Ashley Gorley Chosen As Next Poets And Prophets Honoree
The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will feature celebrated songwriter Ashley Gorley in an upcoming program for its in-depth interview series Poets and Prophets, which features songwriters who have made significant contributions to country music. Gorley is one of three 2026 honorees chosen by the museum and the program will take place Saturday, May 30, at 2:30 pm in the museum’s Ford Theater.
The interview will be moderated by Museum Writer-Editor Allison Moorer and will be illustrated with rare photos, film and recordings. After the program, Gorley will sign commemorative Hatch Show Print posters.
Poets and Prophets is included with museum admission and free to museum members. Seating is limited, and a program ticket is required for admittance. Tickets for the Gorley program will go on sale to the public on Thursday, April 16, at 10 a.m. here.
Gorley is the second songwriter to be honored this year as part of the museum’s Poets and Prophets series. Josh Osborne was featured on Feb. 21, and the final program will feature Pat McLaughlin on October 3.
Gorley is the most commercially successful country songwriter of all time. Born in Danville, Kentucky, he moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University and graduated magna cum laude in 1999, with several internships at song-publishing companies under his belt. As one of the music industry’s most sought-after songwriters, Gorley has written more than 80 #1 songs, including “I Had Some Help” (Post Malone and Morgan Wallen), “What He Didn’t Do” (Carly Pearce); “You Should Probably Leave” (Chris Stapleton); “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” (Cole Swindell) and “Last Night” and “You Proof” (Morgan Wallen). More than 400 of his songs have been recorded by artists including Kelsea Ballerini, Bon Jovi, Luke Bryan, Dan + Shay, Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood and Weezer.
In 2023, Gorley spent multiple weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Songwriters chart as “Last Night” topped the all-genre Hot 100 chart for a record-breaking 16 weeks. He has received eight Grammy nominations, is a 10-time ASCAP Songwriter of the Year and is the most-awarded songwriter in the history of the CMA Triple Play Awards, which honors songwriters who chart three #1 songs within a 12-month period. Gorley received the NSAI Songwriter of the Decade award for 2010–2019 in 2022 and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame last year.
The museum’s Poets and Prophets series was launched in 2007 and has spotlighted more than 51 highly regarded songwriters. A full list of previous Poets and Prophets honorees and videos of past interviews are available on the museum’s website.
