Finally! Tanya Tucker to Be Inducted to Country Music Hall of Fame
Tanya Tucker has lived many lives during her long an illustrious career in country music: Prodigy and teen star, mainstream commercial powerhouse, inevitable decline, resurgence among the Outlaw movement, to now being considered one of the most revered country legends around today. And now her legacy will all be enshrined permanently in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Announced Monday morning, April 3rd, Tanya Tucker will be the newest inductee into the very exclusive Hall of Fame roll. Rumored to have been considered in both the Modern Era and Veterans Era category over the last few years, with Tucker landing her first hit in 1972 at the tender age of 13 with “Delta Dawn,” it means that for 50 years now she’s been entertaining country fans.
Tanya Tucker was inducted with Patty Loveless in the Modern Era category, and Bob McDill in the Songwriter category, and was introduced by Vince Gill.
“My dad said, you’re never gonna be in the Hall of Fame. You’re never gonna make it,” Tucker said while recalling a trip to Nashville in 1967 to record demos, giving him credit for always pushing her. “I want to thank my dad. He’s the reason I’m here. He was my first believer.”
Tanya also thanked producer Billy Sherrill as his second believer. “Nobody else would have listened to me at 13.”
“Daddy, you were wrong,” Tucker said, finishing her speech. “You weren’t wrong much. But you were wrong about this one.”
Born in Seminole, TX, raised in Wilcox, Arizona, and starting her career as a singer in Henderson, Nevada near Las Vegas, she was performing regularly by the age of 10. Impressing people such as Mel Tillis and songwriter Dolores Fuller, Tucker ended up on the radar of producer Billy Sherrill, and she was signed to Columbia Records. Though at first the label tried to hide her age, it eventually became her selling point as “Delta Dawn” became a smash.
Over the next 25 years, Tanya Tucker would amass ten #1 singles, and thirty-five Top 10’s total, with streaks of hits and runs of popularity in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s as her career ebbed and flowed, but always ended up ebbing again just as everyone began to count her out. Even recently with her 2019 comeback album in While I’m Livin’, Tanya won two Grammy Awards, and earned an entirely new generation of fans.
Beloved for songs like “Texas (When I Die),” “Strong Enough to Bend,” and “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane,” Tanya was also known for her tumultuous personal life, where she dated numerous men well her senior, including Merle Haggard for a stint, Glen Campbell in a famously powder keg relationship, and Andy Gibb of the Bee Gees. Beginning her career at such a tender age, personal troubles often got in the way of her music. In 1988, Tucker sought treatment at the Betty Ford Center. Many times she was counted out, but the punctuation mark on Tanya Tucker’s career was her perseverance through trials and adversity.
Tanya Tucker’s life has been like a country song. That’s how she can sing them with such a convincing attitude and conviction. And though it feels like she’s lived many lifetimes in her career, at 64, Tanya still has time to enjoy this accolade, and continue to add to what now can be officially called a Hall of Fame career.
Tanya Tucker will be formally induced in the the Country Music Hall of Fame during the upcoming Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony.
April 3, 2023 @ 8:47 am
“Bout damn time! True country legend.
April 3, 2023 @ 9:04 am
Awesome! Glad I got to see her on tour a couple years ago.
April 3, 2023 @ 11:52 am
I love that Tanya bout dam time someone woke up and see this woman is a great singer one of my all time favorites. Hell walking shoes was the story of my life. Thanks Tanya
April 3, 2023 @ 9:07 am
Great! The news and these comments are going to be a perfect palate cleaner after trying to watch last night’s CMT show.
April 3, 2023 @ 9:10 am
Oh, and Loveless and McDill, too! The Hall got it absolutely right this year!
April 3, 2023 @ 9:56 am
This is long overdue. And I’m equally happy about Patty Loveless’ induction,
April 3, 2023 @ 10:18 am
Congratulations, you lived it, you earned it. Legend built in a life of true experience and artistry. Thank you!
(I was 9 in 1972 and remember getting the 45 in Caldor’s in Kingston. Still a favorite after all these years….)
April 3, 2023 @ 10:19 am
All well deserved and timely honors! I think it was Andy Gibb and Tanya, not Barry. We don’t want to get Sir Barry in trouble.
April 3, 2023 @ 10:32 am
Got it!
April 3, 2023 @ 10:39 am
This feels like a very safe choice this year. Not to see that it isn’t deserved, but I might argue that it isn’t deserved yet.
I feel like with the massive backlog of great country music superstars, who deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, the decision to nominate predominantly women this year, even if the women themselves are well deserving, and should be considered for the Hall of Fame eventually, but I feel like the decision to do it this year, specifically in lieu of, some of the other equally deserving legends, who might have deserved a sooner nomination, is specifically intended to use the diversity loophole to deflect criticism away from not inducting one of those legends over the other one
With so many good choices, this feels like an easy way to disappoint the fans of everyone else. Equally, Wilde, the same time, not opening them up to criticisms about inducting the unworthy, and also gaining support for nominating predominantly women.
April 3, 2023 @ 12:07 pm
So who’s the unsafe choice who’s more worthy than Tanya Tucker?
And when do you think would be a more appropriate time to induct Tanya–when she’s 80? When we’re dead?
April 3, 2023 @ 3:27 pm
When we’re dead, yes. I have nothing really against her, but she’s famous mostly for being a starlet and for certain media-hyped incidents that jibed with the Steinem era. Not a great artist, but an adequate one who rode a wave. She’ll be remembered the way we’ll remember Katy Perry, which is probably why she’s being promoted: to justify later inclusions on more dubious grounds.
October 7, 2023 @ 9:16 am
Are you talking about Tanya Tucker? “… famous mostly for being a starlet…” and “Not a great artist…”? Honestly? Your comments are so ridiculous that they can’t be taken seriously. So I’m saying nothing more.
April 3, 2023 @ 5:22 pm
Johnny Horton.
Educate yourself.
April 3, 2023 @ 5:30 pm
CountryKnight,
I don’t appreciate the tone or the fly-by-night nature of your comments. I’ve said it before, but you comments bring a bad attitude to these conversations without giving us any real insight into your perspective. Instead of leaving 20 comments that simply try to be contrarian, how about leaving a few that try to convince folks why you feel the way you do in a way that may persuade someone to your side?
Just a suggestion.
April 3, 2023 @ 5:36 pm
I Squarely believe that Maddox brothers, Johnny Horton, and more important than anyone, Dr. Ralph Stanley deserve to be inducted before people whose careers may have had more commercial success, but less significance to the overall survival of the art form
Ralph Stanley may not have been a critical, darling, a top 10 regular, a successful star, but Dr. Ralph Stanley’s work in preserving traditional an old time music is far more valuable than a couple gold records
And the fact that he has an honorary doctorate for his work, and preserving traditional, and all the time, music, and literally spent an entire lifetime recording. Those traditional songs, should have secured him that place in the country music Hall of Fame long ago.
April 7, 2023 @ 5:07 am
Honorary doctorate? And I let him remove my appendix. I thought it was odd he used a pocket knife dipped in moonshine in stead of a scalpel. But he did a good job.
October 6, 2023 @ 10:08 am
Exactly which members of the Maddox family should be inducted? There were 5 brothers and one sister. And what about Bud Duncan, steel guitar player for the group? Shouldn’t the Hall of Fame include him too, even though he wasn’t a relative?
I’m not convinced the group had a career that’s Hall-of-Fame worthy. I can name 3 of their songs, which is significantly more than most people could name. And I LOVE all of those songs, but the Maddox Bros. and Rose just didn’t make that big a contribution.
April 3, 2023 @ 10:55 am
It should have been Johnny Horton. An actual legend of the genre.
Sorry, Johnny.
April 3, 2023 @ 10:59 am
Finally! Well deserved.
April 3, 2023 @ 11:47 am
These two ladies are very deserving….
However, Maddox Brothers and Rose continue to be shutout despite laying the groundwork for the success of female artists (Rose first big female artist) and so much more of Country Music history. Time to clean up the CMHOF mess of a backlog of veterans who are so deserving before putting “newer” veterans in, yet they don’t look like they will ever make it in. Who will remember their great work in 5-10 years? Sad when your legacy vanishes as time goes on….
April 3, 2023 @ 11:56 am
I love that Tanya bout dam time someone woke up and see this woman is a great singer one of my all time favorites. Hell walking shoes was the story of my life. Thanks Tanya
April 3, 2023 @ 11:57 am
The HOF really needs to introduce a fourth category for entertainers with a 70 years+ career, so people like The Maddox Brothers could get in.
Tanya 100% deserves it more than any other if we only count the period 1970-2000.
April 3, 2023 @ 12:45 pm
So I had this wrong in my head. Yes Tanya beat out Johnny Horton and Maddox Bros and Rose.
Look, Tanya Tucker is an original, nobody sounds remotely like her. She’s as Country and Western as beans and bacon. She’s had a much bigger, more influential and longer career than many in The HOF now. Unquestionably she should be in.
So I get it. And I’m a huge fan.
But man, when are Horton and Maddox’s ever getting their due? Most today have never heard of them. But at the time, Johnny Horton was a big star. True he’s best known for military battle saga songs, but his honky- tonk numbers influenced George Jones, Jimmy Dean, Marty Stuart, Cash and so many others. If he lived longer it’d be no contest, he’d be in.
That said, way to go Tanya!
April 3, 2023 @ 12:56 pm
My guess is next year’s Veteran’s Era inductee is a posthumous one, perhaps either The Stanley Brothers, or Johnny Horton, both of whom are rumored to have been on the final ballot this year. The Maddox Brothers and Rose seems to be completely off the radar at this point, and probably 5+ years out of consideration, if ever. The HAD to put Tanya in this year. Now I actually think the field is more wide open in the Veteran’s Era than it’s been for a while. It’s the Modern Era that has a massive backlog now.
April 3, 2023 @ 3:20 pm
Maddox Brothers and Rose were formative influences on all our heroes. They should’ve been in a long time ago. That they are not tells us that the HOF people lack something essential.
Put Marty Stuart in charge.
April 3, 2023 @ 8:09 pm
Trigger, not sure about Johnny Horton, but a reliable source to me indicated that The Wilburn Brothers, The Maddox Brothers & Rose, The Stanley Brothers and The Osborne Brothers were all considered this year. I echo your thoughts that a posthumous induction will follow next year. If we’re lucky a tie.
But lets also remember that eligiable artists such as Crystal Gayle, Anne Murray, The Gatlins and Gene Watson are now well into their seventies. I’m also a fan of “roses while they live”. Time will tell. Great selections this year.
April 3, 2023 @ 11:27 pm
David B,
What are your early predictions for the 2024 Hall of Fame inductees?.
April 4, 2023 @ 1:39 pm
Agree on the it’s more wide open part. In the Veteran category Tanya, Jerry Lee, and Hank Jr. Had stood out as overdue. Tanya and Hank should’ve got in while still eligible for the modern honestly.
Looking forward to seeing who gets in in the Veteran now. Maddox bros & Rose or Johnny Horton are the two who are now most overdue for me.
Crystal Gayle, John Anderson, Jack Greene and Lynn Anderson, and The Stanley Bros. Must be close to being in too at this point.
Is Roseanne Cash still eligible for Modern?
Dwight and Earl Thomas are the two I hope can get in the modern before going to Veteran.
I’m very curious to see if Anne Murray or Linda Ronstadt are able to get in anytime soon.
There’s really a back log that needs to be taken care of though. I’d feel good just upping the veteran category to 2 per year for a little while.
April 3, 2023 @ 1:42 pm
Thrilled for all three inductees. I would love to see Linda Ronstadt and Trisha Yearwood be inducted next year.
April 3, 2023 @ 3:05 pm
I can’t argue with any of this year’s inductees, but I do think it’s time to reform the categories a bit. Naturally we all want to see people inducted while they’re still here to enjoy the honor and, if we’re limited to one veteran era inductee a year, inducting those who are no longer with us may deprive somebody of that honor. I’m happy that Jerry Lee Lewis lived to see his induction and knew at the end of his life that people still remembered him and valued his contribution to country music. You can argue that the Stanley Brothers or others were more deserving, but if they had waited another year Jerry Lee wouldn’t have been around for his own induction.
There are two ways I see of solving this. Either have a year with multiple inductees like they did in 2001 or appoint an Old Timer’s Committee like the Baseball Hall of Fame has. Limit it to, say, artists, songwriters and others who are no longer with us and who were active 50 years ago or more. And then either make that one of the rotating categories or allow them to pick an inductee each year until the backlog is cleared up.
April 3, 2023 @ 4:34 pm
I’m fine with Tanya getting in. Well deserved. Her life has definitely been a country song.
April 3, 2023 @ 10:54 pm
In the wake of COVID lockdowns and restrictions, it looks like the Country Music Foundation has finally gotten caught up on its HOF induction schedule.
Thanks to the ‘pandemic,’ there were THREE induction ceremonies held within a one-year period, two of them in 2022 alone.
2019 ceremony — held on schedule, pre-COVID in Oct. 2019
————————–
2020 ceremony — held Nov. 2021
2021 ceremony — held May 2022
2022 ceremony — held Oct. 2022
——————–
2023 ceremony — to be held in the fall of 2023
So now they’re back on their regular schedule of announcing the inductees in the spring and then actually inducting them at the Medallion Ceremony in the fall.
April 3, 2023 @ 11:07 pm
There are currently 42 living members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. If the Good Lord’s willing, there will be 45 after this fall’s induction ceremony.
In order of induction:
Willie Nelson
Brenda Lee
E.W. ”Bud” Wendell (executive; WSM)
Dolly Parton
Ray Walker (The Jordanaires)
Bill Anderson
Kris Kristofferson
Randy Owen (Alabama)
Teddy Gentry (Alabama)
Mark Herndon (Alabama)
George Strait
Vince Gill
Don Reid (The Statler Brothers)
Phil Balsley (The Statler Brothers)
Jimmy Fortune (The Statler Brothers)
Emmylou Harris
Charlie McCoy (musician; harmonica)
Barbara Mandrell
Reba McEntire
Bobby Braddock (songwriter)
Garth Brooks
Connie Smith
Bobby Bare
Ronnie Milsap
Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys)
Joe Bonsall (The Oak Ridge Boys)
William Lee Golden (The Oak Ridge Boys)
Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys)
Randy Travis
Alan Jackson
Don Schlitz (songwriter)
Ricky Skaggs
Ray Stevens
Ronnie Dunn (Brooks and Dunn)
Kix Brooks (Brooks and Dunn)
Jerry Bradley (executive; RCA)
Hank Williams, Jr.
Marty Stuart
Dean Dillon (songwriter)
Wynonna Judd (The Judds)
Eddie Bayers (musician; drums)
Joe Galante (executive; RCA)
**Tanya Tucker
**Patty Loveless
**Bob McDill (songwriter)
**To be formally inducted in the fall of 2023.
April 4, 2023 @ 6:48 am
How about Earl Thomas Conley
April 4, 2023 @ 7:47 am
Another well deserved induction. Her music was a constant of my childhood.
April 13, 2023 @ 4:22 pm
Tanya Tucker should have been in the HOF at least five and perhaps ten years ago. So many less successful acts from her era(s) have gone in before her, including ones that weren’t on the scene until almost two decades after Tanya’s first hit. If I’m not mistaken, only Dolly, Loretta, Kitty, and Reba have had more Billboard chart songs than Tanya among female vocalists. It’s pretty obvious the CMA was penalizing her for her at times controversial private life but had no such problem inducting her former paramour Glen Campbell on time as well as one or two male stars who’ve had very some shocking arrests in their past. Only disturbing note is if someone as high profile as Tanya was in the 80s and 90s and has been of late gets in the “veteran” section, how much hope do acts who were pretty much limited to 1970’s and earlier have?
April 13, 2023 @ 4:23 pm
I meant to type “HOF” penalizing her rather than CMA although it took them long enough to give her due as well (I believe one award almost twenty years into her career).