The Snub List - Country Music Hall of Fame

There are a number of country music artists who have yet to be inducted into the Hall of Fame despite their impact on the genre and their contributions to the industry. Because the Country Music Hall of Fame only inducts one artist in each category, the backlog of deserving artists gets longer every year. The current system may have been proportional to the number of deserving artists in the early years of the institution, but the country music landscape today is signficantly broader and arguably generates more worthy artists than the Hall of Fame can keep up with. In fact, in 2001, the Country Music Hall of Fame had a "catch-up year" in which they inducted 10 extra artists to help reduce the backlog.

Modern Era Category

After initially becoming eligible for the Country Music Hall of Fame, artists have 25 years to be inducted in the Modern Era category. After that time, they switch to the Veterans Era process. Since artists rarely get recognized in the first decade of their eligibility, their window for the Modern Era is fairly short. It's fair to say that under the current system, most of the artists below will not be inducted in the Modern Era category.

Rank	Artist	Years Eligible
1.	Tim McGraw	12
2.	Kenny Chesney	11
3.	Kathy Mattea	21
4.	Alison Krauss	13
5.	Brad Paisley	5
6.	Martina McBride	12
7.	Lee Greenwood	23
8.	K.T. Oslin	23
9.	Mark O'Connor	13
10.	Diamond Rio	13
11.	Clint Black	15
12.	Keith Urban	5
13.	The Chicks	7
14.	Shelly West	21
15.	Faith Hill	11
16.	Highway 101	17
17.	Suzy Bogguss	17
18.	Trisha Yearwood	13
19.	Travis Tritt	15
20.	The Kentucky Headhunters	15
21.	Mary Chapin Carpenter	15
22.	Rascal Flatts	4
23.	Ricky Van Shelton	18
24.	Lee Ann Womack	7
25.	Terri Gibbs	24
26.	The Mavericks	12
27.	Paul Overstreet	22
28.	Billy Dean	14
29.	Dan Seals	21
30.	Pam Tillis	20
31.	Sawyer Brown	20
32.	Holly Dunn	19
33.	John Michael Montgomery	12
34.	Shenandoah	17
35.	Shania Twain	11
36.	Blake Shelton	3
37.	Max D. Barnes	16
38.	Mark Chesnutt	14
39.	Little Texas	13
40.	Tracy Lawrence	13
41.	Billy Ray Cyrus	12
42.	Little Big Town	2
43.	Mike Henderson	10
44.	Bryan White	10
45.	Lonestar	9
46.	Trace Adkins	8
47.	LeAnn Rimes	8
48.	Jo Dee Messina	8
49.	Sara Evans	7
50.	Joe Nichols	2
51.	Dierks Bentley	1
52.	Sugarland	0
53.	Miranda Lambert	0
54.	Gretchen Wilson	0

Veterans Era Category

Unlike the Modern Era category, there is no eligibility sunset for Veterans artists. The "years eligible" column represents the time the artists has been eligible for the Hall of Fame in either category.

Rank	Artist	Years Eligible
1.	Charlie Rich	36
2.	Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass	34
3.	Crystal Gayle	34
4.	Freddie Hart	45
5.	Bonnie Owens	41
6.	David Frizzell	34
7.	Moe Bandy	30
8.	Jack Greene	38
9.	Lynn Anderson	38
10.	Mickey Gilley	36
11.	Steve Wariner	26
12.	Anne Murray	34
13.	Joe Stampley	33
14.	Donna Fargo	32
15.	Buck Trent	45
16.	Janie Fricke	27
17.	Cathie Taylor	39
18.	Tompall and the Glaser Brothers	38
19.	The Buckaroos	37
20.	Sammi Smith	36
21.	The Kimberleys	34
22.	John Denver	33
23.	Olivia Newton-John	31
24.	Linda Ronstadt	30
25.	Freddy Fender	29
26.	Sylvia	25
27.	Lorrie Morgan	25

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