CMA Announces Tony Brown, June Carter Cash And Kenny Chesney As The Country Music Hall Of Fame Class Of 2025
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The Country Music Association gathered at the prestigious Rotunda at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, today, to reveal the 2025 inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame – Tony Brown, June Carter Cash and Kenny Chesney.
Brown will be inducted in the Non-Performer category, which is awarded every third year in rotation with the Songwriter and Recording and/or Touring Musician categories. Cash will be inducted into the Veterans Era Artist category and Chesney will be inducted in the Modern Era Artist category.
Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill hosted the press conference to announce the news, which was also streamed live on CMA’s YouTube channel.
“This year’s inductees embody the relentless drive and dedication that defines Country Music,” says Sarah Trahern, CMA Chief Executive Officer. “Kenny, June and Tony have each left a lasting imprint on the genre, shaping its history with their contributions. From a young age, each of them was immersed in music, and their lifelong commitment has led to this very moment. Their achievements speak to the passion and dedication that have defined their extraordinary careers, and the impact of their work will continue to inspire future generations. There’s something incredibly special about being able to surprise each inductee or their family with this recognition – it’s one of the most rewarding aspects of my job, knowing how deeply their careers have touched the lives of so many, including myself. It is with great pride that we honor these three remarkable individuals and celebrate the lasting legacy they have created within our format.”
“All three of the new inductees have left indelible impacts on the genre and firmly established themselves as unforgettable contributors to Country Music,” says Kyle Young, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Chief Executive Officer. “North Carolina native Tony Brown is a trailblazing record producer and executive who has helped shape the sound of modern Country since the 1980s, supervising many best-selling records while also ushering in outsider talents to the genre. Virginia-born June Carter Cash was a vibrant torchbearer of her family’s enduring Country Music legacy who forged her own distinctive path during her more than 60-year career as a beloved singer, comedienne and songwriter. And Kenny Chesney, from Tennessee, has maintained one of the biggest hitmaking careers in Country Music since 2000, with more than 50 Top 10 hits, 16 Platinum albums, and is a regular top touring act who continues to delight audiences. Fittingly, they will now forever be enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame with their illustrious peers who shaped our art form.”
“When you’re producing No.1 records, you feel like you know what you’re doing,” says Brown. “But being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame — especially for someone as idealistic as me —makes it feel like you’ve truly made an impact. And that has always been my goal.”
“June Carter Cash represents the whole cloth of Country Music, it’s breadth and heritage,” says the Cash family. “And June’s place in Country Music is undeniable. From the 1940s, across the decades and into the current century, her voice has been heard across the country and throughout much of the world, both with Mother Maybelle Carter, sisters Helen and Anita, and on her own, as well as with her duet partners, including her beloved Johnny Cash, with whom she told stories and inspired musicians both past, present, and future. She was a loving wife and mother, an actress, singer, songwriter, comedienne and a truly gifted performer whose persona was never exactly what was expected but was always and totally June. She profoundly respected, and was respected for, her craft, and that endures to this day. We, the Carter and Cash families, are most grateful and proud that the County Music Association has given June this well-deserved honor for her undeniable contribution to the fabric of Country Music and American culture.”
“You don’t dare dream of being in the Country Music Hall of Fame, alongside legends including George Jones, Willie Nelson, Alabama, even Dean Dillon,” says Chesney. “I’ve been lucky enough to get to call them my friends, and that was plenty. But hearing the news I’d been voted into the Hall, I can honestly say beyond my wildest dreams, it’s an honor that defies words. I am humbled, grateful, honored…as much for all the songwriters, musicians, artists and people who’ve helped me build my career; they have truly inspired me every single day.”
Non-Performer Category – Tony Brown
“I never wanted to be famous,” Tony Brown wrote in his 2018 book “Elvis, Strait, to Jesus: An Iconic Producer’s Journey with Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Country, and Gospel Music,” “I just wanted to be noticed.”
Within the Country Music industry, he became both — a musician, producer and record label executive that the Los Angeles Times Magazine once anointed “The Kingmaker of Country Music.” He has produced more than 100 chart-topping Country hits and has worked with dozens of artists. His parallel paths prompted Rodney Crowell to say, “It would take five of everybody else in the music business to equal one of Tony Brown.”
Born December 11, 1946, in Greensboro, NC, Brown grew up in a strict, religious household, the youngest of four children born to a man who left his job at a dairy to become a Baptist evangelist after receiving a lung cancer diagnosis. As a member of The Brown Family Singers, he sang harmony with his two brothers and a sister, later switching to piano. At 13, he caught the bug for performing from the audience response to his playing at the annual Southern Gospel Music Festival in Benson, NC.
Eventually, he joined the Oak Ridge Boys’ backing band, The Mighty Oaks Band. That same year, the Gospel Music Association named him the Best Gospel Instrumentalist. Brown soon found himself in Elvis Presley’s orbit as a member of Voice, described as Presley’s “on call” house band, available for the late nights when the King wanted to sing gospel songs. From there, he went to the Sweet Inspirations and then to Presley’s TCB Band, succeeding Glen D. Hardin. Brown played piano for Presley’s final concert in Indianapolis on June 26, 1977.
In the months after Presley’s death, Brown joined Emmylou Harris’ renowned Hot Band, replacing Hardin once again. During the 1970s and 1980s, he appeared on her albums Blue Kentucky Girl, Light of the Stable, Evangeline and White Shoes.
Around the same time, he joined Free Flight Records, a Nashville-based pop label under the RCA Records umbrella, as a staff producer, moving to RCA’s Nashville division when Free Flight folded after less than a year. RCA was the top label in town, a status Brown helped solidify when he signed Alabama.
Brown also joined former Hot Band alum Rodney Crowell’s backing band The Cherry Bombs, which featured other Hot Band members as well as Vince Gill, whom Brown had convinced to move to Nashville. When Brown returned to RCA, he signed Gill to the label.
Brown began producing more, as well, having his first hit with Steve Wariner’s 1983 Top 5 single, “Midnight Fire,” which he produced with Norro Wilson.
In March 1984, he jumped from RCA to MCA Nashville, helping make it Nashville’s No. 1 label during Country’s boom years of the 1990s and eventually rising to President of the division. Brown developed a reputation for signing and producing not only commercially successful acts but also adventurous, influential ones.
“He gravitated to artist types that were most often unique and cutting edge, but at the same time he was very much a purist and a traditionalist,” said Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn, for whom Brown produced the 2006 CMA Single of the Year, “Believe.” “He didn’t try to dictate to the people that he worked with how to do what they did; he challenged them to be all that they could be.”
In 1986, he produced Steve Earle’s seminal Guitar Town, which Brown has said defined his start as a promising producer. He fulfilled that promise when he co-produced Rodney Crowell’s 1988 release Diamonds & Dirt, the first Country album to yield five No. 1 singles.
Brown brought Gill to MCA, where he had his biggest hits. He also signed other future Country Music Hall of Fame members Patty Loveless and Marty Stuart. He produced even more, working with Wynonna Judd on her first three solo albums and developing long-lasting production relationships with Reba McEntire and George Strait. He was a pioneering force in what would become known as Americana, either signing or producing the likes of Joe Ely, Shooter Jennings, Lyle Lovett, The Mavericks, and Allison Moorer. After leaving MCA, he founded Universal South with former Arista Records Nashville chief Tim DuBois in 2002.
Brown is a six-time GRAMMY winner, a Gospel Music Hall of Fame member and a North Carolina Music Hall of Fame member. In 2004, he received Leadership Music’s inaugural Dale Franklin Leadership Award, which honors exemplary leadership in the music community, and the Academy of Country Music’s Icon Award in 2024. The Americana Music Association gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. Over the course of his career, he has amassed more than 100 No. 1 singles and seen record sales exceed 100 million units.
Strait, who has recorded 20 albums with Brown as his producer, has said, “Tony Brown is going to leave a big footprint in the music world when he decides to step away.” That day has yet to come, but there’s no doubt people will notice the impact he has made as he steps into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
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