Country music’s highest honor became official for three new members on Sunday (Oct. 18), when Tim McGraw, songwriter Paul Overstreet and bluegrass pioneers the Stanley Brothers were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame at the museum’s 31st annual Medallion Ceremony in Nashville. They are the Hall’s 159th, 160th and 161st members.
The Stanley Brothers
The evening opened with a salute to Carter and Ralph Stanley, the Virginia brothers whose mountain harmonies helped shape bluegrass. Billy Strings played “How Mountain Girls Can Love,” Hall members Ricky Skaggs and Vince Gill joined forces on “Rank Stranger,” and the First Ladies of Bluegrass (Alison Brown, Becky Buller, Sierra Hull, Missy Raines and Molly Tuttle) delivered “Bound to Ride.” Gill formally inducted the duo, and Ralph’s children Lisa Stanley and Ralph Stanley II accepted alongside Carter’s daughter, Jeanie Stanley.
“They were the cream of the crop, and it has been a long time coming.” — Jeanie Stanley
Paul Overstreet
Overstreet, whose catalog includes Randy Travis’ “Forever and Ever, Amen,” Keith Whitley’s “When You Say Nothing at All” and Blake Shelton’s “Some Beach,” was celebrated by Dean Dillon, Jamey Johnson and Shelton. Tanya Tucker, whose 1973 concert in Waco, Texas, persuaded him to move to Nashville, presented his medallion. In his speech, Overstreet looked back on lean early years in the city and thanked the many people who took him in, noting that “you don’t get here by yourself.”
Tim McGraw
Parker McCollum (“Don’t Take the Girl”), Lainey Wilson (“Just to See You Smile”) and Lady A (“Live Like You Were Dying”) paid tribute before Alabama’s Randy Owen placed the medallion around McGraw’s neck. McGraw recalled reaching Nashville in May 1989, the same day the news broke that Keith Whitley had died, and said he came to read it as a sign that “this music costs something.” He thanked his mother, his wife Faith Hill and their three daughters.
Patty Loveless closed the three-hour ceremony by leading the room in “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
Featured image: Paul Overstreet, Ralph Stanley II, Lisa Stanley, Jeanie Stanley and Tim McGraw at the 2026 Medallion Ceremony. Photo: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, via Country Now.