Stuff You Should Know - The Grand Ole Opry Cast

Episode Date: July 1, 2021

Josh and Chuck take a virtual walk through country music's legendary music venue.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to

believe. You can find in Major League Baseball, International Banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio. Howdy and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there. There's Jerry Jerome Rowland and this is Stuff You Should Know, folks. Yeah.

Can I do a little plug right off the beginning to sort of explain why I got this idea? Yeah, yeah, sure. Because this episode is on the Grand Ole Opry in National Tennessee, the longest running radio broadcast in US history. And they sent you a check. No, I got an email, jeez, I feel like a long time ago from a Stuff You Should Know listener in a movie crusher named Joseph. I'm going to pronounce it 10-L-T-I-N-N-E-L. And he is the content and programming director of WSM Radio. Wow. Which you'll learn all about that here. And he runs the show and he started at saying, we kind of had some back and forth over the years about me coming to the Ryman to see a show. And he's like, I could, I have a mention on

movie crush. He said, I can get you backstage. If you ever want to come to Nashville and go to a show at the Ryman. And so we've been communicating for a long time. And then this past year, he started what's called the WSM playlist, which is they turn the radio station over to someone for an hour and let them DJ and program. And he offered that to me and I did it. Wow. Why did you tell everybody about it on Stuff You Should Know? I'm doing right now. Oh, when is it going to play? It is, it's, you know, you record it so they can release it whenever.

Uh-huh. So you, you did covers of all the songs that you wanted on the playlist. I don't know. I just DJed basically. It is going to air at 5 p.m. Central time, July 1st, at 5 p.m. Central on WSM Radio, home of the Grand Ole Opry. You can find it online at WSMRadio.com. Just hit the listen live button on July 1st at 5 p.m. Central. You'll hear me spinning records from Uncle Tupelo and Bonnie Prince-Billy and Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash. I can't remember who else. A lot of great stuff. That's awesome. Did you do that thing where like you just held the one, like a can up to your ear from the headphones?

No, I was a little nervous though. And I felt I was a little stiff and loosened up and then sent it to him. And I was like, hey, I feel like I didn't do great at first. And he said, yeah, you were a little stiff. And he said, why don't you redo the first, they call them, all these radio lingos like ins and outs and, you know, raps and things like that, because you got to talk about the last song and then the next song. And so he let me redo the first kind of set of those. And hopefully I'm a little more loose. It's always better the second take. It is. Willie Nelson's in there. I got some good stuff.

That's really cool, man. Congratulations, Chuck. I feel like you finally made it. You're a member of the Grand Ole Opry. No, no, no. We'll talk all about that. That's a whole different deal. So we are talking Grand Ole Opry. And now I'm nervous about it because the station manager is going to be listening. And they're promoting this too, by the way, this episode. What was his name? Joseph Tennell. Joseph prepared to be disappointed. He's a nice guy. I'm sure he'll be kind in his criticisms.

He's the stuff you should know listener and the movie crusher too. Of course he's a nice guy. He gets it. So we're talking Grand Ole Opry today. And you said something that I find just fascinating that it is, I don't know if you said in the world, but it is the oldest, longest running live radio broadcast program in the entire world. It's been broadcasting the Grand Ole Opry, which is a radio show. A lot of people think it's a music venue and it is, but really the music venue kind of grew out of the radio show. It began as a radio show all the way back in 1925. So it's coming pretty close to its 100th anniversary. And at all that time, it's only missed one

Saturday Night broadcast, one live Saturday Night broadcast. Every other Saturday Night, all the way back to 1925, you could tune in to WSM Nashville, AM 650. And here, the Grand Ole Opry radio program, which is, I mean, hats off to that. I don't care if you think country western music is as bad as experimental smooth jazz. It doesn't matter. You still have to tip your hat to that. Yeah, tip that Stetson. We should tell them why they missed that one broadcast. It was after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the city of Nashville. I think most of Tennessee probably was under curfew. So they had to rerun a program and I think they did a live show the next day or later or something during the day.

Earlier that day before curfew, I believe they tried to show. So they still did a show that day. They just missed the live broadcast that night. But all the other ones dating back to 1925, they made pretty neat. Yeah, I actually went. When I was a kid, we went, it was an amusement park called Opryland USA, which is now, I think, sort of a shopping center mall kind of thing. But back then it was an amusement park like a country, you know, it was pre-Dollywood. Oh, you went to the Opryland USA? Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. And so we also went to the Grand Ole Opry house. And I don't know if it was a Saturday show. I know they do shows on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. But I don't remember much about it, but I do remember being in that building

and seeing the sort of barn-shaped motif stage. And that's kind of all I remember. I was probably no more than six or seven. I don't know what it is, but there is nothing more cozy than a building within a building. Yeah. You know? Sure. A little barn motif is cool looking. I definitely love the stage for the Grand Ole Opry for sure. All right. So the Grand Ole Opry started out indirectly out of Chicago. There was something called the National Barn Dance, which was a radio broadcast out of Chicago, playing country music way back in the day. And it had a really big following, but it didn't reach Nashville. So the former DJ from there, named George Hay, went to Nashville, became the station manager at WSM, and pitched what he called

the Barn Dance. Yeah. Which was the same thing. Which sounded a lot like National Barn Dance, but he's like, but here's the difference. We dropped the National. Yeah. It was kind of like a proto he-haw. Yeah. And that they had, it was a variety show. They had music. They had dancers. They had comedy bits and sketches. Yeah. All with that sort of country-fied flavor. I almost wonder if he-haw was influenced by the Grand Ole Opry show. I think a little bit. But it was, so it was on WSM, as you were saying, that the Barn Dance is what, you know, Grand Ole Opry radio program was originally called for the first couple of years, and that guy, George Hay, who pitched it and hosted it, had been at that radio station in

Chicago. But now he worked for WSM, which was actually an insurance company's radio station. Yeah. It's a very strange story. It is, but they were, there were the headquarters in the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. And I apparently one of the executives there was really into this new technology radio and was high enough up in the company that he got the company to start broadcasting from the fifth floor. And so that's where that first early program was broadcast from was this insurance company's headquarters, like office building on Saturday nights. Yeah. And if you're wondering what WSM stands for, because it was from the

insurance company, it stands for We Shield Millions. Still known as WSM. It's really funny. I tried to find out who this executive was, but I couldn't. Couldn't look at it. Yeah. That's, you know, it's crazy how people can become lost to history, even though their story is just so wrapped up in something that's everywhere. All it takes is for them to just get knocked out of one, you know, one popular article and everybody else who picks up on that after that. Yeah, they're not coming back, you know. All right. So the Barn Dance, they had their first broadcast on November 8th, 1925, had Uncle Jimmy Thompson, who was a Tennessee musician and won a fiddling competition in Texas, was a big, big hit. And within just a few months,

there were people literally coming down to this insurance building to watch live through the glass walls of the studio. Very cool. Yeah. All this reminds me of Oh, Brother Where Art Thou when they go into the recording studio. I think it's very similar to that kind of thing. Yeah. So like they kind of knew like, no, this is, this might be a thing. Like this is kind of a, people are showing up, you know, in person on Saturday night at an insurance company's offices to watch this stuff. And it kind of started to take off pretty quickly. And it was, I think, 1927, when George Hay famously said about this proceeding like radio or classical music appreciation hour, that we've been listening to music largely from the Grand Opera. From now on, we will present

the Grand Ole Opry. And apparently everybody thought that was hysterical. And that became the name of the show from that time on. I think in December of 1927. Very cool. It is pretty cool. Yeah. And so there were these weekly performances every Saturday at the National Life and Accident Insurance Company's headquarters. But more and more people started to show up. And I saw somewhere, Chuck, I love this. It's like a full circle irony. But at the time, the leaders of Nashville, the heads of business and a lot of the other, you know, the politicians, the wealthy people who are running the show in Nashville, were trying to move the city's image in the exact opposite direction of what they were doing every Saturday night at the insurance company's headquarters.

Like they were trying to basically say Nashville is not, no mountain folk here, no hodowns going on here. We're just like New York. We're the New York of the middle of America, that kind of thing. Interesting. And they really resented the Grand Ole Opry because it was getting more and more popular. And then finally, the Grand Ole Opry became so powerful and such an institution in Nashville that it in large part became the leaders of the city. And it shaped Nashville. Like Nashville wasn't music city until the Grand Ole Opry came along and they were trying to take it in a different direction. The Grand Ole Opry took it in that direction of basically establishing like the headquarters of country western music and put Nashville on the map in that very legitimate

way. It had three consecutive mayors killed. It did. To accomplish this feat. That's right. All poisoned. Oh, no, that's not true at all. People who are in the Grand Ole Opry that are listening right now. Quick, quick. Yeah. I do feel like someone's looking over our shoulder. All right. So you know what? Let's take a break and then we'll talk about kind of the change in venues over the years and how that represents the rise of the Grand Ole Opry in prominence right after this. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of

the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep. We know that, Michael. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Oh, just stop now. If so, tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say

bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikar and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology, but from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get second hand astrology. And lately I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology,

my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. So you're throwing these hoedowns in an insurance building. It's going well. People are showing up, mayors are dropping like flies, trying to fight this thing to be big city, New York City and Tennessee. And so they said, we got to move. So they said, all right, first thing we'll do is we'll move into an actual auditorium space here in the same building.

That worked for a little while. Then in 34, they moved to the Hillsborough Theater, community play house, now called the Belcourt Theater, started selling some ads, making a little dough. I think two years later, they outgrew that, moved to the Dixie Tabernacle, which was a religious hall, sort of an old-timey sort of revival house. And they were there for a few years before they said, you know what, I don't like this wild audience coming in here on the drink and acting all crazy and dancing in the aisle. So get out of the Dixie Tabernacle. And they moved to the War Memorial Auditorium, which is when they started selling tickets for quarter a piece in 1939 and started, I think they even got a spot on NBC. They were in a movie.

Things started happening in a big way. Yeah, it was a big deal in 39 when NBC started broadcasting them on the radio to a national audience. I mean, first of all, it's now it's national and that certainly legitimizes it. But the fact that one of the big broadcasters at the time thought it was an important enough show to pick it up and send it out to everybody else, that's a huge. And this is less than 20 years after, it's about 15 years after the Grand Ole Opry first went on the air. That's pretty impressive stuff. And then they moved on, I think 1943, to the Reiman Theater, which is one of the places that the Grand Ole Opry is synonymous with, right?

Yeah. And that's, I'm dying to go to a show there. I'll make it there at some point and hopefully get that backstage tour from Joseph. But it was, it's a legendary theater. It was there for 30 years, 2300 seats. It's the mother church of country music. And I think they raised the price to 80 cents there. We'll talk a little bit more about how the Reiman still figures in today. But it was, that's when things really, I mean, if you're in a 2300 seat venue, filling it up a few times a week, that's your big time at that point. I think they, the regular cast would played Carnegie Hall in the 40s, went on tour in Europe, and they were starting to birth some real sort of superstars like Roy Acuff.

Yeah. And Minnie Pearl came along in 1942. She's just as closely linked to that period of the Grand Ole Opry as Roy Acuff is for sure. I was reading about her. Did you know that whole thing was just a total put on that she was like a college educated woman from a well-to-do family? Yeah. It was a character. I mean, I called for a hook line and sinker. She was Larry the Cable Guy. Yes, exactly. She was. She was Larry the Cable Guy prior to Larry the Cable Guy. But I was like, I know she was in a commercial that I loved when I was a kid. I was like, I think it was Spick and Span. And I looked it up and sure enough. Was it? Thank you, internet. There's a 1982 Spick and Span commercial where she shows up and

shows this lady that she can get her linoleum floors back to looking new with Spick and Span. It was great. That's funny what hangs in the memory, right? It really does. That and then my other association with Minnie Pearl is that Deb Milkman song, punk rock girl. They'll name their daughter Minnie Pearl. Oh, right. Right. That's the other Minnie Pearl thing. So there's a couple of ways you can get on stage and play at the Grand Ole Opry. Most people are invited to play as a guest just on a random individual show. And that's a great, great honor. Then they have their, I mentioned the cast earlier. They have what's called members.

They're the cast. They're these regular performers who are invited to become a member. I think publicly, once you're invited, an existing member will ask you to join them live on the air during a broadcast. Kind of is the big coming out party, I guess. And being a member is it's a really big deal. They take a lot of time to add members. They only add maybe a couple a year. There's, I think, 65 current active members, I'm sorry, 65 total, nine of which no longer perform or have officially retired. Okay. But they're still considered members of the Opry? They're considered. I think you kind of have to pass away to officially be taken off unless you run afoul, which we'll talk about that as well. I got you. So yeah, there's basically,

I mean, to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry is an enormous honor. It's a really big deal. There are people who are just huge country superstars that are not members of the Grand Ole Opry. They might be invited to come play a show or something like that, but they're not members of the Grand Ole Opry. If you're a member of the Grand Ole Opry, basically the impression I have is that you are considered the guard of country music is one way to put it in a really confusing way. Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of things that go into it. I mean, it sounds like it's, you know, they talk about you being successful and you being connected and you being committed. That's a big part of it. And we'll get to that in a second. But it sounds like there's

not just sort of one set of criteria where like, hey, if you have so many number one hits or so much music sales, it's like a bunch of stuff decided by people subjectively and objectively. Right. I think also in some cases, it's a judgment that's passed on your style of country music. Like they might not like it at the time. Maybe. I think it sounds too poppy. Back in the day, they might have thought it sounded too rock and roll. Like there's a definite, like you said, subjectivity to it as well as objectivity. But if you do get that invitation, you're expected to come play 12 shows a year, 12 Saturday nights, I should say, a year to maintain your membership. And I think also you have to sell cookies in the, in February to help raise funds.

Is that true? No, it wouldn't surprise me, man. That's the girl scouts. No, it would not surprise me because they, they do expect a lot of participation and not just on show nights. They expect you to go to a lot of shows. Yeah. They expect you just to kind of be there a lot. I think in the 50s and 60s, they were, I mean, from its inception up into the 50s and 60s, they required 26 shows a year. That's a lot, man. That's like half your weekend shows, basically. Right. Yeah. And if you want to go on tour, yeah, if you want to go tour, that's a significant amount of time that you have to dedicate. And they finally knocked it down to 12,

which is still pretty significant, especially if you don't live in Nashville. But it's, that's much more manageable than 26, you know? Yeah. They knocked it down to 20 in 1964 after they balked at 26. And then 1964, it took, I think in 2000, they finally knocked it down to 12. Oh, really? It took that long, huh? Yeah. It took a while. Wow. So over the years, the membership of the Grand Ole Opry has been, you know, there's a lot of people that, that you would expect who were members, like everybody from Roy Acuff, as we said earlier, and Bill Monroe, the father of Bluegrass, Patty Klein, Hank Williams was for a while, Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell, Reba. Reba is actually playing, what's the date today? Do you know? Is it the

22nd? Yes, Reba is playing the Grand Ole Opry tonight. Isn't that cool? I love it. And listen, do you go in with just the one name? Oh, it's Reba we're talking about here. I watch your TV show pretty frequently, so I'm on a first name basis with her. I'd never saw it. Was it good? It actually was good. She was cute. Yeah, she was a good, good actress for a non-actor. She was a good actor, sorry, for, she was a good actor for a non-actor. And she really, I think, I really came to appreciate Reba first and Tremors. Oh, I loved her in that. And we can say that because we were bad actors for non-actors. Exactly. Yes, we know. We know what we're talking about for sure. Who else these days? Randy Travis, Allison Kraus, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, I think Keith Urban, Darius, Rucker,

and Blake Shelton. And most recently, the most recent addition is Lady A. Which used to be Lady Annabellum. That's right. Until the George Floyd murder and ensuing protests, they were like, no, we're going to drop Annabellum. Which hats off to them, but they went to Lady A. Which they were probably like, this is cool. This sounds good. But then the Seattle blue singer, Lady A, who's been performing for 30 years is like, I'm not really okay with this. But I'm not sure that they're changing their name again anytime soon. That's right. After you are invited to perform now that you get your name on the wall. And I think it was Blake Shelton who actually started the new tradition of hanging his own plaque on the wall because he was so excited.

Apparently, he grabbed the plaque and went and did it himself during the ceremony, which is fairly adorable, I think. I don't know much about the guy, but I like that kind of spot. He's an excitable feller. Yeah. He's married to... Yeah, that lady. What's... No doubt. There you go. She's not a hollow back girl, by the way. Was that one of their songs? Yeah, that was one of her songs. I don't know. B, A, N, A, N, A, yes. Something like that. I have no rhythm. Well, you sang this episode. That's all I wanted. So should we take another break? Is it time?

Yeah, let's take another break and we'll talk about just how this institution has evolved over the years. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you.

Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that, Michael. And a different hot, sexy, teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Oh, just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the

iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikular. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get second hand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop.

But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Chuck. So you mentioned how the institutions evolved over the years and you can't really be like the ongoing voice or foundation or home of genre of music if the genre of music keeps evolving and you don't. But there's like kind of this tension for the Grand Ole Opry as well

because it is this institution. It can't and shouldn't just go chasing every trend. It needs to kind of wait and see if some change that comes along is real change. All while protecting like the musical roots of this very proud tradition of country-western music. It's not a really enviable position and luckily they've had what seems to be a pretty good succession of members and management who have done a fairly good job of overseeing that task. But being an institution, it's also been kind of icebergy in its movements of like change, especially when a major change comes along to music, like when rock and roll came along. Yeah, I mean you start out as folk music and hodown music and bluegrass stuff and then honky

tonk stuff and eventually the electric guitar is going to make an appearance and they had a decision to make because drums and horns and electric guitars were all banned for many years and I think electric guitar even was allowed before drums and horns were allowed and all it takes is kind of one performer to break the mold for people to like it, which is key. And then for the management to say, you know, maybe we need to start letting drum sets in here because it was that that slap bass is kind of what kept that percussive time for that kind of music for many years and drums were just, you know, not something they wanted in there. They were the tool of the devil. Yeah. So can you imagine when rock and roll comes in and people like Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee

Lewis come around, it's a big deal and they didn't want any part of it. I think Elvis was invited to play once but he certainly was never invited for membership and then Jerry Lee Lewis he got a little revenge and that he was not treated. He felt like he was sort of shunned by Nashville and the country music establishment, even though he sort of did some country western mostly kind of blazing rock and roll piano tunes. And so when he finally played there, I think in 1973, they said, all right, you can come and play. We're inviting you. But don't play any rock and roll. And he said, okay, just put me up on that stage, got up on the stage and said, let me tell you something about Jerry Lee Lewis, ladies and gentlemen. I'm a rock and

roll in country western rhythm and blues singing M.F.R. Yeah, mother lover. Yes. And they did not take kindly to that. The only reason he wasn't banned is because the audience loved it, I think. Have you ever read The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis from Rolling Stone in 1984? No. You should read it. It's very eye-opening and like one of those, I think it was a Disgrace Land episode. Yeah, I heard the episode. Yeah, but it's like kind of jarring. Say the least. If you're super famous, just the different kind of treatment you get even, you know, in a murder investigation, you know. Yeah, I'm glad that's all changed. Yeah, I know. The 70s are crazy. But the fact that they didn't kick Jerry Lee Lewis out or

allowed him to come back and play some more, I don't think he was ever, he was never a member, right? No, he was just invited to play. Okay, but he was invited back again was because he rocked that place that hard, apparently. But there have been other people who were kicked out for far less than that for what, than what he did. So there is kind of this, this view from the outside of like, what's the decision-making process here in some of these cases? Some are just obvious. Other ones are like, well, I'm not sure about that one. Yeah, there was, well, these, the birds weren't kicked out. But in the 60s, with the hippie counterculture, obviously, that was going to be an issue with Nashville because they had sort of a no long hairs rule. But they did invite

the birds because they were that kind of new brand of country rock. And the crowd hated them. So I don't think they came back, but it wasn't like they were kicked out. They were more or less voted out by, you know, lack of popular demand. I bet that was not a comfortable show. No, I'm sure that didn't feel very good. But I'm sure David Crosby had plenty of drugs to saff his soul. So Hank Williams was very famously kicked out. He was a member of the Grand Old Opry. And he was kicked out in 1952, just a few months before he died. He was kicked out because he kept missing shows. He missed two shows in one weekend because he was off drunk. And they were like, you, you just, we can't have this any longer. I think we should do a whole episode on him someday.

Yeah, sure. I mean, anyone who kind of drinks himself to get to death before their 30 is intriguing at the very least. Yeah, very sad story. Yeah, agreed. And then Johnny Cash, he very famously was kicked out of the, the Opry as well. He met his wife, June Carter Cash, when they were performing both of them separately at the Grand Old Opry one night. And he became a member for years until 1965, when he went nuts and destroyed like some lighting equipment because his mic wasn't working during a rehearsal, which is a little diva-ish. I think you could make the case. It was track field. And they said, bite your tongue. And they said that he, he could not be a member of the Opry anymore. And they kept him that way until I think the 80s,

when he was finally invited back as a member. They said, okay, we think you've probably cooled down enough. Well, he got sober and I think saw the air of his ways and made a bunch of big changes for the better in his life. I suspect that it was when he covered that nine inch nail song that the Grand Old Opry was like, this is the bomb. You can come back. That's a great, great, he does some great covers on those albums. Yeah. Very sad stuff. I think in 73, there was a woman named Skeeter Davis who had that really big hit, The End of the World, great song. And she got a little political earlier in the day. She was at a shopping mall and saw some cops arresting some, there were some church workers sort of witnessing and doing their thing at the shopping mall, which I guess you

weren't allowed to do. So the cops either arrested them or at least took them out of there. And she got on stage that night and said, this is something I really should share. Didn't ask our manager if I could say this, but they've arrested 15 people just for telling people that Jesus loves them and that really burdened my heart. She was a 14 year member and lost her membership and was banned, reinstated a few years later, but actually was it, yeah, one year later. But this was, I was like, well, how would they do that? It seems like the Grand Ole Opry would be way down with that message, but the cops were not happy and the police complained. And so they had to maintain that thin blue line, you know. Gotcha. They had to back the blue. Back the blue. That's what it is.

And then Chuck, in 2001, there was a really, I would say famous case when Nico Case was banned. She wasn't a member of the Opry though, I don't believe, but she was an invited performer, right? Yeah. She played not in the Opry house. Sort of the stepping stone is to be invited to play the party plaza outside. And she was playing in the sweltering heat and asked for some water. They couldn't get it to her. Asked if she could take a break. They wouldn't let her take a break. So she took her shirt off and finished the set in her bra and they banned her for life. The only person to date was been banned for life. Because she showed a bra. Yeah. Which is, you know, I think she could totally turn this on them now. And they would probably react pretty quickly to get her back

in there and invite her. If you were like you weren't taking care of a woman's health on stage or a performer's health on stage by giving them, you know, letting them hydrate themselves, then I think they would be like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get her back out here quick. Yeah. And she said later in an interview that like this was not a stun or anything. Like she was about to have heat stroke and this is how she was coping with it. That she wasn't, you know, trying to be cool or anything. Or she said she getting kicked out of the Opry wasn't punk rock. It wasn't good or nothing good came of it. But she did say that they told her that she'd never played Nashville again. And she certainly has played Nashville, including at the Ryman a number of times too,

which is kind of a good comeback. Yeah. I actually just bought tickets to go see her in a wine country in California in August at a winery. Very chic. Cannot wait. I can imagine. She's one of my favorites. I've seen her a bunch of times. It'll probably be a nice small show, huh? Yeah. It's like, you know, outdoors at a winery, sip and wine, listen to Nico Case. That's awesome. Really can't wait. But she's, you know, she has a reputation for sort of that outsider sort of punk rock attitude. And I think that's why they thought some people might have thought she was trying to just stick it to the Grand Ole Opry. And she's like, no, that's not the case. So we mentioned the Ryman and obviously the Ryman's still around. But the Grand Ole Opry moved

from the Ryman in 1974, right? And to this new venue, the Grand Ole Opry House, that it's still in today. And it was a big deal when they moved because they'd been in the Ryman for like 30 years. They started to hit like their peak of their popularity, which has plateaued really high since that time. And they had their last show in March of 1974. And I read this really great article from the New York Times of all things from 1974 by Suzanne Freeman. It's called Opryland as a dream to believe in. And it's about, you know, the Grand Ole Opry and what it meant to her growing up as a kid in Pennsylvania and how she ended up going to this last show and what it was like. But as they moved to the Opryland, one of the reasons they moved was because of this amusement

park. It was a radio show that started out playing hoedowns in the headquarters of an insurance building in Nashville, now had its own Disney designed theme park built in 1974. And this huge 4400 person cushion seat air conditioned venue to basically celebrate the how far this thing had come. It was pretty amazing. Almost doubled in size from the Ryman. And they took a little bit of the tradition with them. They cut out the six foot circle there at center stage where the artist performs from the Ryman's floorboards, moved it over to the Grand Ole Opry house, opened it big with Richard Nixon on March 16th, 74, who performed. He actually played the dulcimer in the piano, sang happy birthday to his wife. The Ryman very sadly fell on hard times after that and

hard to believe, but kind of like our fabulous Fox Theater here in Atlanta was actually being talked about being demolished in the 70s and the 80s. And there were like the Fox, a lot of fundraisers and a lot of people getting involved to save the Ryman. And now it's one of the oldest and still one of the most premier venues, which still hosts the Grand Ole Opry from November to January. Every year they hold it at the Ryman. Oh, okay. That's pretty cool. It's called Opry at the Ryman, but it's still the Grand Ole Opry. Every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday, February, through October, it's still the Grand Ole Opry house. And yeah, they don't miss those shows, man. There was a flood. Cumberland River flooded in 2010. Yeah. And it really damaged like they

had to do a lot of repairs. They even had to pull out that center circle and that was really damaged and they restored that, got it going again and kept that tradition alive. So one of the things about the amusement park that I was looking up is that it was closed in 1997. And I was reading an article about it where they were saying like, it was just a bad decision that this thing was closed because this amusement park was lucrative basically from the day it was opened to the day it was closed. It made money. It wasn't underwater until that flood, but it was replaced in 97 by a mega mall. And even in 1997, people knew malls were starting to go away. So that was a really bad move to begin with. And then I found out the person who ran the company that owned the

amusement park also at the same time decided that it would be best for their company to start cornering the market on online Christian music websites during the height of the dot-com bubble just before it burst. And this was the same person that decided to shut down Opryland USA and replace it with the mall. So it was not one of the great decisions of all time, but I thought this, that was super interesting that it was fine. It just was taken away from everybody. Luckily, there's still dollywood. So don't panic. Yeah. I mean, Dolly Parton is smart. She started playing the Grand Ole Opry when she was 10 years old. She saw the riding on the wall with Opryland and said, why don't I start my own amusement country music amusement park? And I don't know if that

helped drive Opryland out of business or I guess you said they were still doing okay. But yeah, no, it was good. I saw another, there was another article that basically said the that Opryland made more money than dollywood its last like month in existence. Wow. Yeah, I'm gonna have to find out. It was just a bad move. How old I was when we took that trip. That was us going to Opryland, the Grand Ole Opry house doing that stuff. That was a quintessential Bryant family vacation in the 1970s. That's awesome. Your dad was just seeing being with people the whole time. Totally seeing being with people. We probably camped because I know he didn't stay in a hotel because I've literally never stayed

in a hotel with my family before. Wow. Yeah, dude, I didn't stay in a hotel till I was, except for like church trips till I was like out of college. You were like tiny shampoo. Well, it was weird. I was like, they give you this stuff. That's funny. Man, I love the Chuck Bryant saga. You know, it's interesting and not too far from yours. I think it's something about growing up in that time period that we have some common DNA. Yeah, I stayed in hotels though. We had hotels. Well, yeah, that's true. We were campers and we also didn't have a ton of money, and we're also kind of cheap. I got you. I got you. All those things combined to enter the camp

ground. What else you got? Anything else on Grand Ole Opry? I got nothing else. Just check out my WSM playlist hour on July 1st, 5 p.m. Central. Very nice. And hopefully this, fattened up the WSM people that get you that backstage tour of the Ryman. Yeah. I mean, he even mentioned doing introductions at the Opry house, and I was like, dude, come on. Wow. You don't want to confuse and repulse the fine people of Nashville. So, okay. Do you don't have anything else about the Opry? I don't have anything else about the Opry. I would say go forth and listen to the Grand Ole Opry. It's still broadcast. This is how cutting edge it is. It's now on YouTube, but you can also go listen to WSM

online every Saturday night, and they probably broadcast the Tuesday and Friday night ones too, but definitely Saturday. And since I said definitely Saturday, it's time for listener mail. I'm going to call this nearly corrected, but not. Oh, I know this one. Hey guys, I'm Sean. I'm a Chinese dude living in Milan, Italy. And I just listened to short stuff, Chinatown. Interesting and informative. And by the way, I picked this one because I had another listener right in. It was not too kind about this correction, and it turns out I was right. So that's why I'm reading it. Probably because the different pronunciations in Mandarin Chinese, which I speak, Cantonese, Chinese, and English,

I thought Chuck was wrong. We mentioned the first formally recognized Chinatown was called Little Canton at the time. And then today, Canton is known as? Little Gong Zhao. Okay. Is it Gong Zhao? Is that it? I know I said it correctly the first time, but I looked it up recently. So just whatever I said the first time, I'm pretty sure it was Gong Zhao. Gong Zhou. Gong Zhou. Man, I hope it is Gong Zhou, but go ahead. What matters is that you got it the first time. Yeah, and screwed it up the second time. That's what Billy Joel always says. Get it right the first time. That's the main thing.

Oh, okay. Well, he's somebody to model, to follow, base your life on. So I mean, man, why are you banging on Billy Joel? Hey, I know he's like the music man, but. Piano man. I think I should have stopped talking about five minutes ago. Okay. So immediately started writing a ha ha, you're wrong email to point out that Chuck was wrong. But after finishing it right before clicking send, I had a gut feeling I should do a little bit more research. Luckily I did. It turned out the joke is actually on me. I was wrong and Chuck was right all along. So thank you much, Sir Chuck and Sir Josh.

You two American gentlemen taught a Chinese boy lesson about his own country. By the way, Josh, you pronounced it super accurately. This is how you pronounce it. Gong Zhao. Gong Zhao. Good job. Thank you. One last secret before finishing the email. I don't like wearing headsets nor earphones. I always play podcast on my Google home when I am cooking, eating, doing dishes. Sometimes it's so noisy when I'm cooking and doing dishes that I can't hear it very well. So your show is one of only two podcasts that I actually listen to with headsets that I don't

like because I don't want to miss anything. High praise. Thank you. The other one is crime junkie. Okay. High praise indeed. Yeah, we'll take it. And that is, sincerely, your big, if not biggest Chinese fan, Sean. Sean, thank you very much. Sean, I appreciate that. And I think it's pretty sweet that you wrote in to not correct us, especially when somebody was mean to Chuck. Gosh, I don't know how that one slipped past me. Yeah, you know. Well, if you want to get in touch with us and be nice, even if it is a correction, you don't have to be a jerk about it. You can wrap it up, spank it on the bottom and send it off to stuffpodcastsatihartradio.com.

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