How To Fix the Country Music Hall of Fame Induction Process

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The Country Music Hall of Fame announced its 2025 inductees on Tuesday, March 25th, and it’s hard to determine if anyone is happy about the overall outcome except for the inductees themselves and their immediate family. Each year as the Hall of Fame announces only three new inductees, the list of who many country music fans feel should be inducted but seem to be frozen out of the process continues to elongate.

It’s important to understand that the Country Music Hall of Fame is different from most other Halls of Fame in how exclusivity is what is used to keep the Hall of Fame hallowed, and to make the inductions that do happen feel extra special. The theory is that there might be some names not included in the Hall of Fame rotunda that should be. But there will never be a name included in the Hall of Fame that shouldn’t be. But it’s questionable if that’s even the case.

New Hall of Fame members are inducted annually in three specific categories. The first is the Modern Era, which includes artists eligible for induction 20 years after they first achieve “national prominence.” The second is the Veterans Era, which considers artists for induction 45 years after they first achieve “national prominence.” The third is Non-Performer, Songwriter, and Recording and/or Touring Musician, which rotates every 3 years. If there is a tie in voting in any category, two names can be selected, but this is rare.

Another important rule states that no performer can be inducted the year after they pass away to discourage sympathy inductions.

The Hall of Fame itself does not choose the new inductees. This is done by the Country Music Association, or CMA, which fields a secret committee that votes on inductees each year. Names are whittled down to a final ballot of five names in each category, with the final top vote getter earning induction.

In the Modern Era category in 2025, this ended up being Kenny Chesney. Chesney’s induction symbolizes a Rubicon-crossing moment because he’s an artist that came to prominence after the “Class of ’89,” which was the name given to new 1989 artists Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, and Travis Tritt. Some also include Brooks & Dunn in that era. These artists launched a massive new commercial resurgence in country as neotraditionalists.

Kenny Chesney addresses the audience in the Hall of Fame rotunda


Though Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and Brooks & Dunn have all received Hall of Fame induction, Clint Black has not, despite his thirteen #1 singles and 29 total Top 10 hits. Travis Tritt is also on the outside looking in despite his major achievements. Even going a generation ahead of the “Class of ’89,” Dwight Yoakam is also still waiting for induction, and now might get dumped into the Veteran’s Era.

Though Kenny Chesney is generally disliked by country music’s traditional country fans, it’s hard to argue that he didn’t belong in the Hall of Fame, at least eventually. He’s been country music’s only active and consistent stadium draw for going on 20 years, and he won the CMA Entertainer of the Year four times. In fact, if you’re a Kenny Chesney fan, you can make the case his induction comes a decade too late since he came to prominence in 1995, making him eligible for induction in 2015.

But the biggest beef many have with Chesney isn’t necessarily Chesney himself, but how he’s getting inducted, and those that came before him aren’t. Due to the Hall’s severe austerity, Modern Era performers aren’t being inducted on any sort of linear or even intuitive timeline. And now that Chesney has opened up the door for more modern artists, it could be a long parade of Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, The [Dixie] Chicks, and so on and so forth while the artists who came before them get locked out.

Luckily though, this is what the Veterans Era category is for, to ultimately catch what the Modern Era inductions miss, so that a performer with a Hall of Fame-worthy legacy doesn’t go forgotten. But as bad as the backlog is in the Modern Era field, it’s measures worse when you get to the Veterans.

The 2025 Veterans Era inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame was June Carter. Though Carter is a well-beloved character in the history of country music, her personal discography only consisted of four albums and a handful of singles.

Except for her 1971 single “A Good Man” which ended up in the Top 30, and her 2003 album Wildwood Flower, which crested at #33 on the albums chart, Carter’s commercial success was inconsequential. But with husband Johnny Cash, they recorded and released numerous iconic songs, including “Jackson,” “Long-Legged Guitar Pickin’ Man,” and notable covers of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe,” and folk classic “If I Were a Carpenter,” all of which were major hits.

But June Carter’s legacy wasn’t one country historians worried would go forgotten, in part due to her proximity to husband Johnny, and her role in The Carter Family who were inducted themselves in 1970. As opposed to spending a precious induction on June, it felt like The Carter Family induction needed to expand to include the three daughters of the family: June, Helen, and Anita. Ironically, with June going in by herself, this means Helen and Anita will likely never go in as The Carter Sisters.

Mother Maybelle Carter with daughters June, Anita and Helen


Meanwhile, other Veterans Era nominees such as Ralph Stanley and The Stanley Brothers, Maddox Brothers and Rose, Lynn Anderson, Johnny Horton, Johnny Paycheck, Eddie Rabbitt, Linda Ronstadt, and so on, and so forth have to wait another year, and often get superseded by whatever new name gets dumped into the Veterans Era category from the Modern Era category each year.

In fact, according to sources within the Hall of Fame induction process, what’s happened over the last decade or so is the same half a dozen names or so keep coming up on the Veterans Era final ballot, but never get voted in. Then whatever new name gets added to the Veterans Era final ballot each year, that is the name that gets inducted because it’s fresh. This is what happened with June Carter. This is also what happened with John Anderson in 2024, and so on and so forth.

In the 3rd rotating category in 2025, legendary producer and keys player Tony Brown was inducted. This was really the only 2025 pick few if anyone quibbled with. Though 2025 was a “non-performer” year, Tony Brown regularly performed both on stage and as a session player. And though he’s best known as a producer, he was also the President of MCA Nashville for some years, so he checked all the boxes. Tony Brown is the perfect type of behind-the-scenes guy the 3rd Hall of Fame category was made for.

But going back to the Modern and Veterans Era categories, it feels like were in a year-to-year malaise where the Hall of Fame induction process is just not working. We’re off the timeline in the Modern Era, along with a backlog. Then there is an impossible backlog in the Veteran’s Era, with a peloton of top potential inductees perpetually waiting to get in that never do.

And none of this addresses the concern about what you do with singer/songwriters who also perform, folks like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Lucinda Williams, John Prine, Billy Joe Shaver, and so on, and so forth that were never famous enough as performers to be inducted, but probably weren’t pure enough songwriters to be considered in the three-year rotating songwriting category either.

Another issue is what to do with long deceased performers waiting for their spot in the Veterans Era, who always seem to get passed up for the ailing Veterans era candidates that the Hall of Fame looks to induct while they’re still with us. This brings up another Hall of Fame concern, namely that there are too many performers going in well after they’ve passed away. They should be able to enjoy their flowers and accolades while they’re still with us as opposed to years after as is so often the case.

So how do we solve these problems?

One option would be a bulk induction, which is not entirely unprecedented. Due to the major backlog that had built up since the beginning of the Hall of Fame in 1961, twelve different names were all inducted in 2001, which mostly included older performers, though a few more contemporary ones as well. The inductees were Bill Anderson, The Delmore Brothers, The Everly Brothers, Don Gibson, Homer & Jethro, Waylon Jennings, The Jordanaires, Don Law, The Louvin Brothers, Ken Nelson, Sam Phillips of Sun Records fame, and Webb Pierce.


All of a sudden, the concerns of people complaining about who was not in the Hall of Fame was mostly solved, and equilibrium returned to the induction process. Seeing how that was 24 years ago now, a strong argument could be made a similar moment needs to happen to re-institute homeostasis within the Hall of Fame process.

Who could be bulk inducted? You could start with that gaggle of 6 or 7 names in the Veterans Era category that keep coming up each year on the final ballot, but always gets edged out by the new name that emerges. If those 6 or 7 names have been voted on so many times before that they keep coming up, chances are they’re Hall of Fame worthy. So put them up to a bulk vote of perhaps the top five names, and see who wins.

As far as the Modern Era category, the artists that everyone knows will eventually be Hall of Famers, but that came before Kenny Chesney—names like Dwight Yoakam and Clint Black—should get put in. That way they don’t end up getting dumped into the Veterans Era, and gumming up that category into the future too.

But barring a bulk induction—or perhaps on top of it—what are some other ways the process could be reformed? You could start putting in two performers each year in the Modern and Veterans category, or perhaps instituting some sort of rank choice voting where every year one candidate goes in via each category, but if a second candidate gets enough votes as a percentage of the voting bloc, they could be inducted too.

One concern some people share when visiting the Hall of Fame rotunda in Nashville is the amount of music executives the public has never heard of who have their plaques on the wall as inductees, while some of their favorite country stars still don’t. Of course songwriters, side players, producers, DJs, journalists, and others should be recognized too. But the vast majority of the names in the Hall of Fame should be stars that are more recognizable to those in the public, not just to the CMA board room.

Beyond these mechanisms to clear out the backlog, perhaps more rotating categories could be added, specifically one for those performing singer/songwriters like John Prine, Guy Clark, and Lucinda Williams. It seems criminal that they will likely never have an opportunity to be remembered in the Hall when their impact was so large, and their fellow performers would agree they belong.

You could also potentially have a category for either deceased performers, or foundational performers to the genre who don’t always have living advocates around to help them get inducted. The Maddox Brothers & Rose, The Wilburn Brothers, Boxcar Willie, etc. might need special exceptions if they will ever get in.


Can you add one or a number of these solutions and still keep the Country Music Hall of Fame exclusive, and one of the most revered musical institutions in the world? Of course you can. In fact, it might be a requirement at this point to keep the credibility of the Hall of Fame in tact with the public, and to return a level of sanity, sensibility, and fairness to the process.

Too many deserving country legends are on the outside looking into the Hall of Fame. Too many performers are dying before the opportunity to enjoy their own induction. Too many times when you bring up the Country Music Hall of Fame in discussion, it immediately turns to how terrible it is that some legendary performer is still not in.

Along the round ceiling of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the words, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” are ascribed. Just like in 2001, it’s time to recalibrate the Country Music Hall of Fame induction system to get it back on track. Otherwise, over time, it’s only going to continue to fall more and more off kilter, until it eventually may break. And no true country music fan wants that.

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