Why Aren’t All Country Stars Grand Ole Opry Members?

George Strait isn’t a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Try to wrap your head around that for a minute. And for that matter, neither is Cody Johnson. Or Chris Stapleton. And same with Miranda Lambert. And Brooks & Dunn. And even Alabama.

In fact, the list of bona fide country superstars who aren’t part of the Opry family is almost as long as the list of artists who are.

As the Grand Ole Opry gets ready to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025, Cowboys & Indians took a good long look at the record of members who have become part of the Opry family in the last century. The C&I October cover girl, Lainey Wilson, was one of the last artists to become a member in June 2024. And before Wilson, there were about 74 other artists invited to be part of the iconic Nashville country music institution. Uncle Jimmy Thompson was the first, in 1925.

 

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And yet, some very big artists are missing from that list. (See below for the full list of members and non-members.)

In order to understand who isn’t a member, you have to understand who is. And more importantly, why.

One of the reasons a country artist may — or may not — be invited has to do with their commitment to performing on the legendary radio show. It’s not only about star power or tickets sold or other metrics for measuring success. And there is no longer a set-in-stone number in order to be considered a worthy amount of appearances. What seems to matter more to the decision-makers made up of the Opry management team is the calling to perform right away, and then to do so for the remainder of their career.

It is possible for someone to make their Opry debut, and even perform a handful of times, and then get so busy with touring that they can’t rationalize a lifelong obligation to in-house performances on the show. So then there is no invitation or subsequent induction. For so many artists, that invitation is the neon dream that brought them to Nashville in the first place. But for others, their dreams take off in a different direction.

 

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The way that the Opry explains the process of becoming a member is that it comes down to relationships: between performers and fans, between fellow members, and between each artist and the ideal of the Grand Ole Opry.

“Often, the Opry seeks out those who seek out the Opry,” according to Opry.com.

Vince Gill seems to agree with that notion. He told C&I that when he was first invited to perform in 1989, he’d already booked a gig for that same night. “I’d told my daughter Jenny that I would back her up at her 2nd-grade talent show at school,” he said. “I'd always dreamed of playing the Opry. And I'd been asked to come out and sing with other artists, but I said, ‘Respectfully, the first time I play that stage, I want to play it as me.’”

So when he got the initial call, he told the Opry boss it was a call he’d been waiting for his whole life. Fortunately, shortly after that elementary school talent show, the Opry called Gill again and he said yes. “I played ‘When I Call Your Name.’ It wasn’t a hit. It hadn’t even been recorded yet. And I had no reason to believe it would change my life like it did,” he shared of the ballad he wrote with Tim DuBois. “I remember just being so grateful that they thought enough of what I did to say, ‘We’d like to have you come out and play.’”

 

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Gill was inducted in 1991, with revered country singer and fiddle player Roy Acuff doing the honors. “I have so many memories of him,” Gill recalled. “He always wanted me to sing ‘When I Call Your Name.’ He would stand literally right next to me, right next to my face. There are pictures of him with tears in his eyes while I’m singing. He would say, ‘I believe that’s the prettiest harmony I’ve ever heard in my life.’ He made me sing it every time I was there.”

As for the commitment to play the Opry, Gill says it’s not as official as it sounds. “I just go whenever I can. A long time ago, there was contractually a number of appearances you had to make to be an Opry member.  And so many people couldn’t make a commitment to that many performances. A lot of people wound up not being Opry members that could’ve been and probably should’ve been,” he said. “They dropped those rules some years later.”

For him, the Opry always was special and still holds a place in his heart. “The Opry doesn’t have to mean the same thing to everybody. For me, it’s just the inclusion, the love of family, and the way everybody bonds together. It is pretty unique, it really is true. The coolest thing of all for me is that my mom was born in 1925, and she thought she was born on the day the Opry started,” he laughed.

“I let her still believe that.”