AZ COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME, CLASS OF 2026

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Ronnie Lee Keel’s name will soon be listed alongside legends such as Waylon Jennings, Glen Campbell, Tanya Tucker, and Marty Robbins in the Greater Arizona Country Music Hall of Fame, as part of the 2026 class of inductees.

“I’m honored and humbled by this,” Ronnie states. “To be included with so many artists I’ve admired, and some of them dear friends like my blood brother and mentor Gary Clemmons, is a dream come true.”

Ron Keel (aka Ronnie Lee Keel) made a lot of noise in the entertainment industry as a hard rocker when his 80s catalog, produced by Gene Simmons of KISS, sold millions, charted in Billboard’s Hot 100, and Keel toured the world. A 1987 run with Bon Jovi included three sold out nights at Madison Square Garden on the “Slippery When Wet Tour” and additional stadium dates with Van Halen and Aerosmith cemented Keel’s status as a world-class entertainer.

So it was a big surprise when the “Ron Keel Goes Country” special on VH1 (1995) became the highest-rated “Where Are They Now” episode in the show’s history.

A working-class kid who moved from Phoenix to Nashville at the age of 17, Keel was never far removed from his country roots (his father was hillbilly to the core and sat in with Hank Williams Sr. on acoustic guitar upon occasion). Instrumental in the 80s hard rock revolution as the man behind, and in front of, both Steeler and Keel, in the 90s Ronnie returned to his childhood home of Arizona to embrace country music as an art form and a way of life.

With a fierce desire to truly start anew, without the trappings of his 80s rock star persona, he rebranded himself as “Ronnie Lee” and proceeded to rise to the top of the very competitive Arizona country music scene.

“I wanted my voice, my songs and my performance to carry us, not my previous accomplishments in rock,” he explains. “So, I didn’t tell anyone who I really was or what I’d done in the past. Ronnie Lee had to stand in his own boots and prove himself on his own terms.”

Phoenix’s best musicians gravitated to him because of his relentless drive and the natural way he connected with the audiences. The Ronnie Lee Band transformed the sleepy town of Cave Creek into honky tonk heaven as the house band at the Buffalo Chip Saloon for nearly two years (1994-1996). It was there, in June 1995, that he released his debut solo album “Western Country” and reclaimed his full name – Ronnie Lee Keel.

That album earned 1995 “Album Of The Year” honors from the Phoenix Country Music Club of America and was the catalyst for that infamous VH1 “Ron Keel Goes Country” television special mentioned above.

Renowned journalist Sandy Lovejoy said this about it in the KNIX “Country Spirit” magazine: “These are songs of alienation, remorse, defiance, and a whisper of vulnerability. This is good stuff, intelligent and real. The man can write a song and pick a guitar, and he has an emotional well he knows how to tap.” 

During this era, Ronnie averaged 250 shows per year at every major country venue in Arizona, including headlining rodeos, casinos, and tour dates supporting Chris LeDoux, Jo Dee Messina, and Mark Wills.

The songs from that “Western Country” record found their way onto many major TV shows (“X Files,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Touched By An Angel,” “King Of The Hill”), movies (“Where The Money Is” starring Paul Newman, “1000 Acres” starring Michelle Pfeiffer, “Chill Factor” starring Cuba Gooding Jr.), sports broadcasts for NASCAR and the Daytona 500, and the background music for the “CMT Insider” series. 

That album also found its way to Nashville in 1997, landing on the desk of country music legend Buddy Killen, who recruited Ronnie Lee Keel as the lead singer of The Rat’lers. After finishing up work on that album, “Thick As Thieves,” Ronnie and The Rat’lers got the opportunity to tour Europe multiple times from 1997-1999 entertaining the men and women of America’s armed forces on military bases across that continent. Back in the states, the band was chosen to play on the field at the Georgia Dome (then the home of the Atlanta Falcons) for the Special Olympics.

During his time in Europe, Keel wrote the songs that would become the foundation for his next project, the southern rock band IronHorse. While releasing two acclaimed albums and performing over 1000 shows, Ronnie worked with legends like BlackHawk’s Henry Paul (duet partners for “Dixie Highway”) and wrote songs with Jonathan Edwards (multiple #1 hits for Jason Aldean) and George McCorkle (founding guitarist of the Marshall Tucker Band).

In 2006, Ronnie created, starred in, and co-produced the longest running (10 years) country music casino show in Las Vegas history – “Country Superstars Tribute,” headlining the Golden Nugget for two years, plus additional long runs at other casino venues. Now he’s combined all that experience and expertise to create “Long Live Country Music,” the ultimate tribute to this beloved American art form, which premiered June 11th, 2026, at the Kick’n Up Kountry Festival in Karlstad, MN.

His most recent album “KEELWORLD” (2024), which features several brand-new country tracks, debuted at #86 on the Luminate chart, and in 2025 RFK Media issued a new remastered “30th Anniversary Edition” of the Ronnie Lee Keel debut album “Western Country.”