Grand Ole Opry Celebrates Its 5,000th Saturday Night Broadcast In Star-Studded Style

Yearwood, left, and Brooks (Photo: Rachael Black)

Venerable radio program the GRAND OLE OPRY celebrated its 5,000th SATURDAY night show on OCTOBER 30th with a special show that honored its past, present and future. Taking the stage during the two-hour live broadcast were OPRY members BILL ANDERSON, GARTH BROOKS, TERRI CLARK, JOHN CONLEE, THE GATLIN BROTHERS, VINCE GILL, THE ISAACS, CHRIS JANSON, DUSTIN LYNCH, DARIUS RUCKER, JEANNIE SEELY, CONNIE SMITH, TRISHA YEARWOOD and CHRIS YOUNG. WSM-AM/NASHVILLE’s MIKE TERRY was the show’s announcer.

The group opened the show with a number of historic songs meant to celebrate OPRY pioneers, including “Wabash Cannonball,” “Jambalya,” “San Antonio Rose,” “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” performed by ANDERSON, SMITH, THE GATLINS, RUCKER, CLARK and JANSON, respectively. The rest of the night was a mixture of the performers singing their own hits and other classics that paid tribute to those who came before them. RUCKER — decked out in a traditional OPRY-style Western suit that had him joking that he was “channeling my inner LITTLE JIMMY DICKENS” — sang PATSY CLINE’S “Walking After Midnight,” while YOUNG paid tribute to CHARLEY PRIDE with “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’.” GILL led a tribute to (and moment of silence for) OPRY member SONNY OSBORNE, who died on OCTOBER 24TH (NET NEWS 10/25).

In a touching taped intro that ran just before his performance, RUCKER recalled the night of his 2012 OPRY induction when DICKENS grabbed him backstage and told him, “Don’t let them ever tell you you don’t belong.”

Among the show’s sweetest moments found ANDERSON and SEELY, two of the OPRY’s longest-running members, holding hands onstage as they performed ROGER MILLER’s 1961 hit, “When Two Worlds Collide.” CONLEE, SMITH and THE ISAACS teamed up for “Amazing Grace,” CONLEE, SEELY, SMITH, LYNCH and YOUNG joined forces for the OPRY’S signature song, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.”

BROOKS and YEARWOOD took the stage with just one guitar, and without the assistance of the OPRY band, to sing a medley of their own hits. They included “Callin’ Baton Rouge,” “She’s In Love With The Boy,” ”In Another's Eyes." “Two Pina Coladas,” “How Do I Live,” “The River,’ “Walkaway Joe” and “Friends In Low Places,” earning the couple the biggest ovation of the night.

Check out 15 video clips from some of the evening’s performance on the ALL ACCESS NASHVILLE FACEBOOK page here. Watch all of the performances here.

The GRAND OLE OPRY is the world’s longest-running radio show. WSM began airing the show that would become the OPRY in 1925, later expanding it to television and digital streaming platforms. CIRCLE NETWORK is the show’s current television partner. WSM remains its terrestrial radio home. It also airs on SIRIUSXM.

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