Grand Ole Opry

The Grand Ole Opry is a landmark American country music institution based in Nashville, Tennessee. It debuted as a radio broadcast on November 28, 1925, playing traditional country music (then called hillbilly music). Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment — a joint venture between NBCUniversal, Atairos, and majority shareholder Ryman Hospitality Properties — it is the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of famous singers and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, Americana, folk, and gospel music as well as comedic performances and skits. Over the course of its century-long existence, the Opry has grown from a modest radio program into one of the most recognizable stages in American music, drawing performers and audiences from around the globe and cementing Nashville's identity as the nation's country music capital.

Origins and Founding

On October 5, 1925, the National Life & Accident Insurance Company launched Nashville's first radio station. Its call letters were WSM, and the abbreviation stood for the insurance company's motto, "We Shield Millions." The Grand Ole Opry was originally known as the WSM Barn Dance, and its inaugural broadcast was made from that station's small fifth-floor Studio A on November 28, 1925.

George D. Hay, a former Memphis newspaper reporter who had most recently started a barn dance show on Chicago radio powerhouse WLS, joined the station's staff a month after it went on the air. At 8 p.m. on November 28, 1925, Hay proclaimed himself "The Solemn Old Judge" (though he was actually only 30 years old) and launched, along with championship fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson, what would become the WSM Barn Dance.

Uncle Jimmy Thompson, who claimed he could fiddle the bugs off a tater vine, was the initial performer, and the cast included Dr. Humphrey Bate and his daughter Alcyone, the Crook Brothers, and Kirk McGee. George D. Hay, one of America's pioneer radio showmen, was the announcer.

The show's now-iconic name came about almost by accident. At the time, the NBC Red Network's Music Appreciation Hour, a program featuring classical music and selections from grand opera, was followed by Hay's Barn Dance. That evening, as he was introducing DeFord Bailey, George Hay said: "For the past hour, we have been listening to music largely from Grand Opera, but from now on, we will present 'The Grand Ole Opry'." It acquired its lasting name of the Grand Ole Opry in 1927.

The Opry initiated and promoted the creation of Nashville as the center of country music. Through the Opry, WSM created the musical family that inspired former WSM personality David Cobb to dub Nashville "Music City, USA."

A Show on the Move: Early Venues

As the WSM Barn Dance grew in popularity, its original broadcast home quickly became inadequate. As audiences for the live show increased, the National Life & Accident Insurance Company's radio venue became too small to accommodate the hordes of fans. They built a larger studio, but it was still not large enough. After several months broadcasting with no live audience, National Life decided to allow the show to move outside its home offices.

In October 1934, the Opry moved into the then-suburban Hillsboro Theatre (now The Belcourt) before moving to the Dixie Tabernacle in East Nashville on June 13, 1936. The Dixie Tabernacle was a 3,500-seat religious revival house with wooden benches, sawdust floors, and no dressing rooms, located at 410 Fatherland Street in East Nashville. Next, the Opry moved to a downtown location in July 1939 — the 2,200-seat War Memorial Auditorium. Because the auditorium's seating capacity was a third less than the Dixie Tabernacle, the show started charging admission at 25 cents.

In the 1930s, the show began hiring professionals and expanded to four hours. Broadcasting by then at 50,000 watts, WSM made the program a Saturday night musical tradition in nearly 30 states. In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio. Its NBC sponsor was Prince Albert cigars, and the featured artists included Uncle Dave Macon, Roy Acuff, Little Rachel, the Weaver Brothers and Elviry, and the Solemn Old Judge.

The Ryman Years (1943–1974)

The Opry found its most fabled home, the Ryman Auditorium, in June 1943. A 2,300-seat Victorian-style former religious revival house located in downtown Nashville, the Ryman soon became known as "the Mother Church of Country Music." Many storied events occurred at the Ryman, including Hank Williams's Opry debut in 1949 — he set a record with six encores — and Elvis Presley's sole performance on the program in 1954.

On a cold December night in 1945, Earl Scruggs made his debut with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, completing the historic line-up that would serve as the prototype for the bluegrass sound — Monroe on mandolin, Scruggs on banjo, Lester Flatt on guitar, Chubby Wise on fiddle, and Howard Watts on bass.

Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Jeannie Seely, and Dolly Parton joined the Opry family during the Ryman era. Elvis Presley made his only Opry appearance there. Johnny Cash became a member, met his wife, and during one infamous show, broke all of the footlights at the front of the stage inside the Ryman Auditorium. Cash met future wife June Carter for the first time backstage at the Ryman.

The Ryman tenure ended on March 15, 1974. The Ryman was the program's home until March 15, 1974, closing out with a performance by tenor singer George Morgan — father of 1990s country star Lorrie Morgan — singing his hit "Candy Kisses." The next evening, the show broadcast from the new 4,400-seat Grand Ole Opry House at the Opryland USA amusement and entertainment center.

After the show moved to the new Grand Ole Opry House in 1974, the Ryman fell into disrepair but was restored to its former glory, reopening in 1994. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001.

The Grand Ole Opry House

The Grand Ole Opry House, located seven miles northeast of downtown Nashville, is the current home of the iconic country music show. Roy Acuff opened the first show in the new 4,440-seat Grand Ole Opry House with a performance of "The Wabash Cannonball." President Richard Nixon was in attendance and led the Opry audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to First Lady Pat Nixon.

The Opry's new home in the Pennington Bend of the Cumberland River northeast of Nashville was not just a music hall but a 442-acre conglomerate called Opryland USA, comprising an amusement park, gift shops, a golf course, the General Jackson riverboat, a museum, and a three-thousand-room hotel and convention center, in addition to the auditorium. In 2000, the amusement park would be replaced by a 1.2-million-square-foot mall called Opry Mills as a result of declining attendance.

One of the most celebrated features of the Opry House is a symbolic connection to its predecessor venue. The Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville has a circle made of lighter-colored wood installed in the center of its stage. The feature was constructed from an eight-foot piece of wood cut from the stage of the fabled Ryman Auditorium, which was the Opry's home from 1943 to 1974.

The Grand Ole Opry House was included on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. The Grand Ole Opry House was also the home of the Country Music Association Awards from 1974 to 2004, and hosted three weeks of tapings for the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune in 2003.

In May 2010, the venue faced one of its most serious challenges. The venue was ravaged by a historic flood that forced the Opry House to close its doors for five months for restoration. The show pressed on at other venues across Nashville, including two former homes: War Memorial Auditorium and the Ryman. The Opry House was beautifully restored, and the show made its triumphant return on September 28 of that same year.

Membership, Broadcast, and Legacy

Membership in the Grand Ole Opry is regarded as among the highest honors in country music. Membership in the Opry remains one of country music's crowning achievements. Just over 225 acts have been members of the Grand Ole Opry out of the thousands of acts that have existed during the history of country music. As of 2024, about 75 acts are members.

Since 1974, the show has been broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry House east of downtown Nashville, with an annual three-month winter foray back to the Ryman from 1999 to 2020, and again for shorter winter residencies beginning in 2023. In addition to the radio programs, performances have been sporadically televised over the years, originally on The Nashville Network, and later CMT, GAC, and Circle.

As the popularity of country music continued into the twenty-first century, the Grand Ole Opry remained a fixture, with modern country music stars still considering it an honor to be made a member; some of those to join the ranks in the first decades of the 2000s included Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, and Keith Urban. Attendance at the Grand Ole Opry House remained high, and listeners continued to tune in to the show from an even wider variety of formats, including a mobile app, SiriusXM satellite radio, and the television network Circle TV, in addition to local radio stations.

As recently as February 2026, the Opry honored Ronnie Milsap's 50th Opry anniversary and welcomed a new wave of talent in the Opry NextStage class of 2026. Since its launch in 2019, Opry NextStage artists have achieved a combined 42 No. 1 hits, spending a total of 52 weeks atop the Country Aircheck/Mediabase airplay chart.

The Grand Ole Opry kicked off its centennial year with Opry 100: A Live Celebration, a live three-hour NBC special, on March 19, 2025.

The Grand Ole Opry continues to be performed every Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and occasionally Wednesday and Sunday at the Grand Ole Opry House. The Grand Ole Opry holds such significance in Nashville that it is included as a "home of" mention on the welcome signs seen by motorists at the Metro Nashville/Davidson County line.