There are now three new members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Patty Loveless, Tanya Tucker and songwriter Bob McDill were inducted on Sunday, October 22, at the annual Medallion ceremony. Their induction came six months after they were announced as this year’s class of inductees.

Loveless was honored with musical tributes by Bob Seger, Sister Sadie, and Loveless’ longtime friend, Vince Gill, who also officially inducted Loveless into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“I’m trying to hold it together,” Loveless said when she took the stage, first thanking all of her surprise musical guests, admitting it was ” a real shock” to see Seger. The 66-year-old also praised her family, including her brother Roger, who passed away last year, and those in the country music industry who took a chance on her and her pure country sound.

“The music is just amazing to me, that I have been allowed to live the life that I have lived … I’m a little bit weak right now in the legs,” an emotional Loveless said from stage. “Vince, when we started making music together and traveling together, it was just amazing, and the relationship that we felt together, as far as artists. I wanted to say thank you to each and every one. Forgive me, I’m a little bit taken back by this.”

Ahead of Tucker’s induction, Wynonna Judd (with Charlie McCoy), Margo Price and Jessi Colter, and Brandi Carlile performed Tucker’s music, with Tucker jumping up on stage twice to join in the fun. Brenda Lee and Connie Smith both inducted Tucker into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“I’ve come back so many times, I’m gonna come back again after I’m dead,” Tucker said with a laugh. She thanked her three children, along with Carlile and Shooter Jennings, who produced her 2019 Grammy-winning While I’m Livin’ album.

“I will say, like my friend Roger Miller used to say, ‘You see a turtle on a stump, you know he didn’t get there by himself. I’m kind of like that turtle, because I didn’t get here by myself. There were a lot of people, and my wonderful friends, and some that ain’t friends.”

McDill was honored with musical performances by Jamey Johnson, Charley Crockett, and Dean Dillon. McDill has written some of the biggest and most iconic hits in country music, including “Song of the South,” “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” “All the Good Ones Are Gone,” “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” and more.

Fellow songwriter Country Music Hall of Fame member Don Schlitz inducted McDill.

“[Thanks to] the great artists of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, especially ones who took chances and pushed the envelope, pushed country radio. Don Williams, Dan Seals, Alabama, Alan Jackson, Waylon Jennings, Kathy Mattea, and others, And lastly to this great, esteemed institution, the Country Music Hall of Fame, it’s a great, great honor.”

Photo Credit: Jason Kempin and Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum