Kenny Chesney, June Carter Cash, and Tony Brown are 2025’s class of inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
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The Country Music Association announced Tuesday morning during an event at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Headed for country music’s most exclusive club, the group will officially become members during the Medallion Ceremony at the Hall’s CMA Theater later this year.
“The Country Music Hall of Fame in this rotunda is where the country music story is told,” said Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern.
Trahern was standing at a podium in the center of the rotunda, surrounded by decades of plaques the organization presented to its members.
“Today, we add three new names to that story,” she said. “Each year, this moment reminds us of why we do what we do,” she said. “Today, we honor not just talent, but impact and not just success, but legacy.”
Twenty Five Percent of Country Music Hall of Fame Members are From Three States
Hall of Fame member Vince Gill hosted the announcement. He introduced the inductees in three categories. Carter Cash will enter as the Veterans Era Artist. Chesney is the Modern Era Artist. And producer Tony Brown is the Non-Performer, awarded every third year in rotation with two other categories. The Modern Era Artist category is open to artists 20 years after they first achieved national prominence. The CMA considers a singer for Veterans Era at 45 years after national prominence.
“They come from North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee,” said CMHoF CEO Kyle Young. “You might call those the fertile Crescent of country music. With the addition of our three newest members, a full 25 percent of the Hall of Fame members will hail from North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee.”
Young said each individual had made an indelible impact on country music before they achieved the pinnacle of Hall of Fame inclusion.
“They’ve firmly establish themselves as unforgettable contributors to our music,” Young continued. “They will now forever be enshrined here with their illustrious peers who shaped our art form.”
Kenny Chesney Would Have Said You Were Crazy
Chesney said from the podium that it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago since he was a child in East Tennessee. The Modern Era inductee remembers going to a field just down the street from his house to see Alabama perform. It changed his life.
“I couldn’t believe they were gonna play just right down the road from my house,” Chesney said. “I went to that show, and something happened to me. There was a fire lit. Something happened in my soul that set me on this path. If you’d have told that kid that hot summer night in East Tennessee that this was gonna happen, I would have told you that you were crazy.”
Chesney, Carter Cash, and Brown will be the 156th, 157th and 158th members of country music’s most esteemed organization. The Country Music Association created the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961. The purpose? To trumpet the genre’s most accomplished and beloved members and preserve their legacy.
Carlene Carter: “My Mom was the Shit, Y’all”
“I just can’t tell you all what this means to us,” said Carter Cash’s daughter, Carlene Carter. “My mom was a force of nature. Everything she did, she did with grace and style, finesse and humor. I’m so proud to be her daughter. Anything that is good about me is because of that woman. My mom was the shit, y’all.”
An anonymous panel of voters chosen by the CMA annually elects new members who are formally inducted in the invitation-only Medallion Ceremony. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization and does not participate in the election.
(Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
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