Opry Guitarist Quits

Grand Ole Opry musician Jimmy “Spider” Wilson ended his 53-year run with the legendary show November 24th because of what he described as humiliating treatment from Opry officials over the past several months.

Wilson, 71, said he resigned mainly because he was excluded from performing on “The Grand Ole Opry Live” TV show. He said he was sometimes the only one excluded, and that music director Steve Gibson sent out group e-mails alerting the whole band of his exclusion.

“It would say, ‘I need everybody minus Spider,’ stuff like that,” the guitarist said. “It went on for a while, and I got tired of it. Why don’t you just put on your e-mails who you do need and don’t put whomever you don’t need? Don’t put their name on it. It is just sort of a humiliating thing.”

Grand Ole Opry VP/GM Pete Fisher told the Tennessean that the decision to exclude Wilson from certain performances was a “casting decision” made by Gibson.

“It is certainly not a reflection of the very high regard that we have for Spider and his talents. … Spider Wilson is one of the greatest guitar players there ever was,” Fisher told the paper. “I hate that he made that decision” to quit.