Vince Gill is many things to many people. He’s a Country Music Hall of Famer, a Grand Ole Opry member, and the newest member of the Eagles. He’s Amy Grant’s husband and, Jenny Gill, and Corrina Grant Gill’s dad. The Oklahoman is a BMI Icon Award winner with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, has won 22 Grammy Awards, and has sold over 30 million albums.
Recently, when Gill was helping reveal the 2025 class of Country Music Hall of Fame inductees, he jokingly made a new revelation.
He was also June Carter Cash’s purse holder.
“One thing I get to have on my resume is she was getting a lifetime achievement award at one of the awards she shows; I can’t remember which one,” Gill said. “They asked me if I would escort her out, help her get to the podium, and say her remarks. Of course, I did. I walked out there with her, and she handed me her purse. I never said a word, but I was her purse handler. It’s in my resume.”
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Vince Gill Announced June Carter Cash a Country Music Hall of Fame Inductee
The crowd laughed at Gill’s self-effacing humor, which he genuinely designed to highlight Carter Cash’s importance. Carter Cash is the veteran’s era artist inductee. She married country icon Johnny Cash on March 1, 1968, in Franklin, KY. The couple was married for 35 years. Gill quoted Johnny Cash as saying he worried her accomplishments would go unrecognized because his career overshadowed her.
“Johnny once said that his wife was one of the most neglected artists in country music,” Gill said. Then he quoted Cash: “Sadly, I think her contributions to country music will go underrecognized, simply because she’s my wife.’ That was, he wrote, his only regret about marrying June.”
Gill relayed that Carter Cash was born in Virginia in 1929 –literally into country music history. Her mother and uncle were part of the Carter Family trio, the foundation of commercial country music. Carter Cash was playing autoharp on her family’s radio broadcasts by the time she was 10 years old. The Carter Family appeared on radio shows throughout the South and East before setting their sights on the Grand Ole Opry in 1950.
Around the same time, Carter Cash studied acting in New York City and even appeared in “Gunsmoke.”
“I had no idea she was Festus,” Gill quipped.
Vince Gill Jokes June Carter Cash was Festus in “Gunsmoke”
Then she returned to her family band, where she met Cash on tour. Her feelings for the singer inspired her to write his classic hit “Ring of Fire.”
She won several Grammys throughout her life, including a few with her husband. She even made their Hendersonville, Tennessee, home a creative meeting place for singers and songwriters, including Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Larry Gatlin.
But holding her purse isn’t the only memory Gill has of Carter Cash. He also remembers trying to sing with her. She was irritated because he was on her note during rehearsal.
Gill remembers they started the song in rehearsal and that he was singing the tenor above Rodney Crowell. She stopped the singing to complain.
Imitating her voice, Gill repeated what she said: “Johnny! Johnny! Somebody is singing my part.”
“Rodney looked at me and goes, ‘Do not move,’” Gill said. “She looked at me and said, ‘Son, what are you singing?’ ‘I don’t know. I’m just singing the part Rodney told me to sing.’ She goes, ‘Johnny, what are you singing?’”
Mimicking Cash’s voice, Gill said: “I’m just singing the bass way down low.”
“Low and behold,” Gill said, “I graduated from harmony singer to purse holder.”
Carter Cash will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame alongside Kenny Chesney and producer Tony Brown during the Medallion Ceremony this fall.
(Photo by Ed Rode/Getty Images)
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