NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Country Music Association announced its 2023 Hall of Fame inductees Monday morning.

Songwriter Bob McDill, Patty Loveless, and Tanya Tucker were announced as the newest members by Vince Gill, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007.  

“It is an honor to be included in this Hall of Fame with some legendary songwriters,” McDill said. 

“When I walked this hall today it took my breath away,” said Loveless, who honored her brother, Roger, who passed away in June, as she made her acceptance remarks. “It felt holy.” 

“After 50 years of doing this, this is everything,” Tucker told News 2. 

This achievement of a lifetime came after a heartbreaking week in Nashville, following the Covenant School shooting. 

“It’s kind of hard to even celebrate all this to its full potential because I know people are suffering right down the road,” Tucker said. She also said her heart went out to recent storm victims. 

Loveless said she used to live near The Covenant School and the news felt close to home. 

“It broke my heart, I lived two and a half miles from where that incident happened and I teared up,” Loveless recalled. 

Gill told News 2 victim Cindy Peak was a personal friend, and he sang at the funeral of 9-year-old Evelyn Dieckhaus. 

“It was beyond brutal and I don’t know that I’ve seen a sadder moment in my life,” Gill said. 

Although the artists agreed there are no simple solutions, some said there are steps in the right direction we could take.  

“I’d be willing to pay a few extra dollars in taxes to put an armed guard officer in every school and the state, personally,” McDill said.  

“I’m a gun owner, but certain guns. I just think that there’s certain guns that other people don’t need to have. That’s just the way I feel,” Loveless told News 2.  

“I think it’s on us more than it is on politics, and laws and things like that. I think we could do what we maybe should do and maybe lay some of this stuff down,” Gill said. 

The country community hoped for peace for their neighbors affected by this tragedy.  

“There’s got to be a reason that it happened to them, there’s got to be a reason and we don’t know what it is but just keep believing in the man upstairs and he’ll lead you back to where you should be,” Tucker added.