Grand Ole Opry Returns Home, Invites Blake Shelton To Be A Member

Grand Ole Opry Returns Home

The GRAND OLE OPRY returned to the GRAND OLE OPRY HOUSE in NASHVILLE for its first show in the building since it was flooded in MAY last night (9/29). The show opened with a performance of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” by Country artists BLAKE SHELTON, KEITH URBAN, MARTY STUART, TRACE ADKINS, MARTINA McBRIDE, JASON ALDEAN, CHARLIE DANIELS, DIERKS BENTLEY, LITTLE JIMMY DICKENS and BRAD PAISLEY.

LITTLE JIMMY DICKENS, who is the GRAND OLE OPRY’s oldest living member, said: “I never dreamed it would be this gorgeous, and (what a) wonderful job they’ve done renovating this place. It’s just like it was built yesterday.”

The only indication of flood in the now renovated OPRY HOUSE is a thin strip of metal on the wall of the greenroom, mounted 46 inches off the floor, to indicate how high the waters had risen.

PAISLEY said: “I’ve always loved this building. I love the RYMAN for what it is, but this is the place I grew up watching on TV. This is the place that was more state-of-the-art and became the home, and this is the one I associate with the OPRY. This is where I was asked to be a member and this is where I made my first performance. This is as much as the OPRY as anywhere.”

The GRAND OLE OPRY also invited a new member to join last night for the first time since the flood. Just after BLAKE SHELTON and TRACE ADKINS finished singing “Hillbilly Bone” together,” ADKINS showed BLAKE a tweet that the OPRY had just sent that read: “@blakeshelton, you’re invited to join the GRAND OLE OPRY. See you on 10/23/2010!”

SHELTON, who is known to be a big fan of TWITTER said: “I don’t know what I ever did in the last year or so to turn NASHVILLE’s head a little bit, but whatever I did, man, I love this. This right here is hands down the highlight of my career. Thank you so much.”

Check out a video of SHELTON on the OPRY stage here.

The show closed with a guitar jam featuring PAISLEY, KEITH URBAN, MARTY STUART, STEVE WARINER and RICKY SKAGGS.

Check out more about last night’s OPRY show from the TENNESSEAN here.

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