46 Fun Facts About Nashville

Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton and the Everly Brothers all recorded at which Music Row studio, built in 1957?

RCA Studio B, run for years by producer Chet Atkins, became the birthplace of the smooth 'Nashville Sound', whose strings and background vocals helped make the city an international recording centre.

Nashville is named after Francis Nash, who was what?

Francis Nash was a Revolutionary War general in the Continental Army, mortally wounded at the Battle of Germantown in 1777; North Carolina's legislature named the town for him in 1784.

What was the name of the stockade that James Robertson's and John Donelson's settlers founded in 1779-80?

Fort Nashborough began when Robertson's men drove their cattle across the frozen river at Christmas 1779; Donelson's boats followed with the families, ending a thousand-mile river voyage in April 1780.

On which river does Nashville sit?

Nashville sits on the Cumberland River, a tributary of the Ohio; its role as a river port and later rail hub drove early growth and made it a Civil War prize.

Nashville is called the Athens of the South for its many what?

Colleges: the nickname came first, and it is why Nashville chose a full-scale copy of the Parthenon as a showpiece and later rebuilt it to last.

Which downtown Nashville festival, launched in 1972 as Fan Fair, draws country music fans each summer?

CMA Fest began as Fan Fair because so many fans were turning up at the industry's annual disc jockey convention that organisers gave them an event of their own, with days of concerts and autograph sessions.

What is the Grand Ole Opry?

A live country radio broadcast: the Opry has gone out on WSM every week since 1925, and in 2020 it kept the streak alive by playing its Saturday shows to an empty house during the pandemic.

Which announcer, the 'Solemn Old Judge', founded the Grand Ole Opry as the WSM Barn Dance in 1925?

George D. Hay was no judge and barely 30: he set out to recreate Chicago's National Barn Dance, where he had been the announcer, and renamed his Nashville version the Grand Ole Opry in 1927.

What did the Grand Ole Opry bring from the Ryman Auditorium to its new home in 1974?

A circle of the stage floor: carpenters cut a six-foot round of oak from the Ryman's boards and set it centre stage at the new Opry House, so that performers there would stand on the same wood as the legends before them.

Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the Mother Church of Country Music, opened in 1892 under what name?

Union Gospel Tabernacle was built by riverboat captain Thomas Ryman, who is said to have gone to a revival meeting to heckle the preacher, was converted instead, and built him a church.

Which president played piano at the opening night of the Grand Ole Opry House in March 1974?

Richard Nixon opened the Grand Ole Opry House on 16 March 1974, playing 'Happy Birthday' on the piano for his wife Pat and taking a yo-yo lesson on stage from Roy Acuff.

WSM's call letters come from what motto of the company that founded the station?

WSM stands for 'We Shield Millions', the slogan of National Life & Accident Insurance, which signed the station on in October 1925 partly as a way to sell policies.

Nashville's full-scale Parthenon replica was built for which 1897 event?

The Parthenon was the centrepiece of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition; built of plaster, wood and brick as a temporary pavilion, it was rebuilt in concrete in the 1920s and houses an art museum in Centennial Park.

Nashville's 42-foot Athena statue stood plain white from 1990 until 2002, when it was finished with what?

Gold leaf: Alan LeQuire's Athena was unveiled bare, and it took twelve more years of fundraising to pay for the gilding and paint that bring her close to the lost ancient Greek original.

Which Nashville restaurant traces hot chicken to a girlfriend's peppery revenge on its founder?

Prince's Hot Chicken Shack: Thornton Prince's girlfriend is said to have doused his fried chicken in pepper after a night out, but he liked it so much that he and his brothers began selling it.

Which fast-food chain launched 'Nashville Hot Chicken' nationwide in January 2016?

KFC took Nashville Hot Chicken nationwide after a test run in Pennsylvania that the chain called the most successful product trial in its recent history.

Which NFL team moved to Tennessee in 1997 and took the name Titans two years later?

The Houston Oilers kept the Oilers name for two stopgap seasons in Tennessee, drawing some of the NFL's smallest crowds in 1997 before a switch to a Nashville college stadium lifted attendance in 1998.

Who caught Frank Wycheck's lateral and ran 75 yards to win the 'Music City Miracle' in January 2000?

Kevin Dyson took Frank Wycheck's lateral and ran 75 yards for the winning touchdown against Buffalo; the play, 'Home Run Throwback', sent the Titans on a run that ended one yard short in Super Bowl XXXIV.

Which team beat the Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV in January 2000?

The St. Louis Rams held on when linebacker Mike Jones dragged down a Titans receiver one yard short of the tying touchdown on the final play, a stop remembered simply as 'The Tackle'.

Which team beat the Nashville Predators in their first Stanley Cup Final, in 2017?

The Pittsburgh Penguins beat Nashville in six games, clinching 2-0 in Game 6 at Bridgestone Arena on 11 June 2017, where fans kept up the tradition of throwing catfish onto the ice.

Nashville's MLS team began play in 2020 and moved in 2022 into which stadium at the Fairgrounds?

Geodis Park opened at the Fairgrounds in May 2022 as the largest soccer-specific stadium in the United States, with 30,000 seats; Nashville SC had spent its first two MLS seasons borrowing the Titans' NFL stadium.

Which president's home, The Hermitage, lies just east of Nashville?

Andrew Jackson buried his wife Rachel in the Hermitage garden after she died weeks before his 1829 inauguration, and he was laid beside her when he died there in 1845.

The cedar-lined carriage drive at The Hermitage, a presidential home near Nashville, was laid out in what shape?

A guitar shape, designed by Ralph E. W. Earl, made it easier to turn carriages in the narrow space, decades before Nashville was Music City.

Which former US president died in Nashville's 1849-50 cholera epidemic?

James K. Polk fell ill after a farewell tour of the South that took him through cholera-stricken New Orleans, and died at his new Nashville home barely three months after leaving the White House.

In February 1862 Nashville earned what unwanted Civil War distinction?

Nashville became the first Confederate state capital to fall when Union troops marched in on 25 February 1862, days after Fort Donelson surrendered; Hood's attempt to retake it in December 1864 ended in a rout.

Where was architect William Strickland entombed after dying while building Tennessee's State Capitol?

Within its walls: Strickland had asked to be buried in the capitol he designed, and the legislature honoured the wish, so he was laid in a vault there five years before the building was finished.

The 95 carillon bells at Nashville's Bicentennial Capitol Mall each stand for one of Tennessee's what?

Counties: Tennessee has 95, and a 96th bell up the hill at the State Capitol rings in answer, standing for the government answering the call of the people.

Why is Nashville's 333 Commerce tower nicknamed the Batman Building?

Its twin spires resemble a caped hero's cowl; long called the AT&T Building, the 617-foot tower even stood for Nashville on Tennessee driver's licences until a 2024 redesign.

Which future superstar won his record deal at Nashville's Bluebird Café in 1988 after filling in for a sick songwriter?

Garth Brooks went on when another writer fell ill, and a Capitol Records executive who had already turned him down changed his mind after watching the crowd, calling him into the kitchen to talk terms.

The Nashville sit-ins of 1960 targeted what kind of segregated facility?

Downtown lunch counters were the target: students trained in nonviolence by the Reverend James Lawson kept coming back through beatings and arrests until the stores began serving Black customers on 10 May 1960.

Which attorney for the sit-in students had his home bombed in April 1960, prompting a silent march on City Hall?

Z. Alexander Looby and his wife survived the dynamite blast that wrecked their home, and thousands then marched in silence to City Hall, where Mayor Ben West conceded that segregation was wrong.

Which Nashville a cappella group toured from 1871 to save their university and sang for Queen Victoria?

The Fisk Jubilee Singers' tours saved a school that had faced closure and paid for Jubilee Hall, its first permanent building, which was named for them and dedicated in 1876.

Music Row, the heart of Nashville's recording industry, is centred on which two streets?

Music Row runs along 16th and 17th Avenues South (Music Square East and West); it began in 1954 when Owen and Harold Bradley opened a studio there, and a statue of Owen at his piano stands by the roundabout.

Which singer, dead at 29, joined Jimmie Rodgers and Fred Rose as the Country Music Hall of Fame's first inductees in 1961?

Hank Williams entered with Jimmie Rodgers and Fred Rose, the publisher who had polished his songs as editor and mentor; Roy Acuff followed in 1962 as the first living inductee.

Which future star, then 14, was offered a record deal in 2004 after Scott Borchetta saw her at Nashville's Bluebird Café?

Taylor Swift so impressed Scott Borchetta that night that he signed her to Big Machine Records, the label he was still planning to launch, making her one of its first artists.

How is Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, the Nashville honky-tonk, said to have got its purple colour and name?

A painter's surprise paint job, the story goes: Tootsie Bess bought a bar called Mom's in 1960, found it painted orchid purple one day and renamed it to match; she was buried in an orchid gown.

Which guitar maker moved its headquarters from Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Nashville in 1984?

Gibson left Kalamazoo for Nashville in 1984, and a group of the craftsmen who stayed behind reopened part of the old Michigan factory the next year as Heritage Guitars.

Which Nashville theme park ran from 1972 until 1997, when it was closed to make way for a shopping mall?

Opryland USA was still a popular draw when owner Gaylord shut it after the 1997 season; the Opry Mills mall opened on the site in 2000, while the hotel next door kept the Opryland name.

Who played Rayna Jaymes, the country star at the centre of the TV drama Nashville?

Connie Britton played Rayna Jaymes opposite Hayden Panettiere's Juliette Barnes; ABC cancelled the drama after four seasons in 2016, but CMT picked it up within weeks and kept it running until 2018.

Which Nashville plantation's stud farm was home to the Epsom Derby winner Iroquois?

Belle Meade stood Iroquois at stud after his racing days: he was the first American-bred winner of England's Epsom Derby, and Nashville's Iroquois Steeplechase, first run in 1941, is named for him.

Census estimates in 2017 showed Nashville overtaking which city to become Tennessee's most populous?

Memphis slipped to second when Nashville's long boom carried it past, and the 2020 census confirmed the order, counting 689,447 residents in Nashville to 633,104 in Memphis.

Which hospital giant, founded in Nashville in 1968, anchors the city's health-care industry?

HCA Healthcare was founded in 1968 by Dr Thomas Frist Sr, his son Thomas Jr and investor Jack Massey around the city's Park View Hospital, and its growth made health care Nashville's largest industry.

Which downtown Nashville bridge, opened in 1909 as the Sparkman Street Bridge, was renamed in 2014?

The John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge honours the Tennessean editor who, as a young reporter in 1954, pulled a suicidal man back from its railing.

What disaster hit Nashville in May 2010, closing the Grand Ole Opry House for five months?

A record flood: more than 13 inches of rain fell in two days, about double the old two-day record, and the river spilled into downtown and the Opry House.

The downtown area covering Lower Broadway, Second Avenue and Printer's Alley is often called what?

The District takes in three historic areas, among them Printer's Alley, named for the print shops once found there; its music clubs thrived from the 1940s, then declined once liquor by the drink became legal in the late 1960s.

Which Nashville mayor, later Tennessee's governor, led the 1990s boom that brought the city an arena and an NFL stadium?

Phil Bredesen, mayor from 1991 to 1999, won an NFL team by promising a new stadium, then carried the deal through a citywide referendum in 1996 before winning the governorship in 2002.