Jim Ed Brown Is Cancer-Free

Opry legend Jim Ed Brown has just received excellent news after battling cancer.

The 81-year-old county star announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2014 in a post to Facebook. His doctors advised him to take four months off to undergo a regimen of chemotherapy and radiation.

He made a triumphant return to the Opry stage in January, after getting the news that he was in remission. Brown was in Dallas over the weekend for the ACM Awards, and he told Taste of Country that there's even more good news.

"Just this week actually, I did a test, and they said, 'Jim Ed, we can't find any more cancer cells,'" he shares. "I said, 'Lord, thank you so much.' You've got the radiation and the chemo and all of that, and they hit me pretty hard with it. But I'm doing good."

Brown is among the 2015 inductees for the Country Music Hall of Fame. He got that news at a private meeting, after being told he was supposed to show up for a TV interview.

"I show up nine o'clock Monday morning, and I go in and sit down, and I say, 'Well, I don't see a television camera,'" he recalls. "'I don't see anybody here to interview me.' And all of a sudden, the president walks in and grabs a chair, and she sits down in front of me and she says, 'Just wanted to see your reaction when I tell you that you're the newest member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.'"

Brown admits it's a distinction he wanted very much.

"I can't go any higher," he reflects. "That's it. You know, a hit record lasts a week. An award lasts for a year. But this lasts forever."

Brown released his most recent album, In Style Again, on Jan. 20.

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