Kenny Chesney, June Carter Cash, Tony Brown named 2025 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees (2025)

A beach-loving superstar with roots in East Tennessee, one of Nashville’s most decorated producers and a legendary voice from the first family of country music are bound for the genre’s most elite club.

The trio of music icons – Kenny Chesney, Tony Brown and June Carter Cash – were named Tuesday as the 2025 class to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

They will be formally inducted later this year during the Hall’s annual Medallion Ceremony, nearly 65 years after the inaugural class of Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Fred Rose.

The Country Music Association established the Country Music Hall of Fame as a way to recognize and honor individuals for their outstanding contributions and impact onthe advancement of country music.

Each year, the two-phase selection process consists of the nomination of candidates, which is done by committees, and the election of nominees, done by a voting body of several hundred anonymous professionals in the country music industry. Each Hall of Fame inductee is considered for one of three categories including: a Modern Era Artist, Veterans Era Artist and in 2025, one of three rotating categories, will be a Non-Performer.

Modern era category: Kenny Chesney

Few artists of any genre can fill seats like Kenny Chesney, a Knoxville native who grew up in East Tennessee before launching his career in country music. Drawn to island life and beach vibes, Chesney built a massive fan base known as “No Shoes Nation.”

He is one of country music’s biggest stars who has been selling out stadiums across the country for 20 years. This summer, Chesney will become the first country musician to have a residency at one of the most futuristic and sought-after venues in the country: the Sphere in Las Vegas.

In addition to selling 35 million albums throughout his career and being named Entertainer of the Year 8 times, there’s one accolade that has been missing from Chesney’s massive musical resume.

But that changed Tuesday as he was named as a member of the 2025 class of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

He addressed the crowd gathered for the announcement, who gave Chesney a standing ovation as he approached the mic, by saying it was an Alabama concert he saw as a child in East Tennessee that would change his life.

“ I was a kid in East Tennessee and I went with my mom and my stepfather to a field about 10 miles from my house to see this group, Alabama, that was gonna play,” he said. “I went to that show and something happened to me that night. There was a fire lit. Something happened in my soul that set me on this path and if you'd have told that kid that night on a hot summer night in East Tennessee that this was going to happen, I would've told you that you were crazy.”

In addition to a forthcoming book, “Heart Life Music” and a new album, “Born,” Chesney also has his own Blue Chair Bay rum and a SiriusXM channel named after his No Shoes Nation fan club.

 ”I had a really big dream and I'm still pushing that dream as far as I can,” he said. “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 positive energy and love as I possibly could.”

Non-performer category: Tony Brown

Record producer Tony Brown was standing in his Franklin home when Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern called him with the life-changing news.

“She told me that I was being inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame,” Brown said. “It knocked me to my knees.”

“I wanted to be in the Hall of Fame, but you never figure you could get in there,” the 78-year-old pianist and music industry executive told The Tennessean.

The odds are slim. The Hall of Fame only inducts three people a year and a non-performer every three years, which they rotate with songwriters and recording/touring musicians. The most recent non-performer to be inducted was music executive Joe Galante in 2022.

Brown was a natural next choice.

Throughout his over 50-year country music career, Brown has produced iconic records by George Strait, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Wynonna Judd, Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett and many more.

Brown also served as the president of MCA Nashville for a decade, worked for RCA Records and co-founded Universal South Records in 2002.

The Greensboro, North Carolina, native first dove into the world of music in church with his Evangelist preacher father.

Brown started playing piano by ear at 13 years old, but was only allowed to listen to gospel music until he left home at 19. That’s when he discovered “worldly music,” as his father called it.

“And I was going, ‘What's wrong with this?” he said. “What's wrong with Elton John's songs?”

Once his sonic world opened up, Brown was off to the races.

He moved to Nashville, played keys for J.D. Sumner & The Stamps Quartet and The Oak Ridge Boys, later joining Elvis Presley’s band until his death in 1977. He went on to play with Emmylou Harris & The Hot Band and Rodney Crowell & The Cherry Bombs.

After his time on the road, Brown joined RCA Records and worked as an A&R representative in Los Angeles, where he signed Alabama.

Brown returned home to Music City and joined MCA Nashville, where he worked as producer and singer Jimmy Bowen’s protege, signing new acts and learning the art of production.

“I was at MCA for 25 years,” he said. “It changed my life.”

Throughout his career, Brown signed acts including Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Marty Stuart, Rodney Crowell, Joe Ely, Kelly Willis, Todd Snider, Allison Moorer, the Mavericks and Shooter Jennings.

Brown produced artists including Jimmy Buffett, Marty Stuart, Lionel Richie, Chris Stapleton, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Rogers, Sara Evans, and more, becoming a creative force behind over 100 number one hits.

He has won six Grammy Awards, eight Academy of Country Music Awards, ten CMA Awards and has been credited as one of the minds behind the genre-blending Americana country sound.

Though Brown is more selective about which projects he takes on nowadays, he’s still creating music and fine-tuning his industry knowledge.

“I've always got my eyes open, and I still study the business,” Brown said. “I want to read every industry rag there is; I read every interview on a record.”

Brown’s upcoming releases include a project with singer Dee White and a new record with Reba McEntire.

But for now, Brown’s taking a moment to celebrate his accomplishments.

“For me to be inducted as a producer, to be in there with Billy Sherrill (who produced George Jones), Owen Bradley (Loretta Lynn), Fred Foster (Willie Nelson), Chet Atkins (Elvis Presley)— that's big time.

“Being inducted just gives me some self-worth that maybe I made an impact,” he said with a grin. “That's important to me, that's worth more than money to me.”

At the induction ceremony, Vince Gill introduced Tony Brown by acknowledging the undeniable influence he has had on country music at large, and on his own music. It was Brown that convinced Gill to record his hit “Go Rest High on That Mountain.”

“I’ve had a lot of big things happen in my life in my career, and this is the biggest,” Brown said at the podium in the rotunda. “This is cool, I don’t care who you are.”

“Thank you to the CMA, to the Hall of Fame, to Vince Gill, to all the people who helped me get here … the engineers, the songwriters, the song-pluggers,” he continued.

“This means more than anything ever could mean to me.”

Veterans era category: June Carter Cash

For at least the past quarter century, one name has been missing from the list of Country Music Hall of Fame-inducted women who’ve served as the matriarchs of the genre's modern era.

June Carter Cash.

This omission is to be officially rectified with her forthcoming induction into a hallowed circle directly related to her family’s legacy. It marks recognizing her vital importance and value as a cornerstone of country music and global popular culture.

"One of my mother's greatest strengths was using food, fellowship and a common love of music to gather people together," said Carlene Carter, June's daughter and a beloved performer in her own right.

As a teenage prodigy, June Carter toured with her mother, Maybelle, her aunt Sara and uncle A. P. Carter as the legendary Carter Family. Later, while married to her first husband, early country music star (and 2003 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee) Carl Smith, she found herself in the company of Grand Ole Opry stars like Minnie Pearl, Webb Pierce and Faron Young. Also an actor with natural comic timing and improvisational chops, she spent time with renowned New York-based acting instructors Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner.

After she and Smith were divorced, June Carter Cash remarried to countrified early rock progenitor and eventual Country Music Hall of Famer himself, Johnny Cash, in 1968.

Together, the couple laid unprecedented and irreplaceable footprints that broadened the expectations of American popular culture.

Rock icons Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Don McLean, Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, Shel Silverstein and James Taylor all credit June Carter Cash for nurturing and encouraging them in her and Cash’s Hendersonville home on the Cumberland River.

June Carter Cash's story is one of preserving a worldwide family heritage and legacy that helped establish the American musical canon. This legacy continues to shape the country music industry today.

As a performer and singer-songwriter, June Carter Cash's career spanned over 50 years. She was not only an artist, author, and poet, but also the co-writer of the classic, "Ring of Fire" with Merle Kilgore. Her final two albums, "Press On" and "Wildwood Flower," won Grammy awards in 1999 and posthumously in 2004, a testament to her enduring talent and influence.

“My mother was a hard worker who cared incredibly deeply for those around her with forgiveness, gravitas and gratitude,” John Carter Cash told The Tennessean.

His final point truly drove home the power of his mother’s induction.

“My sister has a father and I’ve got a grandmother, great aunt and uncle, dad and now, my mother, who, like a musical Mount Rushmore, will all be Country Music Hall of Famers,” Carter Cash said. “I can’t wait to sing ‘Will The Circle Be Unbroken’ to close the induction ceremony. My mother probably sang that song more than anyone in history.”