Country's Good Turn

By Stephen M. Silverman

04/24/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Garth Brooks, Roy Clark, Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs will be among those who will perform at a benefit tribute this Thursday to ailing Grand Ole Opry singer-songwriter Johnny Russell (1973's "Catfish John" was his first Top 20 hit) at Nashville's Opry House, Brooks has announced in a statement released to the press. "Johnny inducted me into the Opry 11 years ago, and that's still the highest honor I've received in this business," Brooks, 39, said in a statement. "I love him, I'm a fan, and if this show can help him get better, I'm all for it." Ticket sales will go toward the mounting medical expenses for Russell, who for the past five years has been receiving kidney dialysis. He plans to attend the show on Thursday. One star who was originally slated to appear on the program won't be there after all, however. Loretta Lynn ("Coal Miner's Daughter"), 65, was admitted to a Tennessee hospital near her rural home in Hurricane Mills on Tuesday for treatment of pneumonia, her publicist, Schatzi Hageman, has announced. Lynn is expected to make a full recovery, Hageman, quoting the singer's doctors, added.