In his storied career, Kenny Chesney has filled scores of stadiums, sold records in the millions and won countless industry awards, but he admits, he’s always been too driven to ever let his achievements soak in.

That all changed on Sunday afternoon when Chesney accepted his rightful place, sitting down for a photo with almost two dozen Country Music Hall of Fame members, including fellow superstars Garth Brooks, George Strait, Randy Travis, Vince Gill and Randy Owen of Alabama. Within hours, Chesney would be officially joining their ranks in an induction ceremony.

“Taking the group shot with a lot of my heroes and a lot of my friends,” Chesney, 57, said later in his onstage remarks during the Nashville event, “it was the first time that I have ever felt accomplished in my life. And I just want to thank you, God, for that. … With every cell in my body, I feel the gravity of this moment.”

Chesney joins the late June Carter Cash and producer Tony Brown in the hall’s 2025 class, bringing its number to 158. For almost three hours, at the invitation-only ceremony, the three inductees were celebrated with words, song and ovations in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s intimate CMA Theater.

Country music famously thrives on the “unbroken circle,” and the presence of Owen underscored that intergenerational spirit: When Chesney was a teen growing up in east Tennessee, he attended an Alabama concert just 10 miles from his home, and that experience is what ignited his musical ambitions. Later, as Chesney was trying to make a name in the 1990s, the band invited him on tour, he noted in his acceptance speech, “when nobody would take me on the road.”

Owen was among dozens whom Chesney cited in his 15-minute address, including his parents, Karen Chandler and David Chesney, who watched from the front row.

“It’s really a gift,” said Chesney, “to be 57 years old and get inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and be sitting beside your mother and father.”

The speech also overflowed with gratitude for all the other family, friends, colleagues and mentors who have supported Chesney’s career over the decades.

“This dream has allowed me to chase the sun in a bus down the highways. It has allowed me to sit on the bow of boats and chase the sun in the islands,” said Chesney, alluding to his embrace of the Caribbean culture that helped birth his massive “No Shoes Nation” fan community. “But it has also allowed me to bring a lot of friends with me.”

Poignantly, he ended the speech quoting the lyrics of “I Didn’t Get Here Alone,” a song he co-wrote that appeared as a bonus track on his 2010 album, Hemingway’s Whiskey: “To everyone who helped pave my way / if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here today / To all my friends, the girls, the broken hearts, all the critics, cynics and doubters / Y’all know who you are” — Chesney recited those words with a laugh — “because I didn’t get here alone / This road’s just too rough and long / I might be the one the spotlight’s on, but I didn’t get here alone.”

Earlier, Chesney was officially inducted by the fellow Hall of Fame member he’d selected, record executive Joe Galante, and he was fêted with performances by Kelsea Ballerini, Megan Moroney and Eric Church, all of whom have been Chesney tour mates.

Ballerini, another east Tennessee native who shared two CMA awards with Chesney for their 2021 hit “Half of My Hometown,” interrupted her performance of “Somewhere with You,” Chesney’s 2010 blockbuster, to gush her affection: “It’s the joy of my life for this man to go from hometown hero to collaborator to family.”

She also shared that she’d just been with Chesney the day before, watching the University of Tennessee-Alabama game.

Moroney, who postponed a flight to Australia to appear at the ceremony, accompanied herself on guitar for an acoustic solo of “Knowing You,” a Chesney No. 1 hit from 2021. (Country Music Hall of Fame executive director Kyle Young noted in his introduction that the performance also honored its co-writer, Brett James, a close friend of Chesney’s who was killed last month in a private plane crash.)

Church announced he was a last-minute replacement after another artist had to bow out due to illness, but he ably acquitted himself with a six-song Chesney medley that he performed solo on guitar: “I Go Back,” “Anything But Mine,” “El Cerrito Place,” “Never Wanted Nothing More,” “The Boys of Fall” and “Old Blue Chair.”

Church reminisced about his first encounter with Chesney when he opened for a George Strait concert that Church attended while in college.

“I watched the room change — like, people started grooving up — and I watched reality change,” Church, 48, recalled. “And I stood there, and I even said to my buddy, ‘What’s happening here?’ And he goes, ‘It’s Kenny Chesney.’ And I said, ‘What the f— is that?’’And he goes, ‘You’re about to find out.’ And I did.”

Chesney’s induction capped the star-studded evening, which also featured performances and tributes that honored the other two new members.

Tony Brown was saluted with performances by four artists whose careers he strongly influenced: Trisha Yearwood (who sang “Perfect Love”), George Strait (“Troubador”), Lyle Lovett (“If I Had a Boat”) and Steve Earle (“Guitar Town”).

Though Brown, 78, first made his name as a keyboard artist, most notably with Elvis Presley, he has since gone on to amass vast accomplishments behind the scenes as a producer and talent scout.

He selected lifelong friend and colleague Vince Gill to induct him, and Gill noted how pivotal Brown was to his career — not only steering him from pop to country but also signing him to the record deal that led to his stardom.

“He was always there for me,” Gill said, “and when he asked me to be the one to present him tonight, I was just overwhelmed and grateful.”

In his remarks, Brown put his induction into perspective: “For years, everybody thought my life, my career, was defined by playing with Elvis Presley. Now, my career is defined by being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame … This, tonight, to me, is validation. And at the end of the day, that’s what we all want.”

June Carter Cash, who entered the Hall of Fame 45 years after her husband, Johnny Cash, also joins three other family members on the hallowed roll: her mother, Maybelle Carter, and her uncle and aunt, A.P. and Sara Carter, the trio who made up the so-called “first family” of country music.

In his review of June Carter Cash’s lengthy career as an artist, comedian, songwriter, actor and mentor to up-and-coming artists, Young acknowledged Johnny Cash’s deep regret that his own stature overshadowed his wife’s.

“Tonight, we happily answer Johnny’s concern with certainty,” Young said. “June Carter Cash will forever be somebody: an artist of courage, creativity and conviction forever enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame.”

Carter Cash’s life in music was remembered with three performances: Kacey Musgraves, joined by longtime producer Daniel Tashian, delivered the Johnny Cash hit “Ring of Fire,” which his wife co-wrote; Keb’ Mo’ and Ruby Amanfu duetted “Keep on the Sunny Side,” a Carter Family standard; and Lukas Nelson sang the Bob Dylan classic, “It Ain’t Me Babe,” which became a hit for Cash and Carter Cash in 1965.

Carter Cash’s children, John Carter Cash and Carlene Carter, chose Hall of Fame member Emmylou Harris to induct their mother, and Harris shared stories of her friendship with Carter Cash, which included epic games of Scrabble.

“Behind that sweet, innocent smile there lurked a relentless competitor,” Harris, 78, recalled with a chuckle. “She unapologetically decimated me at every game.”

Harris went on to praise Carter Cash for her singular place in country music: “We prefer sometimes to think of ourselves as artists. You know, it’s what we put down in that little blank space under ‘occupation.’ But June was proud to be an entertainer, and I believe her lifelong pursuit of that calling is why she’s being recognized here tonight. June made it her business to celebrate, to encourage and lift up all of us, and she did it with her whole heart and with a rare and genuine grace. This evening, we have the long-awaited opportunity to celebrate her.”

John Carter Cash and Carlene Carter accepted the honor in memory of their mother, who died in 2003 at age 73, Carter assured the audience that June Carter Cash wasn’t far away: “She loves us all, and she’s always watching over us. And I’ll guarantee you. All you guys [in the Hall of Fame] that are in here already, well, Mama’s here now. Mama’s here now, and she’s gonna make sure everybody’s feeling good all the time.”

During the ceremony, bronze plaques, featuring relief portraits of each inductee, were unveiled, and they now will take their permanent place alongside the other 155 plaques in the museum’s Hall of Fame rotunda.