Trisha Yearwood celebrates her legacy on 25th anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member

Twenty-five years later, Trisha Yearwood still "feels herself" when she performs onstage as a Grand Ole Opry member.

Yearwood was a 10-year-old from Monticello, Georgia, when she first heard Linda Ronstadt sing "When Will I Be Loved." Five decades later, in Nashville, she belted out her version of the song and earned one of many standing ovations during a 10-song set Wednesday evening event honoring her quarter-century of Opry membership.

Of course, as she was constantly reminded back in the late 1990s by Opry icon and Country Music Hall of Famer Porter Wagoner, she then "sang the one that brought her (to Opry-level renown)," her 1991-released hit "She's in Love with the Boy."

Garth Brooks, that boy she's loved for the past two decades, was at the Opry on Wednesday evening but nowhere near the stage. It's Women's History Month, and the lineup, alongside Yearwood, featured Suzy Bogguss, Terri Clark and Pam Tillis.

The trio of her friends' two dozen top-10 career country radio hits represents peerless 1990s-era country superstardom.

During the event, Bogguss offered that the journey from "biker bars and supper clubs" to "overnights on tour buses" to the Opry stage and beyond was a difficult one familiar to the quartet of performers for the evening.

Similarly, performances of songs like Ronstadt's "When Will I Be Loved," plus Yearwood joining with Bogguss and Tillis for "If I Could Only Win Your Love" and "Luxury Liner" — a pair of Emmylou Harris cuts — and Clark joining for a take on Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman Enough," contextualized the successful careers of the artists onstage as part of a longer legacy.

A friendship unifies a multi-generational legacy

Speaking at a press conference before the event, Yearwood gushed about how a texting chain led to dinner parties between the quartet and another Opry member, Reba McEntire. The 1990s era alone saw the quintet play in the range of 10,000 concerts. Thus, 30 years ago, while they were all extremely successful, they hardly had the time to become fully acquainted.

Therefore, Wednesday night's Opry recording-turned-concert was as much a celebration of Yearwood as it was about the ties that unify the era as the genre pushes ahead.

Dan Rogers, the Opry's executive producer, noted that Yearwood's second quarter century as an Opry member would likely highlight her as an essential "tie that binds" multiple generations of Opry members together.

At her 20th anniversary Opry membership celebration, Yearwood wore a silver necklace that belonged to Patsy Cline that she was gifted by Cline's husband, Charlie Dick and her daughter, Julie Fudge, when she was inducted into the Opry on March 13, 1999.

Wagoner had often cited that Yearwood's voice was comparable to that of the "Crazy" vocalist.

Fast-forward five years and on the morning of her 25th anniversary she received congratulatory messages from McEntire and from another country superstar and Opry favorite: Barbara Mandrell.

"The Opry is always changing and evolving, but its membership always has reverence for its history," stated Yearwood.

Being an Opry member "means more than any other award or honor. This is a family. To be a member, you must understand what came before you and love and appreciate what came before you."

For Yearwood, providing "friendship and guidance" to Lauren Alaina, Kelsea Ballerini and Carly Pearce — a trio of younger female Opry members inducted since 2019 — is important. Like her husband, Yearwood cited that "the show behind the show" that occurs backstage at the Opry often involves closely held and deeply cherished conversations that directly impact the arc of iconic careers.

"Every time you come to the Opry is like a family reunion — then they ask you to join the family," Yearwood said.

"They made my childhood dreams come true."

'The Song Remembers When'

Yearwood noted that she never championed herself for Opry membership. The Belmont University graduate and former Country Music Hall of Fame tour guide debuted on the program in February 1992 as her debut major label album was soaring to double-platinum selling status on the back of the consecutive top-10 singles "She's in Love with the Boy," "Like We Never Had a Broken Heart" and "That's What I Like About You."

That success saw her touring so much that she could visit the Opry less than a handful of times per year. She felt she needed, and still needs, to play the venue as frequently as possible, per the expectations of being a positively contributing Opry member.

Almost seven years later Ricky Skaggs invited her to join the Opry.

"My mother came here on her senior class trip from south Georgia (and) wrote in her diary about seeing Hank Snow, Hawkshaw Hawkins and all those people," Yearwood noted. "When I was inducted as a member of the Opry in 1999, she brought her diary and got Hank Snow to sign it. So it's not only about me; it's also about my whole family."

When asked to cite the song that most reflected her time at the Opry, she noted it was her 1993 hit "The Song Remembers When."

"Well for all the miles between us and for all the time that's passed / You would think I haven't gotten very far and I hope my hasty heart will forgive me just this once," she sings.

For Yearwood, one facet of the Opry has remained the same throughout her career: It never forgets — regardless of the circumstance — how impassioned her lifelong connection to country music is.

"When you are standing in that circle nervous — and this is the only stage I get nervous on because of the history — the circle is like, 'We got you.'"

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Women's History Month: Trisha Yearwood celebrates at Grand Ole Opry