It had been such a big part of my life with Porter because I was in Porter’s band. When I had my first records out I talked about the Opry so much in my interviews that I had a couple of folks in the periphery of my career that said, “Maybe don’t talk about the Opry so much because it’s dating you.” This was back in the early Nineties. There were years I played it maybe only three or four times and other years I did 20 shows. When I had my records out, anytime I was in town I would say yes every time I could. Do you remember how many times you played it previously? This is your first time onstage at the Opry in nearly a decade.
Wright, who performed at the Opryland theme park as “Cousin” Minnie Pearl when she first arrived in Nashville, notes that even while posing for the statue she was compelled to speak up, asserting, “Miss Minnie would never pose that way.” In 1994, to celebrate the grand reopening of the Ryman, she served as the model for a bronze statue of Minnie Pearl in conversation with Roy Acuff, created by sculptor Russ Faxon.
Two days before her return to the Opry, the outspoken Wright - who released the vibrant pop-edged EP Revival in May - sat down with Rolling Stone Country in the Grand Ole Opry’s former home at the Ryman Auditorium, chosen because Wright’s presence in the hallowed hall is actually witnessed by the throngs who visit there on a daily basis. “And as I walked offstage, full house, flashbulbs were going off, I thought to myself, ‘If I never get to do anything else again, if I never make it in Nashville, I just played the Grand Ole Opry.’” I was introduced and brought on stage by the King of Country Music, Mr. “I played the Grand Ole Opry for the first time 30 years ago this year.
That is, until August 10th, nearly 30 years after her debut.Īs Opry member Jeannie Seely introduced her to rousing applause, Wright performed the familiar hits “Shut Up and Drive” and “Single White Female” - the latter of which she ended with a slight lyrical change, singing, “A single white female, looking for a girl like you.” Yet it was the singer’s poignant recollection of her Opry debut that proved most telling. But after coming out as a lesbian in 2010, Wright, now 48, went more than nine years without an invitation to come play the hallowed stage.
In September 1989, Wellsville, Kansas, native Chely Wright made the first of many appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, a venue that would become an important touchstone in her career.
0 kommentar(er)
