Saturday might have well have been a family reunion for Steve Forbert when the singer-songwriter returned home to Meridian to receive his star on the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience’s Walk of Fame.

The folk-rock singer was joined by friends, fans, dignitaries and a host of family members at a ceremony at The Max on Front Street. Rainy weather forced the event inside.

“This is an honor, and I really appreciate it,” Forbert told the crowd. “These are my roots here – 21 years of whatever’s in the water – I got it. As you know, I’ve always said it was great to be from Jimmie Rodgers’ hometown…it’s a great place to be from.”

Sam Forbert, the singer’s 96-year-old father, said he never doubted his son would find success as an artist.

“As time went on, I saw how deeply he was involved in it, and how he just seemed to love what he was doing,” Sam Forbert said. “I’m a strong believer that if you can do in your life’s work what you love, you don’t ever have to go to work. And he pretty well has, I’m convinced of it.”

Other members of Steve Forbert’s family, including his sister, brother, sons and grandsons, attended the ceremony. Fans and well-wishers greeted him in the Max’s gift shop, where he signed copies of his 2018 memoir, “2018 memoir, “Big City Cat: My Life in Folk-Rock.”

Forbert’s star, which was unveiled following the ceremony, sits on the sidewalk near Weidmann’s Restaurant on 22nd Avenue. The Walk of Fame runs from the MSU Riley Center to the Max on Front Street and honors The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Jimmy Buffett, William Eggleston, Willie Morris, Charley Pride, Howlin’ Wolf, John Grisham, Jim Henson, Robert Johnson, Leontyne Price, Muddy Waters, Richard Wright, George Ohr, Elvis Presley, Hartley Peavey, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Walter Anderson, Moe Bandy, Mac McAnally, Morgan Freeman, Marty Stuart, Sela Ward; Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner and B.B. King.

Rodgers, known as the father of country music, earned the first star in 2009.