Rubicon Crossed: Kenny Chesney is Now a Country Hall of Famer
Kenny Chesney is now a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Announced Monday morning (3-25) from the Hall of Fame rotunda in Nashville, the Knoxville native known for evoking southern latitudes in his easygoing beach songs is the latest inductee in the Modern Era category, and it takes the Hall of Fame into new territory of looking past the “Class of ’89” toward artists that made music in what many consider the present tense, and that remain commercially viable today.
Kenny Chesney was inducted with June Carter in the Veteran’s Era category, and producer Tony Brown in the Non-Performer category.
“I always felt that country music told a lot of truth, and it’s fueled by a lot of dreams … I had a really big dream. I can promise you, I did not see this coming.” Kenny Chesney said. “But my dream was built, my dream started on the shoulders of the dreams of George Jones. It was built on the shoulders of the dreams of the group Alabama, Conway Twitty, and Doc Watson, who I spent a whole summer trying to figure out how to play ‘Deep River Blues’ with Doc’s finger style pickin’ guitar.”
He also paid tribute to Dean Dillon, who wrote a lot of Chesney’s songs. “I don’t have a brother in life. But if I did, it would be Dean Dillon … I just wanted to write and record songs that reflected the lives of the people who come to our shows.”
What is without question is that Kenny Chesney has amassed the sales, chart numbers, and touring purses to be considered Hall of Fame worthy. Thirty one #1 singles, seventeen #1 albums, and over 30 million albums sold worldwide all make Kenny Chesney one of the most successful country music artists in history. The only artist who outsold Chesney in the 2000s era was Toby Keith.
But what Kenny Chesney had that Toby Keith and others didn’t was more universal consensus behind him. Along with the gaudy sales numbers, Kenny Chesney also won the coveted CMA Entertainer of the Year award a whopping four times, making him second in wins only to Garth Brooks, and even surpassing “King” George Strait, who only secured the trophy three times. Chesney earned twelve CMA Awards total, as well as eleven ACM Awards and six Grammy nominations. Since it’s a CMA committee that chooses the Hall of Fame inductees, these accolades made Chesney’s induction inevitable.
But it wasn’t just the awards and the chart/sales numbers that ensconced Kenny Chesney as a dominant force in mainstream country music. It is his consistency as one of country music’s few stadium draws for going on three decades that has made Chesney synonymous with country music for so many, including fans outside of the genre. Commanding his “No Shoes Nation” of fans, Chesney could sell out stadiums coast to coast, and still can today, despite a slight drop off in the performance of radio singles.
This is also what feels exceptional about the Kenny Chesney induction. This is no swan song. Though he is no longer considered securely in the top tier of male country artists in regards to album sales or radio play, Chesney is far from being put out to pasture like most artists by the time their plaque is placed in the Hall of Fame rotunda. Meanwhile, older artists such as Dwight Yoakam, or Class of ’89 members Clint Black and Travis Tritt are still waiting their turn in the Hall of Fame’s Modern Era category.
In regards to influence, Kenny Chesney had a significant one with “toes in the sand” songs, for lack of a better term. Taking inspiration from the gulf coat region that rings the country music heartland of the American south, Chesney took what Jimmy Buffett started, and made it a significant part of the country music diet, for better or worse, and in song and geographic significance. This has also come with significant charitable donations, including Chesney receiving worthy credit for helping the Virgin Islands after Hurricane Irma in 2017, along with other initiatives to help beaches and their communities.
Starting his mainstream career in earnest after signing to BNA in 1995 and releasing the album All I Need To Know, Kenny Chesney has been a major force in country music for going on thirty years. Thanks to songs like “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” Chesney never secured the admiration of country music’s traditional crowd. But for millions of country fans who grew up in the late 90s to 00s, Kenny Chesney defines what country music is to them. Now that legacy will be enshrined forevermore in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Kenny Chesney will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame in the Medallion Ceremony later this year.
March 25, 2025 @ 8:39 am
Next thing you know, we’re gonna have Luke Bryan, FGL and Sam Hunt in the Hall of Fame. Highly undeserved.
March 25, 2025 @ 8:53 am
Not in anyway a fan of Kenny Chesney and find his music generally terrible, but if I had to give a a smidge of credit to him, at least he recorded songs by Guy Clark and Mac McAnally and got them some mailbox money (posthumously in Clark’s case).
That is more than Bryan, FGL, or Sam Hunt have ever done.
Now that I said something nice about Kenny Chesney I will go take a long walk in the woods….
March 25, 2025 @ 9:36 am
I would be very surprised if Florida Georgia Line or Sam Hunt are ever considered for the Hall of Fame. They don’t have the longevity, and are a product of country music’s asterisk era of Bro-Country. Luke Bryan might, because he did what he could to insulate himself from the Bro era, and probably to the short-term detriment of his career.
Kenny Chesney was going in, regardless of how any of us felt about it. He was just too big. But he also under-girded his big radio hits with quality songs that you will hear on most all of his albums, including songs by Guy Clark, Dean Dillon, and even John Baumann’s “Gulf Moon.”
Kenny Chesney knows what a good song is. He also knows what a hit is. That is how he’s been around and selling stadiums out for so long.
March 25, 2025 @ 10:53 am
Luke, Eric and Jason are the three from that era who are most likely getting in. Probably Keith also.
March 25, 2025 @ 5:05 pm
Aldean? Really?
March 26, 2025 @ 12:32 am
If we are going off of commercial performance, yes. Almost 30 number ones and has been a stadium act. Also has the longevity and the awards. Only thing that might hold him back is his outspoken politics.
March 25, 2025 @ 5:50 pm
He also did a decent version of ”El Cerrito Place” even if I did like Charlie Robison’s recording better.
March 27, 2025 @ 2:52 pm
I am usually just a lurker here as a midstate NY pedal steel player trying to stay in touch with what’s not on the scene up here.
However, I have to complement you on one of the most elegant examples of nose holding reporting I have ever read.
March 25, 2025 @ 10:04 am
I disagree, given the accolades, the commercial and chart success, and the longevity, I think it’s well-deserved, if maybe a little early.
If you want to argue that the accolades and success aren’t deserved, or that he’s been miscategorized as a country artist, that’s fair enough.
But it’s all water under the bridge at this point, and at the end of the day he’s recognized as one of the biggest country sars of his era nd by all means he deserves enshrinement,
March 25, 2025 @ 1:09 pm
Agreed. Not my favorite artist, or even top ten. But he has worked his butt off and earned it the hard way. He clearly has his niche in country music ( and country music history). I’m happy for him.
March 25, 2025 @ 8:42 am
Good to hear.
March 25, 2025 @ 8:44 am
Disgusting.
March 26, 2025 @ 7:57 am
I feel the same way Charlie Rich must’ve felt when he lit that envelope on fire.
March 26, 2025 @ 8:12 am
: D great anecdote!
March 27, 2025 @ 2:02 pm
I don’t understand the disdain. Sincerely. Jones didn’t have it when he toured with and recorded with him. (Chesney also spoke at Jones’ funeral) Nor did Willie Nelson or George Strait when they recorded with him. What is it?
March 28, 2025 @ 12:22 pm
Another thing to hold him back is his generally awful music. Sorry to disagree but I realize you are likely right about Aldean.
March 25, 2025 @ 8:44 am
I thought dwight yoakam or clint black for sure this year. Thoughts on mark chestnut he had # 1s and was a big part of the 90s.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:37 am
Now Dwight Yoakam runs the risk of getting dumped into the backlog of the Veteran’s Era, and who knows if they’re even seriously considering Clint Black. Chesney was getting in, but it feels out of order. Elders first.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:59 am
When they were explaining the rules for the veteran category they said anyone who’s career started before 1980 so dwight might have one of two more year we can hope but it looks like tim mcgraw is probably next year’s pick unfortunately.
March 25, 2025 @ 7:02 pm
Yeah, if Dwight (and Clint and Travis T for that matter) slides past the contemporary inductee window, knowing Nashville’s politics, he’ll probably then be put in line behind at least a half dozen others on the veteran’s list. Which is a bit of a snub: he’ll be going in well after his contemporaries, subsequent people that he influenced, and amongst the likes of Steve Wariner, Johnny Paycheck, Gene Watson, etc. due respect to those names but Dwight’s impact on country music is on another level. Carrie Underwood and Jason Aldean might already be inducted by then. Would you even want to accept the “honor” at that point? heh.
March 25, 2025 @ 10:05 am
Which is why I think they need to do some kind of backlog induction. Perhaps in 2027 on the 60th anniversary of the HoF, they can do some kind of special “one-time exception” to the three-inductee rule and clear at least some of the backlog.
March 25, 2025 @ 8:46 am
Obviously if you love real traditional country music this isn’t a thrilling pick, but he certainly deserves to be in. I do enjoy a lot of his 1990s hits and a few of his later songs haven’t been bad.
March 25, 2025 @ 8:47 am
I stopped listening to country in 1991. I don’t know any of this guys songs.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:14 am
Kinda funny to see you here on a country website that talks about music you’ve allegedly stopped listening too for…lets see here… three and a half decades now. Interesting.
March 25, 2025 @ 10:05 am
Well, country music got it’s name around 1945, and it’s been around since long before that.
March 25, 2025 @ 12:53 pm
Naturally. And something like say, cinema has been around roughly 135 years. But how silly would it be if I went into comment section on a write up some recent movie currently in theaters and said “well I’ve never heard of this. I stopped watching movies after The Big Lewboski was released.” Okay? Then clearly you aren’t qualified to be speaking here.
March 25, 2025 @ 5:07 pm
The Dude abides, man
March 25, 2025 @ 1:59 pm
Not exactly how you say it as it was referred to as hillbilly music then early 1950’s to country western.
March 25, 2025 @ 8:59 am
I do not fall out with the choices. Kenny Chesney has some great songs in his catalogue and has been a success. The recipients all deserve it.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:01 am
…not undeserved but a little hurried perhaps, ain’t it?
March 25, 2025 @ 12:12 pm
This seems like an apt way of wording it. With several performers (Dwight being a prime example) moving towards the already logjammed Veteran Era, it feels like others should have been given some priority in order to avoid further backlogging things.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:35 am
Eye brow raising for sure. Way too early.
Perhaps some billionaire can bankroll a new country music hall of fame and induct a huge amount of people, leave out quite a few people before their time, and correct everything?
March 25, 2025 @ 9:36 am
Ouch…this announcement is well…less than exciting. Sigh….( sips coffee)
Really?!
No…surely this is a joke?
March 25, 2025 @ 9:39 am
This was inevitable. I will go to bat for Chesney in that he’s a better artist than his haters give him credit for, but it definitely feels like a rubicon moment. I really hope Dwight Yoakam and Clint Black and Steve Wariner and the like do not get passed over for Tim McGraw, Shania Twain, and others. But with Toby Keith (albeit with extenuating circumstances) and Chesney back to back years, it seems the Hall has set its sights on the mid 90s now. Don’t be surprised if Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton get in sooner than you expect.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:56 am
This is how I feel. Especially with Toby Keith going in last year, now the dominoes will fall that will be Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, The [Dixie] Chicks, etc. etc., with Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black, etc. eventually getting dumped into the Veterans Era. They might get in there, but at the expense of The Stanley Brothers, Maddox Brothers and Rose, Johnny Horton, Johnny Paycheck, etc. etc. and we wait around year after year to see deserving artists still not get in.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:40 am
Obviously deserved, but I thought Tim McGraw would go in before Kenny when it comes to modern era inductees. I know it isn’t possible given the current rules, but if they ever do a ‘catch up’ year it would be cool (if not cheesy) to see Tim and Faith go in together.
March 26, 2025 @ 7:37 am
I really want to see Tim McGraw inducted. He is one of only a handful of 90s artists who are still consistently putting out good music as well as playing larger venues without being relegated to smaller ones. Sure, he had a few trend-chasing moments with “Truck Yeah” and “Looking for That Girl” which would be better off forgotten, but overall, his output is way more positive than the few negatives you could point to.
While I greatly appreciate the limited nature of how the CMHoF handles its inductions and that it does in fact make induction truly special, it has led to exactly what we’re seeing now: a lot of deserving artists (Dwight Yoakam, Allison Krauss, Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Johnny Horton, NGDB, Lynn Anderson, Jimmy Buffett, Johnny Paycheck, Linda Rondstadt) basically being out on hold.
Now, McGraw, McBride, Yearwood, even Krauss have plenty of time. They’ll all get in at some point. But as has been noted, some artists like Dwight are already moving towards that Veteran Era which is even more backed up than the Modern Era.
I noted in another article that a “Deceased Legend” category (or, someone else noted a “Pioneer” category) could potentially help clear some of that backlog. A “Pioneer” category would need some real strict regulations as to what constitutes a “Pioneer,” – but it would definitely help. And adding one additional category could also be done without feeling like it takes away from the specialness of the honor of being inducted.
March 26, 2025 @ 8:03 am
I think moving deceased artists out of their respective categories and into a new, fourth category would do a ton to clear up the backlog.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:45 am
Should have been Dwight, but I feel like maybe the Rubicon was already crossed last year with Toby Keith. I get why he went in when he did, but in retrospect, it may have seemed like a green light to start inducting that era of performers. Unfortunately, I don’t see Dwight getting in as Modern Era inductee at this point.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:19 pm
Great point. If we’re considering 1990s debuters to be some sort of river in Cisalpine Gaul, that was Toby Keith. And TK was well deserved as well. I don’t think the negative response is so much anti-Chesney as it is, “What about my guy?”
March 25, 2025 @ 9:51 am
Before he became Kenny Buffett, Chesney had some good songs. He was the first arena show I ever went to when he first hit it big in 2003, but when it got to where every single was about a beach, that’s when I turned off the radio.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:57 am
I don’t like a lot of his hits, but when Kenny sings traditional country music his talent and passion for country music is undeniable. I think it’s great that he gets to enjoy this honor while he is alive. So many passed on country stars will never get to know that feeling.
March 25, 2025 @ 10:01 am
What a joke.
March 25, 2025 @ 10:26 am
This choice doesnt surprise me. I do have an issue with giving this honor to artist that are still performing well but they already set this precedent with other artist so i guess that matters not. Far as kenny personally, i like others prefer his early music to his later beach going vibes , the song why im here, one of my favorites but you cant argue his success and longevity. He also has lots of fans which counts for something or at least it should. I get why people are saying other peoples names because they have been waiting longer but if it comes down to accolades, kenny has them beat. Eddie rabbit would probably have the strongest argument. I still think they should vote more in which would solve this issue somewhat but i have zero issue with him getting in.
March 25, 2025 @ 10:32 am
Two Ts in Jimmy Buffett 😀
March 25, 2025 @ 10:46 am
I’d love to see you do an article on how guys like Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw continue to mint multiple #1 hits a year and sell out tours despite the fact most people from their era of country music have long been forgotten
March 25, 2025 @ 10:53 am
They’re not really minting multiple #1s a year. Nobody but Morgan Wallen is doing that at this point. But they are still having hits on the radio, and their longevity is remarkable. The other guy that is in that position is Keith Urban, who also might end up getting inducted in the coming years now that Kenny has opened that door.
March 25, 2025 @ 11:12 am
I’ve generally enjoyed his deep cuts more than the singles. “Always Gonna Be You” is a phenomenal song.
March 25, 2025 @ 12:06 pm
I don’t have anything against Chesney, but this seems out of order. With the backlog of performers who should be inducted, Chesney should have to wait for 20 more years. I still find it disgusting and wrong that Kenny Rogers wasn’t inducted until 2013–after Alabama (05) and Garth Brooks (12). Neither Alabama or Brooks would exist without Kenny Rogers. Rogers should have gotten in YEARS earlier. And Chesney gets in this fast?? No. Wrong. If we are going to induct people like Chesney, Tim McGraw should have gotten in first. Eh. I hate to be like everybody else (which I am not, because I don’t despise “pop country” like all of you), but I can’t agree with this. Crystal Gayle and Dwight Yoakam are NOT in the hall, but Kenny Chesney is. Sigh.
March 25, 2025 @ 12:15 pm
The headline is unnecessarily alarmist.
Kenny Chesney is far more deserving than June Carter Cash.
Whatever you think about his discography (and he recorded some dreck), the man made it on his merits.
And his list of hits and songs includes some gems.
“Save It for a Rainy Day,” “All the Pretty Girls,” “El Cerrito Place,” “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven,” “Beer in Mexico” (one of the bleakest songs in recent decades), “You Had Me from Hello,” “Anything but Mine” are great songs.
March 25, 2025 @ 6:11 pm
Anything but Mine and El Cerrito Place are great. I’d add You and Tequila, and I Go Back as well.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:13 pm
El Cerito Place? Uh, about that…
March 25, 2025 @ 12:20 pm
This is a shame.
March 25, 2025 @ 1:19 pm
I hated Kenny Chesney at one point. But then starting with “Anything But Mine,” he turned the corner and became one of the best ballad singers out there. His albums are full of introspective music — “Demons,” “Better Than a Memory,” “Boats,” “Better Boat,” “The Boys of Fall” … The list goes on. Heck, I even have a playlist devoted to just Chesney ballads. The other thing about him is his music grew into middle age with him — for the most part, as he aged the content of the tunes aged along with him. Left behind were the juvenile drinking songs and more looking back on life. Urban and Bryant could take a lesson here. Of all the post-Class of 89 artists, Chesney is the most deserving.
March 25, 2025 @ 2:20 pm
Travis Tritt has been making quality country music for over 30 years. Travis sb in the hof before Dr. Ken Chesney!
March 25, 2025 @ 5:43 pm
Maybe Travis Tritt’s visage appearing more frequently on the back of milk cartons than on the front of new CDs/Albums/ or digital equivalents for the last 20 years has something to do with that not happenning.
March 25, 2025 @ 7:12 pm
I didn’t know Kenny Chesney was also a doctor.
March 26, 2025 @ 5:00 am
Kenny Chesney received an Honorary Doctorate from his Alma mater, East Tennessee State University (ETSU), in recognition of his contributions to music and to the university’s Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies Program. I was being facetious.
March 25, 2025 @ 3:29 pm
Kenny Chesney just slinked into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and it’s an absolute travesty. This talentless, sun-bleached beach lizard turned country music into a pitiful parade of whiny boat ballads and shirtless midlife meltdowns—every song a shallow, sand-obsessed sob fest that reeks of cheap tequila and desperation. Real legends, the weathered giants who carved their pain into every note, get ignored while this overrated, spray-tanned crybaby gets a shiny plaque for recycling Jimmy Buffett’s soggy leftovers. The Hall of Fame’s a sham now—Kenny’s induction proves it’s just a retirement home for washed-up, flip-flop-wearing phonies who’d serenade a palm tree before writing anything with soul.
March 25, 2025 @ 3:31 pm
Every Kenny Chesney fan I have ever known has always been the very definition of a D-bag. His sounds, not music…but sounds….make me wretch.
March 25, 2025 @ 3:49 pm
Great choice, and all the haters can sing along to all his tunes. I really think the comments section here is filled with folks that have zero interest in country. Bashing this selection is 100% Tropic Thunder full retard.
March 25, 2025 @ 7:09 pm
Interested in country, just different taste. I’m not singing his songs lol, but respect to KC, certainly a key fixture of contemporary country.
March 25, 2025 @ 4:14 pm
Congrats to Kenny; well deserved. I say that as someone who is not a fan and who had quit listening to country radio by the time the majority of his hits came. That’s on me; not him. He did have a mega hit with a song Whisper co-wrote (“A Lot of Things Different”) which gives him good guy status.
As others have said there is concern that Kenny leapfrogged a lot of equally deserving people who came before him. That’s valid and the CMA needs to address this but this doesn’t take away the fact Kenny earned this.
March 25, 2025 @ 5:40 pm
If you’re not Trigger, don’t try to rant like him.
Ol’ Kinny deserves it! Though I agree it would have been good to see some of his predecessors get in first.
March 25, 2025 @ 5:53 pm
That’s what great about the country music hof.they don’t open the flood gates and let everyone in .who would have thought june carter wasn’t already in.you don’t get anymore country than that.
March 25, 2025 @ 6:20 pm
Dwight Yoakum is more deserving but while Kenny Chesney was in no way a traditional Country artist, he didn’t do anything to hurt Country music. (with the exception of ‘She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy)
March 25, 2025 @ 7:07 pm
Kenny the Koconut Kowboi also made country a “safe space” for his crowd.
March 25, 2025 @ 7:36 pm
What does Dwight Yoakam have to do to get inducted?
March 25, 2025 @ 8:19 pm
Looks like the country hall is going the way of the rock hall. Sad.
March 25, 2025 @ 8:30 pm
Doesn’t Chesney have a song called “Remember when?” And “I go back” and “boys of fall?” It’s all nostalgia bait. That is when the hairless cherub is taking a break from a weak facsimile of Jimmy Buffet.
The Country Music HoF can go F itself. Put Dwight in for God’s sake.
March 26, 2025 @ 12:58 pm
Nostalgia has fueled country music since the beginning.
I’m not defending those songs, but that theme is as country as it gets.
March 25, 2025 @ 9:08 pm
This isn’t meant at all as a criticism of the HOFer, but just a note regarding unintended consequences: no Kenny Chesney, no FGL, no Sam Hunt, no Thomas Rhett. In short, no Bro Country Era.
March 25, 2025 @ 10:57 pm
Well, there they go again.
March 26, 2025 @ 5:44 am
In the mid-90’s Kenny Chesney released some solid country songs that deservedly gave him consistent hits. But by the end of the decade he devolved into silly fluff like “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” before becoming a full blown Jimmy Buffett knockoff with his silly “No Shoes” nonsense. Don’t see him as an influential or enduring force in country music history.
Chesney is an even more baffling choice when considering that Clint Black whose career pre-dated Kenny’s by several years has yet to be inducted. Or Dwight Yoakam whose fame and success pre-dated Clint Black. Dwight has also been shamefully overlooked.
WFT Hall of Fame??????
March 26, 2025 @ 7:14 am
“Don’t see him as an influential or enduring force in country music history.”
On that I would respectfully disagree. “Good” and “influential” are two different things. Kenny Chesney has been HUGELY influential with dozens of other artists all recording island/beach songs, facilitated by how many songwriters retreats all happen in the Caribbean.
March 26, 2025 @ 7:51 am
I never liked Chesney thought he was a sissy and a fraud but I have to give him credit for his one song that goes ” everythings gonna be allllriiighhtt. , alllllriggghhttt ” that one was relaxing and soothing
March 26, 2025 @ 11:59 am
Instead of bemoaning the rather disturbing fact that Cheney is in while greats like Gary Stewart, Wynn Stewart and Johnny Paycheck are not, I remind myself that it’s the Hall of FAME — not the Hall of Artistic Quality and Integrity. But hey, the museum has Cindy Walker’s typewriter, so it ain’t all bad….
March 26, 2025 @ 3:37 pm
More deserving than John Anderson, imho.
March 27, 2025 @ 3:07 am
Can’t disagree with you more on that, Okie Boy.
March 26, 2025 @ 4:19 pm
I just can’t respect anyone’s musical taste who does not see mr. chesney as anything but a complete Poser/Joke.
March 26, 2025 @ 7:04 pm
I agree that it’s not the selection of Chesney that’s a problem: it’s the selection of Chesney *now*. It’s out of order.
Three things:
1. It reminds me of when less-deserving artists were placed in the Hall before Milsap got in ins 2014.
2. We are still feeling the effects of the selection of Ray Stevens (as a singer, not comedian).
3. I have no idea what a rubicon is, and I’m a bit too lazy to look it up.
March 26, 2025 @ 8:23 pm
I don’t have anything new to add that hasn’t been said above about timing, backlog, etc. But, a few weeks, I found myself listening to “old” Kenny Chesney music. I forgot how great some of his earlier album cuts were.
Check out songs like, “Between Midnight and Daylight”, “The Bigger The Fool (The Harder The Fall)”, “Ain’t That Love”, “Turn For The Worse”, “From Hillbilly Heaven to Honky Tonk Hell (with Jones and Tracy Lawrence), “Somebody’s Callin” and “High & Dry” to name some. Some damn good country music. But, I don’t think he would have had the big career he did if he stuck with these type of songs. Which is a shame.
March 27, 2025 @ 3:10 am
I never liked Chesney’s image (the body-builder thing, the beach party thing), so I never followed his music. One song of his meant a lot to me, though: “That’s Why I’m Here,” on his “I Will Stand” album. One of the best recovery songs ever, and he did it beautifully.
March 27, 2025 @ 3:39 am
Congrats,Kenny!You got an early 57th birthday present (it was yesterday,Mar.26) with your induction into the Country Music Hall Of Fame.I think if nothing else,Chesney is the first (perhaps only) performer to limn the boundary between Jimmy Buffett Island boy Country (though I look FAY MORE like an Island boy than ol’ Ken !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and “Bro-Country,” though he seemed more talented than the bros. I enjoyed him (if lots of other fans didn’t)and,well,I guess the CMHOF felt it had to induct someone.
March 27, 2025 @ 3:42 am
Speaking of birthdays,Dean Dillon (who should be in the Country music Hall Of Fame),was 70 yesterday,Mar.26,as he’s two days older than Reba !!!!
March 27, 2025 @ 7:17 am
Dean Dillon is in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
March 27, 2025 @ 10:08 am
Younger, more-music-snobby me would’ve been pretty chagrined at all of this.
But older, “eh, not everything’s meant for me” me can just shrug and see the point. Tons of hits, great longevity, over a decade’s worth of stadium-level tours … him not being an “artistic success” is just my opinion. Not saying there shouldn’t be any accounting for taste, but it shouldn’t keep someone this big out of the Hall.
Plus being pop-country hasn’t been a disqualifier in the past. Barbara Mandrell, Kenny Rogers, Ronnie Milsap for starters. Not to mention acts like Elvis and Ray Charles who weren’t primarily country performers at all but are super-important in the grand scheme of music.
I still would’ve made KC wait in line behind Dwight Yoakam, but I don’t begrudge him landing a spot.
March 27, 2025 @ 10:14 am
If they’re moving on to acts from the Kenny Chesney/Toby Keith generation, it does make me think there’s a fairly big group of beloved acts from the ’90s country boom that might never get the chance.
If the recent wave of ’90s country nostalgia didn’t push Travis Tritt and Clint Black to the front of the line, what chance do these other folks have? I’m thinking Sammy Kershaw, Mark Chesnutt, Joe Diffie, Tracy Lawrence, Neal McCoy, John Michael Montgomery, Clay Walker … I’m not saying all of them are can’t-miss candidates, but they’d probably be at least strongly considered if a) the field wasn’t so crowded and b) the Hall’s induction schedule didn’t keep things so exclusive.
March 27, 2025 @ 5:03 pm
It’s wild to see all these dorks crying over something that stopped being relevant 2 decades ago. Move on already.
March 30, 2025 @ 8:26 pm
Trigger, do you think it may be possible for artist outside of Nashville such as Jamey Johnson, Tyler Childers, Cody Jinks, Turnpike or others to make it in someday?
March 30, 2025 @ 8:38 pm
That’s a good question. Jamey Johnson won two CMA Song of the Year awards, so he might go in as a songwriter. Tyler Childers was one of the biggest artists in all of country from about 2019-2021 due to the strength of “Purgatory.” But I honestly don’t see any of them except for maybe Johnson going in under the current system. I have a big article hopefully coming up Monday on ways to reform the Hall of Fame system.
April 12, 2025 @ 5:06 pm
Sorry,Trigger,I forgot Dean Dillon is in the CMHOF !!!!!!!!!!!