Introduction

The “Hall of Fame Inductees Announcement Ceremony” by “CMA Presents the 2017 Country Music” is an esteemed event in the country music landscape, where the latest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame are announced. This ceremony is a significant moment for artists, recognizing their contributions and influence on the genre. It celebrates the heritage and tradition of country music, bringing together fans, musicians, and industry professionals.

He said this one’s for Becky as he watched the last one fall and I heard him say: I promised your dad not to do the things you’ve done.

I walk away from trouble when I can.

Now please don’t think I’m weak.

I didn’t turn the other cheek and papa, I sure hope you understand.

Sometimes you got to fight when you’re a man.

Everyone considered him the Coward of the County.

Last night I dug your picture out from our old dresser drawer.

I set it on the table and Ial to it till 4.

I read some old of letters right up till the break of dawn.

Yeah, I’ve been sitting alone digging a bone.

Then I went through the jewelry and I found our wedding rins.

I put mine on my finger and I gave yours a flame across this lonely bedroom of our recent brok home.

Yeah, tonight I’m sitting alone Digging Up Bones.

I’m Digging Up Bones.

I’m digging up B, diing up, resuming things that’s better left alone.

I’m resurrecting memories of love that’s dead and gone.

Yeah, tonight I’m sitting alone toing Up Bones, and I went through the closet and I found some things in there like that pretty neglige that I bought you to wear, and I recall how good you looked each time you had it on.

Yeah, tonight I’m sitting alone, Digging Up Bones.

I’m Digging Up Bones.

I’m Digging Up Bones, diing up B Exum in things that’s better left alone.

I’m resurrecting memories of the love that’s dead and gone.

Here tonight I’m sitting alone, piing up Bon.

I’m resurrecting memories of a love that’s dead in.

Yeah, tonight I’m sitting alone, digging up bone.

I’m diing a boneing up, exing things that’s better left alone.

I’m resurrecting memories of the love that’s dead and gone.

Here tonight I’m sitting alone, a boneing up.

I’m digging up Bing, uping things that’s better left alone.

I’m resurrecting memories of love.

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine.

I keep my eyes wide open all the time.

I keep the ends out for the ti that finds.

Because you’re mine, I Walk the Line.

Good morning, hello everybody.

I’m um, Jay Jones.

I’m the director of media for Cma.

Thank you all for coming this morning.

If everybody will make their way to the seats, if they’re going to be seated, um, we’re going to start in just a minute, but I wanted to go through one or two things.

Um, immediately following the ceremony, the program, we’re going to do some photos of the inductees with the um other Hall of Fame members that are here, as well as the members.

So if everybody could hold their congratulations and their rush to excitement while we do that, we would much appreciate it.

Um, also remember, this is a press conference.

It is being live streamed.

Please silence your cell phones, any technology you have.

Um, other than that, thank you for being here.

We really appreciate it.

Um, let’s get started.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce the Ceo of Cma, Sarah Trear.

Good morning and welcome to the announcement of the country music hall of fames class of 2017.

Thank you for joining us today, as we announce and celebrate a group of inductees who have reached what is truly the highest achievement in our industry: to be welcomed into the circle and know that their plaques will join the 130 others that hang in reverence on these walls.

We have several members of our Cma board of directors joining us today, and I’d like to ask all, all of them to stand, and I particularly like to recognize our officers, chairman Sally Williams, President Bill Simmons and president-elect Jody Williams.

Thank you guys.

I’d also like to acknowledge that many members of the Country Music Hall of Fame are here to welcome these new artists into the family.

If you would stand as well joining us are Alabama, bobby bear, Bobby bradock.

You guys can go ahead and stand.

Charlie Daniels, Brenda Lee, Joe Walker met the Oakridge Boys and Connie Smith.

It truly is wonderful to have all of you here with us today.

So thanks for coming.

Cma created the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 to guarantee that, as a genre, we honor the M country music artists and Industry luminaries who’ve had a most significant impact on this musical art form.

It was 50 years ago, this past Saturday April 1st, that the museum first opens its stores.

I’d like to congratulate Kyle Young and the museum staff on that remarkable achievement.

Congratulations, it truly is a wonderful team over here.

Additionally, I’d like to recognize and thank the Country Music Hall of Fame Board of Directors for their incredible work they do in preserving the history for future Generations.

Inductees will be announced today in three Cate categories: modern veterans era and the rotating category for songwriter.

The individuals we announc today will be formerly inducted during the traditional Invitation Only Medallion ceremony later this year in the Cma theater.

At this time I’d like to introduce the Ceo of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Mr K young.

Thanks, Sarah.

Welcome to the Hall of Fame rotunda on what is always, no matter what the weather.

Outside country music’s brightest morning of the Year, Cma has chosen three new members of country music’s most celebrated and exclusive family.

I’m sure the choices were difficult, even excruciating, yet the choices made are ultimately righteous and unassailable.

Membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame is not predicated on mere greatness, but on indelibility.

To enter this, all one must have added to the music in ways that are permanent and unfading.

The three Southern storytellers who make up the Halls class of 2017 have made such marks.

They articulated Triumph, struggle and Humanity through words and music that are at once highly individual and palpably Universal.

They changed music for the better.

When you hear their names called, you will be heartened and you will be gratified.

You will know that these are not names of the merely great, but of the inarguably indelible.

You will know that our Circle remains unbroken.

To all who are gathered here, and especially to our 27 inductees.

Thank you for being with us on this shining morning.

Sarah Trey Hearn.

Thanks, Kyle.

It’s also worth noting that this month also marks Kyle’s 41st anniversary working with Museum.

Truly remarkable, my friend.

To announce our 2017 Country Music Hall of Fame indues, we turn to someone who personifies Nashville, our musical community and truly the best traits of our business.

He’s a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

He’s president of the board of officers and trustees of the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum.

He’s an 18-time Cma Award winner and our 12-time host.

Please welcome a passionate supporter of country music and an amazing man, Vince skill.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sarah.

I hate to F.

I hate to follow Kyle, young he’s, so he uses big words and I don’t know what any of them mean.

But, uh, we’re thrilled to death that you’re here today to, uh, celebrate.

Uh, these iconic three members of the newest members of the Hall of Fame is the greatest honor we can bestow.

And, uh, we’re here today to announce those three and they exemplify the heights, the Excellence of country music.

But, uh, they’re also iconic and they’ve transcended the genre and entered into the national Consciousness.

I didn’t write this.

Okay, can we just get that out of the way now?

And they need to get a knead to write this stuff for me.

But, uh, uh, we’ll start with the veterans era artist inductee.

And there was a time this guy was a fast picking, wise, cracking face of country music for most Americans.

He participated in some key music history moments as a session player and scored his share of chart hits as a performer.

His good-natured wit and ability to transform into an outsized personality as an actor without losing his authenticity that made him one of the genre’s most well-known ambassadors of the 70s and 80s.

You all know who it is I. I don’t know why they save this until the end, but they do.

But uh, his ability, uh, are what have brought him to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

His career started in the 50s and into the all the way into the 90s and, uh, he toured and played out well into the 2000s.

His career was, uh, very long and received many Cma Award nominations over the course of four Dec decades, from 1969 to 1999, was a two-time nominee for Entertainer of the Year and a three-time Grammy winner.

Was born on March 20th in 1937 in Atlanta, and this singer guitarist made it to Nashville in 1962 to start into a session career as a guitar player.

After a two-year sent in the Army, he drawn the attention of the industry when two of his songs became hits, one of them by Jean Vincent, released his version of Crazy Legs in 58 and Brenda Lee recorded that’s all you got to do in 1960, but it was the man’s fiery guitar playing that really turned heads in the early 60s.

A finger style picker with few Rivals, he was dubbed a certified guitar player by the Great Hall of Fame member, Chad Atkins.

Atkins bestowed this award only four times.

Personally, earning the Cgp status meant country music’s most acknowledged guitar player thought you were a great player.

Nashville felt much the same, naming this inductee the Cma instrumentalist of the year in 1970 and 1971 and giving him the straightforward nickname The Guitar Man.

He and Atkins were nominated together for Cma instrumental group of the year in the following two years, 72 and 73.

His best known hits included the Grammy Award winning when you’re hot, you’re hot, and he would win two more Grammys for his recordings, me and Jerry and sneaking around, both made with Chad Atkins.

His other Classics include Guitar Man, Amos, Mo, Mes, Alabama Wildman, Us male.

A Thing Called Love

And she got the gold mine.

I got the shaft.

His affable onscreen presence was attracted to, attractive to Hollywood, and he made several appearances with his friend Bert Reynolds and, starting in the mid 70s, with Ww and the Dixie Dance Kings, and it also included three versions of smoky in the Bandit he scored also with the themes the, the hit song from the movie East found and down, and made a great return to film in 1998 as a football coach in Adam Sanders, the water boy.

The following year he received his final Cma nomination for vocal event of the year for his old dog supergroup collaboration with Wayan Jennings, melis and Bobby bear.

Sadly he pass.

He passed away from complications related to Osa in 2008 at the age of 71.

It’s our honor to name Jerry Reid, the Hall of Class F, the Hall of Fame class of 2017.

I think Bobby bar is the happiest guy in the room here to speak on behalf of.

Jerry.

Are his daughters Sadena and Lah?

Hey, Bobby, get on up here.

L, she’s not used to this.

Come on, this is not at all.

I’m Sadena.

This is Lah, or his dad used to call us one and two.

You know, it’s really just now hitting me.

What’s happening here?

Um, this is the most wonderful day, and if Dad were here, he would be so humbled and so grateful, because music was his life.

He loved this industry.

He loved picking and singing and writing.

It’s all he’d been doing since he was about 8 years old.

His mama got him a guitar, taught him a G chord and he took it from there, writing and singing and picking ever since.

You know Daddy.

Um, Daddy had a rough childhood

And he had every reason in the world to be a grumpy old guy.

But he was the complete opposite.

He loved people, he loved life, he loved living life and he loved picking that guitar and making music.

And he loved Bobby bear.

Oh man, L and I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for this day.

Thank you for recognizing all the years of love and dedication and hard work that dad put into his craft.

We appreciate it so much.

Thank you, don’t leave me, I’m not leaving.

Thank you all so much.

It is an honor to be here to represent daddy today.

Daddy was blessed with an Incredible Gift and he was blessed with the opportunity to share that gift with the world.

For 55 years of his career, making music was his passion, he told me.

One time he said making music is what I love.

It’s all I know, he said, but it’s hard to call it work when I have so much fun doing it.

But Daddy did work very hard.

He was always trying to perfect his craft growing up.

I can’t tell you how many times I would go to bed hearing him play and wake up.

Hearing him play.

He hadn’t moved all night long and stomping that foot right, yep, and he’d still be sitting there.

When I got home from school in the afternoon and mom told me one time she said even the few hours day daddy does rest when he’s writing- she said he’s still tapping that foot in his sleep and mouthing words and singing lyrics in his sleep.

That’s how much he love making music.

Yep, yep, daddy once said to me.

He said music is a gift.

It touches your soul and lifts your spirit like nothing else.

And I know he was so proud and grateful to have been a part of the country music community, and I know he would be so humbled and thankful if he were here today.

Thank you again for honoring dad, his tremendous gift and the career he loves so much.

Congratulations, Daddy.

We love you and we are so proud of you.

Thank you all so much.

Oh, that’s a sweet start.

We, uh, we’re off to a good start.

They, uh, they were nice enough not to tip off who the other two inductees were going to be, which which we we had happen last year.

Surprise, not.

Ah.

It’s great to see Reed going Hall of Fame man.

He was a inspiring man, hell of a guitar player and, uh, sure, inspired the way I play.

Um, and I love that.

He was in a band with Mel Tillis.

I got to tell this story.

Kyle asked me if it was true.

Just because you’re going to, you’re going to go into the Rotunda and, and to all the guys, uh, that are going to go into the Hall of Fame, I, I wish you luck with your plaque.

Some good, some not so good.

You know, over the years, and he was, and him and Mel Tillis were such great friends, Jerry and Mel, and and Mel’s, funny as a stitch, and keep him in your prayers.

He’s really struggling, but I was sitting next to Mel Tillis when they unveiled my statue and I, that was my greatest fear.

And, uh, and he, as it got, as it got revealed, he nudged me in the chest and he goes.

You, you look like Lan cheny.

Oh God.

So we got to get.

We got to get mail to see Jerry’s, uh, Jerry’s plaque and see how, see what he’s got to say.

Well, our next induct is among the most influential and beloved songwriters in the history of country music.

His chart topping songs such as the Gambler, on the other hand forever and ever.

Amen, he thinks he’ll keep her the greatest.

And when you say, nothing at all, are touchstones and Inspirations that continue to influence songwriters and singers decades after they were written.

His 50 top 10 singles performed by Mary Chapen, Carpenter, Allison Krauss, Nitty-gritty Dirt Band, Kenny Rogers, The Juds, Randy Travis, Tanya Tucker, Keith Whitley and many others that would be me, uh, include.

He’s had 24 number one hits that he’s written.

He’s won three Cma song of the Year Awards, two Grammy Awards and four consecutive Ascap country songwriter of the Year trophies.

He was inducted into the nationville songwriters Association Hall of Fame in 1993 and the songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.

Born on August 29th 1952 and raised in Durham, North Carolina, he briefly attended Duke University before coming to Nashville at age 20.

His talent was recognized and fostered early on by greats including Bob mcdill and Bobby bear, and he emerged as an empathetic and intelligent.

Two more words.

I never use Chronicle of the Human Spirit.

When Kenny recorded his song, The Gambler.

It was his first recorded song and his Ascent was assured, and the success of that enduring story allowed him the freedom to spend a lifetime writing words and music that articulated the extraordinary emotions inherent in common experience.

I wrote that part.

He’s written hits across five decades and gets to join an exclusive Circle in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

That includes Bobby bradock, Hank Cochran, Harlon Howard, Cindy Walker and Feliz and Bu O’brien.

They’ve been inducted as songwriters.

This inductee and his co-writers panned rocking with the rhythm of the rain.

40-hour week for a living Houston solution deeper than the holler One Promise Too Late.

I feel lucky.

Old school.

Give Me Wings strong enough to bend, and dozens of others that underscore the depth and breadth of the modern era of country music.

He was one of the first performers at Amy Klin’s Bluebird Cafe.

Him and Friends, Tom Skyler, J Fred noblock and Paul over Street originated the cafe songwriter in the round format in 1985.

He continues to regularly perform there and other places across the country.

His illustrious song book even includes the 2001 Broadway musical, The Adventure of Tom, The Adventures of Tom Sawer.

Excuse me, Kenny Rogers said that inducting him into the song writers Hall of Fame with this statement.

He said, Don just doesn’t write songs, he writes careers.

Please welcome my lifelong friend, the newest member, Mr Don Schlitz.

Oh, thank you, brother.

Well, okay, first I was shocked.

On March 5th, Sarah treer asked my wife, Stacy and I if we would be free on April 5th, and we both were checking our calendars when she gave us this news and we moved some things around.

I remember looking at Stacy and being so glad that she’s here to share this part of the journey with me.

Keep me sane.

I wondered how I would ever be able to express how many people are involved in the process of turning the spark of a song into one that people thought always existed or somehow came into being when they first heard it.

And then I was told we couldn’t tell anyone until April 5th, a whole month.

Well, what about my family and my mom and my brother and my sister and my children and my grandchildren?

Okay, But only if they promise not to tell anyone.

So no telling my family.

Could I tell my mentors- Bob mcdill, Jim rushing, Bill Anderson?

How wish I could tell the late Audi Ashworth and the late Paul craft and the late Merlin little field?

But sh, and what about all of my collaborators, Paul over Street, Dave Loggin, Lisa silver, Billy Livsey, Mary Chapen, Carpenter, Brent mayor, Craig biart and near?

About everybody on music, Roow and the musicians and the singers and the engineers who took our raw songs and made such great demos to present to our Publishers and our Publishers, especially Pat Higden and Pat Halper, who took the songs, to the recording artists, the record Executives and the producers.

And what about the good Folks at Asap, who’ve been with me since Merlin Littlefield said: Hey kid, could I tell him: look what we’ve done?

No, we want it to be a surprise.

Well, what about my pals?

Jelly roll Johnson, Vince Gill, Tom Skyler, J Fred noblock and Gary Burr and Allan Shamblin, Peter Cooper and Jerry house and Josh Kier and Mark Irwin, all the gang at The Bluebird Cafe, especially Amy Kurlin and Erica Wellam Nichols?

Can’t I just quietly say: look what we’ve done, small, keep Circle, Small,

Okay.

Well, what about Chuck flood?

He has been my partner since forever.

He taught me to keep my head down, to never think about results, to never think about days like this, and he’s always told me I could do better.

He did the best to raise me in this business.

Can I tell him: look what we’ve done.

Yes, you can tell Chuck flood, cuz no one says no to Chuck flood.

What about Kenny and Randy and chapen and bear and reeba and the Juds and T and the Oaks and the Dirt Band, these people who did all the hard work so I could stay home and stay in the parentheses.

Can I just whisper: look what we’ve done.

They’re in Show Business, believe me, they’ll be in touch.

What about the folks in radio?

You, the ones who play the songs and the fans, the ones who complete the circle because a song’s not a song till someone hears it.

And can I please scream?

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to them.

He said: please, please, please wait.

April 5th, April 5th.

Well, April 5th, Stacy, here we are.

It’s April 5th, here we are.

Here’s the truth.

I will never be able to believe that I deserve this unless I receive it as a representative of my family, my mentors, my collaborators, my promoters and my friends.

That’s the only way I can deal with this.

I can only represent and I can finally say to all those good people in the process with me: look what we’ve done.

I am so grateful to the Country Music Association, to the Country Music Hall of Fame and everyone who goes in with me, everyone who goes in with me.

I am humbled to represent and I am overwhelmed.

One more thing, mama, I know you’re home watching and, daddy, you didn’t get to see any of this, and I know somehow you’re watching too and look what you’ve done.

Thank you, good guys, that’s a great friend right there.

Don Schlitz, you know your good friends are the ones that, uh still like you, even when you’re at your worst, and we have seen each other at our best and our worst.

Congratulations, my dear friend.

That’s awesome.

I do know, for a fact, that the only things he moved around on his schedule were breakfast with me and a colonoscopy.

So I’m glad he’s here.

So we’re good.

Put those off as long as you can.

You were close all righty, one more, one more, and this is in our modern era category.

When music historians recount this artist staggering accomplishments, they don’t just limit the comparisons to his country music contemporaries.

With dozens of chart topping singles, tens of millions of albums sold and an unparalleled reputation as a singer and songwriter, he ranks with the Beatles, Elvis Presley and only a handful of other Transcendent artists.

There’s another word I don’t use very often, uh, who stand out like signposts in music history by deeply tipping his hat.

There’s a tip, there’s a, there’s a, there’s a, there’s a giveaway to The Honky Tonk Legends of his youth.

Unflinchingly remaining true to himself for more than 25 years, he earned an unparalleled reputation as that singer and as that songwriter.

He Blended the old and new in a musical style that is urban and rural, rugged and raw, and appeals to the large sector of the country music Audience that looks to its past for its influences.

Born on October 17th 1958 in n in Georgia, he took the sounds of country music of his Youth and Blended them with the modern Production Way that, uh, they were making records.

That made him an immediate star and he straddled a divide between kind of pop sensibilities and Hardline affection for classic country.

Nobody stuck up for country music more than this gentleman ever signed by record executive Tim Duis.

As the flagship artist for Ariston Nashville in ‘ 89, he saw almost immediate success with his first album here in the real world.

It yielded his first billboard number one single.

He was nominated for four awards at the 1990 Cma Awards and over the course of his career would become the second most nominated artist in Cma history.

With 81 nominations, following only George Strait, he still owns the record for most nominations in a single year, with 10 set in 2002, the year, he swept song and single of the year with his beautiful tribute to 911.

Where were you when the world stopped turning?

He’s released more than 20 albums and collections, including four Rays into gospel and Bluegrass, nine of which went multiplatinum with 2 million or more in sales.

Those old, those albums have led to one of country music’s most decorated careers, with Cma Entertainer of the Year Awards, two Grammy Awards, membership in the grand old opera and and the esteemed Nashville songwriters Hall of Fame and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

He was given the first ever Ascap Heritage award, recognizing him as the most performed country music songwriter artist of the last 100 years.

He’s chared more than 30 number one hits and sold nearly 60 million records, is among our most respected figures, figures with more than 150 Awards.

Please join me in welcoming our modern era artist inductee The Great Alan Jackson.

Oh, thank you.

Oh, all right, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good.

Thank you’all, so much.

God bless you.

I appreciate that.

It’s Vince, that’s good reading, good reading.

So glad I didn’t have to do it.

I can tell you that, uh, honor, you know I, uh, it’s the first thing- comes into your mind.

You say you’re honored, and it is.

It’s such, a, such an honor.

And, uh, today I heard him say I was a modern era.

That was the biggest honor I’ve heard in a long time.

I’m still in the modern era.

I love that man, very cool.

But it’s such an honor to be here today in that class with two, two great artist and, uh J reading Don Slitz.

I mean I’m so happy to be in the class with them.

I Don’s written some of the greatest songs, some of my favorites all time, and there’ll never be another.

Jerry Reid-

I mean he was classic if ever was one and and an individual unique, uh artist that I liked, and he’s

Old Georgia Boy too.

So it’s very cool to be here with them.

But, uh, I’m trying to think I uh about the Hall of Fame and how it’s been a part of my career off and on.

And so I was going to say this: daddy won a radio and he tuned it to a country show.

That was a opening line, a song called chasing that Neon Rainbow.

I wrote that with Jim Mcbride back in the early days and I believe it was, if not the.

It was one of the first songs we wrote together and he was asking me about what I remembered about music.

Uh, in my life, growing up in Georgia, I told him we didn’t have much live music.

Nobody played anything.

My sister sang a little that kind of stuff.

But my daddy worked for the pepsicola plant when I was about five here in Georgia and they had this employee contest, uh, and he won this radio and that was the first kind of musical thing.

I remember it, just a wooden box that sat on the counter.

That’s probably old field Co. or something.

And, uh, that was the first musical thing I remember at home anyway, that ended up being that opening line of that song and then, years later, after I got a record deal, recorded it.

It was the number one hit.

And, uh, I guess a Hall of Fame I can’t remember now.

They asked us about that radio and we found it, my daddy’s garage down in Georgia and dusted it off and brought it up here, and they put it in the Hall of Fame here

And I guess it’s still in here here somewhere.

But that was, uh, the first time I’d had a piece of my life in music end up here, and it was so great that it was something related to my daddy and my family, because he was a quiet man and didn’t ever say much.

Uh, but he was inspirational in his own ways and for some reason he watched, uh, you know the gospel music.

Uh, on Sunday morning that was some of the on television.

That was some of the first music I remember hear, and my Mama Sang a lot around the house.

That kind of stuff, old songs from the 50s that she grew up with in 40s and 50s.

Uh, but Daddy loved country music and gospel music and he watched that Heaw every Saturday afternoon.

Man, and I used to.

I was a young, but I used to watch it with him, you know, and out of the blue some one day he just said, you know, uh, I think Buck Owens had just played and sang or something.

And daddy said, you know, you ought to do something like that, and I I mean even as a kid I didn’t think that much about it.

But it was just odd that him, for him, for that to come out of him.

That was so strange and it stuck with me all this time.

And and I think U, you know, you never know, my wife says things that your father says to you like that really have an effect on you.

And uh, I think it did.

You know, it probably pushed me a little bit, planted those seeds in early days.

And uh, so it was good to just kind of come back around from now I’m going to be in there with you, him, with his radio.

So I came all the way back around, uh, to be a part of this again, and I’ll be in the Hall of Fame with Daddy Jeans, radio and my water ski and some blue jeans with holes in them.

So, like um, probably the only artist to have all that kind of collection in here.

But, uh, anyway, I won’t talk so much today, you know.

But uh, it’s just unbelievable, you know.

Uh, I do.

I don’t do as many interviews as I used to, but people always asking me: you know, you’ve done everything, accomplished everything, what, what, what are you?

What’s still your?

What’s your next goal?

What goals do you have left?

What dreams you?

And I never, I never say the Country Music Hall of Fame, because I just felt like that was kind of pretentious, you know, to think that I deserved to be in there, and I never say that.

But you know, now I can say, you know this, like the.

This is about the last dream on the list right here.

So, thank y’all, so much.

Thank you.

One more round of applause for our great inductees this year.

It’s been a great morning and on behalf of my buddies at the Cma.

I’d like to congratulate everybody on these great achievements and, uh, looking forward to The Medallion ceremony.

I think it’s October 22nd, is that right?

That’s close.

Let’s go with that for.

But, uh, thanks for coming.

I think Jay has a few words about what’s going to happen with the press and this and that.

But, uh, it’s pretty neat to see all these folks and and the realization that it it does take a village for somebody to accomplish something like this, family and friends and co-writers and just people that believe in you.

And, uh, just really neat to see on the faces of all these people that gift of a life of work God bless.

First we’re going to take some trade photos with the inductees and some of the executives.

Then we’re going to ask our Hall of Fame members that are here attending to come join for the next photo.

After that we’ll have the rest of the board members come join for photos.

In the meantime, if the members of the media would start to line up to the left side over here, your right or left, um, we’ll get you set up to do some one-on-one interviews following those photos.

And thank you everybody for coming today, E.