Darius Rucker, Clint Black to Play the Grand Ole Opry on June 20

The Grand Ole Opry has officially announced its group of performer’s for this weekend’s show, sharing that Darius Rucker and Clint Black will play the famed stage on Saturday, June 20. The Opry has aired every Saturday for more than 90 years, and the upcoming performance will be the Opry’s 4,929th consecutive Saturday night broadcast. Fans can watch Saturday’s one-hour show at 7 p.m. CT on 650 AM WSM, and the program will also be broadcast live on Circle Television and streamed on Circle’s Facebook and YouTube at 7 p.m. CT.

Both Rucker and Black are members of the Grand Ole Opry — Rucker was inducted in October 2012 and Black in January 1991. Black was one of the members of country music’s “Class of ’89” and Rucker first found success as a pop singer with his band Hootie & the Blowfish before making the transition to country. “When I was asked if I wanted to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, I yelled, ‘Are you kidding me?’” he said of his first time on the Opry stage. “I’ve been waiting for that my whole life. To be invited where so many of the greatest country artists have performed is an honor, and I still can’t believe it has been bestowed on me. Just to stand in the circle where so many greats have stood — Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, I just couldn’t believe it.”

The Opry has aired without an audience present since March 19 due to the pandemic and has featured several stars performing in the empty Grand Ole Opry, including Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Brad Paisley, Luke Combs, Blake Shelton, Kelsea Ballerini and more. Like those artists, Rucker and Black have been staying virtually busy amid the coronavirus pandemic — Rucker has shared performances for several television specials, including ACM Presents: Our Country and CMT Celebrates Our Heroes: An Artist of the Year Special. Black is currently preparing to release his upcoming album, Out of Sane, which will arrive on June 19. He recently told PopCulture.com that connecting with fans online was a method he used at the beginning of his career and one he was happy to return to during quarantine.

“I had my website up, of course, we were all starting websites, but I had the Blackboard, and visitors could leave me messages and questions, and I read ’em all, I loved it,” he recalled. “I’d gone from being a guy working in bars, saying ‘Hi’ to people in between sets, to being an event everywhere I went, and really felt disconnected. When I started that Blackboard, I felt connected again, and then 10 years later, of course, we’re doing this social media stuff, and it was very familiar to me, but I had to learn how to use that. I love being able to connect and being able to hear what they’re thinking, and I feel like I know them.”