WhenTanya Tuckerwas just 9 years old, her father took her to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, trying to teach a lesson to his little girl with a big voice. Believing she wasn’t taking her gifts seriously enough, he goaded her, “You’re never gonna be in the Hall of Fame.”
On Monday, 55 years later, Tucker finally got the last word when she was announced as a member of the Hall of Fame’s class of 2023.
What does this honor — the ultimate in country music — mean to the 64-year-old icon?
“It means I proved my dad wrong one time,” she said with a wide grin, clearly savoring the moment.
The three will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame later this year, bringing its exclusive membership to 152.
Tanya Tucker, Bob McDill and Patty Loveless.Country Music Association, Inc.
Tucker’s reminiscences of her late father led off her remarks at the announcement in the Hall of Fame rotunda amid the banks of bronze plaques.
Tucker and her dad were in Nashville, she recalled, to cut her first demos, but she was far more interested in seeing the Grand Ole Opry. Her pestering prompted that fateful visit to the Hall of Fame — and while her dad did finally take her to the Opry, another lesson awaited her there.
“Wouldn’t you rather be up there doing it,” she recalled her father telling her as they watched the performances, “instead of sitting down here watching it?”
Over the next two decades, her maverick lifestyle earned her tabloid headlines as she enjoyed one of country’s most enduring careers, delivering such hits as “Just Another Love” and “Strong Enough to Bend.” In 1991, nearly 20 years after her first No. 1, she learned she’d won the CMA award for female vocalist of the year while in the delivery room giving birth to her son, Grayson, the second of her three children.
Tanya Tucker.Country Music Association, Inc.
Then a couple of years ago, she said, she had a change of heart: “I thought to myself, I usually get everything I go after. Maybe the reason I’m not getting it is because I’m not wanting it. The first step in getting something is wanting it.”
Last month, she found out her wish had finally come true when CMA chief exec Sarah Trahern surprised her at Nashville’s CMA headquarters with the news. Her son, as well as daughters Presley and Layla, were sneaked in to help her celebrate. Amid the tears and hugs, Tucker said, one thought rose to the surface: “I just wish my dad was here.” Beau Tucker was his daughter’s only manager from her childhood to his death in 2006.
In Tucker’s list of people to thank, he took top position. “My dad was the reason I’m here to do anything,” she said. “He was my first believer.”
Loveless, 66, also had someone who wasn’t there on her mind as she reacted to country’s most hallowed accolade. She received her news from Trahern in a phone call to her Georgia home about a month ago, and she told PEOPLE, she uncharacteristically “broke.” For the past several months, she explained, she has been the one “trying to hold it all together for everybody” after the loss of her stepdaughter and her brother within two weeks of each other last June.
Loveless was especially close to her brother, Roger Ramey, a country musician who was pivotal in his little sister’s early career and who also served as her manager for several years. “My first thought was with my brother and wanting him to know,” she told PEOPLE. But she also noted in her public remarks, “I know he’s probably got the best seat in the house, and he is so happy this moment.”
Patty Loveless.Country Music Association, Inc.
Loveless began her singing career as a teenager in the early 1970s, joining the Wilburn Brothers touring company. But when her career fizzled, she retreated from Nashville to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she sang in local rock and country bands. At her brother’s urging, she returned to Nashville in 1985 as the neo-traditional music ofRicky Skaggs,The JuddsandRandy Traviswas taking off.
During his inductee introductions at the Monday event, Hall of FamerVince Gillrecalled that Loveless stood in his fan fair autograph line in the mid-’80s, and she told him, “I like your singing and someday I’m going to sing with you.” It took just two years, he added, for her to make that dream happen, and the two virtuoso vocalists have since enjoyed frequent collaborations.
“It’s an undeniable voice,” Gill told PEOPLE, describing Loveless' gifts. “I remember, the first time singing with her in a room, how powerful and loud that voice is. It’s unbelievable, and it’s great to sing with because, you lean into that voice, and you know it’s not going anywhere. It’s staggering how much you can depend on a singer like Patty.”
Vince Gill, Tanya Tucker, Bob McDill and Patty Loveless.Country Music Association, Inc.
From 1988 to 2003, Loveless released 34 top 40 singles. Her No. 1s include “Timber I’m Falling in Love,” “Chains,” “Blame It on Your Heart” and “Lonely Too Long.” She won CMA album of the year in 1995 and female vocalist of the year in 1996, and she won vocal event of the year twice, in 1993 and 1998, withGeorge Jones. (Jones' widow, Nancy, was present at the Monday announcement.)
In 2013, Loveless and Gill delivered what is considered among the most memorable country performances of all time at Jones' funeral at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House. As the two duetted Gill’s"Go Rest High on that Mountain,“Gill broke down in sobs, and Loveless' soaring voice powered him through. By song’s end, almost the entire audience was on their feet in tearful solidarity.
Gill reminisced about that moment on Monday. “I don’t tell the story often but … it was Patty’s voice that did me in,” he revealed to PEOPLE. “When I heard her come in and start singing, that’s what killed me. I just fell apart.”
“What was cool about it,” he added, “was it gave everybody a chance to let go, and it was a beautiful moment. Not for me so much! It was pretty embarrassing in a way — but once again, grateful to be able to let it go.”
Though Loveless has mostly retired from the stage, she turned in yet another stirring performance at the CMA Awards last November, joining fellow KentuckianChris Stapletonand his wife,Morgane Stapleton, on “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” from her 2001 albumMountain Soul— a sublime merger that quickly turned into one of the evening’s highlights. Their choice was intended to draw attention to the state’s ongoing recovery from devastating floods.
“It was another emotional night,” said Loveless.
And yet one more such night awaits her this fall when she’ll be the one watching her peers honor her during the Hall of Fame’s medallion ceremony. Perhaps it’s expected that Loveless said Gill is her first choice to induct her.
On Monday, she was still having trouble believing the celebration was for her. “There are so many others, and when I see the list — and I have seen the list — I go, ‘Goodness gracious,'” she said. “And I just didn’t think I had a chance.”
In a professional field where acclaim and accolades can be so fleeting, the permanence of this particular honor wasn’t lost on Loveless.
“They can’t ever take this one away from me,” she said, adding a soft chuckle. “You know, if I’m ever not able to make another record, I’ll have this forever. This is forever.”
source: people.com
