Scotty McCreery Invited to Become a Member of the Grand Ole Opry

Multi-Platinum selling country artist Scotty McCreery was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry tonight by Opry member Garth Brooks. McCreery was surprised onstage during his spotlight artist performance at tonight’s Opry Country Christmas show.
 
“Merry Christmas,” Garth said walking onto the stage handing McCreery a wrapped gift. “This is a Christmas present to the Grand Ole Opry,” Garth later continued. “We would love to invite you to be the newest member of the Opry.”
 
“Holy cow. Yes, I would love to,” McCreery replied. “I grew up listening to your records Garth and you’re a part of what made me want to do this for a living and I didn’t think that dream would become a reality, but it is because of all of y’all sitting in this house tonight. God bless y’all.” 
 
McCreery continued, “When I got started doing this people asked, ‘what are your goals,’” voice cracking with emotion McCreery shared, “and I’d say ‘one day I’d like to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry.’” Then bent down and touched the circle of wood in the Opry’s center stage where so many of his heroes and peers have stood.
 
“We’re thrilled to extend this much-anticipated invitation to our friend Scotty,” said Opry Executive Producer Dan Rogers. “Whether he’s on the Opry performing his hits, putting his spin on some old favorites during a performance on one of our Opry Country Classics shows, or offering a holiday set as he did tonight, Scotty consistently delivers and is always at home on the Opry stage. It’ll be exciting to hear the words ‘Scotty McCreery, you’re a member of the Grand Ole Opry!’ in the early days of 2024.” 
 
McCreery’s induction date will be announced soon. 
 
All Opry Country Christmas shows air on WSM Radio as well as WSM and Opry digital platforms. Remaining Opry Country Christmas dates are Dec. 7, Dec. 10, Dec. 11, Dec. 14, Dec. 17 (matinee) and Dec. 18. Hosted by Grammy®-winning Opry member Larry Gatlin, each Opry Country Christmas show will also feature Opry members The Gatlin Brothers, Riders In The Sky, Mandy Barnett and Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie McCoy. Set to round out this year’s series as Spotlight Artists are Trace Adkins, Chris Young, Lady A, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Chris Janson. For Opry Country Christmas tickets and more information on the full Opry schedule, visit opry.com.

Scotty McCreery invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry by Garth Brooks | Photo Credit: Chris Hollo

About Scotty McCreery:
Scotty McCreery has been a household name for nearly half his life, ever since making history in 2011 as both the first country artist and the youngest male artist of any genre to debut his first studio album, the Platinum-certified Clear as Day, at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. The 30-year-old has sold more than 4 million albums and achieved 5 consecutive No.1 hits: the RIAA Platinum-certified “Damn Strait,” the RIAA Gold certified “You Time,” the RIAA Gold certified “In Between,” the RIAA Platinum certified “This is It,” and the RIAA Triple Platinum certified ‘Five More Minutes.” His new single “Cab in a Solo,” which McCreery wrote with Frank Rogers and Brent Anderson, is from a forthcoming album due out in 2024. The North Carolina native has earned one Triple Platinum, five Platinum and four Gold singles; one Platinum and two Gold albums; won the 10th season of “American Idol” in 2011 at age 17; was named the ACM New Artist of the Year in 2011; won the CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Video of the Year (“The Trouble with Girls”) in 2012; and BMI Awards for writing One of the Top 50 Country Songs of the Year five times (in 2015 for “See You Tonight,” in 2018 for “Five More Minutes,” in 2019 for “This is It,” in 2021 for “In Between,” and in 2022 for “You Time”). He was awarded Pandora Billionaire status in 2021 in recognition of his music achieving more than one billion streams on Pandora. His song “Five More Minutes” inspired two popular holiday movies which aired on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Network: “Five More Minutes” in 2021 and “Five More Minutes: Moments Like These” in 2022. He released his first book Go Big or Go Home: The Journey Toward the Dream in 2016. His most recent album is Same Truck: The Deluxe Album. This fall McCreery was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. The singer/songwriter married his high school sweetheart Gabi in 2018, and the couple had their first son Avery in October 2022. For more information, visit ScottyMcCreery.com.
 
About the Grand Ole Opry: The Grand Ole Opry is the home of country music where artists and fans gather, in person and virtually, to celebrate and be part of country’s past, present and future. Founded in Nashville in 1925 and today the longest-running live broadcast show in the world, the Opry strengthens its roots by constantly evolving. The Opry’s members are country’s most emblematic artists, and the show regularly showcases country music’s top new talent. The Opry welcomes legions of fans to visit the Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee – Music City, USA – to experience one of the 3-5 live shows it hosts per week; take a backstage tour; listen to live broadcasts on opry.com and wsmonline.com, SiriusXM Willie’s Roadhouse, or its flagship home WSM Radio; and watch Opry Live on Saturday nights and Opry content all week long on the Circle Network. The Grand Ole Opry is owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties (NYSE: RHP) and part of a strategic investment with Atairos and NBCUniversal. For more information, visit opry.com.

L to R: Vice President and Executive Producer of the Grand Ole Opry, Dan Rogers; Scotty McCreery; Garth Brooks; and McCreery's Manager, Scott Stem | Photo Credit: Chris Hollo

Ashley McBryde Invited to Become the Newest Member of the Grand Ole Opry on CBS Mornings

Arkansas Native Surprised by Invitation from Country Icon Garth Brooks on CBS Mornings

WATCH: McBryde with Pillbox Patti “Brenda Put Your Bra On” Performance on
NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers

AP opines Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville creates
“detail-rich storylines with a John Prine level of empathy and compassion”
and NPR praises, “a mischievous, and mightily pleasing,
departure from the prescribed progression of a mainstream country career”

While performing at the Grand Ole Opry a little over a year ago, current five-time CMA nominee and two-time winner Ashley McBryde shared with the audience, “I dream about joining the Opry and what that day will be like — Will I cry the entire time? Will I be seated? Who will ask me? I dream about that more than I dream about my wedding.” No longer dreaming about the special day, the Arkansas native has officially been invited to be the newest member of the revered Country institution by Garth Brooks on CBS Mornings. Watch the clip HERE.

“It would be the great joy and the great honor of my life,” McBryde answered through joyful tears. “There’s the GRAMMYs and there’s being a member of the Grand Ole Opry – they are the two greatest things that can happen to you as an entertainer. I’ve always said I will earn it, and this is a pretty surreal moment.”

On the heels of the release of critically acclaimed Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, McBryde took to NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers last night, Oct. 5, to perform the Outsider-dubbed “perfect introduction to McBryde’s wild little town,” “Brenda Put Your Bra On,” joined by album collaborator Pillbox Patti. Watch the performance HERE.

Cited by NPR as a “glorious detour into downhome character studies,” the four-time GRAMMY nominee and her collaborators leaned all the way in on Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, garnering applause from critics upon its debut.

Produced by John Osborne, Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville includes performances from McBryde, Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark, Aaron Raitiere, Patti, Caylee Hammack and Benjy Davis, with Rolling Stone calling it a “wildly inventive” album “about a group of people all living in a little town just trying to get by,” as Billboardobserves, “While the songs do center on life in a small town, the stories and characters in Lindeville dispel the idyllic nostalgia that permeates many songs currently staking their claims on the country charts.”

“McBryde and crew created detail-rich storylines with a John Prine level of empathy and compassion,” praises AP, while Variety notes, “The very existence of an album like Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville is enough to restore your faith in Nashville, however far afield it might have wandered,” making it “Country music’s most ambitious and oddball album in recent memory,” observes Esquire.

Celebrated by The New York Times as “a skilled curator, as well as a performer,” McBryde “has made abundantly clear over the course of her short but fruitful career, she is principally interested in peeling back the layers and speaking the truth,” boasts Vulture.

Summed up by Stereogum, “There’s a whole lot of beautiful writerly vision at work on Lindeville, but it wouldn’t matter if the songs weren’t great. Guess what? The songs are great… A lot of people put a lot of work into this record, and they made something that resonates on a deep, emotional level. Give it up for them.”

“When it comes out,” McBryde shared with Esquire, “I hope everybody laughs a little bit and I hope everybody says ‘What the f*ck?’ a little bit. Sometimes you look and realize, this town is such a mess, everybody here is a disaster. And in the same breath, in that same three minutes, everybody’s okay. And I love those times. Sometimes I wish I could make that stand still a little bit longer—we’re all a disaster, and it’s beautiful. And that’s true whether it’s a small town or a big city.”

Album lyrics and credits available HERE.

About Ashley McBryde
CMA and ACM award winner Ashley McBryde cut her teeth playing country songs in rural biker bars – and it shows. Her 2018 major label debut Girl Going Nowhere (Warner Music Nashville) charmed the New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, Paste, The Washington Post and more, all en route to landing a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album. McBryde closed out 2019 with ACM New Female Artist, CMT Breakout Artist of the Year, a New Artist of the Year win at the 53rd Annual CMA Awards and two nominations for the 2020 GRAMMYs for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for “Girl Goin’ Nowhere.” Her follow-up Never Will was tagged by Rolling Stone as one of the most anticipated of the year alongside NPR, who also ranked her Top 10 RIAA Platinum-Certified single “One Night Standards” as one of the best songs of 2019. Produced once again by Jay Joyce, Never Will reveals the witty, confessional, detail-driven songwriting addressing a wide spectrum of blue-collar Southern women’s experience introduced on Girl Going Nowhere is still here, but perhaps even sharper. The album earned McBryde a 2021 GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album, making Never Will the only album nominated for Country Album of the Year by the ACMs, CMAs and the Recording Academy in the same award season. Her critically acclaimed duet with Carly Pearce, “Never Wanted To Be That Girl,” went all the way to No. 1 and earned McBryde and Pearce the ACM award for Musical Event of the Year. McBryde earned five total 2022 CMA nominations including her third consecutive nod for Female Vocalist of the Year along with Single of the Year, Song of the Year, Musical Event of the Year and Music Video of the Year for her duet with Pearce. The Arkansas-native invites listeners to Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, a collaborative new project featuring Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark, Pillbox Patti, Caylee Hammack, Aaron Raitiere and more. Praised by The New York Times as “a fluorescent carnival of pedal steel and thumping guitar that proves McBryde can be a skilled curator, as well as a performer,” Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville is available now. For more information, visit AshleyMcBryde.com or follow her at Facebook.com/AshleyMcBryde, Instagram and Twitter @AshleyMcBryde and TikTok @AshleyMcBrydeMusic.