30 Years Ago: Travis Tritt Makes His Grand Ole Opry Debut
Thirty years ago today, on May 4, 1991, Travis Tritt made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry. The singer's appearance came shortly before the release of his sophomore album, It's All About to Change, and only a few days before the release of his sixth single, "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)."
After his first appearance on the Opry stage, Tritt found favor with country legend Roy Acuff, who helped pave Tritt's path to becoming an official Grand Ole Opry member.
“I don’t know why to this day, but Roy Acuff saw something in me that he liked," Tritt recalls. "He came up and put his arm around me backstage and said, ‘Son, we want to see you back here at the Opry more often.'”
One year later, on Feb. 29, 1992, Acuff got his wish. Tritt was inducted into the Opry on that date.
“The Grand Ole Opry stands still as one of the biggest traditional gods, if you will, that we pay homage to in the business,” Tritt writes in his 1994 autobiography, Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof. “In country music, there’s not a single person whose grandfather or father doesn’t have a story about listening to the Grand Ole Opry around a little small AM radio or one of those big console AM radios when they were a kid. My dad told me about it when he was young. I listened to the Grand Ole Opry, watched it on television when I was young. Every person in country music, I think, has got a story like that.”
A list of all of Tritt's upcoming shows, including any future Opry appearances, is available on his website.
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