Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless and Songwriter Bob McDill to Enter Country Music Hall of Fame

When Tanya Tucker was just 9 years old, her father took her to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, trying to teach a lesson to his little girl with a big voice. Believing she wasn't taking her gifts seriously enough, he goaded her, "You're never gonna be in the Hall of Fame."

On Monday, 55 years later, Tucker finally got the last word when she was announced as a member of the Hall of Fame's class of 2023.

What does this honor — the ultimate in country music — mean to the 64-year-old icon?

"It means I proved my dad wrong one time," she said with a wide grin, clearly savoring the moment.

Tucker is joined by two more living legends: Patty Loveless, another vocal powerhouse who had a string of hits beginning in the late 1980s; and songwriter Bob McDill, who has penned a thick catalogue of country classics, including Don Williams' "Good Ole Boys Like Me," Keith Whitley's "Don't Close Your Eyes," Alabama's "Song of the South," and Alan Jackson's "Gone Country."

The three will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame later this year, bringing its exclusive membership to 155.

Tucker's reminiscences of her late father led off her remarks at the announcement in the Hall of Fame rotunda amid the banks of bronze plaques.

Tucker and her dad were in Nashville, she recalled, to cut her first demos, but she was far more interested in seeing the Grand Ole Opry. Her pestering prompted that fateful visit to the Hall of Fame — and while her dad did finally take her to the Opry, another lesson awaited her there.

"Wouldn't you rather be up there doing it," she recalled her father telling her as they watched the performances, "instead of sitting down here watching it?"

The lessons proved a turning point for Tucker, who scored her first major hit just four years later, at age 13, with debut single, "Delta Dawn," now her signature song. It peaked at No. 6, but she quickly amassed three No. 1s with "What's Your Mama's Name," "Blood Red and Goin' Down" and "Would You Lay with Me (in a Field of Stone)."

Over the next two decades, her maverick lifestyle earned her tabloid headlines as she enjoyed one of country's most enduring careers, delivering such hits as "Just Another Love" and "Strong Enough to Bend." In 1991, nearly 20 years after her first No. 1, she learned she'd won the CMA award for female vocalist of the year while in the delivery room giving birth to her son, Grayson, the second of her three children.

In recent years, Tucker has experienced a career resurgence, earning her first Grammy awards, for best country album and best country song, in 2019, with While I'm Livin,' her first album of original material in 17 years. Co-produced by Brandi Carlile, the album's making is now featured in a new documentary, The Return of Tanya Tucker, and the two women have been working together on a follow-up album.

Tucker has long been short-listed for Hall of Fame honors, and her omission has caused annual consternation among her many fans. In an interview with PEOPLE, Tucker said she coped with her years as an also-ran by deciding, "I don't care if I get in there. It's not gonna make me or break me … and so I just kind of said, 'Well, maybe I don't want it. Maybe I don't need it.'"

Then a couple of years ago, she said, she had a change of heart: "I thought to myself, I usually get everything I go after. Maybe the reason I'm not getting it is because I'm not wanting it. The first step in getting something is wanting it."

Last month, she found out her wish had finally come true when CMA chief exec Sarah Trahern surprised her at Nashville's CMA headquarters with the news. Her son, as well as daughters Presley and Layla, were sneaked in to help her celebrate. Amid the tears and hugs, Tucker said, one thought rose to the surface: "I just wish my dad was here." Beau Tucker was his daughter's only manager from her childhood to his death in 2006.

In Tucker's list of people to thank, he took top position. "My dad was the reason I'm here to do anything," she said. "He was my first believer."

Loveless, 66, also had someone who wasn't there on her mind as she reacted to country's most hallowed accolade. She received her news from Trahern in a phone call to her Georgia home about a month ago, and she told PEOPLE, she uncharacteristically "broke." For the past several months, she explained, she has been the one "trying to hold it all together for everybody" after the loss of her stepdaughter and her brother within two weeks of each other last June.

Loveless was especially close to her brother, Roger Ramey, a country musician who was pivotal in his little sister's early career and who also served as her manager for several years. "My first thought was with my brother and wanting him to know," she told PEOPLE. But she also noted in her public remarks, "I know he's probably got the best seat in the house, and he is so happy this moment."

Like Tucker, Loveless also remembers visiting the Hall of Fame as a girl, awed by the names and faces on the plaques. On Monday, she walked past many of the same plaques and, she said, "I got that same feeling I got years and years ago as a kid. And when I saw all their faces — and the first one is Dolly's right there — I went oh my gosh, I did it."

Loveless began her singing career as a teenager in the early 1970s, joining the Wilburn Brothers touring company with her brother. But when her career fizzled, she retreated from Nashville to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she sang in local rock and country bands. At her brother's urging, she returned to Nashville in 1985 as the neo-traditional music of Ricky Skaggs, The Judds and Randy Travis was taking off.

During his inductee introductions at the Monday event, Hall of Famer Vince Gill recalled that Loveless stood in his fan fair autograph line in the mid-'80s, and she told him, "I like your singing and someday I'm going to sing with you." It took just two years, he added, for her to make that dream happen, and the two virtuoso vocalists have since enjoyed frequent collaborations.

"It's an undeniable voice," Gill told PEOPLE, describing Loveless' gifts. "I remember, the first time singing with her in a room, how powerful and loud that voice is. It's unbelievable, and it's great to sing with because, you lean into that voice, and you know it's not going anywhere. It's staggering how much you can depend on a singer like Patty."

From 1988 to 2003, Loveless released 34 top 40 singles. Her No. 1s include "Timber I'm Falling in Love," "Chains," "Blame It on Your Heart" and "Lonely Too Long." She won CMA album of the year in 1995 and female vocalist of the year in 1996, and she won vocal event of the year twice, in 1993 and 1998, with George Jones. (Jones' widow, Nancy, was present at the Monday announcement.)

In 2013, Loveless and Gill delivered what is considered among the most memorable country performances of all time at Jones' funeral at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry House. As the two duetted Gill's "Go Rest High on that Mountain," Gill broke down in sobs, and Loveless' soaring voice powered him through. By song's end, almost the entire audience was on their feet in tearful solidarity.

Gill reminisced about that moment on Monday. "I don't tell the story often but … it was Patty's voice that did me in," he revealed to PEOPLE. "When I heard her come in and start singing, that's what killed me. I just fell apart."

"What was cool about it," he added, "was it gave everybody a chance to let go, and it was a beautiful moment. Not for me so much! It was pretty embarrassing in a way — but once again, grateful to be able to let it go."

Though Loveless has mostly retired from the stage, she turned in yet another stirring performance at the CMA Awards last November, joining fellow Kentuckian Chris Stapleton and his wife, Morgane Stapleton, on "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" from her 2001 album Mountain Soul — a sublime merger that quickly turned into one of the evening's highlights. Their choice was intended to draw attention to the state's ongoing recovery from devastating floods.

"It was another emotional night," said Loveless.

And yet one more such night awaits her this fall when she'll be the one watching her peers honor her during the Hall of Fame's medallion ceremony. Perhaps it's expected that Loveless said Gill is her first choice to induct her.

On Monday, she was still having trouble believing the celebration was for her. "There are so many others, and when I see the list — and I have seen the list — I go, 'Goodness gracious,'" she said. "And I just didn't think I had a chance."

In a professional field where acclaim and accolades can be so fleeting, the permanence of this particular honor wasn't lost on Loveless.

"They can't ever take this one away from me," she said, adding a soft chuckle. "You know, if I'm ever not able to make another record, I'll have this forever. This is forever."