"{Playing the Opry) is one of the few performances in this world that will make my knees shake a little bit." -- Travis Tritt, 1996

"You didn't get on the Opry back (in the early days) for singing a song or having a hit number. They didn't ask you if you ever recorded. They didn't care. You had to be a showman. The only way you could get on was to have something to show and prove it. (My first night) ... I did the "Great Speckled Bird," and ... the audience stood and cheered and cheered. I tried to leave but they brought me back two, three times." -- Roy Acuff (1903-1992)

"The first time I played on the Opry stage, I met Roy Acuff that night. He asked me, "Were your knees shakin'? Were you scared to death? Were you shakin' in your boots?" I said, "Yessir, I was." He said, "Good. When you lose that, I ain't got nothin' for you." -- Mark Chesnutt, 1996

"I recorded a song called "I Fall to Pieces," and I was in a car wreck. Now I'm really worried, because I have a brand-new record, and it's called 'Crazy.'" -- Patsy Cline (1932-1963), to her Opry audience.

"I'd like to sing you old farts a song." -- Marty Stuart, upon being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, 1992

"There's been a lot of people who've sold records, but if you ain't played the Opry, you ain't done jack." -- Henry Paul of Blackhawk, after playing the Opry for the first time, 1996

"When Bob Wills went on the Grand Ole Opry he was already a huge star in Texas but not so much in Nashville ... Bob went onstage with his cigar in his mouth. They told him not to smoke on the stage, and he walked off again. So far as I know, that was his one and only appearance on the Opry." -- Willie Nelson, 1988

"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." -- Bill Anderson

"The band kicked off a song, and I tried to take the microphone off the stand. In my nervous frenzy, I couldn't get it off. That was enough to make me explode in a fit of anger. I took the mike stand, threw it down, then dragged it along the edge of the stage. There were 52 lights, and I wanted to break all 52, which I did." -- Johnny Cash, on the night he was asked not to return to the Grand Ole Opry, 1993

"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." -- Ronnie Milsap, 1996

"We hear strange noises every night around 10:30 - 1:00, and people say there's ghosts in the auditorium." -- Ryman auditorium security guard, 1996