Becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry is one of the highest honors a country artist can achieve. An institution for the past 98 years, the Opry has left an indelible mark in the genre. Today, the Opry is giving back to a new class of country acts with its NextStage program.
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Launched in 2019, the Opry NextStage program aims to foster the discovery of rising country music talent. Each year the Opry announces a new class and invests in helping the emerging acts grow their careers through live performances and digital broadcasts. American Songwriter chatted with Opry NextStage Class of 2023 members Jackson Dean, Corey Kent, and Kameron Marlowe backstage at the Opry NextStage Live concert about their year in the program. The event was hosted by 2021 NextStage alumna and CMA Entertainer of the Year Lainey Wilson on Wednesday (December 6) at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville.
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“I feel very, very privileged,” Dean tells American Songwriter of being recognized by the Opry for its NextStage program. “I’m just a kid from Maryland that can make some frequencies with his windpipe and his vocal chords. To be playing the Opry in the first place … I remember the first time I was like, ‘Oh, hell yeah. I’m gonna come out of the gate, eight seconds here we go.’ It felt like eight seconds, it was over so quick. The Opry being behind me … they’re putting their faith in us.”
On Wednesday night, Dean’s three-song fiery set for the third Opry NextStage Live concert featured his top 20 single “Fearless” and his No. 1 breakout “Don’t Come Lookin’.” He shared with the audience that his chart-topper and name of his 2024 Head Full of Noise Tour was inspired, in part, by what his mother used to tell him when he was a child.
“The name of that tour came from the first line of this song, the one that changed my life,” he explained on stage before closing out his set with “Don’t Come Lookin’.” “My mother was kind enough to give me the tag for. This was a smart-aleck thing between a teenage boy and his mother growing up. I would run off in the woods for a couple hours and she said, ‘Stay alive, don’t die. If I start yelling, stay within earshot.’ One day I said, ‘If I don’t come back, I don’t want to be found. Don’t come lookin’ for me.'”
Dean also shared his gratitude for the Opry audience. “Thank y’all for making this feel like home for us,” he said during his performance. The singer shows no signs of slowing down in 2024. Following his headlining tour, Dean will hit the road next year with 2019 alumna Wilson on her Country’s Cool Again Tour. He has also collaborated with several of his NextStage class members. He has shared the stage several times with Marlowe doing guitar pulls and has a duet with fellow NextStage Class of 2023 member Ashley Cooke, “What Are You On Fire About,” which Wilson wrote.
“To top it off with her tonight is really awesome,” he says of Opry NextStage Live host and future tourmate Wilson. “I’ve seen her rise. We’ve all watched. I’ve been watching her rise for a long time, and it’s really awesome to see her get where she deserves. She is the real deal and she wants it. She wants it more than a lot of people, I think, too.”
For Marlowe, being a member of the Opry NextStage Class of 2023 was “an absolute blessing.” He says he’s made a point to learn from each member as well as write and get inspiration. Other NextStage Class of 2023 members are Chapel Hart, Ian Munsick, ERNEST, and Megan Moroney.
“I’m very thankful to be a part of this class, around so many other great artists, great songwriters, and just great people,” Marlowe, who debuted a stirring and soulful new song “Quit You” written for his fiancée on the Opry stage, says.
He says being a part of the Opry NextStage program has been “a blessing.” He adds that he listens to his classmates’ songs and tries to learn and write with them to get inspiration.
“I’ve bounced my songwriting off of other people a lot,” he says. “Some people I’ve actually written with in this room.”
The history of the Grand Ole Opry was not lost on Texas-based singer/songwriter Kent. The singer, who has a No. 1 hit with “Wild As Her,” says being recognized by the Opry is “an honor.”
Kent got his start playing Western swing music and learned about being a performer firsthand from opening for late Grand Ole Opry members Roy Clark and Dr. Ralph Stanley as well as Opry members the Oak Ridge Boys. He says being at the Opry and seeing their names on the wall was pivotal for him.
“There’s so much history here and there’s so many iconic country artists that have carried the torch for the Grand Ole Opry to where it is right now,” Kent says, “and passed down the traditions and kept the common thread of country music alive and part of that is community and a family. There’s members here and then there’s people like me that get invited to peek behind the curtain and get a taste of what it would be like to maybe someday be a member.
“I am just such a big country music history buff,” he adds. “This is one of the coolest things that you could do. … I remember when I was 16, a conversation that Roy Clark and I had. … I’ve been around these people and to have firsthand experiences with members, some still here and some are gone now. But to have real tangible memories with those people and then being entrusted to at least for this next generation of country musicians, we did get selected to play a very small role in carrying the torch for it. It’s an honor. It’s been a really great experience.”
Opry NextStage Live 2023 came to a triumphant close with a spirited performance from Wilson. She left her hosting duties to sing her recent No. 1 hit “Watermelon Moonshine” before she segued into “Heart Like a Truck.” For the latter, the Opry NextStage Class of 2023 members Cooke, Dean, Marlowe, Kent, Hart, and ERNEST joined in on the last chorus.
“This past year has been a whirlwind,” Wilson said. “I want to play a song that has been part of this whirlwind year. This song right here is about embracing those scratches and those dents and the bumps along the way ’cause that right there gives you a dang story to tell.”
For more information on Opry NextStage, visit the Opry website.
Photo Credits: Catherine Powell / Courtesy The Grand Ole Opry
