As the story has been told, on October 18th 1974, Mary Woodson stormed into the bathroom of Al Green's Memphis home and threw hot grits onto him while in the bathtub. After ensuring that she had done the intended damage, Mary went into one of the bedrooms and committed suicide-with one of Al Green's guns. Further complicating matter's, it would later be discovered that Mary Woodson was actually married with children.
Al is said to have been unaware that Mary was married, but the two had been romantically involved since 1969, when they met at one of Al's shows in Upstate New York. On the night of the incident, Al Green claimed that Mrs. Woodson had proposed marriage to him but he turned her down. Mrs. Woodson would be buried six days later, and Al would require skin grafts to address his severe burns. Ultimately Al would become an ordained Minister, and purchase a church in Memphis. Al would abandon the Soul Music genre-in favor of Gospel-for at least the next decade.