Being born in Mississippi, Mickey grew up close by to his cousin Jerry Lee Lewis. Jerry taught Mickey his piano technique, but Mickey didn’t really have an interest in going into the music business until he saw Jerry become a huge star. So he recorded songs on various small labels in his new home of Texas, and became a popular regional star in that area. He even became popular enough that an entrepreneur approached him in the early 1970’s about opening a club together, which they did and named the new club Gilley’s. Up until this point, he hadn’t achieved national success but that changed in 1974 when a local DJ began playing one of his records a fair amount, leading to a bigger label (Playboy Records) picking it up and playing it across the country. Mickey got signed to this new label and the song became a huge success. This one hit ended up becoming multiple hits throughout the rest of the 1970’s. By the end of the decade, Mickey’s star was fading. But that turned around in 1980, when a new John Travolta movie came along called “Urban Cowboy”. The film (which was filmed at Gilley’s) became massive and changed the course of the entire country genre throughout the rest of the 80’s, with the term ‘urban cowboy’ being used to describe the soft-spoken pop-tinged songs coming from artists like Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton at that point in time. Seeing one of his songs become a crossover hit from the “Urban Cowboy” soundtrack, Mickey changed his honky tonk sound to be more pop friendly for the 1980’s. This decision allowed him to continue getting hits for another 10 years. Not even mentioning his awards throughout his career, Mickey had over 15 years of hits, was one of the biggest names in the genre at the time, had the world’s biggest country music bar, and encapsulated the sound of the era very well. This all says that he is very deserving of a Hall Of Fame plaque.

Born into the famous Carter Family, June was a part of country music history without even singing a note. The Carter Family is known as the first family of country music, because they were one of the first popular acts in the genre during the 1920’s, and they set the standard. June was born in 1929, and by 1937 she was performing with her sisters as the Carter Sisters. June never felt she was the best singer or musician in the group, but where she shined was in her humour performing silly songs and skits during the shows. As the years went on, she had worked with her sisters and had some solo hits as well through the 1950’s, but she became most famous for her marriage and popular musical association to Johnny Cash (she had also previously been married to famous country singer Carl Smith, adding to her multiple connections throughout country music history). She also co-wrote one of Johnny’s most famous hits “Ring Of Fire”. June awon 5 Grammy awards throughout her musical career. Outside of music, she was also a dancer, author and actress, even going to school for acting later on and appeared in various tv shows and movies. So she may not have had the biggest radio resume ever, but June is an important piece in the long history of country music and very much deserves a spot.

Even though he was older than the average country star by the time he got his first hit, Vern was able to get a string of barroom hits and became known by the nickname “The Voice”. Born in Alabama, he was a big fan of country music growing up, and in his mid 20’s he made the decision to move to California and join the West Coast country music scene. After performing for a little while, he got together with his brother Rex to form the duo the Gosdin Brothers. They tried to make it work for a number of years, but it just didn’t come together for them. Vern retired and moved to Georgia to run a shop. But he still had his toe in music and played small clubs around his area. He reconnected up with his friend whom he met in his California days, Emmylou Harris (2008 Hall Of Fame inductee). They cut a demo song together, which got Vern a new recording contract. This new contract would become 15 years worth of honky tonk hits and barroom weepers. His career was also rewarded with 2 Grammy nominations and 1 Country Music Association award for Song Of The Year in 1989. Although not as well remembered by modern country audiences, Vern has been an influence for many country singers in the last 30 years for his quality songs and for being “The Voice”.

And here we have someone who is on both the Rock Hall Of Fame and the Country Hall Of Fame predictions list. Even with such a short life and career, he was able to build up enough of an impact to influence both the rock and country worlds. After falling in love with country music in university, Gram joined up with rock band The Byrds. Gram convinced them to jump even farther into the country world that they were toying with, releasing the album “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo”. Though the album failed commercially at the time of release, it has gone on to be a landmark album of the Los Angeles country-rock movement. After leaving the Byrds, Gram connected up with Keith Richards and helped to influence some of the Rolling Stones songs with country touches like “Honky Tonk Woman”. Gram’s next move would be to help create the band The Flying Burrito Brothers. The first album they released also didn’t sell well initially, but went on to be a country-rock landmark and incredibly influential on the neo-traditional country movement that came around in the 80’s and 90’s. Unfortunately, Gram was too much into partying with alcohol and drugs, and this eventually lead to him being let go from the Flying Burrito Brothers after their second album. The next step in Gram’s career was connecting up with Emmylou Harris, who was just an unknown singer who was in a small club in Washington D.C. Their bond got close enough that when Gram got the opportunity to record solo albums, he had Emmylou come along to do the background vocals. He was only alive long enough to record two solo albums before passing away from a drug overdose. Both of those albums would also fail commercially, but go on to be highly respected and legendary albums that helped to push the country-rock sound forward and bring the country genre to other audiences. Although emotionally struck by his untimely death, Gram’s protégé Emmylou would then go on to start her own solo country music career and become a legend herself (along with getting her own induction into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2008). So although his career path was very unorthodox, Gram did have a hand in lots of ways of moving country music forward and is deserving of a plaque in the Hall Of Fame.