Tony Brown, four-time Grammy winner, and North Carolina native, is inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Tony Brown has lived a life filled with music, legends, and now... legacy.
The Walkertown, North Carolina native and four-time Grammy Award-winner received the surprise of a lifetime just a month ago when he got the call that he would be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
“Well, they called me about a month ago and said you can't tell anybody or we'll kill you,” Brown said with a laugh. “So I couldn't even tell my kids. I couldn't tell anybody. I was just dying,” Brown recalled.
Now that the news is out, the renowned producer and musician is still trying to process the magnitude of the honor.
“I’m on cloud nine right now,” Brown shared.
“You dream of being in the Country Music Hall of Fame, but I figured there's so many more people besides me that belong in there before me,” Brown admitted.
Humble beginnings laid the foundation for Brown’s legendary career. Born into a deeply religious family, music was a way of life from an early age.
“My dad was an evangelist. I had two brothers and a sister, so the four of us would sing while he preached,” he remembered. “One day I learned how to play a song on the piano. That night at church they let me play, and the crowd went, ‘Wow.’ I thought, I should learn two songs,” Brown laughed.
From gospel roots in Walkertown pews to playing keyboard for Elvis Presley, Brown's musical journey is nothing short of remarkable.
“My first big job was with JD Sumner and the Stamps Quartet... then I got sort of snagged away by the Oak Ridge Boys—back before they became country, they were gospel,” Brown recalled.
His travels eventually led him to playing piano for the King himself, Elvis Presley.
“I played his last show, June 26, 1977, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Then I go home and I'm going, ‘Now what am I gonna do?’ Because after Elvis, you don't go back and play for just anybody, right?” Brown reflected.
But Brown’s story was only beginning.
“I came back to Nashville,” he said of the next chapter in his career.
“I signed Alabama,” he noted.
“I inherited George Strait and my first album with him was Pure Country,” Brown continued.
“And then I inherited Reba [McEntire] and my first album with Reba, I cut ‘Fancy’ -- which became her biggest hit,” Brown said proudly.
His star-studded resume includes work with Wynonna Judd, Lionel Richie, Vince Gill, and Barbara Streisand. Still, Brown believes it’s his gospel roots that made him the producer artists wanted to work with.
“I was a musician who was a producer, so I could relate to the session players, I could relate to the artists,” Brown explained.
“I used to kind of push my Southern gospel background to the side, but I realized—for Wynonna Judd, Reba, Marty Stuart—it’s very important to them. It’s a big part of who I am,” Brown reflected.
Now, with his name etched among the greats in the Country Music Hall of Fame, Brown reflects on the road that got him here.
“I learned that all that hard work I had been doing was paying off in spades,” Brown said.
But true to his down-to-earth spirit, he still sees himself as that boy from the Triad.
“Dream big and it can happen. But I’m still that guy from Walkertown, North Carolina,” Said Brown.