AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin City Limits TV show is getting ready to celebrate its golden anniversary later this year, and it’s bringing in a special guest to honor along the way.
Austin City Limits, or ACL, is a music performance television show that appears weekly on PBS, dating back to October 1974. It’s the longest-running music program in television history, according to its website.
Austin PBS and ACL have been gearing up to celebrate the milestone. Earlier this year, they announced the undertaking of a project to digitize and preserve all 50 seasons of the show.
The series announced Tuesday it will add to the celebrations by inducting Garth Brooks into its Hall of Fame.
Brooks will be honored at the 10th Anniversary Hall of Fame celebration on Sept. 5, where he and his band will perform at ACL’s home studio – ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin.
This will mark the first time in ACL’s 10 years of the Hall of Fame that only one inductee will be honored at the event. Last year’s inductees were Trisha Yearwood and John Prine. Past inductees include Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Loretta Lynn, B.B. King, Alejandro Escovedo, Darrell Royal, the ACL Crew itself, and many more.
According to ACL, Brooks’ previous cameos on the show include his time anchoring ACL’s 25th Anniversary broadcast season with a pair of appearances. His return will launch the series’ 50th season.
Musical highlights and Brooks’ induction from the Hall of Fame ceremony will air as a special hour-long broadcast of ACL as a highlight of the program’s golden anniversary which premieres on September 28, 2024, on PBS.
“To be part of anything Austin City Limits is and always has been an honor,” Brooks said. “I am humbled and grateful to not only be a part of the 50th Anniversary, but to be inducted into the ACL Hall of Fame is over the top.”
Garth Brooks has longtime ties to ACL, with three performances on the show under his belt. He first appeared on the program in 1990, during Season 15, at the beginning of his career, and returned a decade later to both open and close ACL’s milestone Season 25 with two hour-long episodes, according to ACL.
Brooks also returned in 2021 for a pair of intimate, non-broadcast events to close Studio 6A on the University of Texas campus, the soundstage where the program first started recording in 1974. He performed the benefit shows as solo, acoustic sets in front of sold-out audiences of 200 people per night as a fundraiser for Austin PBS, according to ACL.
“Garth is a special friend—there’s no one else quite like him,” said ACL executive producer Terry Lickona. “He never forgets his roots, or the people who were there for him in those early days. He hit the ACL stage just as his career was taking off, kicked off our 25th anniversary season, and now almost 25 years later, it’s our turn to honor him.”
ACL’s website says the Hall of Fame “celebrates the legacy of legendary artists and key individuals who have played a vital part in the pioneering music series’ remarkable half-century as a music institution.”
More than 20 artists have been inducted at nine previous ceremonies since the inaugural one in 2014.
The Hall of Fame event is open to the public and a limited number of tickets will be on sale online August 2.
The event will be phone-free. Guests will have their tickets scanned and then all phones will be secured in Yondr cases that will be unlocked at the end of the event.
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