The Country Music Hall Of Fame Celebrates 100 Years Of The Opry With New Exhibit

Artifacts on display as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opens the Opry at 100 exhibit- September 18, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Credit: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee marks a monumental anniversary this year.

On November 28th, the Opry will celebrate 100 years since “the show that made country music famous” first aired on radio. It debuted on November 28^th, 1925 and today remains the longest running radio broadcast in the world.

The Opry has been highlighting the milestone all year with special shows honoring music legends like Bill Monroe, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and so many more.

Now the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is celebrating some of that history with a new exhibit called Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100.

For Curatorial Director Mick Buck, the goal was to tell a small part of the Opry’s incredible story in a limited exhibit space.

“In so many ways the Opry was synonymous with country music going back to the very beginnings of country music as a commercial genre in the 1920s,” Buck says. “And then trying to show the tradition and continuity that runs through it all. Even the current crop of young artists and Opry members cherish that tradition and are so proud to be part of it and to carry it on. So, even though the sound of country music has changed and evolved through the decades, that aspect of it is a continuing thread.”

Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100

The exhibit features an array of artifacts like the early microphone used by Opry founder and announcer George D. Hay, a custom-made beaver hat given to Bill Monroe by Lester Flatt, the program from Hank Williams Jr’s Opry debut on June 11^th, 1949, Minnie Pearl’s hat with its dangling price tag, and boots specially-made for Brad Paisley when he was inducted into the Opry in 2001.

“One of my favorite items, just because of its back story,” Buck says,” is the guitar that Stonewall Jackson brought with him when he came up to Nashville from Georgia. As the story goes, he drove up in 1956 is his old beat-up pick u truck to audition for the Opry. He was naïve about the business and didn’t know what it took to get onto the show but was determined to find a way. He was able to get an audition, and Hay was so impressed with his singing and his songs, I believe he was on the show that same night. That’s the guitar he played and even though it’s missing some of its parts, to me that just adds to the story.”

For his Opry debut, Jackson played what would become his signature song in the decades that followed: “Waterloo.”

To coincide with the exhibit’s opening, the CMHOF had a panel discussion with Dan Rogers, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of the Grand Ole Opry, and opry members Vince Gill and Carly Pearce.

They touched on the iconic performers of years past, how the Opry has paved the way for so many artists today, and why it still means so much to everyone who gets the chance to step into the circle of that famous stage.

“My role has always been, I want to be respectful of what’s come before me,” noted Gill, an Opry member since 1991.

Panel Members Look Back at 100 Years of the Opry

He discussed how grateful he’s been to perform alongside so many of his music heroes like Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and others. He went on to say that in terms of paving the way for country music, the Opry was around even before records were made. It’s also where bluegrass got its start there.

“Bluegrass started at the Opry with Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs in the mid-40s. It’s where it was born, on that stage at the Ryman some years back. And that’s all of our bloodlines, it’s all of our history, it’s everything we know and love.”

Amidst many changes through the years, from evolving styles of country music to Nashville’s historic flood of 2010 that flooded the Grand Ole Opry House forcing it to close for five months, and even the COVID pandemic which closed the doors to a live audience (although Opry members performed in an empty building to continue the broadcast), the Opry has continued to not only survive but thrive.

One of the ways it’s done that is by welcoming different artists to its stage. At every show, audience members get to see eight to ten groups or artists perform with each showcasing their own style and and reflecting their own era.

Today’s Opry Shows Highlight Past, Present, and Future

“We always work to create a showcase of the past, present, and future of country music every time the big red curtain goes up,” Rogers explained. “We’ve been, not only not afraid, but proud to welcome different folks who have an interest in the Opry. One of my favorite parts of our 100^th year and one of my memories will always be our Opry members walking on stage after having performed with Ringo Starr in February. They all had stars in their eyes (no pun intended). It was the coolest thing to watch them walk out saying, ‘Man, what world am I living in that I got to do that?’ And it was such a great performance, too.”

Gill noted there is often a reluctance from some to welcome newer, less traditional acts.

“What Dan and his team have done at the Opry, the dance they have to go through to please everybody is crazy,” he said. “You have an older generation of artists that may not be as accepting of somebody who’s a little left of center, they want it to be traditional, and they don’t want it to change. I think the beauty of it all is that it will evolve. If we want to try and keep it only one way, it never gives it a chance to spread wings and grow and be welcoming of everything and everybody. I think the Opry is the best it’s ever been.”

The Opry itself continues celebrating its 100 years in new and different ways and makes history on Friday when it airs it’s first every broadcast outside the U.S. The show will take place at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Fans can hear it live on WSM Radio at 2:30pm ET/1:3opm CT.

The Opry exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame, showcasing notable moments throughout its history, is open now through March 2027 with regular admission.