Jon Pardi’s Grand Ole Opry Induction Gets A Date

Jon Pardi is set to become the next member of the famed institution, the Grand Ole Opry, on October 24. He was surprised during his performance in Indio, California, at this year's Stagecoach Festival in April. His friend, restaurateur and author Guy Fieri directed him and the attention of his thousands of cheering fans to a video. In the video, Opry member and Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson appeared, officially inviting the California native to become the newest member of the Opry.

He tweeted about the news yesterday (8/1), writing, "@Opry induction date is set…see y'all October 24!"

Pardi recently told us about the Opry invite moment saying, "When I first saw Guy (Fieri) on stage, I was like, 'What the hell is Guy doing on stage, and how'd he get a microphone?' But Guy is a good friend, and then he was so excited. He knew about it for a long time, and like we're buddies, he never said anything; he was like, 'This is so hard I didn't tell nobody,' but it was a great moment, and it was cool that it was at Stagecoach."

He continued, "It's one of my favorite festivals in country music, and it's the biggest in California. Kind of tying in home state, country music, Nashville, and The Grand Ole Opry together, I thought was really special and something that nobody has really seen. It made the Opry have a stronger connection with the crowd and the West Coast. They knew exactly what the Grand Ole Opry was, and they went crazy, which was pretty cool."

Jon added, "Then I saw Alan on screen, and then I kind of knew it was going down, and it was cool. Alan has always been good to me since the 2015 tour. He's always been very complimentary. He'll send me random gifts; he sent me his book and whiskey, just little things he would send to me."

Pardi has the distinct honor of becoming the first native Californian to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Jon heads out on his headlining "Mr. Saturday Night World Tour" this month with dates coming up in the U.S., Canada, and several across Europe, including stops in the U.K., Netherlands, Germany, Norway, and Sweden before heading back stateside for his Opry induction on October 24.

Many country music superstars embrace the Grand Ole Opry and openly weep when invited to become members of the Nashville institution. However, a handful of country superstars are not members of the Opry.

To become a member of the Grand Ole Opry, you have to be invited, and that decision comes down to Opry management. According to the Opry website, "Opry membership requires a passion for country music's fans, a connection to the music's history, and it requires commitment – even a willingness to make significant sacrifices to uphold that commitment. Often, the Opry seeks out those who seek out the Opry, though decisions aren't based on which artists appear most on the show, either."

In picking new members of the Opry, their site says, "The Opry doesn't simply pass out invitations to the biggest stars with the most hits. Opry management looks for a musical and a generational balance. Opry membership requires a passion for country music's fans and a connection to the music's history. It requires commitment – even a willingness to make significant sacrifices to uphold that commitment."

To become a member, there is a rule that artists need to commit to playing the Grand Ole Opry stage several times a year. However, that rule is often broken by current Opry members (primarily icons and superstars), and it's just okay.

For some country superstars, it may be the commitment they shy away from or not having enough passion for the Opry history to leave the Grand Ole Opry out of their careers. We look at five country music superstars that are not members of the Grand Ole Opry. While all have played it at least once, these five acts rarely play the Grand Ole Opry stage.

Tim made his Grand Ole Opry debut in December 2003. After that, he played it a few times, but never that much, and now he doesn't play the Grand Ole Opry at all. Not sure why.

Faith played the Opry in the late 1990s when her career started to hit. She didn't play the Opry stage much after that.

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George played the Grand Ole Opry show once, his debut performance on the stage in October of 1982. That was the first and last time, and no one really knows why. There is a theory that he could not make the Opry commitment to play the stage very much because he never lived in Nashville; he has always resided in Texas.

Miranda played the Grand Ole Opry several times in her career, and some of her most recent performances on the Opry stage were in 2014 with then-husband Blake Shelton and in 2015 and 2016. She does not play it often now, and in 2015, she told me when asked about the Grand Ole Opry and someday becoming a member, "It's sort of something I don't talk about or have never asked or say that out loud. It was always a big deal to Blake, so that was something we always talked about, and he became a member, but I'd never really set it out for myself." She added, "It wasn't on my radar before because I focused on that for him, but I would definitely never say no to being a member of the Grand Ole Opry."

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Kenny made his Opry debut in 1996. He has been on the Opry stage a handful of times and once when he paid tribute to George Jones singing his classic, "White Lightning." These days it's very rare to see Chesney on the Grand Ole Opry stage.