Vince Gill used a song shaped by personal grief to remember John Anderson during a CMA Awards-themed evening at the Grand Ole Opry on Sunday, November 8. The program had been planned as a celebration of CMA history, but Anderson’s death on October 21 changed its tone to one of remembrance.
Gill hosted the event, which brought together Lorrie Morgan, Jamey Johnson, Crystal Gayle, Deana Carter, Keith Secor and Molly Tuttle. Performers revisited songs connected with CMA history, including Carter’s “Strawberry Wine” and Johnson’s “In Color.” Anderson had been scheduled to appear, the Opry said in a press release, but the evening instead included tributes to the singer.
Johnson performed Anderson’s “Swingin’,” while Secor and Tuttle joined for “Seminole Wind.” Gill chose a song of his own, “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” rather than one from Anderson’s catalog.
A song shaped by loss
Gill began writing “Go Rest High on That Mountain” after the 1989 death of fellow country artist Keith Whitley. He completed it following the 1993 death of his older brother, Bob, who died after a heart attack. The song’s associations with grief and farewell have since made it a recurring choice for tributes to figures in country music, including George Jones and Loretta Lynn.
That history gave Gill’s performance for Anderson a personal dimension beyond the song’s role as a memorial. It connected a loss Gill had experienced himself with an evening honoring a fellow artist.
Anderson also had a particular tie to the venue. Though he was never an official Grand Ole Opry member, he had worked on the construction crew that helped build the current Opry House before becoming a country singer. The building was therefore part of his own history, as well as the setting for the remembrance.
The show was timed around the upcoming CMA Awards broadcast, scheduled to air on ABC on November 18. In that context, the tributes brought together the evening’s celebration of country music and a farewell to Anderson. Gill’s choice of “Go Rest High on That Mountain” drew on a song he had written through bereavement, one he had also performed in memory of other country figures.
