George Strait is Not the King of Country Music

In the days leading up to Christmas, as much of the country focused on a high-profile naming battle outside the Kennedy Center, a subtler — and arguably more consequential — renaming slipped by almost unnoticed inside the hall. Both controversies, remarkably, revolved around the question of American kings.

The audience reactions throughout this year’s Kennedy Center Honors broadcast and the commentary that followed are clear indications that much of the public—and, ostensibly, those who wrote and approved the evening’s script—did not recognize that a phrase repeated throughout the broadcast, however well-intentioned, effectively erased a foundational architect of our cultural history. This erasure was committed under the authority of a national institution charged with preserving our cultural memory.

As a television producer myself — one who has helped produce this very broadcast in previous years — I know firsthand that, minus a few special cases, nothing spoken on a national telecast is improvised. Every introduction, joke, lyric, and speech is meticulously written, tested, and approved over several weeks. Thus, language that passes through the writers’ room all the way to the teleprompter is increasingly reinforced with institutional legitimacy until the filming and broadcast commit it to history. Under ordinary circumstances, this rigorous process is what protects the truth: it ensures that what reaches the teleprompter reflects not only artistry, but accuracy and respect for history. But when an inaccurate, prepackaged tagline survives that process, the error is validated and accepted as fact. This particular, repeated phrase was not a slip of the tongue; it was a line of marketing language that made its way into the script — and, unchecked, it functioned as a quiet rew riting of history.

Let this serve as a necessary clarification: contrary to the Kennedy Center Honors script, George Strait is not the “King of Country Music.” (In fact, the official marketing even adds the word “unambiguous” beforehand, which only deepens the irony of the misapplied title.) The real, “unambiguous” King of Country Music is, and will always be, Roy Claxton Acuff.

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Elvis Presley will never be replaced as the King of Rock and Roll; nor will Michael Jackson as the King of Pop. These titles are permanent. They mark foundational roles in the creation of a genre — not compliments about talent, popularity, or box-office successes. Like the others, the title “King of Country Music” should never make a sudden return to circulation, even to an artist as undeniably successful as George Strait.

This is not written as a criticism of G eorge Strait. To deny his 60 number-one hits or his place in music history would be asinine. I write this less as a member of Roy Acuff’s family and more as a professional musician raised with a deep-seated respect for the “unbroken circle.” Like any other great American art form, country music emerged from a collision of cultures. Today, we honor its founding “Fathers” — Jimmie Rodgers for his pioneering star power; the Carter Family, whose 300 recordings define the bedrock of the genre’s earliest songbook; and Hank Williams for modernizing its raw emotional language.

But a “King” is something different. A King is the figure who takes that developing sound and builds an industry around it — the institutions, audiences, business structures, and traditions that allow future artists to thrive. Roy Acuff was that figure. As the face of the Grand Ole Opry for more than half a century and as the co-founder of Nashville’s first major publishing house, he didn’t just master a genre — he built it.

In 1991, the Kennedy Center recognized this when they made Roy Acuff their first-ever honoree from the world of country music. In doing so, the institution blazed a trail for Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, and eventually, George Strait to be honored with the same national prestige.

In fact, the Kennedy Center’s own website still identifies Roy Acuff as the King of Country Music. Even on a page that contains a few editorial errors, that title remains unambiguous.​