Kenny Chesney, the late June Carter Cash and more will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The artists set to be inducted in October were announced this week in Nashville.
For Chesney, it’s a real honour and something he never expected to happen to him.
Chesney is quoted by PEOPLE as saying at the Hall of Fame rotunda: “I promise you, I did not see this coming.”
He went on to recall a poignant moment when he was young when he felt like a “fire lit” inside him after seeing Hall of Famers Alabama perform.
Chesney recalled: “I went with my mom and my stepfather to a field about 10 miles from my house to see this group, Alabama, that was going to play.
“I couldn’t believe they were going to play just right down the road from my house … Something happened to me that night. There was a fire lit. Something happened in my soul that set me on this path.”
He continued: “If you’d have told that kid that night … that this [the Hall of Fame] was going to happen, I would’ve told you that you were crazy.”
Carter Cash – who passed away in 2003, at the age of 74 – posthumously joins the Hall of Fame 45 years after her husband, the late great Johnny Cash.
Her children, Carlene Carter, 69, and John Carter Cash, 55,
They admitted to being surprised that their mother hadn’t been inducted already.
Her son told the outlet: “Everyone’s surprised when they find out that she wasn’t in.
“She may not have had the hits, but she touched so many people. She did so much with music.”
Elvis Presley’s former bandmember, Tony Brown, is also among the class of 2025.