Editing Grand Ole Opry (section)

===1960s===
In the 1960s, as the [[hippie]] [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] movement spread, the Opry maintained a strait-laced, conservative image with "longhairs" not being featured on the show. Artists were expected to dress conservatively, with women regularly wearing [[gingham]] country dresses; [[Jeannie Seely]], upon joining the Opry in 1967, fought management to wear more contemporary attire such as [[miniskirt]]s and [[go-go boot]]s, arguing that if the Opry were going to have a dress code, it should enforce it upon the audience as well, and that she was only wearing what most young women of the time were wearing.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Burns |first1=Ken |title=''Country Music'' (The Sons and Daughters of America) |journal=[[PBS]] |date=September 2019}}</ref> Seely's actions effectively caused the fall of a [[Iron Curtain|"gingham curtain"]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oermann |first1=Robert K. |last2=Bufwack |first2=Mary A. |title=Finding Her Voice: Women in Country Music: 1800–2000 |date=2003 |publisher=The Country Music Press & Vanderbilt University Press |location=Nashville, TN |isbn=0-8265-1432-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/findinghervoicew0000bufw|ref={{SfnRef|Oermann, Robert K.|Bufwack, Mary A.|2003}} |page=302 }}</ref> Despite her disputes with the dress code, Seely would remain loyal to the Opry, setting the record for most appearances on the program over 55 years (and ongoing) as a member.<ref name=honored55years>{{Cite web |last=Windsor |first=Pam |title=Country Singer Jeannie Seely Honored For 55 Years As A Member Of The Grand Ole Opry |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamwindsor/2022/09/19/country-singer-jeannie-seely-honored-for-55-years-as-a-member-of-the-grand-ole-opry/ |access-date=2022-09-27 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref>

[[The Byrds]] were a notable exception. [[Country rock]] pioneer [[Gram Parsons]], who was a member of The Byrds at the time, was in Nashville to work on the band's country rock album, ''[[Sweetheart of the Rodeo]]''.<ref name="timeless">{{cite book|last=Rogan|first=Johnny|year=1998|title=The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited|publisher=Rogan House|isbn=0-9529540-1-X}}</ref> The band's [[record label]], [[Columbia Records]], had arranged for The Byrds to perform at the Ryman on March 15, 1968, a prospect that thrilled Parsons.<ref name="timeless"/> However, when the band took the stage the audience's response was immediately hostile, resulting in derisive heckling, booing, and mocking calls of "tweet, tweet" and "cut your hair"<ref>{{cite book|author=Allen, Michael.|year=2005|title=I Just Want to Be a Cosmic Cowboy}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fricke |first=David|year=2003|title=Sweetheart of the Rodeo: Legacy Edition (2003 CD liner notes)}}</ref> The Byrds further outraged the Opry establishment by ignoring accepted protocol when they performed Parsons' song "[[Hickory Wind]]" instead of the [[Merle Haggard]] song "Life in Prison", as had been announced by [[Tompall Glaser]].<ref name="timeless"/> Two decades later, long after Parsons' death, members of The Byrds reconciled with the Opry and collaborated on the 1989 album ''[[Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two]]''.

Another artist that ran afoul of the Opry's stringent standards was [[Jerry Lee Lewis]], who made his first appearance on the show on January 20, 1973, after several years of success on the country charts. Lewis was given two conditions for his appearance – no [[rock and roll]] and no [[profanity]] – and he proceeded to disregard both, even referring to himself as a "[[motherfucker]]" at one point. In a continuous 40-minute set, Lewis played a mixture of his rock and roll hits and covers of other singers' country songs. It has been said that he was bitter about how he was treated when he first arrived in Nashville in 1955, and he supposedly used his Opry appearance to exact revenge on the Nashville [[music industry]].<ref>Dunkerley, Beville. [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/flashback-jerry-lee-lewis-drops-an-f-bomb-on-the-grand-ole-opry-20150120 Flashback: Jerry Lee Lewis Drops an F-Bomb on the Grand Ole Opry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626083144/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/flashback-jerry-lee-lewis-drops-an-f-bomb-on-the-grand-ole-opry-20150120 |date=June 26, 2018}}. ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved August 21, 2015.</ref>

Country legend [[Johnny Cash]], who made his Opry debut on July 5, 1956, and met his future wife [[June Carter Cash]] on that day, was banned from the program in 1965 after drunkenly smashing the stage lights with the microphone stand. Cash commented on the incident years later: "I don't know how much they wanted me in the first place," he says, "but the night I broke all the stage lights with the microphone stand, they said they couldn't use me anymore. So I went out and used it as an excuse to really get wild and ended up in the hospital the third time I broke my nose."<ref>Dukes, Billy. [https://tasteofcountry.com/countrys-most-shocking-moments-johnny-cash-banned-from-grand-ole-opry/ Country's Most Shocking Moments – Johnny Cash Banned From the Grand Ole Opry]. ''Taste of Country''. Retrieved August 27, 2020.</ref> Cash was accepted back in 1968, after the success of his ''[[At Folsom Prison]]'' album and his recovery from addiction.<ref>Kahn, Andy. [https://www.jambase.com/article/remembering-johnny-cash-performing-grand-ole-opry Remembering Johnny Cash: Performing At The Grand Ole Opry]. ''Jambase''. Retrieved August 27, 2020.</ref>