Culture
Review: ‘Opry 100’ stars embody spirit of interconnectedness; take a look back on Opry member WOUB interview highlights
By: Ian Saint
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WOUB) – When the Grand Ole Opry announced Opry 100: A Live Celebration, a three-hour NBC television special commemorating the fabled radio program’s centennial, it became a hot ticket; The Tennessean reported remaining tickets pricing $583.20 to $4,875 twelve days prior. The Opry had me attend the star-studded gala as 5.3 million viewers watched the broadcast, now available for playback on Peacock.
Several performers — such as Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, and host Blake Shelton — regularly tour arenas or stadiums, so it was striking to see them playing the Opry’s 4,400-capacity theater simultaneously, and mingling in the pews during breaks. (Portions of the program were pre-recorded at the Ryman Auditorium.)
But I felt there was a tempered air of reverence for the broader Opry institution, and the trailblazing members of yesteryears, even amongst the night’s most famous names. Reba opened the show with a medley of Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn songs, not hers; enthusing how they’d paved the way for her. During a break, I observed Reba having a tender conversation with 1965 Opry inductee Connie Smith. Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks, the greatest-selling country artist in history, each performed Tammy Wynette and George Jones songs before uniting on their 1976 duet Golden Ring. (Catch my recap of the blockbuster 2022 George & Tammy miniseries premiere: https://woub.org/2022/12/02/nashville-premiere-review-chastain-shannons-care-for-george-tammy-a-draw-for-both-longtime-and-new-country-fans/)
It was moving to see not just belated Opry legends getting their due, but also retired performers still alive to receive adulation for their impacts. Alan Jackson, seated by the degenerative nerve condition that prompted his farewell tour, had the crowd on their feet for a rowdy Chattahoochee. 82 year-old Ronnie Milsap, who lost both his wife and only child in the few years before his 2023 final concert, is blind; but he beamed as an eruption of cheers followed Shelton recognizing him. Barbara Mandrell, retired since 1997, teared as she recalled her father committing to becoming her manager after they attended an Opry show in her late teens; she became a member just a few years later. Kelsea Ballerini, 44 years her junior, then performed Mandrell’s exultant 1981 No.1 single I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool in a tender transgenerational exchange.
My favorite torch-passing was between Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis, who was my literal first acquaintance with country music as my young mother sang along to his records — I vividly recall being awestruck by the velvety depth of Randy’s voice, which lost most of his speech to a debilitating 2013 stroke. Upon wrapping Forever and Ever, Amen, Underwood descended to the pews and Travis delivered the final, elongated “amen.” It was an incredible triumph for Randy’s miraculous survival.
(Randy returns to Ohio with a similar presentation — seated on stage, while singer James Dupre performs his hits with Travis’s original touring band — on April 25, at Kent State Tuscarawas’s Performing Arts Center [330 University Dr. NE] in New Philadelphia.)
The most impactful tribute was not to any Opry member, however, but to unfamous names — when Eric Church memorialized the 60 casualties of a mass shooter during a 2017 Las Vegas country music festival he’d headlined.
Church could’ve rocked one of his hits for the jubilant occasion; but instead, the Opry’s band exited so that Church performed Why Not Me — his somber grappling with survivor’s guilt — solo, bathed in red lighting. The Opry audience fell completely silent, a jarring contrast from the raucous Chattahoochee minutes ago; and I was disturbed by realizing that, despite this tragedy’s shocking carnage, it’s hardly recalled as many mass shootings have transpired since — and the Justice Department’s resulting 2018 bump stocks ban was recently overturned by the Supreme Court.
The broadcast concluded with condolences for one conspicuously absent Opry member. Dolly Parton’s husband Carl died just days prior, and the Opry members assembled to sing I Will Always Love You together in her honor — brilliantly combining their show of appreciation for Dolly’s timeless songwriting with support for her mourning.
Somebody seated near me derided how often death was invoked throughout the program; but I felt solace in Opry 100 embracing this taboo inevitability. The rally for Dolly was followed with Will the Circle Be Unbroken, a coda metaphorically appropriate for the Opry’s famous wooden circle. Perhaps that spirit of interconnectedness is why the world’s longest-running radio program, that has launched so many icons, hails not from Hollywood or the Big Apple — but Appalachia.
Many Opry members have granted exclusive interviews to WOUB Culture. Below are some highlights, hyperlinked to their stories.
- Ricky Skaggs — The Kentucky Thunder founder’s first bluegrass band, Boone Creek, included Vince Gill and Jerry Douglas; but Skaggs’ pivot to his trendsetting “neo-traditional country” sound was credited by Chet Atkins as “single-handedly saving country music” from the “Urban Cowboy” fad. The Opry briskly inducted Skaggs one month after Crying My Heart Out Over You became his first of ten No.1 singles from 1982-1986.
- Lorrie Morgan — Inducted at 24 in 1984, Morgan became the youngest inductee in Opry history. Lorrie’s father and husband, George Morgan and Keith Whitley, became Opry members in 1948 and 1989.
- Pam Tillis — Although her first Opry performance was alongside father Mel Tillis at age 8, Pam’s 2000 Opry membership actually preceded his. Set apart from Mel’s traditional country sound with her own styles, such as the salsa-infused No.1 hit Mi Vida Loca, Pam inducted Dad in 2007.
- Terri Clark — During her 2004 Opry performance, Steve Wariner and Terri’s mother surprised Clark with a member invitation; becoming the Opry’s only Canadian female inductee. Clark’s first single as an Opry member, Girls Lie Too, reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs; and crossed-over to Top 40 pop.
- The Oak Ridge Boys — Inducted in 2011, 30 years after the Country Music Hall of Famers made Elvira a Top 5 pop cross-over hit and double-platinum single. Elvira lead singer Joe Bonsall spoke to WOUB’s Ian Saint from Opry dressing room #1 — named after “King of Country Music,” 1938 Opry inductee Roy Acuff — shortly after 1962 inductee Loretta Lynn’s death (and months before Bonsall’s own passing).
- Dailey & Vincent — Prior to teaming up, each of the duo were members of other bluegrass groups: Jamie Dailey as lead vocalist and guitarist of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and Darrin Vincent in Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder. Darrin’s sister Rhonda Vincent was invited to Opry membership three years after their 2017 induction.
- Sara Evans — 25 years after No Place That Far became her first of five No.1 country singles and seven Top 40 pop cross-over hits, Sara Evans was invited to join the Opry by their longest-tenured member: Bill Anderson, inducted in 1961. Evans was inducted in 2023 by Kentucky-born Crystal Gayle, bearer of seventeen No.1 Country singles and Loretta Lynn’s youngest sibling.
Opry members are regularly featured in WOUB-TV programs, including the upcoming shows:
- Song of the Mountains, “Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder” — Saturday, April 5, 06 a.m., 20.2/44.2 CLASSIC
- Classic Gospel, “The Oak Ridge Boys: Rock of Ages” — Saturday, April 5, 07 a.m., 20.2/44.2 CLASSIC
- Song of the Mountains, “Always Loretta” — Thursday, April 10, 08 p.m., 20.1/44.1 WOUB-HD
- Classic Gospel, “Reba McEntire: My Chains Are Gone – Hymns & Gospel Favorites” —Friday, April 18, 07 p.m. 20.5/44.5 OHIO