Vince Gill on Why He Agreed to Sing at Kennedy Center Honors

The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., has transformed into a political lightning rod after the president made sweeping changes at the venue, from upending the board to putting his own name on the facade. The takeover led to a swath of cancellations by artists, and just this week, a vote by the board to close the Kennedy Center for two years to undergo a massive remodeling.

But Gill stresses he’s not defined by one cultural or political side. “I’m a conservative guy on a lot of issues. I’m a liberal guy on a lot of issues,” he says. “You can call me ‘woke,’ you can call me ‘Bible thumper,’ you can call me all those things, and I think a lot of them are true. But I don’t think you have to just sit in one lane and only be in that lane.”

Gill, the second-youngest member to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, ultimately accepted the invitation to perform because of his 40-plus-year friendship with Strait.

“That was a hard yes. But George has been my friend for 43 years. I did it for George,” he says. “I’m not going to try to make a point. I’m not going to try to encourage anybody else to think like I do. You don’t see me out there stumping for anybody. You don’t see me out there rattling my opinion. The moment you do, you piss half the people off, right away. And it’s not because I’m afraid.… It’s not part of my DNA to try to draw attention to myself. So, I stay out of the fray.”

In the end, Gill says, simply being kind to one another is the first step to bridging the country’s toxic environment: “Kindness would cure it all.”

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