Kenny Chesney Is Bound for the Country Music Hall of Fame: ‘I Did Not See This Coming’

• Kenny Chesney, the late June Carter Cash and producer Tony Brown will be entering the Country Music Hall of Fame class of 2025
• The three will be formally inducted this October
• June Carter Cash’s two surviving children Carlene and John attended the public announcement

Kenny Chesney has lived out big dreams in his storied career, but one that he says even he didn’t dare to dream is now coming true: He’s going in the Country Music Hall of Fame!

“I promise you, I did not see this coming,” the 56-year-old superstar told an invitation-only audience of about 200 who gathered Tuesday morning in the Hall of Fame rotunda in Nashville for the public announcement.

Joining Chesney in the Hall of Fame class of 2025 are two more of the genre’s luminaries: the late June Carter Cash, a member of the foundational Carter family who will enter the hall 45 years after her husband, Johnny Cash; and Tony Brown, a member of Elvis Presley’s band who went on to become among Music Row’s most influential producers.

Standing amid the plaques of his heroes, Chesney reminisced in a brief speech about the day his dreams began as a boy growing up in east Tennessee.  

“I went with my mom and my stepfather to a field about 10 miles from my house to see this group, Alabama, that was going to play,” the 56-year-old artist recalled about the legendary band, inducted into the Hall in 2019. “I couldn’t believe they were going to play just right down the road from my house … Something happened to me that night. There was a fire lit. Something happened in my soul that set me on this path.”

But, he allowed, “If you’d have told that kid that night … that this [the Hall of Fame] was going to happen, I would’ve told you that you were crazy.”

Chesney retraced the early pivotal steps — learning the guitar, playing in a bluegrass band in college, moving to Nashville and signing a publishing deal, and finally, a record deal — before his career took off to its stratospheric heights. Accolades include 23 chart-topping singles, 16 platinum albums, and four CMA Entertainer of the Year awards, and he continues to fill stadiums as the titular captain of his No Shoes Nation.

Chesney noted with particular pride that he will be joining three other east Tennesseans in the Hall of fame, guitarist-producer Chet Atkins, country icon Dolly Parton and songwriter Dean Dillon.

“My grandparents lived on the same street that Chet Atkins grew up on,” he said. “I rode my bicycle past that property all the time. To know that I’m going in with Dolly Parton is a huge deal for me … and also, I don’t have a brother in life, but if I did, it would be Dean Dillon. Dean Dillon and I have written a lot of songs. I’ve looked up to Dean my whole creative life.”

Chesney has been living with the news of this pinnacle honor for weeks, but clearly the public announcement was finally giving him a moment when he could fully soak it in.

 “I know it’s not a dream,” he said. “It’s real, and it feels so real.”

June Carter Cash’s two surviving children, Carlene Carter, 69, and John Carter Cash, 55, appeared at the announcement to accept the honor for their mother, who died in 2003. (Daughter Rozanna “Rosie” Nix Adams died six months after her mother, of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.)

Obviously gratified by the recognition, both siblings said it’s been long overdue — a sentiment no doubt shared by millions of country fans.

“Everyone’s surprised when they find out that she wasn’t in,” Cash told PEOPLE. “She may not have had the hits, but she touched so many people. She did so much with music.”

 What took her so long?

The obvious reason is the monumental career of her husband. As event emcee Vince Gill pointed out in his introduction, no one more than Johnny Cash regretted that his career overshadowed his wife’s.

“Johnny once said that his wife was one of the most neglected artists in country music: ‘Sadly, I think her contributions to country music will go under-recognized simply because she’s my wife,’” said Gill, also a Hall of Fame member. “That was, he wrote, his only regret about marrying June. Today that changes as she takes her rightful place among family, friends, and legends in the Country Music Hall of Fame.”

In his introduction, Gill traced June Carter Cash’s multi-faceted career that earned her spot as the veteran-era inductee. She began singing on the radio as a child with the Carter Family, the trailblazing trio that included her mother, Maybelle. After the Carter Family dissolved, she joined her mother and sisters Helen and Anita to become a quartet. She went on to star in the Grand Ole Opry as a singer and comedian; write songs (including her husband’s classic “Ring of Fire”); and serve as a mentor to members of the next generation of stars, including Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings, both now in the Hall of Fame. Even in her final years, Carter Cash was winning Grammys for her traditional recordings.

Carlene Carter, who’s had a lengthy solo career herself, said she was overwhelmed when she and her brother were recently told the news. “I didn’t know what to do with myself, honestly,” said Carter (whose father, Carl Smith, was also a country artist). “But at the same time, I felt this huge warm thing in my chest because Mom so deserved it.”

Besides the career accomplishments, John Carter Cash said, he hopes his mother is remembered as a “brilliant person” and as a woman of faith. “She always prayed,” he recalled. “You’d see her moving her mouth with no words coming out, and I’d ask her, ‘What are you doing, Mom?’ ‘I’m praying.’ She was always in contact with the spiritual.”

Both son and daughter said they could only imagine how excited their mother would be that this day has come.

“She would have been just jumping up and down and laughing,” said Cash, who is also a singer-songwriter and producer. “She wouldn’t have been prideful about it. She would have been grateful.”

And his dad? “He would’ve been like, ‘Well, it’s about time,'” he said, mimicking his father’s famous baritone.

Producer Tony Brown joins the Hall of Fame class in the non-performer category, and his entry brings the hallowed number up to 158.

Gill lauded Brown, a longtime friend, mentor and collaborator, noting his role in advancing his own career, as well as other Hall of Fame members, including Wynonna Judd, Patty Loveless, Reba McEntire, George Strait and Marty Stuart.

“I’ve had other big things happen in my life, in my career,” Brown said in his remarks. “This is the biggest. … This is better than money. You make records, and you make some money. But this is better than money. This is about making an impact, and when it comes right down to it, that’s the reason we all get into this business.”

Chesney, Carter Cash and Brown will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame in a ceremony in October.