The Grand Ole Opry marked its 100th anniversary Wednesday night with a live television special hosted by Blake Shelton on NBC. The event was packed with memorable moments including Dierks Bentley, Ketch Secor and Jamey Johnson covering Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood honoring George Jones and Tammy Wynette with “Golden Ring,” Carrie Underwood’s homage to Randy Travis and Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs singing Gill’s “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” which he dedicated to his mother. Like the Opry, Gill’s mom turns 100 this year.
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The dedication aligns with what Gill and wife Amy Grant told American Songwriter the Opry is all about before the show Wednesday night.
“It represents family and community,” Grant said of the Opry. “I watch Vince so many times come off the road, put his suitcase down, and then head for the Opry. It’s a love for what you do, and what makes something special is the sacrifice that people make to be here. It’s almost like a tradition that’s taught to the next generation.”
Amy Grant Says It’s a Tradition Taught to the “Next Generation”
Gill said his love of music and the Opry began early with the generation before him, and he didn’t realize it until his father died.
Before Gill told the story, he warned that he “may lose it and not be able to talk.” The Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry member recalled the time he brought his dad to The Grand Ole Opry. Little Jimmy Dickens was still alive, and Vince Gill’s dad approached him and shared that he couldn’t find a copy of Dickens’ 1949 song “Country Boy.” Gill’s dad told Dickens that he’d looked in every record store and just couldn’t find it.
“Jimmy said, ‘Well, give me your address, and I’ll send you one,’” Gill recalled. “So, he sends my dad a copy of that song.”
Gill and his dad used to play and sing “May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose” when Gill was a child. The first time Gill sang with Dickens on the Opry, they performed the classic Dickens song. Gill’s dad heard it and called and told him he “finally made it.”
When Gill’s dad died in 1997, Gill played Dickens’ “Country Boy” on a boombox to start his dad’s funeral. He remembered Dickens had sent the elder Gill a copy and that he liked that song.
Vince Gill: “The Opry is Just So Dear to Me”
“Dad’s brother got up right after that and had this shocked look on his face. He just said, ‘What on earth possessed you to play that song?’” Gill recalled, choking back tears. “I said, ‘Well, I knew dad liked it. When he met Jimmy, he mentioned it. And he goes, ‘That’s the first song we ever got as little boys.’”
Gill paused and said, “That’s what goes on (at the Opry). The Opry is just so dear to me.”
Gill performs at the Opry regularly. Because, he reveres the world’s longest-running radio show as a defining pillar of the country genre.
“I try to do my part and be like Mr. (Roy) Acuff and be like Bill Monroe, and be like Porter Wagner and the people that were very well-established artists that supported this place,” he said. “If you’re not here, it’s not helping it.”
(Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
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