Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless and Bob McDill will be the Country Music Hall of Fame‘s three 2023 inductees, it was announced in a news conference at the hall’s museum in Nashville Monday morning.
Tucker will be inducted into the hall in the “Veterans Era Artist” category, while Loveless will get her entree in the “Modern Era Artist” category.
McDill is to be inducted in the “Songwriter” category, which is in rotation with the “Recording and/or Touring Musician” and “Non-Performer” categories, each coming up every three years.
Cheers went up at the announcement ceremony as well as around Nashville, as all three have long been favored for induction, and Tucker and Loveless particularly talked up as should-be shoo-ins for their historical importance as leading women in the genre.
Loveless had 41 singles place in the top 10 of the Billboard country chart, and 10 of those went to No. 1. She has not been in the limelight as much since her string of ’90s smashes, but Loveless returned to it in a big way when she appeared on November’s CMA Awards show, singing a duet with Chris Stapleton on “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.” It was almost universally acclaimed as the highlight of the telecast and immediately sent viewers back to nostalgically stream her past work, or discover it for the first time.
Tucker, of course, has been in the limelight for several years now, in as big a way as she has since her initial flood of ’70s hits like “Delta Dawn.” That’s been thanks largely to her Brandi Carlile-produced “While I’m Livin'” album, which won Tucker her first two Grammys; Carlile has made no secret of the fact that her ultimate goal for her hero/client was to see her get into the Country Hall of Fame.
This may mark the first Hall of Fame slate in which the “Veterans Era” inductee is older than the “Modern Era” artist being voted in; Loveless is 66 and Tucker is 64. By the criteria that separate these categories, though, it’s not even close — Loveless did not release her first album until 1987, when she was 30, whereas Tucker got started as one of music’s most renowned child stars in 1972, when she was 13.
Hall of Famer Vince Gill hosted the press-conference reveal, which was carried live on the hall’s YouTube channel, joined by Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern. Gill said it was particularly special to gather to honor greats, given that, as he said, “we’ve had one of the worst weeks we’ve ever had in the history of this city,” referencing the recent school shootings.
At the news conference, Tucker talked about making a visit with her father to Nashville when she was 9, and how the family was so poor, they couldn’t afford $1.50 admission to get into the Hall of Fame, at its then-smaller location.
“My dad was mad at me … and he said to me, ‘he said, ‘You’re never gonna be in the Hall of Fame. You’re never gonna make it,’ because he was trying to tell me that I gotta work a little more, a little harder. I remember that so well and I kind of just figured that’s the way it was gonna be, because my daddy was always right. He took me to the Grand Ole Opry, and he said, ‘Now, wouldn’t you rather be up there doing it than sitting down here watching it?’ So I made a lot of decisions when I was a kid. … So there’s one thing I wanna say,” Tucker continued. “Well, daddy, you weren’t hardly ever wrong. But this time you was wrong. But I wish you were here so much.”
Besides crediting her father for motivating her, Tucker also gave thanks to two producers of her classic records, Billy Sherrill and Jerry Crutchfield. She also gave out her actual room number at the Lowe’s Hotel where she’s currently staying. “We’re gonna be celebrating all night if y’all wanna come over to the room,” she declared.
“That’s a one of a kind right there,” said Gill of Tucker. “You’re a blast. You make life fun.”
Gill had a personal or professional connection with all three nominees. Loveless quipped, “See there, Vince I told you it’d happen, you and me singing together” — a reference that flew over the heads of almost everyone but the emcee. Gill subsequently explained, “That young kid right there was at my second or third Fan Fair… She wanted to get my autograph. She goes, ‘I like your singing. Someday I’m gonna sing with you.’ I’m going, ‘Yeah. Right, sure, whatever.’ Turned out to be about the best (singing) partner I ever had. … If I’ve got a little sister, you’re it.”
Before the announcement, Trahern led the assembled in a moment of silence for the loss of Hall of Fame members Jeff Cook, Jerry Lee Lewis and Loretta Lynn, as well as recently deceased Hall of Fame staff members Peter Cooper and Liz Thiels.
McDill is known for having his hits recorded by Don Williams, Ronnie Milsap and many others — and, finally, Gill himself. Said Gill of McDill, “He has a song that, I’ve carried in my back pocket for 40 years that I adore. It’s called ‘Last Dance at the Old Texas Moon.’ Do yourself a favor, go listen to that song. Bobby Bare did a version of it (in 1975), and I have a version of me playing it on a Rodney Crowell record of some sort that got released during COVID. That song has just been one of the greatest songs I’ve ever known, and every time I’d see Bobby, he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, I know you like my song. Why don’t you cut it?'”
The annual announcement of the Country Hall of Fame’s inductees is perhaps anticipated and taken even more seriously in the country community than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s similar yearly announcement, if only because it selects its members in much smaller numbers than the Rock Hall, with only three or four coming in each year (and at least one of those usually a non-celebrity writer, session player or exec, to boot). The waiting list of universally acknowledged greats who haven’t gotten in is arguably much longer, making it a truly prized honor no one in Nashville circles takes for granted.
Last year’s trio of inductees were Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Whitley and executive Joe Gallante. Lewis was alive and able to participate in the May 2022 press conference announcing his election, although he fell ill and was unable to attend the Oct. 16 medallion ceremony. He died less than two weeks after his induction became official, on Oct. 28.
Earlier in 2022, a belated medallion ceremony for the previous class of inductees was held in April, postponed due to the pandemic. That ceremony honored the Judds, Ray Charles, Eddie Bayers and Pete Drake. That ceremony was quote emotional, as Naomi Judd died by suicide the day before the event, with her daughter Naomi showing up in the immediate wake of the tragedy to accept the award.
Nominees are not made publicly known, and voting is done among specially selected members of the music industry and artist community.
These three honorees will join 152 others who have been inducted into the hall since it was instituted in 1961.
In a statement, Tucker said, “I’m more than proud to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was wonderful to have all three of my kids beside me when I got the news. The only way it could’ve been any better is if my parents Beau and Juanita Tucker could have been there too. They are the reason and the root of all my success in music. And the fans – they are everything. When I walk in that Hall they will all be with me.”
“Each of our three new inductees has left a deep and distinctive stamp on our genre,” saidKyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, in announcing the honors. “Tanya Tucker, originally from Texas, is a force of nature who has been blazing her way into our hearts since she was a teenager. Patty Loveless, who hails from the coal-mining hills of Kentucky, sings with mountain soul and makes music that blends tradition with invention. And Bob McDill from East Texas has written some of the most enduring and artful songs in our genre. They have all profoundly shaped our music, and we are honored and delighted that their achievements will now forever be enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame.”
