The T. stands for Tony, but when it comes to Grand Ole Opry member and Live Wire SiriusXM host T. Graham Brown, it might also stand for tireless.
Cowboys & Indians: Congratulations on the recent renewal of your SiriusXM show Live Wire With T. Graham Brown. It’s a great mix of your interviews with other country greats — most of them your longtime friends — and recordings of live performances by other acts. I particularly loved the episode a few months back where you were remembering the time you and Moe Bandy had a wild motorcycle ride.
Graham Brown: [Laughs.] Yeah, it was back when I was recording my album Come as You Were [1988]. Moe dropped by the studio, and I asked him if he wanted to take a ride with me down the alleyway on my new bike. He got on — and I just revved it up. Boy, he was shaking. I even scared myself. We went right down the alleyway—I bet I got up to 50 or something. Yeah, it was my intent to scare Moe, but I wound up scaring both of us. Looking back, it was pretty stupid. I mean, a car might have turned into the alleyway and totaled both of us.
C&I: You must have had your guardian angel looking out for you that day.
Brown: Probably. I’ve always been a sucker for a cheap thrill. While I was growing up, I always wanted to jump off bridges into the water. And if I got in a car or on a motorcycle, whatever, I had to see how fast it would go.
I did this great stunt for Taco Bell one time. I was up in a biplane, about a mile high, and they had a camera mounted in front of the thing while I stood up. Mind you, they had these cables going down the inside of my jeans, and they were hooked onto the airplane, so there was no way I could fall off. But it was still pretty hairy. And a lot of fun.
C&I: How difficult is it for you to find those classic live recordings? Do you have a research staff looking for them?
Brown: Yeah, I have a staff of one: me. I have to search everywhere on the internet. But we can’t use any tracks that some fan uploaded on YouTube. It’s got to be something that SiriusXM can pay the proper royalty on. Now if the artist owns it — if the artist is just sitting on a stool at The Bluebird Café and they own the thing —then I can play ’em sitting on a stool at The Bluebird, which is fine. The only qualifying thing is that it has to be live.
C&I: Are there some artists you wanted to spotlight but couldn’t?
Brown: Oh, yeah. There’s so many people that are basically ineligible because they don’t have live albums. Some of them are my favorite people. And I hate that. Vince Gill doesn’t have a live album. Steve Wariner doesn’t have a live one, either, so he wants me to come to his house sometime and sit in the studio with him.
C&I: Speaking of Vince Gill, wasn’t he the one who invited you to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry while he was on your radio show three years ago?
Brown: That’s right. It was a long time coming. And when Vince gave me the good news, I have to admit, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, “Ah, bull!” Because I thought that Vince was joking. And in the back of my mind, I was thinking, Vince, that’s a pretty cruel joke if you’re joking. But he said, “Oh, no, this whole thing’s been set up.”
C&I: And now you’re here, backstage, waiting to go out and perform again.
Brown: It’s always a thrill. Like I told you last time we talked: I have been playing the Grand Ole Opry since I got my first record deal. And every time I step into that circle on stage, I have to pinch myself.
From our June/July 2026 issue.
