Vince Gill, Lainey Wilson Team Up For Emmy Awards In Memoriam Performance Of “Go Rest High On That Mountain”
Lainey Wilson and Vince Gill perform "Go Rest High On That Mountain" at the 2025 Emmy Awards. (Photo credit:Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Vince Gill and Lainey Wilson shared the stage for the first time at Sunday’s Primetime Emmy Awards and sang for the In Memoriam segment.
The Primetime Emmy Awards took place Sunday night (September 14) at The Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The annual awards show celebrates “creative and technical achievements” in primetime television programming.
Country stars Vince Gill and Lainey Wilson had the honor of performing for this year’s In Memoriam segment. The segment pays tribute to members of the television industry who have passed away in the past year.
Vince and Lainey sang Vince’s 1994 hit, “Go Rest High On That Mountain.” Vince Gill has performed the song numerous times in the last three decades, but this is performance marked the first time he has sung with Lainey Wilson and the first time Gill has appeared on the Primetime Emmys.
Wilson teased the collaboration prior to the awards show, saying, “So looking forward to performing ‘Go Rest High On That Mountain’ with @vincegillofficial for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards.”
Vince and Lainey were introduced by Cosby Show star Phylicia Rashad. Rashad’s surprise appearance at the event drew great applause from the crowd as she remembered her late co-star and tv son, Malcolm-Jamal Warner who died in July.
Wilson and Gill took the stage with Lainey dressed in head-to-toe black and Vince looking sharp in a navy blue suit.
Vince kicked off the performance by singing the first verse before Lainey joined him to sing harmony on the chorus. Wilson took lead on the second verse and subsequent chorus before Vince concluded by singing the rarely heard third verse. A choir joined them to sing the powerful final chorus as images of many industry greats who passed away this year were reflected on a screen behind them.
Who was honored during the In Memoriam segment of the 2025 Primetime Emmys?
Among those remembered who passed away in the last year were producers, performers, designers, hairstylists, editors, publicists and more. The list posted on the Emmy’s website included Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband Brandon Blackstock, a talent manager, who died of cancer in early August.
Duck Commander founder and patriarch of Duck Dynasty‘s Robertson family, Phil Robertson, was also listed in the segment. Roberston died in May at the age of 79.
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Country music legend Kris Kristofferson, Food Network personality Anne Burrell, actor Gene Hackman, rocker Ozzy Osborne, singer Wayne Osmond, Hee Haw legend Lulu Roman, and former Beach Boy Brian Wilson were also listed on the site, though not all of them were represented on the live show.
Watch Lainey Wilson and Vince Gill’s powerful In Memoriam performance in the following video:
The performance came just days after Vince Gill re-released “Go Rest High On That Mountain” in celebration of its 30th anniversary.
On September 12, Gill released an extended version of the song that included a rarely heard third verse.
“In all these years of singing that song, truthfully it felt just the slightest bit incomplete to me, I always thought it needed to tie itself up in some way,” Gill told The Boot in 2019.
He debuted the new lyrics at a Ryman auditorium performance that same year.
“You’re safely home in the arms of Jesus
Eternal life, my brother’s found
The day will come I know I’ll see him
In that sacred place, on that holy ground“
