Keith Urban, Kix Brooks, David Lee Murphy, Casey Beathard and Rafe Van Hoy are the newest inductees into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. The class of 2023 was announced at a press conference on Thursday (August 3) at the historic Columbia Studio A on Music Row where such hits as George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and Roger Miller’s “King of the Road” were written.
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“The National Songwriters Foundation is a not-for-profit dedicated to honoring Nashville’s rich legacy of songwriting excellence through preservation, celebration, and education,” Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Chair of the Board of Directors Rich Hallworth says. “Induction into the Hall is one of the nation’s most highly prized songwriting achievements.”
That sentiment was echoed by all of the new inductees. For Urban, who’s being inducted in the 20-year songwriter-artist category, it was a truly full circle moment. The superstar got the call about his induction while rehearsing at a venue that happened to be across the street from the motel where he stayed during his first trip to Nashville in 1989.
The Australian native recalled how he was determined to see a show at the famed songwriter venue, The Bluebird Cafe, and witnessed a round with legendary writers Don Schlitz, Craig Bickhardt, Thomas Schuyler and Fred Knoblock during that fateful first trip. “It was just like another world had opened up to me as a songwriter,” Urban professes, also praising Brooks for believing in him as a new writer in town, with Brooks & Dunn taking Urban on his first tour before he was signed to a label. “I knew right then and there I wanted to be here. I wanted to learn more about writing.”
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“The songwriting community in general, it was my first tribe when I moved to town,” Urban shares in an interview with American Songwriter after the announcement. “We’re all in this together. We’re all part of this big family whether you’re on stage, behind stage, the audience, the crew, everybody is part of this musical journey.”
The news of his induction not only had Brooks nostalgic, but emotional. Inducted into the category of 30-year veteran songwriter-artist, Brooks recalled how he and Murphy worked together sweeping floors at Musicians Hall of Fame and cutting their teeth as songwriters at Springwater Supper Club & Lounge in Nashville before he hit it big as one-half of the duo Brooks & Dunn with Ronnie Dunn.
“Ronnie and I have been blessed with quite a bit of success and when I got that call the other day, it just blew me away,” Brooks raves about the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. “I came here as a fan of songwriters. It’s all I wanted to do. My heroes were not just artists, but artists that wrote their own songs.”
The “Red Dirt Road” writer shared that when he got the news, he instantly started weeping, and could barely muster the words to his wife. Part of what made him so emotional was the fact that he had been nominated in the past, thinking his chances of being inducted were over. “It shocked me to the point that I literally could not speak,” Brooks tells American Songwriter. “I’m such a huge fan of the great songs and great songwriters, that’s why I came to Nashville in the first place.”
The country superstar compared the feeling to when he got his first cut as a songwriter, “Old Kentucky Song” on The Oak Ridge Boys’ chart-topping 1982 album, Bobbie Sue. “The last time I remember tears in my eyes or something like this was when I got my first cut,” Brooks says with tears welling. “It was honestly the same kind of feeling. It was the recognition of really what I came here for. And this is a bigger thing.”
That sense of community that Urban touched on is a feeling shared by Murphy. The “Dust on the Bottle” singer is being inducted into the 20-year songwriter category. “The songwriter community in Nashville is such a tight-knit group of people,” the man who co-wrote Kenny Chesney’s hits “Living in Fast Forward, “Til It’s Gone” and their duet “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” comments. “It’s a special group of people that are songwriters in Nashville. They’re supportive and hugely talented and creative. That makes it that much more special for me to be here today.”
Beathard admits that he thought when he got the call from the Hall of Fame that he was going to be faced with rejection on the other end of the phone. As the writer behind such chart-toppers as Eric Church’s “Hell of a View,” Chesney’s “The Boys of Fall” and Darius Rucker’s “Come Back Song,” Beathard got to the root of songwriting: self-expression. “I didn’t move here for this,” the 20-year songwriter inductee says. “I moved here because I just love it. I love expressing myself through my heart and being with friends.”
Thirty-year veteran songwriter category inductee Hoy says the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame was always the dream, but one he never expected to come to fruition. A native of Bristol, Tennessee, Hoy’s passion for songwriting was encouraged by his father. He ultimately moved to Nashville in 1972. Among his biggest hits are “Golden Ring” by George Jones and Tammy Wynette, the Grammy-nominated “Friday Night Blues” by John Conley, and “Hurt Me Bad in a Real Good Way” by Patty Loveless.
“To be in the Hall of Fame is something I always dreamed of and hoped would happen someday, but I had no illusions that actually would ever happen,” he says. “So to be included with the club of brilliant minds, brilliant songwriters and great people that are in the Hall of Fame; to be one of you guys and to be one of them is unbelievably humbling and immense gratitude from my heart.”
The 2023 induction ceremony will take place at the Hall of Fame’s annual gala on October 11 at the Music City Center in Nashville.
Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images
