Ronnie Milsap has been a Grand Ole Opry member for 50 years. To celebrate the milestone, Milsap was honored with an all-star tribute, by Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Trace Adkins, Vince Gill, Ella Langley, and Mark Wills.
In addition to performing their own songs, each artist sang songs honoring Milsap’s legendary career. Shelton sang “Any Day Now,” Urban sang “Legend In My Time,” Adkins sang “Stranger in My House,” Gill sang “Don’t You Ever Get Tired (Of Hurting Me),” Langley sang “Almost Like A Song” and “I Wouldn’t Have Missed It For The World,” and Wills sang “Daydreams About Night Things” and “There Ain’t No Getting Over Me.”
Milsap took the stage at the end to sing “Smoky Mountain Rain.” He also sang “Snap Your Fingers” with members of the Tennessee School For the Blind’s jazz band. The night concluded with several artists joining Milsap on stage to close the show with “What A Difference You’ve Made In My Life.”
Keith Urban Pays Tribute to Ronnie Milsap
Before singing “Legend In My Time,” Urban shared how Milsap impacted his own career, since the very beginning.
“I love Ronnie,” Urban says from stage. “He’s been a big influence on me, playing the clubs, when I was younger. I was doing a ton of Ronnie’s songs: ‘Stranger In My House,’ and ‘Legend In My Time,’ and “Pure Love,’ and ‘Daydreams About Night Things.’ I’ve gotten to know Ronnie a little bit over the years … I’ve never sung this song at the Opry, so this is the first time.”
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Ronnie Milsap Recalls Being Invited to Join the Grand Ole Opry
By the time Milsap became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1976, he already had a string of hit singles, including “Pure Love,” “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends,” “Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry,” and others.
“Before I joined the Opry in 1976, Jeanne Pruett was always getting me to come out here and guest,” Milsap remembers. “Eventually, she said, ‘I think you need to join the Grand Ole Opry.’ And I said, ‘Well, how do you do that?’
“All of a sudden, one night I was over here and Mr. Roy Acuff came up to me in the hall and said, ‘Hey, Ronnie, you want to be a member of the Opry?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He said, ‘Okay, then, you’re going to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry.’”