The Georgia Music Hall of Fame: Fifteen Years of Fame, Now in a Vault
Near Macon, Georgia
The first Georgia Music Hall of Fame awards were handed out in nineteen seventy-nine, when Lieutenant Governor Zell Miller pushed the state to honor its extraordinary musical heritage. The first inductees were Ray Charles and music producer Bill Lowery. A dedicated museum building finally opened here in Macon in September of nineteen ninety-six, with Little Richard, members of R.
E.M., the Pips, and Travis Tritt attending the ceremony.
Georgia's musical lineage, Ray Charles, James Brown, Otis Redding, the Allman Brothers, R.E.M.
, is unmatched by almost any other state. The museum struggled financially through the two thousands, state funding was cut in twenty ten, and the doors closed in June twenty eleven. The collection now sits in storage, awaiting a permanent new home.
