June Carter Cash, Kenny Chesney and producer Tony Brown are the newest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Carter Cash joins the hall in the Veteran Era Artist Category, and Chesney is this year’s Modern Era inductee. Brown is the inductee in the rotating Non-Performer category.

The announcement came on Tuesday (March 25) via a press conference hosted by Hall of Fame member  Vince Gill. It was available to watch live on the Country Music Association’s YouTube channel.

Gill introduced all three inductees with some personal memories he has with each of them. The first of those was Brown, whom Gill said he has known for 44 years.

“I don’t have a better friend,” the singer said.

Non-Performer Inductee: Tony Brown

A recording artist, pianist and record producer who hails from Greensboro, N.C., Brown has been a member of famous backing bands for the Oak Ridge Boys, Elvis Presley, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell.

He has also produced and discovered some of country music’s biggest stars and earned the nickname “the king-maker of country music.” One of the stars whose career he shaped was Gill.

“He’s the one single-handedly who talked me into recording ‘Go Rest High [on That Mountain]’,” Gill told the crowd gathered at the induction announcement ceremony.

“I was not gonna record the song because it was a little too personal, too hard to sing,” Gill continued.

But after Brown heard it, he convinced him he had to cut it. “That was one of the best decisions he ever made for me, and I’m grateful,” Gill said.

“I’ve had a lot of big things happen in my life, my career — this is the biggest,” Brown told the crowd when it was his turn at the podium. He noted that he was “totally blown away” by the honor, and said that induction into the Hall of Fame supersedes any monetary reward he could have gained from his career.

“You make records thinking you’re gonna make some money, but this is better than money,” he reflected.

Veteran Era Artist Inductee: June Carter Cash

Gill introduced Carter Cash as a performer who spent decades as the “matriarch” of country music, noting both her recording career, her duets with her husband Johnny Cash, and the fact that she wrote the country classic “Ring of Fire.”

He also pointed out that Cash once predicted that his wife would be “one of the most neglected artists in country music” due to living in his shadow, and said that was “his only regret about marrying June.”

Gill also mentioned Carter Cash’s work as a country music historian and torch-bearer, saying she “nurtured her babies” in the genre, which included Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings.

He also recounted the time that he escorted Carter Cash to the stage at an awards show where she won a lifetime achievement award.

“We walked out there and she handed me her purse. I never said a word, but I was her purse-handler. It’s in my resume,” Gill joked.

Carter Cash’s children, Carlene Carter and John Carter Cash, were on hand to address the crowd about their mother’s posthumous induction into the Hall of Fame. Carlene spoke first, describing her mother as “a force of nature” and, more plainly, “the s–t, y’all.”

During his time at the podium, John pointed up to the lettering around the top of the Hall of Fame’s rotunda, which reads “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

“Of course that song has ancient origins,” he said, “but there’s one person that sang that song more than anyone else in her lifetime, and that was my mother, June Carter.”

“She carried the torch for country music history with her through her lifetime,” he added. “… She did not know a stranger, and she would love you now as much as ever. She would be so grateful for this.”

Modern Era Artist Inductee: Kenny Chesney

Gill introduced Chesney as an East Tennessee native who played in a bluegrass band in college and emerged in the country music mainstream with a “new way to hear the music,” “blending rock energy with the storytelling of bluegrass.”

“I’ve know this kid the whole time and there’s not a better guy in the whole world,” Gill added.

When he took the stage, Chesney recalled an early Alabama concert he went to with his mother and stepfather, just about 10 miles down the road from his home outside of Knoxville, Tenn.

“I went to that show and something happened to me that night,” he said. “There was a fire lit, something in my soul that set me on this path.”

He continued to pursue music throughout his teens and into college, but even then — while playing in a college bluegrass band — he never dreamed of someday being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“I had a really big dream and I’m still pushing that dream as far as I can,” Chesney continued.

“I just wanted to record and write songs that reflected the lives of a lot of people that came to our shows. I just wanted to spread as much positivity and love and positive energy as I possibly could. Standing up here, I know it’s not a dream, it’s real, and it feels surreal. I just wanna say thank you. This is beautiful.”

The 2024 Country Music Hall of fame inductees will be formally enshrined in a Medallion Ceremony in October.