When Jake Worthington performed at the Grand Ole Opry recently, he brought a special guest with him —a bit of family history, as he played his late grandfather’s guitar, while standing on the famed six-foot diameter oak circle embedded in the center of the Opry House stage.

“My papaw was a big reason why I got the itch for a song,” Worthington tells Billboard, noting that his grandfather raised him on the sounds of George Jones, Merle Haggard and Ray Price. “He played dance halls in Texas, and he was a singer-songwriter. My dad has had [the guitar] for a while, and it wasn’t about maybe two months ago, he said, ‘Hey, you need to take this home.’ So ever since I’ve had it, I’ve been using it. To be playing the Opry, I thought it was appropriate.”

On the La Porte, Texas native’s (just sout

See Full Page