I usually don’t write about subjects like the one I’m going to broach today, because I, like I know many of you, dislike hearing people “blow their own horn” or brag on their achievements.
Believe me, that boasting is the furthest thing from my mind as I write this. Humility and thankfulness would be more in line with the emotions I’m feeling.
What I’m referring to is the recent announcement that in October of this year I will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
I have no words to adequately express what I feel in my heart, the surprise I felt when I was informed, the joy, the incredible fact that something I had dared not seriously even hoped for, something that was bestowed upon so few with so many deserving, had been brought into my life with no notice and not even an inkling of rumor.
It was dumbfounding.
The nomination and final selection of the Hall of Fame inductees is probably the most closely held secret in the County Music Association. The voting members are secret and rotate from year to year, the final choices kept completely confidential until the recipients are informed, and even after you are bound to secrecy until a press conference is held to announce the new inductees to the world.
I still have not gotten used to the fact of being member, or will be after October 16. We played the Opry recently and when the announcer, Bill Cody, introduced me as the newest member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, it was almost like, “What did he say?”
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