LORRIE MORGAN CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY AS GRAND OLE OPRY MEMBER DURING CMA MUSIC FESTIVAL
Morgan & Jesse Keith Whitley set to perform on Grand Ole Opry Tonight!!!
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 6, 2014) – In life and in art, the glamorous and gifted Lorrie Morgan
is enjoying a renewed resurgence of popularity. Morgan continues to
make new music, tour North America, and this weekend will celebrate her
30th Anniversary as a member of the Grand Ole Opry!!! On June 9, 1984,
Morgan was inducted as a member into the invitation only institution.
“You can’t imagine how it felt the night I became a member of the
Opry,” says Lorrie Morgan. “The first time I could really call this
place home. I couldn’t stop shaking or trembling or crying.”
That Saturday night, just 30 years ago, might have been Lorrie’s
first night as an official member, but it certainly wasn’t her first
night at the Grand Ole Opry. Lorrie grew up backstage at the Opry, the
daughter of Country Music Hall of Famer George Morgan, a 26-year member
known everywhere for his smash 1949 hit “Candy Kisses.”
Born in 1959, Lorrie made her Opry stage debut early, introduced at
the Ryman Auditorium by her proud father. “My little 13-year-old knees
were absolutely knocking,” she recalls. “But Dad was standing there
right beside me with big tears in his eyes, and those people gave me a
standing ovation. I thought, ‘This is what I’m doing the rest of my
life.’”
“This was a dream of my dad’s long before it was my dream,” Lorrie
says. “I have all of this because of Dad. We’re very blessed to be a
musical family here at the Grand Ole Opry. What more could you ask
for?”
George Morgan died when Lorrie was 16, but she still carries in her
heart two pieces of advice he left her: “Never say, ‘I can’t,’” and
“Always remember your manners.”
Morgan’s vocal style, combining country sincerity and pop
sophistication, really took off in 1989 with the emotion-filled hit
“Dear Me.” She won a CMA Award in 1990 for her work with her late
husband, Keith Whitley, the great country traditionalist who had died
the year before. Her three subsequent albums — Leave the Light On,
Something in Red, and Watch Me — all sold more than a million copies.
She has released hit after hit in a distinctive style steeped in
passion and believability — “I Guess You Had to Be There,” “What Part of
No,” “Except for Monday,” “Something in Red,” “I Didn’t Know My Own
Strength,” “Half Enough,” and others.
Throughout her career, Morgan says, she has thought of the Opry as home.
“The Opry gave me my start in country music,” she says. “It’s a place
we all need to go from time to time to remember why we’re here and what
gave us the opportunity to be here.”