Alan Jackson, Jerry Reed, Don Schlitz tapped for Country Music Hall of Fame

Alan Jackson, Jerry “Guitar Man” Reed and “The Gambler” writer Don Schlitz are 2017’s class of inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The Country Music Association made the announcement Wednesday morning during an event at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The men will raise the number of those inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame to 133.

Jackson, Reed and Schlitz will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame during a Medallion Ceremony at CMA Theater later this year.

“This year’s class is so special because they really all are storytellers,” Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern said. “Each one of them have really written songs that have been a part of our American musical history."

Hall of Fame member Vince Gill hosted the announcement, introducing inductees in three categories: Veterans Era Artist, Modern Era Artist and Songwriter, awarded every third year in rotation with two other categories.

Modern Era Artist: Alan Jackson 

Jackson, part of country music’s famed class of 1989, was invited to join the Country Music Hall of Fame 28 years after he signed his record deal with Arista Nashville.

“My whole career has just been a fairy tale, all the stuff that’s happened to me,” Jackson said. “I came to Nashville with nothing and ignorant about the music business and had no experience, and then to go through all of this, this is the ultimate piece of the puzzle. I don’t even know how to describe it.”

Alan Eugene Jackson was born to Joseph Eugene Jackson and Ruth Musick Jackson on Oct. 17, 1958, in Newnan, Ga., and has four older sisters.

His country career started as the lead singer of hometown band Dixie Steel while he was working odd jobs, touring and writing songs. Jackson’s wife, Denise, was a flight attendant and, through a chance meeting with Glen Campbell, the Jacksons connected with Campbell’s music publishing company. He moved to Music City within weeks.

Now 58, the singer in his early career made a name for himself with his unique blend of current, classic and honky-tonk sounds that embodied the genre’s neotraditional movement. He was the flagship artist on Arista Nashville and found immediate success with his debut album, “Here in the Real World,” home to hits including “I’d Love You All Over Again,” “Wanted” and “Chasin’ that Neon Rainbow.” His voice was instantly recognizable, and during the video age, popular clips including “Chattahoochee” cemented his cowboy-hat-wearing country man image and pushed his star even higher.

Jackson released four albums in the first five years of his career — by today’s standards nearly a decade’s worth of music. “Here in the Real World,” “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” “A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ‘Bout Love)” and “Who I Am” sold more than 20 million albums at the time. Today Jackson has released more than 20 albums, nine of which are multiplatinum.

Over the course of Jackson’s career, his biggest hits have included “Midnight in Montgomery,” “Summertime Blues,” “Chattahoochee” and his 9/11 tribute, “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning),” which won Single and Song of the Year at the CMA Awards in 2002 and Best Country Song at the Grammy Awards.

Jackson has notched more than 30 No. 1 songs, sold close to 60 million albums and has won more than 150 awards. Jackson was given the first ASCAP Heritage Award in 2014, recognizing him as the most performed country music songwriter-artist of the century.

“It’s hard to feel like you’re deserving of all of this,” Jackson said. “I still feel amazed when I go out on stage and people are screaming for you and know your songs. You wonder how all this happened. The Hall of Fame thing is the biggest honor of all for a guy who wants to sing country music and write country songs.”

Veterans Era Artist: Jerry Reed 

Jerry Reed’s daughter Seidina Hubbard was beginning to think her daddy would never be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Not that he ever talked about it when he was alive; Hubbard said her father was too humble to verbalize lofty goals.

“He would be thrilled to death,” she said. “He was always a loud, funny guy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he'd shed a tear if he were here and had to speak for himself. He just loved country music, and he loved writing songs and singing and playing guitar. That was him, 24/7, even in his sleep, his feet would be tapping writing a song in his sleep.”

Reed's career spanned from the 1950s to the 1990s, and he received CMA nominations over the course of four decades. His fleet-fingered guitar skills scored him musical parts on many of the era’s most popular recordings, and by the 1970s, he was one of country music’s most recognizable stars.

Jerry Reed Hubbard was born in Atlanta on March 20, 1937, and had already scored some minor success when he came to Nashville in 1962. Reed’s finger-style guitar picking earned Chet Atkins’ stamp of approval, with Atkins declaring him a Certified Guitar Player. Reed was dubbed the Guitar Man and won CMA’s Instrumentalist of the Year award twice. His most popular songs include “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” “Amos Moses” and “A Thing Called Love.” Reed worked alongside Elvis Presley in the studio and became a regular on “The Glen Campbell Good Time Hour,” which opened the door to a career in film. Reed appeared alongside Burt Reynolds in multiple movies starting in the 1970s, including “W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings” and three popular “Smokey and the Bandit” films. Reed even had a hit with the series theme song, “East Bound and Down.” In 1998, he returned to the silver screen alongside Adam Sandler in “The Waterboy.”

Reed died of complications related to emphysema in 2008.

“He never forgot where he came from, and he just always appreciated it so much, and he loved life and he loved people and he loved making music,” Hubbard said. “I want people to know that what they saw is what they got. Dad really was a good, hysterical man. I want them to know he had a very serious, beautiful side. He brought all of the beauty and happiness to the family.”

Songwriter: Don Schlitz 

The casual country music fan may never have heard of Don Schlitz, but they’ve certainly heard his songs. Schlitz is the pen behind songs including Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” Randy Travis’ “On the Other Hand” and “Forever and Ever, Amen,” Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” and Alison Krauss’ “When You Say Nothing At All.” Schlitz has written 24 No. 1 country songs, has won CMA Song of the Year three times and has picked up two Grammy Awards.

He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Association Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.

Yet, the Durham, N.C., native was still stunned when he heard he was going to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“My wife said, ‘You look like you just woke up after 40 years and found out somebody else has been living your life,’ ” Schlitz recalled. “I’ve been living in the parenthesis all this time and it’s very safe and very wonderful, getting to work on something different every day.”

Donald Alan Schlitz Jr. was born Aug. 29, 1952. He moved to Nashville at age 20, and when Rogers recorded “The Gambler,” it was Schlitz’s first cut. Schlitz’s credits also include the 2001 Broadway musical “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”

Today Schlitz has written songs spanning five decades and will join fellow songwriters Bobby Braddock, Hank Cochran, Harlan Howard, Cindy Walker, and Boudleaux and Felice Bryant in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“There are some names in the rotunda that I have no idea who they are, and I expect to be one of those names,” Schlitz said. “To be the least recognizable name in that room is an honor beyond anything I could ever think. I can do my best to represent.”