The Country Music Association announced on March 18 the three members of the country music community as the 2024 inductees in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The inductees include James Burton, the guitarist who has performed as the band leader for Elvis Presley, entering into the recording/touring musician category.
Meanwhile, John Anderson, renowned for having more than 40 singles on the Billboard country music charts, joins the list as a veteran-era artist.
Toby Keith, who passed away last month, also joins the list as a modern-era artist. Unfortunately, Keith passed just a day before Sarah Trahern, the CEO of the Country Music Association, got the voting results. The 62-year-old singer passed away after a long battle with stomach cancer on February 5.
The event was held to celebrate the achievements of the singers; however, the mention of Keith’s demise made everyone in the audience sad.
Sarah Trahern said in the announcement that she woke up to the news of Toby Keith’s death. She said,
My heart sank that Tuesday afternoon knowing that we missed the chance to inform Toby while he was still with us, but I have no doubt that he’s smiling down on us, knowing that he’ll always be ‘as good as he once was.’
PEOPLE reported that Stelen Keith Covel, the 26-year-old son of the iconic singer, attended the CMA announcement. He told the media outlet that the induction,
was always something on a checklist of a lot of things that he knew he was gonna accomplish in his life.
The Country Music Association waited for 10 days after Toby’s demise to inform his manager, TK Kimbrell, of the news. His manager then reached out to Keith’s wife, Tricia Lucus Covel.
Stelen mentioned,
I was with my mom when we found out that he was gonna be inducted, and it was relatively hard to process in the moment, but we dealt with it pretty well.
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