2024 Inductee

Since his groundbreaking debut in 2013, Sturgill Simpson has established himself as one of the most daring and acclaimed artists of our time.

His music stretches across genres and styles, from 2013’s independent-minded High Top Mountain, to his free-spirited anti-traditionalist breakthrough with 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, to the psychedelic soul of 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide To Earth (Grammy-nominated for Album of the Year and winner for Best Country Album) and the fuzzed-out rock attack of Sound & Fury in 2019, which was accompanied by a first-of-its-kind anime film on Netflix.

In October of 2020, Simpson returned to the music of his native Kentucky with his first bluegrass project, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 – The Butcher Shoppe Sessions. The album, which he calls “a mixtape for the fans,” saw him reimagining songs from across his catalogue backed by some of Nashville’s finest acoustic virtuosos. He released Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 2 – The Cowboy Arms Sessions in December, which features “Hobo Cartoon,” cowritten with Merle Haggard. Most recently, in 2021, he released The Ballad of Dood and & Juanita—a concept album set in eastern Kentucky during the American Civil War, which features special guest Willie Nelson on the song “Juanita.”

Throughout the past decade, Simpson has continually forged new paths as an independent musician all while challenging musical expectations—from recording with Kesha, touring with Guns n’ Roses and earning

Grammy nominations across four genres (country, bluegrass, rock and americana). He’s also branched out into the world of film and television with recent appearances in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones.