{"id":1317757,"date":"2020-01-18T10:36:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T17:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1816834"},"modified":"2020-01-18T10:36:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T17:36:02","slug":"gene-watson-invited-to-join-grand-ole-opry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/gene-watson-invited-to-join-grand-ole-opry\/","title":{"rendered":"Gene Watson Invited to Join Grand Ole Opry"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:687578?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\"> by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/cmtcomstaff\/\" title=\"Posts by CMT.com Staff\" rel=\"author\">CMT.com Staff<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\"><br \/>\n3m ago<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Country music legend <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/gene-watson\">Gene Watson<\/a> was surprised on stage at the Ryman Auditorium during the Grand Ole Opry tonight by Opry member <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/vince-gill\">Vince Gill<\/a> with an invitation to become an official Opry member. Watson, whose hits including \u201cFourteen Carat Mind\u201d and \u201cFarewell Party\u201d have become country standards, made his Opry debut 55 years ago at age 21 on the Ryman stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s one of the greatest country singers that\u2019s walked the earth,\u201d Gill said, introducing Watson on stage to perform. After Watson performed \u201cSometimes I Get Lucky and Forget\u201d and \u201cNothing Sure Looked Good On You,\u201d Gill asked, \u201cWould you mind singing \u2018Farewell Party\u2019? The Opry told me if you would, you could be the next member of the Grand Ole Opry.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgrandoleopry%2Fvideos%2F459512311390861%2F&amp;show_text=1&amp;width=560\">www.facebook.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<p>A nearly speechless Watson replied, \u201cI\u2019m not sure I have anything left after that kind of surprise,\u201d then gave an outstanding performance that kept the sold-out crowd on its feet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Opry strives to showcase an array of musical styles in every show,\u201d said Dan Rogers, Vice President and Executive Producer, Grand Ole Opry. \u201cWhen Gene Watson steps onto the Opry stage, fans know they are going to hear one of the most respected traditional country singers of all time. For years, we\u2019ve watched him wow audiences in the crowd and fellow artists backstage. He\u2019s been committed to the Opry for decades, and we look forward to him becoming an official member of the family. Plus, when all is said and done, you just can\u2019t beat that last note of \u2018Farewell Party.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1816834\/gene-watson-invited-to-join-grand-ole-opry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by CMT.com Staff 3m ago Country music legend Gene Watson was surprised on stage at the Ryman Auditorium during the Grand Ole Opry tonight by Opry member Vince Gill with an invitation to become an official Opry member. Watson, whose hits including \u201cFourteen Carat Mind\u201d and \u201cFarewell Party\u201d have become country standards, made his Opry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1317757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 00:11:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}