Vince Gill & Lainey Wilson Perform ‘Go Rest High on That Mountain’ for 2025 Emmys ‘In Memoriam’ Segment

The 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards “In Memoriam” segment remembered the television industry talents who passed away over the past year with a poignant musical performance by Vince Gill and Lainey Wilson.

Gill and Wilson brought a duet of Gill’s “Go Rest High on That Mountain” to the Emmys stage in Los Angeles, Calif., Sunday night (Sept. 14). The country vocalists harmonized on the chorus and traded lead on the song’s verses.

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The tribute performance went on as the Emmys screen showed late performers and creatives including John Amos, Loni Anderson, Alan Bergman, Valerie Mahaffey, Julian McMahom, Quincy Jones, David Lynch, Ozzy Osbourne, Maggie Smith, Michelle Trachtenberg, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, George Wendt and more.

“Go Rest High on That Mountain,” originally released in 1995 and the winner of two Grammys in 1996, marks its 30th anniversary this year with the release of an extended version of the song.

Gill wrote “Go Rest High on That Mountain” following the death of Keith Whitley in 1989, and the death of his brother Bob in 1993.

Sunday’s “In Memoriam” performance at the 77th annual Emmy Awards — which were hosted by comedian Nate Bargatze and broadcast on CBS — included a third verse not heard on the original recording of “Go Rest High on That Mountain”: “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,” Gill sang.

Gill first performed the song with its additional verse in 2019 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium with wife Amy Grant, later explaining that he’d “always felt like something was missing.”

The third verse is on Gill’s new recording of “Go Rest High on That Mountain” that was released this week, just ahead of the Emmys.

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