Artifacts on display as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opens the Opry at 100 exhibit- September 18, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
Credit: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee marks a monumental anniversary this year.
On November 28th, the Opry will celebrate 100 years since “the show that made country music famous” first aired on radio. It debuted on November 28th, 1925 and today remains the longest running radio broadcast in the world.
The Opry has been highlighting the milestone all year with special shows honoring music legends like Bill Monroe, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and so many more.
The Grand Ole Opry honors Porter Wagoner during one of its special 100th anniversary shows with performance of “Y’all Come”
Credit: Grand Ole Opry/Photo by Chris Hollo
The Grand Ole Opry honors Charlie Daniels during one of its special 100th anniversary shows with performance of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
Credit: Grand Ole Opry/Photo by Chris Hollo
Now the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is celebrating some of that history with a new exhibit called Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100.
For Curatorial Director Mick Buck, the goal was to tell a small part of the Opry’s incredible story in a limited exhibit space.
New exhibit at the CMHOF honors 100 years of the Grand Ole Opry
Credit: Pam Windsor
“In so many ways the Opry was synonymous with country music going back to the very beginnings of country music as a commercial genre in the 1920s,” Buck says. “And then trying to show the tradition and continuity that runs through it all. Even the current crop of young artists and Opry members cherish that tradition and are so proud to be part of it and to carry it on. So, even though the sound of country music has changed and evolved through the decades, that aspect of it is a continuing thread.”
Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100
The exhibit features an array of artifacts like the early microphone used by Opry founder and announcer George D. Hay, a custom-made beaver hat given to Bill Monroe by Lester Flatt, the program from Hank Williams Jr’s Opry debut on June 11th, 1949, Minnie Pearl’s hat with its dangling price tag, and boots specially-made for Brad Paisley when he was inducted into the Opry in 2001.
WSM microphone used by Opry announcers during the early years of the show.
Credit: Pam Windsor
Program on the night Hank Williams made his Grand Ole Opry debut (June 11, 1949) The singer performed “Lovesick Blues” and “Mind Your Own Business.”
Credit: Pam Windsor
Custom-made beaver hat Lester Flatt gave Bill Monroe in the 1940s. Flatt was teh lead guitarist and singer in the most famous line-up of Monroe’s band, the Blue Grass Boys, from 1945 to 1948.
Credit: Pam Windsor
Minnie Pearl wore this straw hat with its $1.98 price tag at her Opry debut on November 30th, 1040.
Credit: Pam Windsor
Boots designed for Brad Paisley to mark his February 17th, 2001 induction into the Grand Ole Opry
Credit: Pam Windsor
“One of my favorite items, just because of its back story,” Buck says,” is the guitar that Stonewall Jackson brought with him when he came up to Nashville from Georgia. As the story goes, he drove up in 1956 is his old beat-up pick u truck to audition for the Opry. He was naïve about the business and didn’t know what it took to get onto the show but was determined to find a way. He was able to get an audition, and Hay was so impressed with his singing and his songs, I believe he was on the show that same night. That’s the guitar he played and even though it’s missing some of its parts, to me that just adds to the story.”
Stonewall Jackson played this guitar, now missing strings and most of its hardware, when he made his Opry debut in 1956.
Credit: Pam Windsor
For his Opry debut, Jackson played what would become his signature song in the decades that followed: “Waterloo.”
To coincide with the exhibit’s opening, the CMHOF had a panel discussion with Dan Rogers, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of the Grand Ole Opry, and opry members Vince Gill and Carly Pearce.
(L-R) Museum Senior Director of Editorial and Interpretation, Paul Kingsbury, Carly Pearce, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of the Grand Ole Opry, Dan Rogers and Country Music Hall of Fame Member, Vince Gill speak onstage as Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opens Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
They touched on the iconic performers of years past, how the Opry has paved the way for so many artists today, and why it still means so much to everyone who gets the chance to step into the circle of that famous stage.
“My role has always been, I want to be respectful of what’s come before me,” noted Gill, an Opry member since 1991.
Panel Members Look Back at 100 Years of the Opry
He discussed how grateful he’s been to perform alongside so many of his music heroes like Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and others. He went on to say that in terms of paving the way for country music, the Opry was around even before records were made. It’s also where bluegrass got its start there.
Vince Gill speaks onstage as Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opens “Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100. September 18, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
“Bluegrass started at the Opry with Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs in the mid-40s. It’s where it was born, on that stage at the Ryman some years back. And that’s all of our bloodlines, it’s all of our history, it’s everything we know and love.”
Amidst many changes through the years, from evolving styles of country music to Nashville’s historic flood of 2010 that flooded the Grand Ole Opry House forcing it to close for five months, and even the COVID pandemic which closed the doors to a live audience (although Opry members performed in an empty building to continue the broadcast), the Opry has continued to not only survive but thrive.
One of the ways it’s done that is by welcoming different artists to its stage. At every show, audience members get to see eight to ten groups or artists perform with each showcasing their own style and and reflecting their own era.
Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of the Grand Ole Opry, Dan Rogers speaks onstage as Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opens Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100. September 18, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Today’s Opry Shows Highlight Past, Present, and Future
“We always work to create a showcase of the past, present, and future of country music every time the big red curtain goes up,” Rogers explained. “We’ve been, not only not afraid, but proud to welcome different folks who have an interest in the Opry. One of my favorite parts of our 100th year and one of my memories will always be our Opry members walking on stage after having performed with Ringo Starr in February. They all had stars in their eyes (no pun intended). It was the coolest thing to watch them walk out saying, ‘Man, what world am I living in that I got to do that?’ And it was such a great performance, too.”
Ringo Starr performs at The Grand Ole Opry on February 21, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Gill noted there is often a reluctance from some to welcome newer, less traditional acts.
“What Dan and his team have done at the Opry, the dance they have to go through to please everybody is crazy,” he said. “You have an older generation of artists that may not be as accepting of somebody who’s a little left of center, they want it to be traditional, and they don’t want it to change. I think the beauty of it all is that it will evolve. If we want to try and keep it only one way, it never gives it a chance to spread wings and grow and be welcoming of everything and everybody. I think the Opry is the best it’s ever been.”
The Opry itself continues celebrating its 100 years in new and different ways and makes history on Friday when it airs it’s first every broadcast outside the U.S. The show will take place at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Fans can hear it live on WSM Radio at 2:30pm ET/1:3opm CT.
The Opry exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame, showcasing notable moments throughout its history, is open now through March 2027 with regular admission.
Artifacts on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s newest exhibit “Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100.” Display open now through March 2027. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamwindsor/2025/09/22/the-country-music-hall-of-fame-celebrates-100-years-of-the-opry-with-new-exhibit/
