Exclusive: Ricky Skaggs Calls Country Music Hall of Fame Invitation 'Beyond Great'

Ricky Skaggs will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year, along with Dottie West and Johnny Gimble. For Skaggs, the honor will likely remain the pinnacle of his career.

"CMA Entertainer was a great thing in '85, first No. 1 record, first GRAMMY, fifteenth GRAMMY – on and on and on. Those things are great," Skaggs tells PopCulture.com. "This is beyond great. I don't know in country music if there's anything any higher than this. There's nothing.

"I didn't set out for this," he continues. "I worked for it. I've worked all these years, but I didn't work to get in here. That's the difference in my heart – just play and do my best. Show up, be my best. Every day, every night. That's what I've tried to do. I don't guess there is really any greater [award] on this Earth. The only thing that will maybe be better is standing before the Lord and hearing him say, 'Well done, good and faithful serving. Come into my rest. Come on in here, you've talked about it, you've preached about it, you've sung about it, so now you're here.'"

Skaggs credits his love of music, and being excellent in music, with his parents, who instilled both talent and humility in him.

"My mom and dad were such solid people," Skaggs says. "They didn't waver. My mother's faith – she'd get down about things, but she'd pop right out of getting down over it and to be joyous again. She always kept a smile, always had a song in her heart. She was always singing around the house. Doing her work as a housewife, she'd be out on the back porch with an old wringer washing machine, and singing just joyous as can be. Hoeing the garden, whatever she was doing, she'd be singing.

"That love of music, that love of that song, that whistle, that acapella song – we didn't always have instruments. but she would sing," he adds. "Just the joy of song was so infectious. I got infected so strong ... My dad, he'd work with me 'til I got it right. Then he'd celebrate it. 'Play it again now!' My mom always made me think, 'Look you're as good as anyone, but you're no better than no one, so don't you ever think you're better than anybody else. I want you to be the best you can be.' Basically don't ever get above your raising."

The Kentucky native found out that he was going to become a member of the Hall of Fame while he was at the Grand Ole Opry, and has been struggling to come to terms with the honor since then.

"I's just crazy," Skaggs concedes. "I cried. I was telling someone earlier that I don't think anyone in this hall, in this hallowed hall here, the Hall of Fame – I don't think any of us ever came to town to be in the Hall of Fame and have that in our mind. I don't think that's ever been a driving force behind any of us.

"It's a by-product of hard work, determination, being as tough as a boot, you have to be, but soft when you have to be and just staying with it," says Skaggs. "Always remember the vision. The vision that you had, keep that dream alive. Keep pouring into it and keep dreaming. That what I hope, for young people, that they'll get out of this. I'm 63, I've got so many more years left to play."

The invitation-only Country Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held later this year. Skaggs will perform at the CMA Fest on Sunday, June 10, at the Nissan Stadium. Tickets are available for purchase at CMAFest.com.

Photo Credit: Instagram/RickySkaggs