NEW YORK (AP) – Vocal quartet The Oak Ridge Boys, Jim Ed Brown and his singing sisters, and longtime session guitarist Grady Martin are the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The Country Music Association announced their selection on Wednesday. The induction will take place later this year at the museum’s annual medallion ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Oak Ridge Boys made the hits “I’ll Be True to You,” ”American Made” and “Elvira” and became known to a non-country audience when they sang backup to Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away.” They’ve sung behind Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Bill Monroe and others.
While they are being inducted in the modern era artist category, the Boys were founded as the Georgia Clodhoppers in 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee. They sang so often to staff members and families at the Oak Ridge nuclear facility that the group changed its name to the Oak Ridge Quartet two years later.
The modern members – Duane Allen, Joe Bonsall, William Lee Golden and Richard Sterban – are being inducted. Golden is the one with the long, flowing white hair and beard.