On the Entry Issues for the Country Hall of Fame’s 2024 Induction Ceremony

Random Notes 21 Comments

Photo via the Country Music Hall of Fame and Getty Images


On October 20th, the Country Music Hall of Fame honored its 2024 inductees during the annual Medallion Ceremony at the CMA Theater located at the Hall of Fame in Nashville. Modern Era inductee Toby Keith, Veterans Era inductee John Anderson, and musician James Burton were all feted as those in attendance at the 776-seat CMA Theater watched on.

But unless you were one of the 776 souls who got to witness the festivities live, you really didn’t get the full experience. Even worse, about 100 people who had been promised entry were turned away, and told they could watch a video feed of the event for the Hall of Fame’s other venue, the Ford Theater. Some did watch from the Ford Theater, and some left entirely.

Appreciate that those 100 ticket holders constituted about 12% of the people with RSVPs to get in, including “Honor Society” members of the Country Music Hall of Fame who pay five and six-figure annual fees for entry to the Medallion Ceremony event. It also included family of Hall of Fame inductees, most notably Hazel Daniels, the wife of Charlie Daniels, who arrived at the ceremony with Charlie’s Hall of Fame medallion around her neck, and was turned away.

The day after the Medallion Ceremony, Saving Country Music published an article comparing the impact of the Country Music Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony to that of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which held their induction ceremony the day before on Saturday, October 19th. The opinion shared was that the Hall of Fame was squandering a stellar opportunity to promote itself and raise funds for its non-profit coffers by making the induction event so exclusive that less that 800 people are allowed to participate.

The Country Music Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony doesn’t need to be a raucous party in an arena. But perhaps moving it to a slightly larger venue such as the The Ryman Auditorium right down the street with its 2,300 capacity, and making the event available via livestream or later broadcast would allow the fans of country music to participate in the event, not just high-powered donors and members of Nashville’s elite. It would also facilitate more media being there to help create buzz for the event.

The original 11-paragraph article published by Saving Country Music did not mention the ticketing issue that resulted in some 100 people being turned away from the event. It was only after publishing the article that the driver for Hazel Daniels left a comment on the Saving Country Music Facebook page, saying, “Over 100 people with tickets, were denied entry to the ceremony, & was told there was a TV in the Ford Theater. People weren’t happy!”

This prompted Saving Country Music to reach out to this individual to confirm this information since it seemed newsworthy and relevant to the previously-published story. Imagine having a ticket to see one of your favorite country artists, or an event like this Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony that you paid five figures for, and being denied entry? The driver then confirmed the information and it was added as an addendum to the original story. The addendum stated,

“We know there was a streaming feed of the event, because about 100 ticket holders were denied entry when they showed up to the event, but were told they could watch remotely in the Hall of Fame’s other venue, the Ford Theater. Hazel Daniels—the widow of Charlie Daniels—showed up to the ceremony with her son and his wife wearing Charlie’s Hall of Fame medallion. They begged to be allowed into the ceremony, but were denied due to lack of seating. They eventually left.”

A note was also left at the bottom of the original article that the addition had been made, in accordance with proper journalistic standards.

Later in the afternoon on October 21st, the Charlie Daniels Official Facebook page published a long missive authored by Charlie Daniels Jr. where the information about the 100 RSVP/ticket holders being denied entry to this year’s ceremony was confirmed. Daniels Jr. went on to blame arriving slightly late to the event (5:06 for an event that started at 5 PM) for the reason they were denied entry. Daniels Jr. also stated,

That being said, someone posted an article that stated that we begged to be let into the ceremony but were denied. I can say unequivocally, that we never begged nor asked for anything other than to make sure that there weren’t any seats we could sit in, even if we were split up. We were late, so we weren’t making any demands or trying to make a spectacle.

We were late, we didn’t want to watch from a different theater, so we left. End of story, it also said that my wife was there, which she was not.

Normally, I wouldn’t respond to something like this, except for the fact that one of our contacts at the Hall apparently saw the “article” and was mortified that we were denied access as dramatically it was presented, and he said to please contact him if anything like that happens again.

It won’t happen again. We’ll consolidate our pick-ups or leave earlier next time.

The people at the CMHoF did nothing wrong.

And that’s all there was to it.

Much ado about nothing, to quote The Bard.

As soon as Saving Country Music saw this post, the final sentence about the entry denial was changed from “They begged to be allowed into the ceremony, but were denied due to lack of seating. They eventually left” to “They had tickets to the ceremony, but were denied due to lack of seating. They eventually left.”

However, the characterization that they “begged” to get into to ceremony was not one forwarded by Saving Country Music. This characterization came directly from the source of the information (the driver) confirmed via email. Here is the exchange:


This is not to throw the driver for Charlie Daniels under the bus or put them in a difficult situation, or to start some beef with Charlie Daniels Jr., or to mischaracterize the bahavior of Hazel Daniels. But as the post from the official Charlie Daniels Facebook page was viewed tens of thousands of times and liked over 2,000 times, and shared dozens of times, the credibility of Saving Country Music was called into question, and publicly. And nobody from the Charlie Daniels camp or the Country Music Hall of Fame reached out to offer any clarification, or to ask for a correction. It was only addressed publicly via the Facebook post, which garnered many negative comments.


This article might seem like making even more of a mountain out of a molehill. But somehow, it has been twisted that Saving Country Music is the bad guy in this situation, not the Country Music Hall of Fame, who denied entry to around 100 people for the Medallion Ceremony, facilitated by the fact that they held the event in such a small venue, and either seated people without tickets or RSVPs, or gave away too many tickets. This is unacceptable for any event.

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The Country Music Hall of Fame is an important and revered institution in country music. That is the reason it’s worth advocating that the Hall of Fame make as much of the opportunity to promote itself through its induction process as possible, and to use the moment to engage with the public. This isn’t an attack or a rebuke of the Hall of Fame. It’s simply an observation and suggestion. The Country Music Hall of Fame and their induction ceremony process is happening in a different decade than the one we’re living in.

What is unacceptable is the denial of entry of people who were promised they had a seat. This is not the media’s fault. If anything, the media on-hand should have been more on top of this story. Charlie Daniels Jr. says, “The people at the CMHoF did nothing wrong.” But they did. They handled the ticketing for the 2024 Medallion Ceremony poorly. And they should take responsibility for that, or it is bound to happen again.


© 2024 Saving Country Music

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