Whitley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Galante Headed To Country Music Hall of Fame

A country legend whose reign was tragically cut short; one of the last surviving pioneers of rock and roll and an executive with a peerless eye for talent will join country music’s most esteemed club later this year, reports The Tennessean.

Keith Whitley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Joe Galante will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Country Music Association announced Tuesday.Whitley is being inducted as this year’s “Modern Era Artist,” while Lewis is recognized as a “Veteran Era Artist.” Galante’s induction is in the “non-performer” category, which rotates tri-annually with Recording/Touring Musician and Songwriter categories.

The 2022 inductions will bring the total number of Hall of Fame inductees to 149. Inductees are voted on by CMA’s Hall of Fame Panels of Electors, an anonymous body chosen by the CMA Board of Directors.

Jerry Lee Lewis 1950s hits like “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On” and “Great Balls of Fire” earned him a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s initial group in 1986. Those records also topped the country charts, though, and his hits in the format continued for years after his records disappeared from the rock and pop airwaves. Lewis topped the country charts in the 1970s with “To Make Love Sweeter for You,” “There Must Be More to Love Than This,” “Chantilly Lace,” and his hits continued into the 1980s with “Thirty Nine and Holding.”

Under his tenure, RCA Nashville – what’s known today as Sony Music Nashville – Joe Galenate reigned as top-selling Music Row label in 1982, a position the company held for 11 consecutive years. Under Galante’s lead in the 1980s, the label sold an estimated 750 million units. 

“Each of the artists, whether it be the Judds or K.T. or Clint or Kenny, they each have a sound,” Galante said. “There’s a consistency. We talk about this, the ‘80s and ‘90s country. Everybody goes, ‘Why does this still resonate?’ It’s the songs.”

After rounds of corporate shuffling that saw Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley and more come under Galante’s leadership umbrella, the native New Yorker exited Sony Music Nashville as chairman in 2010. 

Galante remains a Music Row figurehead as a longtime Country Music Association board of directors member and Leadership Nashville co-founder, among other commitments. In 2015, he earned Bob Kingsley Living Legend Award from the Opry Trust Fund and, in 2021, the Academy of Country Music honored him with the ACM Cliffie Stone Icon Award.  

Keith Whitley tragically died in 1989 at the age of 34. However, he impacted and inspired country music both in the era of his popularity and directly flavored the legacies of icons like Garth Brooks, Joe Diffie, Alan Jackson, Tracy Lawrence and Tim McGraw.

Native-born Kentuckians, including Crystal Gayle, The Judds, Patty Loveless and Whitley’s friend Ricky Skaggs, all had impressive runs through the 1980s on country radio. Whitley’s emergence as a Nashville superstar after releasing his 1987 album “Don’t Close Your Eyes” can be directly correlated to the work of his fellow Kentuckians who preceded him.

“Keith was a magical, monumental artist,” former wife Lorie Morgan said. “He changed the way people thought about country music because he was so cool.” She adds that blending Whitley’s voice with honest storytelling, timeless rock production standards and classic folk standards allowed No. 1 hits like “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and 1989’s “I’m No Stranger To The Rain” to bring a “whole new sound” to country music.