After a powerful performance of "Don't Close Your Eyes" that magnified his deepest country roots, Garth Brooks had the honor on Sunday (Oct. 16) of inducting one of his musical heroes, Keith Whitley, into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
"For all country music fans, this night is long overdue," Brooks said while fighting back tears.
A native of Sandy Hook, Kent., Whitley's career began in the 1970s as a bluegrass artist. Alongside childhood friend and fellow Hall of Famer Ricky Skaggs, Whitley earned a spot as a teenager in Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys. Whitley later joined innovate grasser J.D. Crowe's band, the New South. As mentioned during the ceremony, one of the New South albums featuring Whitley was ironically titled My Home Ain't In The Hall Of Fame.
"I'd heard Keith would be the last guy that thinks he belongs in here. And people, the truth is what we believe it to be, so we don't have to agree," Brooks said. "You pick five names of why the Hall of Fame is the place the rest of us want to get into, and one of those five names for me is Keith Whitley: one of the greatest voices to ever grace country music."
The Kentucky native moved to Nashville in 1983 to pursue country singer-songwriter stardom. His now-iconic voice and song selection was deemed "too country" initially by country radio power brokers, which Brooks joked was the equivalent of calling something "too good."
Alongside Skaggs, Randy Travis and others, Whitley led a resurgence of traditional-sounding country music in the mainstream, culminating in '88 and '89 with five straight No. 1 hits: "Don't Close Your Eyes," "When You Say Nothing at All," "I'm No Stranger to the Rain," "I Wonder Do You Think of Me" and "It Ain't Nothin'."
Whitley died on May 9, 1989 of alcohol poisoning.
"The fact that Keith Whitley was too country was a blessing for us. It was probably a curse for Keith," Brooks said regarding the tragedy.
In a much lighter-hearted moment, Brooks put over a Whitley classic he still listens to with Trisha Yearwood.
"I'm in love with my wife and my wife has me convinced that she loves me," Brooks said. "But when Keith Whitley does that 'Ca-alls' (in 'I Never Go Around Mirrors'), when he drops that whole octave, that woman cannot remember my name."
Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Whitley's widow and fellow country legend Lorrie Morgan accepted his Hall of Fame medallion. Their son, Jesse Keith Whitley, and Morgan Anastasia Gaddis, a daughter or Morgan's who was adopted by Whitley, were also in attendance.
There were two additional performances in celebration of Whitley: Mickey Guyton's stirring rendition of "When You Say Nothing at All" and Skaggs, Molly Tuttle and Justin Moses' nod to the Kentuckian's bluegrass roots, "Tennessee Blues."
Brooks had sung "Don't Close Your Eyes" before, most famously as part of a country hits medley he and Yearwood performed at the 2016 CMA Awards.
Nashville music executive Joe Galante — a key figure in Whitley's ascent as a country star — and rock 'n' roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis rounded out the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's Class of 2022.
