Top 66 Opry Quotes & Sayings

When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of being a country music singer, but I never dreamed I'd be a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

No matter what does, or doesn't, happen for me in the music industry, getting to play the Opry as a kid was always be a highlight of mine.

I get the same feeling walking into the Opry House as I do when I see one of my heroes.

Being a member of the Grand Ole Opry and headlining a tour would be our two things that we'd love to accomplish at some point.

I got to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, which is just so amazing. That stage is iconic; it was awesome being on it.

The Grand Ole Opry, to a country singer, is what Yankee Stadium is to a baseball player. Broadway to an actor. It's the top of the ladder, the top of the mountain. You don't just play the Opry; you live it.

I get nervous playing the Opry still. You take that nervous energy and channel it into being amped.

My earliest memories of country music are the Grand Ole Opry.

I take his talent and his passion with me - to the stage of the Opry, to the podium at the CMA Awards, to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, into my own living room. I am the realization of my grandfather's dream. I am a player.

.. the Grand Ole Opry used to come on, and I used to watch that. They used to have some pretty heavy cats, heavy guitar players

If they don't have the Grand Ole Opry, like they do in Tennessee, just send me to hell or New York City, it would be about the same to me.

It means so much being a part of country music and the Opry.

Playing the Opry, when I get the opportunity - it's one of the coolest honors for any musician in any genre, but especially for a country musician.

It's such an honor. I still get, I guess, starstruck, at the Opry. Because there's so much history here and there are so many legends that are still walking around backstage, so it's really an incredible, incredible experience for somebody like me that grew up listening to all of them. And to be able to share the stage with them is something that I treasure.

Country music is just country. It's going to shift around a little bit, doing some different instrumentations, different production styles. But it will always come back to what you heard at the Opry. Nobody wants it to change.

When you go to the Opry for a show or hear it on the radio, you get the whole circle of country music.

I want to play the Grand Ole Opry for sure. And I want to meet and play with people like Emmylou Harris and Vince Gill.

I got to go back and perform 'God Made Girls' on 'The Voice,' which was awesome. I also got invited to sing on the 'Grand Ole Opry,' which was another unbelievable moment.

The only music we ever listened to out in the piney woods was Roy Acuff and the Grand Ole Opry. That was the only night of the week I was allowed to lay in the middle of the bed with Mama and Daddy, just long enough to hear Roy Acuff sing; then I had to go back to bed.

Jimmy Dickens was the essence of country music and the heart of the Grand Ole Opry.

I remember as a little kid watching the Opry from the nosebleeds, so to stand onstage and be invited to be a member was really, really cool.

I play guitar, the ukulele and the piano. I grew up on a mountain in Tennessee, and we had 'The Mountain Opry,' where anyone could just get up on stage to perform. It was just about the soul and heart of music. My upbringing was less about being great and more about just doing what you love. It was always for joy.

The Grand Ole Opry is an artist, and I am proud to be one of its songs.

I've played the Opry before.

My dream is to sing at the Grand Ole Opry.

When I was growing up, Nashville was the place to go if you had songs to sell and thought you had talent and wanted to tour and be on Grand Ole Opry [radio show]. It was the big deal back in those days to play the Grand Ole Opry. And you could travel around the world saying, "Hi, I'm Willie from the Grand Ole Opry".

Playing at the Opry, for me, it has such a history. It feels sort of like a coming-out party as a country artist. To know your heroes have played here is kind of crazy.

Growing up, I always considered the Grand Ole Opry to be hallowed ground.

The Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry, if you're a Southern boy, is just a way of life.

My parents were on the Grand Ole Opry. They traveled all over the country singing hillbilly music. That's what they called it back then. They were friends with Roy Acuff and the Delmore Brothers and the Carter Family. And all of my brothers and sisters who were older than me started on the show, after they were big enough to hold a guitar and sing.

We didn't have the Grand Ole Opry or country radio stations in Nova Scotia when I was growing up.

What I loved about country music when I was a kid was the Grand Ole Opry, was 'Hee Haw,' was 360 degrees of entertainment.

I can remember that little thrill - that little shiver of excitement - when the Opry audience would encore a person because that person had touched them so.

'Neil Young Heart of Gold', that was a valentine to Nashville and country music in the Grand Ole Opry tradition and Hank Williams.

What I loved about country music when I was a kid was the Grand Ole Opry, was Hee Haw, was 360 degrees of entertainment.

First time I walked out on the Opry stage, Vince Gill was there. He kind of 'daddied' me through the whole thing. My knees were knocking. I walked out there, and I was literally shaking. They say it's the spirits or the ghosts. And out of respect for that whole establishment, I was really really nervous.

Winning the ACM, winning the CMA, my first time on the Opry and having Grammy nominations were all a big deal to me.

I called my mom, and I was so excited. I was telling her, 'I'm going to be on the Grand Ole Opry! This is crazy!' And she told me, 'Watch out for Jimmy Dickens, because he likes the pretty girls.

It's something that Cory Morrow said to me a long time ago - "Don't ever forget why Nashville is Nashville. The Opry is there for a reason. Country music lives there. Don't be bitter. And don't ever treat Texas or Nashville like either one isn't important."

My mother has always been open about all kinds of music and entertainment. She wanted us to see that it was not just country music and the Grand Ole Opry.

I grew up on a mountain in Tennessee, and my brothers and I love to go to The Mountain Opry when we are home. There is alway an abundance of laughter and joy, and anyone can get up on stage and dance and sing. My family also goes to a candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve. It's such a wonderful way to spend the night before Christmas.

I play guitar, the ukulele and the piano. I grew up on a mountain in Tennessee and we had The Mountain Opry, where anyone could just get up on stage to perform. It was just about the soul and heart of music. My upbringing was less about being great and more about just doing what you love. It was always for joy.

I've gotten to go to the Opry a couple of times and stand backstage and watch. But I made it a point not to take a tour or stand in the circle until music took me there. I told myself that was one place I'd never go unless music took me there.

The Grand Ole Opry was my favorite. That's when I got to discover the stuff inside the Grand Ole Opry, like Hank Williams' clothes, the dressing room Taylor Swift stayed in and some other things. Then I got to perform.

I came out the back of the building and I was hollering, 'I've sung on the Grand Ole Opry! I've sung on the Grand Ole Opry!'

Growing up, the Opry was my Hollywood.

I grew up with the Grand Ole Opry, Dottie West, Conway Twitty, Buck Owens... not realizing it was influencing me as much as it was.

When I was a kid in school, and you asked me what I was gonna be, I mean, even as a little first grader, I was gonna be a guitar picker on the 'Grand Ole Opry.' I just had it in my head that that's what I wanted to do, having no idea how it was done.

I got to Nashville on Labor Day weekend in 1972. And the Grand Ole Opry is still there, the Country Music Hall of Fame is still there. And the roots of country music are still there. It's where the authenticity and the empowering force lies.

Carnegie Hall was real fabulous, but you know, it ain't as big as the Grand Ole Opry.

Pilgrims travel to Jerusalem to see the Holy Land, and the foundations of their faith. People go to Washington, D.C. to see the workings of government, and the foundation of our country. And fans flock to Nashville to see the foundation of country music, the Grand Ole Opry.

My folks were country music performers. They made records and even did a few tours with the Grand Ole Opry. There always were a lot of guitarists around.

I feel this is a family here, so kinda regardless of whatever happens in your life, you always can come home to the Grand Ole Opry, thank God.

The first time I remember going to Nashville was in 1971 back when 'Snowbird' was a hit and I performed at the Grand Ole Opry.

I'm doing a program with NAFME for music and education in schools, and for a week, we will be getting in a bus and traveling across the United States. We're starting at Disney World and ending at the Grand OIe Opry. We will be performing at different schools, and I wrote a song for the program called 'Always Sing.'

I'm just another Opry entertainer. I'm not the start of the Opry, and I'm not the ending. I'm not the Alpha, and I'm not the Omega. It's been a pleasure taking part in the Opry and country music these many years. I'm part of a big operation.

There is an intimacy about the Opry Theater that gives an entertainer a special charge.

I drove to Nashville a few times, met with some people and hung out, went to the Opry, and that kind of stuff. I made the decision - you've got to be present to win, so I packed it up and moved out here, and it's been great. It's been the best decision I ever made.

As a country singer, there is only one place you dream of playing in your lifetime, and that is the Grand Ole Opry House.

Country music is always changing but the Opry is always there to serve as a lighthouse for what country music really is. The past, present and future is all encompassed by not only the physical structure of the building but also the radio show.