Yesterday, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum recognized music industry executive Sally Williams at its 16th annual Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum in the museum’s Ford Theater. This annual forum, which began in 2007, recognizes music industry leaders who continue the legacy of trailblazer Louise Scruggs, a formidable businesswoman who set new professional standards in artist management. During an in-depth interview with museum writer-editor Angela Stefano Zimmer, Williams discussed her more than 30 years in music and entertainment, many spent working with the industry’s biggest names.

Williams is president of Nashville music and business strategy for Live Nation Entertainment and co-manager of the Grammy-winning band Old Crow Medicine Show. She began promoting concerts while attending the University of Missouri-Columbia. Prior to joining Live Nation, she spent nearly 20 years with Ryman Hospitality Properties/Gaylord Entertainment. After becoming general manager of the Ryman Auditorium in 2008, she became Opry Entertainment Group’s senior vice president of programming and artist relations, as well as the first woman general manager of the Grand Ole Opry, in 2017.

Williams has received numerous awards from the Academy of Country Music, the International Entertainment Buyers Association and Pollstar magazine. In 2015, she was inducted into the SOURCE Hall of Fame, and in 2019 the T. J. Martell Foundation honored her with the Frances Preston Outstanding Music Industry Achievement Award. In recent years she has been on Nashville Business Journal’s Power 100 list, both as an industry giant and a trendsetter. She is active in numerous business, civic and charitable organizations and the former chair of the Country Music Association Board of Directors, president of Leadership Music and president of the Opry Trust Fund.

The program was filmed and will be available to stream on the museum’s website later this year.

Louise Scruggs (1927–2006) was married to Country Music Hall of Fame member and banjo great Earl Scruggs. In the mid-1950s, she began booking and managing Flatt & Scruggs and their band, the Foggy Mountain Boys. The first woman in country music to assume these roles, she astutely guided her husband’s career for half a century. The Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum was first presented in 2007; past honorees include Kay Clary, Lorianne Crook, Bebe Evans, Bonnie Garner, Dixie Hall, Cindy Mabe, Mary Martin, Bev Paul, Nancy Shapiro, Denise Stiff, Liz Thiels, Traci Thomas, Sarah Trahern, Marcie Allen Van Mol, Jo Walker-Meador and Kay West.

The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum collects, preserves and interprets country music and its history for the education and entertainment of diverse audiences. In exhibitions, publications, digital media and educational programs, the museum explores the cultural importance and enduring beauty of the art form. The museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, and is among the most-visited history museums in the U.S. The Country Music Foundation operates Historic RCA Studio B®, Hatch Show Print® poster shop, Haley Gallery, CMF Records, the Frist Library and Archive and CMF Press. Museum programs are supported in part by Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and Tennessee Arts Commission.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.org or by calling (615) 416-2001.