Interviews

Interviews

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum regularly hosts illuminating interviews with country artists, songwriters, and industry players, both in its Nashville home and on location.

The Museum’s regular interview series include Poets and Prophets, which spotlights the artistry and achievements of songwriters who have made significant contributions to American music, and Nashville Cats, which showcases musicians and singers who have played important roles in support of hit artists in either the studio or on tour.

The Museum's collection also offers thousands of video and audio interviews with country legends, mainstays, and rising stars, spanning from the 1920s to today.

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Interviews
  • Brooks & Dunn ‘Reboot’ and Review

    “Reboot,” Brooks & Dunn's first studio album in twelve years, rose to #1 in 2019, the same year the duo had its first national tour in nearly a decade. Here, just months after releasing "Reboot," Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn join longtime Brooks & Dunn manager Clarence Spalding to discuss a career ...

  • Lori McKenna • Poets & Prophets, 2018

    Singer-songwriter Lori McKenna has written and co-written a collection of country hits, including Hunter Hayes’s “I Want Crazy,” RaeLynn’s “God Made Girls,” Little Big Town's Grammy- and CMA Award-winning “Girl Crush, and “Humble and Kind,” a #1 for Tim McGraw.

    Here, McKenna visits the Country M...

  • Mac McAnally Interview • Nashville Cats, 2017

    Songwriter, musician, and producer Mac McAnally reminisces about his career and performs some of his hits on September 9, 2017, as part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Nashville Cats interview series, hosted by fellow musician and recording artist Bill Lloyd.

    A native of Belmont, ...

  • Millie Kirkham Interview • Nashville Cats, 2012

    Millie Kirkham's high-soprano vocals can be heard on country, pop, and rock & roll hits, from Rosemary Clooney and Perry Como to Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Loretta Lynn, and Charley Pride. For this 2012 installment of the quarterly Nashville Cats program series, Kirkham visited the Country Mus...

  • Bob Regan and Mike Byer • Songwriter Session, 2020

    During a special 2020 Veterans Day Songwriter Session at the Museum, songwriter and Operation Song founder Bob Regan shares the stage with OS program director Mike Byer to perform a selection of songs, and discuss their organization, its purpose, and process. Operation Song pairs professional son...

  • Guitarist Reggie Young Interview • Nashville Cats, 2008

    Guitarist Reggie Young—who played on hit recordings by the Box Tops, Neil Diamond, Dobie Gray, Waylon Jennings, Elvis Presley, and Dusty Springfield, among others—shares stories from his extensive career during a 2008 interview, part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Nashville Cats s...

  • Wynonna Judd • Songs and Interview, 2019

    Wynonna Judd—half of Grammy-award winning duo the Judds—discusses career triumphs and traumas and performs with her husband and bandmate Cactus Moser during this 2019 interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

    Wynonna reminisces about performing with her mother Naomi Judd first as t...

  • Billy Joe Shaver • Poets and Prophets, 2018

    Songwriter Billy Joe Shaver performs and shares stories from his colorful life and career live in the Ford Theater on September 15, 2018, as part of the Museum's Poets and Prophets series, which spotlights songwriters who have made significant contributions to country music.

    Billy Joe Shaver op...

  • Gregg Allman’s ‘Southern Blood’ • Panel and Performance, 2017

    Gregg Allman’s final studio album, “Southern Blood,” was released months after the singer, songwriter, and Allman Brothers Band founder’s death in late May of 2017. Here, around the album’s September release, fellow musicians and collaborators gather at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum t...

  • 100 Years: Country Music’s First Commercial Recordings • Live at the Hall, 2022

    One hundred years ago, two champion fiddlers, Eck Robertson of Texas and Henry C. Gilliland of Oklahoma, recorded what are now widely hailed as the first commercial recordings of country music. This interview and performance, recorded on October 28, 2022 as part of the Museum’s “Live at the Hall”...

  • Pat Alger • Songwriter Session, 2018

    Songwriter Pat Alger—a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member and frequent Garth Brooks co-writer—performs and shares stories behind some of his songs during this 2018 program, part of the Songwriter Sessions series at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

    Alger collaborated on four of G...

  • Cindy Mabe • Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum

    The 11th Annual Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum spotlights record label executive Cindy Mabe, who's helped shepherd dozens of high-profile country music careers, including those of Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, and Carrie Underwood, at labels including Arista Records, RCA Records, Capitol Records, an...

  • David Ferguson • Live at the Hall, 2021

    David “Fergie” Ferguson joins the Museum’s Peter Cooper to discuss his career as recording engineer and producer. Accompanied by Mark Howard and Pat McLaughlin, Ferguson also performs “Chardonnay” and “Looking for Rainbows,” both tracks included on his 2021 album “Nashville No More.”

    During the ...

  • Ralph Peer and the Making of Country Music • Concert and Conversation

    The career and legacy of pioneering talent scout, record producer, music publisher, and artist manager Ralph Peer is explored during this 2014 multi-media program at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, featuring Barry Mazor (author of "Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music") and...

  • Waylon Payne • Songwriter Session, 2021

    During a 2021 interview and performance, singer-songwriter Waylon Payne discusses the road to sobriety that led to his critically acclaimed 2020 album, "Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me," and performs five of its songs live.

    The son of country musicians Sammi Smith (who sang the...

  • Audio Engineering Society Nashville • Lifetime Achievement Awards, 2016

    Joe Mills, Mike Bradley, Lou Bradley, Ron “Snake” Reynolds, and mastering engineer Denny Purcell are honored with the AES Nashville Lifetime Achievement Award during an annual event from the Nashville Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society, held June 5, 2016, at the Country Musici Hall of Fame ...

  • Victoria Banks • Songwriter Session, 2020

    During this 2020 Songwriter Session, veteran Nashville songwriter Victoria Banks—whose work has been recorded by artists including Lauren Alaina, Sara Evans, and Carly Pearce—shares some of her songwriting wisdom and performs six of her songs, including "What Are You Gonna Tell Her?", the groundb...

  • Audio Engineering Society Nashville • Lifetime Achievement Awards, 2018

    The Nashville Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society honors Johnny Rosen, Dick Hargett, George Ingram, Claude Hill, and Tom Sparkman with the AES Nashville Lifetime Achievement Award, created to recognize and celebrate the city’s pioneering recording engineers.

    Held June 23, 2018, at the Count...

  • Celebrating Lynn Anderson • ‘A Rose is a Rose’ Panel, 2017

    Lynn Anderson’s arrival on the country music scene is examined by those who knew her best in this heartfelt panel, held September 30, 2017, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, to coincide with the exhibition “Lynn Anderson: Keep Me in Mind” (September 15, 2017, through June 24, 2018).

    ...

  • Rory Feek of Joey + Rory • Book Talk, 2017

    Joey + Rory’s Rory Feek surveys his childhood, his rise as a professional songwriter, and his career with his late wife, Joey Martin Feek, during a talk about his 2017 memoir, “This Life I Live: One Man’s Extraordinary, Ordinary Life and the Woman Who Changed It Forever,” at the Country Music Hal...

  • Johnny Cash’s Daughters in Conversation: ‘Becoming Our Father’

    Johnny Cash's four daughters, Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy, and Tara, discuss their father's overseas experiences as an Air Force serviceman, based on the photos and letters he sent to their mother, Vivian Liberto, who was Cash's girlfriend at the time. The program is in conjunction with a Country Music...

  • Audio Engineering Society Nashville • Lifetime Achievement Awards, 2017

    The Nashville Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society honors mastering engineer John Eberle, studio owners Richard Carpenter and John Logan, and audio engineers Fred Cameron, Jack Linneman, and Brent Maher with the AES Nashville Lifetime Achievement Award, created to celebrate Music City’s audio...

  • Panel Discussion: From Bluegrass to Country-Rock • Live at the Hall, 2023

    Panelists Rodney Dillard, Chris Hillman, John McEuen, and Herb Pedersen discuss their backgrounds in bluegrass and how their experiences affected the burgeoning Los Angeles country-rock scene in this program hosted by the museum’s Michael Gray. This program was filmed on October 1, 2022, during t...

  • Allen Shamblin • Poets and Prophets, 2018

    Allen Shamblin—the award-winning songwriter who co-wrote such classics as Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” and Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” reflects on his career during this November 17, 2018, edition of the Museum’s ongoing Poets and Prophets series.

    Born in Tennessee ...