Two weeks before embarking on his “Fifty years of Songs and Stories” tour, Steve Earle was performing onstage at Nashville’s famed Grand Ole Opry. After finishing a song, country star Vince Gill unexpectedly walked out onstage and presented Earle with a Grand Ole Opry 100th anniversary guitar strap, which Earle gratefully accepted.

It was a nice surprise, to be sure, but nothing compared to what was about to come next.

Gill began to walk offstage, while Earle put the strap to his guitar and stepped up to the mic. It was at that moment that Gill stopped in mid-stride, turned to Earle, and told him that the commemorative strap was made to be worn only by Hall of Fame inductees, and that Steve Earle had now joined their ranks.

“It was one of the biggest moments of my life,” said Earle, who

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