With a mother who owned a beauty salon and a father who was a car salesman, becoming a successful country music singer wasn’t exactly in the cards for Blake Shelton. But after learning to play the guitar in his early teens, he began writing songs and traveling around the local bar circuit around his county. As soon as he graduated high school, he moved to Nashville in an instant. Going through the same path as a lot of people on this list, he started out in the business as a song-writer, before getting his own recording contract later. Beginning with a very traditional style, he had off and on hits throughout his early years. But a few things happened in the later 2000’s: he connected up with Miranda Lambert (soon after, they became an “it couple” in Nashville), he switched to adding more pop sounds to his songs, and he gained significant national attention by becoming a coach on the singing competition “The Voice”. These things all allowed him to continue getting hits and becoming one of the biggest names in the country genre. He is still in the midst of his radio career right now, and the longer that goes on the better shot he has of entering the Hall Of Fame in the future.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives. As such, it is important to us that the New England Patriots have chosen Mike Vrabel as their 34^th inductee.

A three-time Super Bowl Champion with the Patriots, the Linebacker began his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but it was not until he joined New England in his fifth NFL campaign (2001), and joined Bill Belichick that he became a starter.

Vrabel played for the Patriots from 2001 and 2008 where he was not just a three-time champion, he was a First Team All-Pro in 2007. With New England, he compiled 11 Interceptions, 48.0 Sacks and 606 Tackles.

Vrabel will be inducted alongside Dante Scarmecchia, the former Offensive Line Coach, on a time and date to be determined.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Mike Vrabel for earning this impending honor.

Amusement parks are a great place to eat some food, hang out with family or just ride a roller coaster. But they are not normally the place where you find the next country music superstars. But that is what happened for Diamond Rio. Started in 1982, they were the main band at Opryland U.S.A., a country music themed amusement park. After a few years there, they were ready to spread their wings. It took a number of years bouncing around Nashville (dealing with everything from injuries to “Star Search”) before they finally were able to finalize a record deal with Arista Nashville in 1990. That signing eventually lead to them getting a long string of hits, receiving awards from the ACMs, CMAs and Grammys, and becoming one of the biggest country groups of the 1990’s. The last award to place on their mantle would be from the Country Music Hall Of Fame.

Some people take a while to learn their musical skills, but it comes a bit easier when you are the son of a guitar playing father and a singing mother. Claiming to be able to sing harmony at three years old, Joe tried his hand at a music career beginning in the late 1970’s. After a number of setbacks, he finally got the ball rolling in the mid-1980’s when he moved to Nashville and got his foot in the door with song writing. Getting artists like Holly Dunn, Ricky Van Shelton and Alabama to record his songs then helped him to getting his own recording contract in 1990. His first song going to number 1 set off a string of classic songs for over a decade. By the time his radio career faded in the early 2000’s, he had become an ACM nominee and Grammy winner. Unfortunately passing away from covid in 2020, his legacy still lives on in newer artists like Jason Aldean and Chris Young praising him as an inspiration. That legacy may someday lead to a Hall Of Fame plaque.