Vince Gill coming to Springfield

One of the most respected and talented country musicians of the past 25 years is coming to Springfield in September.

It doesn’t hurt that Vince Gill is pretty popular, too.

Gill, who’s sold more than 26 million albums and is already a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, will play Kuss Auditorium at 8 p.m. Sept. 6, the Clark State Performing Arts Center has announced.

Stuart Secttor, the center’s executive director, has wanted to bring Gill to Springfield for some time.

“First of all, it’s Vince Gill,” Secttor said Thursday. “It’s who he is. He crosses a lot of demographics age-wise and music-wise.”

Tickets, priced from $39 to $100, will go on sale in person at the center at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Tickets will be available online at pac.clarkstate.edu beginning at noon that day.

“He’s a very well-known name,” Secttor said, “and beyond being a great country music performer, he’s a great entertainer. When you combine that, it’s got some magnitude.”

Gill’s 20 Grammy Awards are the most of any male country artist in history. With 18 CMA Awards — including two in the early 1990s for Entertainer of the Year — Gill also has more of those than anyone except Brooks and Dunn.

Now 56, Gill’s first big exposure was as lead singer of Pure Prairie League in the late 1970s. He sang the group’s biggest hit, “Let Me Love You Tonight,” in 1980.

Signing to MCA Records in 1989, Gill emerged as a true star in the ensuing decade, releasing such hits as “When I Call Your Name” and “I Still Believe in You.”

His next album, “Bakersfield,” due out July 30, will be a set of songs by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, with Gill playing all guitar solos.

He’s played Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in the past, and at one point was even asked by Mark Knopfler to join Dire Straits.

Of course, it would be remiss not to mention that he married singer Amy Grant in 2000.

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