North alum's life took him from Harlem to San Francisco. IU group honoring him Saturday.

EVANSVILLE − North High School graduate Clif Payne is among three "Singing Hoosiers" alums who will be honored at an upcoming spring concert for his musical accomplishments.

On Saturday, Payne will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Singing Hoosiers that honors him and his 45 years of service in the music industry.

"I could say I never had to decide what I wanted to do with my life because my family is full of singers and preachers," Payne told the Courier & Press.

Payne, 68, was born in Harlem, where his father James "Buddy" Payne was a jazz musician and his mother Aline was a singer. The family lived within walking distance of the famed Apollo Theater and lived in the same apartment building as Duke Ellington.

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He remembers going to the theater with his mother to watch his father perform.

After his father's 1959 death, his mother moved Clif and his brother back to her hometown of Evansville.

"Whenever I come back to Evansville, I always see things that remind me of families first and music second, always in that order," Payne said.

He and his family lived in the old Lincoln Gardens apartments, a part of which now house the Evansville African-American Museum. During his time at North, he was a tenor in the school choir. He also played the violin, guitar and mandolin in the orchestra.

It was in high school that he had an epiphany about a career in music: As he approached his girlfriend's house, she was playing Donny Hathaway's cover of "Jealous Guy."

"His voice just went through me," Payne said.

High school choir put him on the path to joining the Singing Hoosiers at Indiana University. In college, he decided he wanted to pursue a music career full-time, and he did just that.

"I never graduated, I left to pursue a full-time music career. And that's what makes this award more rewarding to me − I'm getting it based on the life experience of music."

Jen Goins, a former Singing Hoosier who now works in the IU Kelley School of Business, cited Payne's commitment to the group.

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"He's created pathways for folks in music and in the industry, in particular in his world," she said. "I mean, obviously, he's a Hoosier at heart, but I think he's always been very giving of his time and his talent."

Payne was nominated for the award by Myrna Reynolds, who learned of his work through research. In her nomination, Reynolds wrote about how Payne affected people in his 45-year music career.

"He has faced tremendous adversity in his life but has brought pleasure to thousands of people with his live and recorded music," she wrote. "His voice has also nurtured people's spirits with his leadership and singing in many churches. He is an extremely rare and versatile musician who excels in many genres of music − R&B, jazz, rock 'n roll, spirituals, American standards and classical. One measure of the quality of his work is not just the reaction of his audiences but the recognition that he receives from the most outstanding musicians in the world."

After turning down an offer to study under Leonard Bernstein, Payne decided to go on the road with an artist that worked with Stevie Wonder.

From there his career has had many turns: he was on the road from roughly 1976 to 1995, on "Star Search" in 1990, toured a few cities in Japan for a few months, and created a jingle for an Evansville car dealership. One of his biggest highlights came in 2016 when release his debut duet album with Freda Payne, "No Payne, No Gain," which reached No. 1 on England's soul/R&B charts. He opened shows for Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis and Dionne Warwick.

Today, Payne lives in California, where he teaches at the Community Music School and several other places around San Francisco He is a church music director and is currently planning his next album, all while preparing for recital and concert season.

"I never graduated, and I have a cousin who has two master's degrees from Harvard. I have a brother who's getting ready to work on his (doctorate). My late mom always wanted me to graduate or get some kind of recognition for the work that I did there," Payne said.

"For me, this is almost like my diploma. If I had to live my life over again, I would have stayed and gotten a diploma like my relatives did," he said.