Porter Wagoner, Bill Carlisle Awarded Hall of Fame Medallions Friends of Honorees Turn Ceremony Into Gala Family Gathering

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Talented friends of Porter Wagoner and the late Bill Carlisle-the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame®-transformed the annual medallion ceremony into a singing and storytelling romp. Held Sunday, May 4, at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the event reunited Wagoner with his famous protégée, Dolly Parton, and saw Carlisle hailed as one of the greatest showmen in country music. Wagoner and Carlisle's son, Bill Carlisle Jr., were each presented a medallion to mark the Hall of Fame achievement.

WSM-AM, the radio home of the Grand Ole Opry, broadcast the proceedings live, with Opry announcer and country music scholar Eddie Stubbs hosting.

Attending the ceremony, in addition to the two honorees and Parton, were Hall of Fame members Earl Scruggs, Little Jimmy Dickens, Bill Anderson, Charlie Louvin, Gordon Stoker and Ray Walker of the Jordanaires, Jo Walker-Meador (former executive director of the Country Music Assn.) and E. W. "Bud" Wendell (former head of the Grand Ole Opry and Gaylord Entertainment). Grand Ole Opry stars in the audience included Vince Gill, Hank Locklin, Jeannie Seely, Ray Pillow, Hal Ketchum, Wilma Lee Cooper and Jan Howard. Other music industry guests were Jimmy Martin, Amy Grant, Jim Lauderdale, Patsy Stoneman, Ralph Emery, Webb Wilder, Paul Craft, Gary Nicholson and Donna the Buffalo.

The festivities began with honorees and guests walking into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on a long red carpet flanked by cheering fans. A cocktail party on the terrace followed. Then came the medallion ceremony in the Hall of Fame's second-floor rotunda where the members' bronze plaques are displayed. A formal dinner in the Curb Conservatory concluded the evening.

The standing-room only crowd streamed into the rotunda to the sound of "Company's Comin'," Wagoner's first chart hit and one of his best-known signature songs. Kyle Young, director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, welcomed the distinguished guests by name, noting that the medallion ceremony has become "the most important event of the year."

Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell praised the Hall of Fame for its outreach programs to local school children. He pointed out that one such program enabled 4,000 students this year to have the "incomparable thrill" of writing their own songs and hearing them performed. "I know of no other city in the world that can offer this experience to its children," he said. "The Hall of Fame is not just for the thousands of fans who make the pilgrimage to visit every year. It also exists to preserve the riches of our nation's culture, to make sure that they're cared for and made available to generations to come."

Cowboy Jack Clement and his Cowboy's Ragtime Band opened the musical part of the ceremony with a stirring, sing-along version of "God Bless America" and later performed many of the songs with which Wagoner and Carlisle are most closely identified.

Vince Gill, who serves as president of the Hall of Fame's Board of Officers and Trustees, delivered the first tribute to Carlisle. "I am so proud he was inducted into the Hall of Fame before he passed away," he said. (Carlisle was inducted last November and died March 17 this year.) Gill recalled Carlisle's warmth and sense of humor both on stage and off. "Even when he was ill, he went out there in a walker and kicked their butts." He said young performers could learn a lot from Carlisle.

With Clement singing the lead, the band played Carlisle's 1951 hit, "Too Old To Cut The Mustard," and the crowd joined in. Clement then brought to the stage Bill Carlisle Jr., George Riddle and Joe Edwards to perform the zany "Is Zat You Myrtle" and "No Help Wanted." "Bill used to tell everybody I was his grandfather," Riddle said, "but he always treated me like a son." In a marked change of pace, Jim Lauderdale and the Jordanaires rounded out the set by singing "Gone Home," a classic hymn Carlisle wrote, which became a standard of his and of the Hee Haw Gospel Quartet.

Little Jimmy Dickens, who worked with Carlisle on the Opry for 50 years, spoke lovingly of his old friend and fellow comic. "He was truly a pioneer in country music," Dickens said, tracing the singer's ascent from the days of working with his brother, guitarist Cliff Carlisle, to his emergence as a solo act. "I can think of no man who's been a bigger asset to country music and the Grand Ole Opry," he concluded. Dickens reminisced about routinely stopping by Carlisle's dressing room on Opry nights. "We traded little nasty jokes together," he confided. Dickens then presented Carlisle's medallion to his son.

Returning to the stage, Gill told how he used to watch the Porter Wagoner Show with his dad every weekend. "I never missed a one," he said.

Singer and pianist Gordon Mote sat in with the band to perform Wagoner's first No. 1 hit, "A Satisfied Mind." Gill next teamed up with the Jordanaires for a heartfelt but obviously unrehearsed rendition of "Green, Green Grass Of Home." When it came her turn to go on stage, Parton used the occasion to have some fun with Gill. "Vince," she said, referring to the fact that Wagoner had just left the room, "I think you messed up Porter's song so bad he had to go pee." While waiting for Wagoner to return from his errand, Parton related how she had written "I Will Always Love You" to convey her feelings to Wagoner when she decided to leave him to work on her own. She voiced amazement at how quickly the time had passed, observing that Wagoner now has grandchildren "who look like Porter and me think we still do." After she sang "I Will Always Love You," her old boss joined her to perform one of their best-known duets-and a Jack Clement composition-"Just Someone I Used To Know."

E. W. "Bud" Wendell enumerated Wagoner's many achievements as a singer, songwriter and TV performer before he called him forward to receive his medallion. "He's still making great records," Wendell proclaimed, "and he has carried the banner for country music for half a century."

Still thin, snappily dressed and full of mischief, the 75-year-old Wagoner began his acceptance remarks by warning the crowd that he had a lot to say and a lot of people to thank. "I knew that this was going to be a touching moment for me," he intoned, "and I figured I'd get out here and forget what to say. So I wrote all of it down-23 pages." He welcomed "friends from the music industry, fishing buddies, my family and representatives from the Internal Revenue Service."

Wagoner said he especially wished that a friend he grew up with in Missouri were there. Once when he was plowing a dusty field, he said, he thought he was by himself and so began pretending he was singing on the Grand Ole Opry. The friend overheard his performance and cracked, "You're as close to the Grand Ole Opry as you'll ever be. You'll be looking at those mules' rear ends when you're 75." Grinning broadly, Wagoner said, "I wish he could see me tonight."

Wagoner took country radio to task for its refusal to play traditional performers who are still making good music and good money in their live shows. "I've got a new gospel album," he said, "that will knock your socks off. . . . You're going to hear it if I have to carry the damn thing around and play it from the top of my car."

To conclude his remarks, Wagoner read a long list of the country artists he had worked with and most admired, all of them now members of the Hall of Fame. "It's like reading a list of the members of my family," he said, "because, in truth, these were my family. They were as close kin to me as uncles, cousins and aunts. . . . We shared stories, stages, dressing rooms, bus trips, food and drink, happiness and grief. But most of all, we shared music. Great music. That's the main reason I wanted to be in the Country Music Hall of Fame so badly. I wanted to be with my family. And on this evening, with this tremendous honor, the circle is unbroken."

The medallion ceremony concluded with Hall of Famers and musical guests leading a sing-along of the Museum's theme song, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 educational organization chartered by the State of Tennessee in 1964. The Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museum's Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, RCA's Historic Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.

The Ford Division of the Ford Motor Co. is a Founding Partner of the new $37 million Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, which opened on May 17, 2001, in downtown Nashville's new $1 billion entertainment district.