WHERE IS THE STAR FOR DOYLE HOLLY, O.B. MCCLINTON AND ALL THE OTHERS WHO HAD THEIR STARS AT THE FORMER COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME??????? Dear Kyle Young, I consider Steve Wariner a good friend of mine, and he is so deserving of his Star in The Walk of Fame here in Nashville, and I congratulate the others who have been inducted. Steve knows that I have considered him a friend for many years, so the above statement has nothing to do with any of of the inductees into the walkway, but it is time for the Country Music Hall of Fame to address the issue of all of the stars that were in the sidewalk and inside of the former Hall of Fame on 16th Ave. Someone please have the common courtesy to give us the truth and let us know "what really happened to all of those stars." When O.B. McClinton was very ill, many of us came together to see that he had his star. The cost at the time was $1500.00 and O.B. had his star imbedded in the sidewalk and now it is gone and no one wants to tell us why all of these stars that were paid for, are no longer a part of this new Walk of Fame. Is it because they were not mega stars, or maybe they were just chess pieces for the new HOF. Kyle Young has never forward openly to address this issue as it continues to draw a bad odor on the problem. I have tried on different ocassions to talk to Kyle about this, but to no avail. Someone knows what happened, so let's meet this problem head on with the truth and make it right for all of the ones who deserve their star to have a place at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Of course we are at the mercy of local government who has taken over this project. I WONDER WHY THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN CARE OF THIS PROBLEM YEARS AGO, INSTEAD OF TURNING IT OVER TO THE CITY, AND THEN TURNING THEIR HEADS AWAY IN HOPES THAT WITH TIME, EVERYONE WOULD FORGET. If I am wrong and there is something being done about all of those stars that have "just disappeard into thin air," then I will apologize to Kyle Young and the Country Music Hall of Fame for being wrong, but someone needs to tell all of us in the industry what really happened. Monday, 04/21/08 Walk of Fame welcomes diverse Music City icons By NICOLE KEIPER and COLBY SLEDGE Staff Writers All it takes to be part of Nashville's social fabric is attendance, maybe a place for the post office to drop off your bills. Becoming a part of Nashville itself — the physical, tactile landscape?
| That takes an indelible enough contribution to Music City's musical history to get you stamped into the Walk of Fame, which placed its first stars on the street in 2006, and welcomed its newest ones Sunday at a ceremony in Hall of Fame Park downtown. The new class for the Walk — a collection of plaques in the park between Fourth and Fifth avenues south — is another stylistically broad, accomplished collection of musicians. Included are country music icon Hank Williams; songwriter, singer and artist manager Merle Kilgore; contemporary Christian star Steven Curtis Chapman; the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; Grammy-winning country singer, songwriter and producer Steve Wariner; and renowned jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum. "When it comes to jazz, R&B and soul music, it's sort of the rest of the story," Whalum said at the ceremony. "This is another thing to make this tangible. This is what Tennessee music is all about." Wariner — who has collected a healthy group of country hits, including "Your Memory," "The Weekend," "Tips of My Fingers" and "Where Did I Go Wrong" — was understandably moved by the idea of having his star placed alongside those of masterful country musicians such as Williams, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. "I know there are other people more deserving of this honor, but I don't think there's anyone more thankful than I am about being inducted," Wariner said. "I'm very, very blessed." Wariner was surprised at Sunday's ceremony by friend and fellow artist Garth Brooks, who has performed with Wariner on several songs. Wariner co-wrote "Longneck Bottle," the first track on Brooks' Sevens album. "He showed me how to treat people on the other side of the radio," said Brooks, who signed autographs for more than 30 minutes after the show. "That's a lesson for life." It's a fitting time for Williams' name to join the Walk, as The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's thorough new "Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy" exhibit has brought country music lovers a renewed focus on the life and work of the legendary singer. Kilgore, who died in 2005, built a remarkable musical legacy himself, as both a songwriter (he co-wrote "Ring of Fire" with June Carter, among many others) and the longtime friend and manager of Williams' son, Hank Jr. Among the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's noteworthy offerings to the country and rock canons is the famous Will the Circle Be Unbroken album, which teamed the touchstones of those styles and brought together country icons including Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff and Earl Scruggs. "I guess somebody thought the thousands of hours on the road was for a reason," said John McEuen, a founding member of the band. Chapman, a millions-selling and multiple Grammy-winning contemporary Christian powerhouse, joins fellow CCM kingpin Michael W. Smith (who was honored with a Walk of Fame star last year) in representing the Middle Tennessee-centered Christian music industry. "It's such an honor to be recognized by your hometown," Chapman said of the honor, "especially when your hometown is America's Music City." This new class means a total of 24 stars now line the Walk of Fame, created to honor the lasting contributions to Nashville's musical heritage by artists from all genres.
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