Ric Flair helps induct Darius Rucker, among others, to Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame

Nashville's unimpeachable cool and fundamental global pop cultural reach was displayed as the 101st to 104th members of downtown's Music City Walk of Fame were inducted in a Wednesday afternoon ceremony.

Hit-makers with iconic albums that spent months and years on pop charts? Check. Iconic singer-songwriters whose art has been memorialized on stage and screen? Check. Nashville's incoming mayor name-checking his songwriter father? Present and accounted for. Record executives responsible for country music's 80s and 90s era crossover evolutions? They were there, too. Retired 16-time world heavyweight professional wrestling champion Ric Flair? A year after bleeding profusely in a valiant effort in a Municipal Auditorium tag-team match career finale, he returned, too.

Flair was there to induct Darius Rucker. The top ten best-selling pop album artist of all time (Hootie and the Blowfish's "Cracked Rear VIew") and vocalist behind one of the top five best-selling singles artists in country music history (a cover version of Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel") was inducted into the walkable monument directly across the street from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum alongside fellow inductees Duane Eddy, Don McLean and legendary Country Music Hall of Famer and Nashville record executive Joe Galante.

In a stereotypically ribald induction speech, Flair noted that the "Fires Don't Start Themselves" vocalist releasing his latest album "Carolyn's Boy" (named after his late mother) on Oct. 6 was a "second-to-none musician" and "one of the greatest human beings we've all ever been gifted to know."

Moreover, Flair recalled how, after being released from the hospital after being placed in a medically induced coma for 11 days to treat a ruptured intestine, Rucker made a special tour bus stop by his home and gifted him 20 bottles of Dom Perignon champagne. In speaking to Rucker's generations of charity work, he also highlighted a purchase Rucker made at the inaugural Jimmy V Foundation cancer charity benefit of one of his ring-worn entrance robes for $48,000.

Rucker, moved to tears by the honor, thanked his family for the over four decades of sacrifice as he, 57, pursued his dreams.

"I'm just a kid from South Carolina who got lucky twice, so I'm shocked and humbled that I'm here," stated the "Hold My Hand" singer."I do this for everyone who wants to hear me play music."

"The King of Twang was born right down the hallway from the birth of rock n' roll," gushed singer-songwriter Steve Wariner about his hero, and "Rebel Rouser" artist and composer" Duane Eddy.

The Grammy-winning Musicians Hall of Famer's inimitable guitar tones both followed in the footsteps of his heroes, including Gene Autry, Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams, but also made him, according to Grand Ole Opry and WSM 650 AM radio host Bill Cody, a magnetic [presence] at the front and center of the band, but also a "modern day guitar hero.""When God passed out coolness, Duane Eddy went through the line twice," stated Wariner.

Insofar as 80s and 90s era RCA Records chief Joe Galante, he was inducted onto the Walk of Fame by an artist he signed and released from his contract in the same decade, Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry member Vince Gill.

Gill cited how grateful he was that Galante was "the first person to ever believe in [him]," recalling a June 1982 event at Houston's Astrodome where Gill was playing guitar in Rosanne Cash's band, in which the record executive was in attendance.

However, by 1988, GIll's artistic progress had slowed and he asked to be let out of his contract to pursue other label avenues. Galante did not relent, eventually allowing Gill to pursue a successful career at MCA Records.

When Gill won a Country Music Association award for Single of the Year for 1990's "When I Call Your Name," the first person to stand and applaud his honor was his former label boss, Galante.

"Friendship was more important than business to Joe. I never forgot that," stated the 22-time Grammy winner.

Galante, moved by his achievement, cited the development of the CMA Foundation and getting CMA Fest and related activities shifted into events held in downtown Nashville as his most outstanding Music City-related achievements.

"American Pie" singer-songwriter Don McLean was inducted by Connie Valens, the sister of the late Ritchie Valens, whose death was immortalized in the 1971 song (alongside performers Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson).

About McLean's work, Valens noted that "one of the most iconic songs in rock history [featured] exquisitely crafted indelible lyrics that made enduring [her family's pain] easier."

For McLean, the five-decade-long music industry veteran spoke about the onset of the folk-rock era as one where "the guitars blew away the orchestras," which for McLean keyed a career that defied genre classifications.

"I'm not country, I'm not rock, I'm just me," stated the artist.

Inductees to the Music City Walk of Fame are recognized for, what a press statement notes, is "their significant work of preserving the musical heritage of Nashville and for contributing to the world through song."

Created in 2006, the monument is an official project of Music City Inc., the charitable foundation of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp and produced alongside founding sponsor Gibson. Nominations for the honor are open to the public and are accepted in the categories of Artist, Musician, Songwriter and Producer/Music Industry Executive.

Application forms are reviewed by the Music City Walk of Fame anonymous selection committee. For more information about the Music City Walk of Fame, visit http://visitmusiccity.com/walkoffame.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Don McLean, Darius Rucker added to Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame