still in Love with You” and “Love and Happiness” — he was a household name.

Love and tragedy (his girlfriend committed suicide after scalding him with a boiling pot of grits) would inspire a dire return to his gospel roots and the church. By 1976, he was an ordained Memphis pastor, known to all as The Reverend Al Green.

But even the church couldn’t keep him away from the R&B charts. Today, he’s a 66-year-old touring machine, earning respect from every generation that has come upon the scene since he did — including President Obama, who sang the opening line to “Let’s Stay Together” this past January at an Apollo Theater fundraiser in New York.

The following week, the song was downloaded 16,000 times, the most since Nielsen began tracking web music in 2003.

Before The Reverend drops in (most likely with red roses in hand) for a Sunday sermon at Rodney Strong Vineyards, he took time to chat about babies, the church and Obama: