RCA record chief Joe Galante will join rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis and the late singer Keith Whitley in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Galante took over head of the RCA Nashville record label at the age of thirty two. He helped the Fort Payne based band “Alabama” achieve crossover success with multi-platinum record hits. Galante also signed up artists like Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Lorrie Morgan and Keith Whitley, Vince Gill, The Judds, and Martina McBride. Later, in the 1990’s he returned to RCA in New York and worked with bands including Wu-Tang Clan and the Dave Matthews Band.
Jerry Lee Lewis is nicknamed “the killer.” The rock legends was vocal about being snubbed from the Country Music Hall of Fame. His career was nearly derailed over the scandal of his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, Myra. Lewis spent several years blacklisted before mounting a return to the country charts in the late ’60s. He had top country singles like “What Made Milwaukee Famous,” and ″She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye.” Lewis had number one ranked country hits with songs like “There Must Be More to Love Than This,” “Would You Take Another Chance on Me” and “Chantilly Lace.”
Keith Whitley had a short career, spanning just four years and seven months on the Billboard charts before his death at the age of 34 in 1989. But the singer from Sandy Hook, Kentucky, found commercial breakthrough with hits like “When You Say Nothing at All” and “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.” He met Ricky Skaggs when they were both teenagers and they both were hired to be part of bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley’s band, the Clinch Mountain Boys.
The three inductees will have a formal induction ceremony in October.
