The Grand Ole Opry Cast

sent you a check. No, I gotta an email, Jesus. I feel like a long time ago from a Stuff you Should Know listener in a movie Crusher named Joseph I'm gonna pronounce it tin l t I n n e l L And he is the content and programming director of WSM Radio, which you'll learn all about that here. Uh. And he runs the show and he started at staying we kind of had some back and forth over the years about um me coming to the Rieman to see a show, and he's like, I could I haven't mentioned

on Movie Crush. He said, I can get you backstage if you ever want to come to Nashville and go to a show with the Ryman, and so we've been communicating for a long time. And then this past year he started, uh, what's called the WSM Playlist, which is they turned 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? And when did you tell everybody about it? On stuff I'm doing right now? Oh, when is it gonna play? It is?

It's you know, you record it so they can release it whenever. So you you did covers of all the songs that you wanted on the playliss I, I just DJ. Basically, It's gonna air five pm Central time, July one at five pm Central on ws M Radio Home in the Grand ol Opry. You can find it online at w s M radio dot com. Just hit the listen live button. On July one at five pm Central, we'll hear me spinning records from Uncle Tupelo and Bonnie Prince Billy and

Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash. I can't remember who. Well, it's a lot of a lot of great stuff that's awesome. Did you do that thing where you like you just held the one uh like can up to your ear from the headphones. Now, I was a little nervous though, and I felt that was a little stiff and loosened up and then send 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 We call him all these radio lingoes like ins and outs and you know, raps and things like that, because you gotta 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, can gratulations, Chuck.

I feel like you finally made it. You're a member of the Grand Old Operation. No, no, no, we'll talk all about that. That's the old deal. So um we are talking Grand Old opry. Uh. And now I'm nervous about it because the station manager is going to be listening. And by the way, this episode, what was his name, Joseph Tinnell. Joseph prepared to be disappointed criticisms. He's a stuff you should know listener and the movie Crusher two.

Of course he's a nice guy. So we're talking Grand Old 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 Old Opry, which is a radio show. A lot of people think it's it's a music venue, and it is, but really the music venue kind of

grew out of the radio show. It all. It began as a radio show, um, all the way back in so it's coming pretty close to its hundredth the anniversary. And in 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 you could tune into WUSM Nashville AM six fifty and here the Grand Old 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, doesn't matter. You still have to tip your hat to that. Yeah, tip that stetson. Uh, we should tell them why that 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 or something during the day earlier that day before, 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, they made pretty neat. Yeah. I actually went um when I was a kid. We went to it was an amusement park called opry Land, 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. It was pretty Dollywood. Oh you went to the opry Land, USA? Oh wow? Okay, Yeah, And so we also went to the Grand ol opry House. And I don't know if

it was a Saturday show. I know they do shows on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but um, I don't remember much about it, do 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 they're nothing more cozy than a building within a building. Yeah, you know, I definitely loved the

stage for the Grand Old Opry for sure. Alright, So the Grand Old Opry started out out of indirectly out of Chicago. That was something called the National Barn Dance, which was a radio broadcast out of Chicago playing country music, uh way back in the day, and it had a really big following, but it didn't reach Nashville. So the former UM, a former DJ from there named George Hay went to Nashville became the station manager at WSM and pitched what he called, um the Barn Dance, Yeah, which

was 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 heehaw and that they had. It was a variety show. They had music, they had dancers, they had comedy bits and sketches, um, all with that sort of country fide flavor. I almost wonder if he Hall was influenced by the Grand Old Operation, 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 old Opry radio program was originally called for the first couple of years, and that guy George Hay who pitched it and hosted it, had had been at that radio station in Chicago, but now he worked for WSM, which was actually an insurance company's radio station. It's a very strange story, it is, but they 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 I was high enough up in the company that he got the company to start broadcasting from the fifth floor UM. And so that's where that first early program was broadcast from. Was this insurance company UM

headquarters like office building on Saturday nights. Yeah. And if you're wondering what w O s M stands for, because it was from the insurance company, it stands for We Shield Millions, still known as w s M. It's really funny. I tried to find out who this executive was, but I couldn't. I 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 just getting 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 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 US the glass walls of the studio very cool. Yeah, all this reminds me of um oh brother or art

that when they go into the recording studio. I think it's very similar to that kind of thing, right, 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 when George Hay famously said, um about this preceding 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 Old 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 it is pretty cool, yeah, And so there were these weekly performances every Saturday, UM

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 the of Nashville, the heads of business and UM, 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 holdowns going on here. Just we're just like every were like New York, where the New York of the middle of America. I kind of thing. And they really resented the Grand Old Opery because it was getting more and more popular. And then finally the Grand Old Opry became so powerful and such an institution in nash Fille 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 ol Opry took it in that that direction of basically establishing like the headquarters of country western music. Uh and put Nashville on the map in that very legitimate way. It had three consecutive mayors killed it did to accomplish this feed that's all poisoned. Oh no, that's

not true at all. People who run the Grand ol Opry that are listening right now, we wei, 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 ol Opry in prominence. Right after this, all right, so you're you're throwing these hoe downs 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 in Tennessee. Uh. And so they said we gotta 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 thirty four they moved to the Hillsborough Theater Community Playhouse now called the Bellcourt Theater um 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 um, sort of an old timmy 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 a quarter apiece in n nine and started I think they even got um a spot on NBC. They were in a movie. Things started happening in a big way. Yeah, it was a big deal. In thirty nine when NBC started broadcasting them on the radio, uh, to a national audience. I mean, first of all, it's

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 to pick it up and you know, send it out to everybody else, that's a that's a huge And this is you know, less than twenty years after it's about fifteen years after the Grand Old Opry first went on the air.

That's pretty impressive stuff. Um. And then they moved on i think nineteen forty three to the Rhyman Theater, which is one of the places that the Grand Old Opery 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, hopefully get that backstage tour from Joseph. But it was it's a legendary theater. It was there for thirty years. Umye hundred seats. It's the mother Church of country music. And I think they raised the price to

eighty cents there. Um. We'll talk a little bit more about how the Rymans still figures in today, but it was that's when things really I mean, if you're in the seat venue, filling it up a few times a week, that's your your big time. At that point, I think they um the regular cast what played Carnegie Hall in the forties went on tour in Europe and they were starting to birth some real sort of superstars like roy A Cuff. Yeah, and Mini Pearl came along in Yo.

And she's just as closely linked to that period of the um the Grand Old Opry as roy Acuff is for sure. Um. 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. It was, it was a character. I mean, I fell for a Hooklein 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, thank you Internet, there's a two Spick and Span commercial where she shows up and shows this 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 Mini Pearl is UM that Dead Milkman song Punk Rock

Girl where they'll name their their daughter Mini Pearl. That's the other, the other Mini Pearl thing. UM. So there's a couple of ways you can get on stage and play at the Grand Old Opry Um. Most people are invited to play as a guest just on a random individual show, and that's a great, great honor. Uh. Then they have there I mentioned the cast earlier, they have what's what's called members. They're the cast. They're these regular performers who are invited to become a member UM. 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 UM. And being a member is UM it's a really big deal. Like, uh, they take a lot of time to add members. They

only add maybe a couple of year. There's there's I think sixty five current active members I'm sorry, sixty total, uh nine of which no longer perform or officially retired, okay, but they're still they're still considered members of their considered I think you kind of have to pass away to officially be taken off, unless you run a foul, which

we'll talk about that as well. I got you. Um So, yeah, there's uh, the there's basically, I mean, to become a member of the Grand Old Opry is an enormous honor, Like it's a really big deal. There are people who, um are just huge country superstars that are not members of the Grand Old Operate. They might be invited to come play a show or something like that, but they're not members of the Grand Old Operation if you remember

the Grand Old Opry. Basically, the impression I have is that you're considered the the uh 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, and I mean it sounds like it's you know, they talk about you being successful and you being connected it 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. Yeah, subjectively and objectively, right. I think also in some cases it's a it's a judgment that's passed on your style of country music. Like they might not like it at a time. Maybe I think it sounds too poppy back in the day, they might have thought it sounded to

rock and roll. Um. Like there's a there's a definite like, like you said, subjectivity to it as well as objectivity. Um. But if you if you do get that that um, that invitation, um, you're expected to come play twelve shows a year, twelve Saturday nights, I should say a year, um, to maintain your your membership. Uh. And I think also you have to sell cookies in the February to help raise funds. Is that true? No, it wouldn't surprise me. Man,

that's the girls 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. They expect you just to kind of be there a lot. Um. I think in the fifties and sixties. Uh, they were at I mean from its inception up into the fifties and sixties, they required twenty six shows a year, which is a man,

that's like half your weekend shows basically, yea tour. Yeah, if you want to go tour, that's that's a significant amount of time that you have to dedicate. And they finally knocked it down to twelve, which is still pretty significant, especially if you don't live in Nashville, but uh, it's that's much more manageable than twenty six, you know. Yeah, they knocked it down to twenty and nineteen sixty four

after they bought at six and then sixty four. It's I think in two thousand and they finally knocked it down to twelve. Oh really, it took that long. Huh, took a while. So over the years, the membership of the Grand Old Opry has been you know, there's a lot of people that that you would expect who were members, like everybody from roy A Cuff, as we said earlier in Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, Um, Petty Kleine, Hank Williams was for a while, Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell, Reba.

Reba's actually playing what's the date today? Do you know? Is it the twenty two? Yes, Reba's playing the Grand Old Opry tonight. Isn't that cool? I love it? And listen to you going with just the one name. Oh it's Reba we're talking about here. I watched your TV show pretty frequently, so I'm on a first name basis with her. I never saw it was a good It actually was good. She was cute. Yeah, she was a good, good actress for a non actor. She's a good act

sorry for she was a good actor for a non actor. Um, and she really I think I really came to appreciate Reva 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. 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 edition is Lady A which used to be Lady Annabellum until

the George Floyd murder and ensuing protests. They were like no, we're gonna drop in and a Bellum, which hats off to them, but they went to Lady A Um, which they're probably like this coolest, sounds good, But then the Seattle Blue singer Lady A, who's been performing for thirty 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 aim 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 which is fairly adorable. I think I don't know much about the guy, but I like an excitable feller. Yeah he's married to Um. Yeah, that lady that's there. He's not a Hall of Back girl. By the way, was that

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 a rhythm. Well you sang this episode that's all I wanted, so um 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. Okay, Chuck, So you you mentioned how the institutions evolved over the years, and you can't really be like the the ongoing voice or foundation or home of genre of music if the genre of music keeps evolving and you don't you know, but there's like kind of this tension for the Grand Old 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 see if there if you know, some change that comes along is real change, um all while protecting like the musical roots of this very proud tradition of country Western music. It's not a really enviable position should and you know, 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. Um. But being an institution, it's also been kind of ice Bergean and 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 how down 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,

it's not something they wanted in there. Yeah. Um, So you can 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 um he got a little revenge in that he was not treated He felt like he was sort of shunned by Nashville in 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 ninety three, 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 rolling country in Western rhythm and blues singing m f R yeah, mother lover, yes. And they did not take kindly to that. Uh. 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 You should read it. It's very eye opening and like one of those I think it was a disgrace Land episode. I'm sure that, yeah, but it's like kind of jarring. How you know, if you're super super famous, just the different kind of treatment you get, even you know, in a in a murder investigation, you know, Yeah, I'm glad

that's all changed. Yeah, I know the seventies are crazy, um, but they they 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 Um he was never a member, right, No, he was just abody to play, okay, but he was he was invited back again. Was because he rocked that place that hard, apparently, but there have been other people who were kicked out, um for far less than that, for what then what

he did? Um? So there is kind of this this view from the outside of like what what what's the decision making process here? In some of these cases, some are just obvious, other ones are like I'm not sure about that one. Yeah, there was Um well, these the Birds weren't kicked out. But in the sixties with a hippie counterculture, obviously that was going to be an issue with Nashville because they had sort of a no long

hair's rule. But they did invite the Birds because they were that kind of new brand of country rock and the crowd hated them. Um. So I don't think they came back, but it wasn't like they were kicked out they were were less voted out by you know, lack of popular demand. I'll bet that was not a comfortable show. No, I'm sure that didn't feel very good. But David Crosby had plenty of drugs too, right. So Hank Williams was

very famously kicked out. He was a member of the Grand Old Opry Um and he was kicked out in nine two, just a few months before he died. Um. He was kicked out because he kept missing shows. So he missed two shows in one weekend because he was off drunk um and they were like you, you're just we can't have this any longer. Um, 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 thirties intriguing at the very least,

very sad story, Yeah, agreed. And then Johnny Cash he very famous. He was kicked out of the Opery as well. He met his wife, June Carter Cash when they were performing, both of them separately at the Grand Old Opery one night, and he became a member for years until nineteen sixty five when he um went nuts and destroyed like some lighting equipment because as Mike wasn't working during a rehearsal um, which is a little diva ish, I think you could

make the case. And they said, um, bite your tongue, and they said, uh that he uh, he could not be a member of the opera anymore. And they kept them that way until I think the eighties, 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 um covered that nine inch Nail song that the Grand Ol Operay 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 seventy three, the was a woman named Skeeter Davis who had that really big hit the End of the World, great song um, and she got a little political. Earlier in the day, she was at a shopping mall and

saw some cops arresting some Uh. 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, uh 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. Uh. I didn't ask our manager if I could say this, but they've arrested fifteen people just for telling people that

Jesus loves them, and that really burdened my heart. She was a fourteen 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, why would they do that? It seems like the Grand Opera you would be way down with that message. But the cops were not happy, and the police complained, and so they had to maintain that them blue line you know, got you. They had to back the blue back the blue,

that's what it is and then chuck. In two thousand one, there was a really UM I would say famous case when Nico Case was banned. She wasn't a member of the opery though I don't believe, but she was an invited UM performer, right, Yeah, she played not in the operay house. It's 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 has been banned for life right because she showed her braw yeah, which is um, you know, I think I think she could totally turn this on them now, uh, And they would probably react pretty quickly to get her back in there and invite her if she you know, if you were like you weren't weren't taking care of a woman's health on stage or a performers health on stage by giving them, you know, letting

them hydrate themselves, then I think they would be like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so back out here quick. Yeah. And she said later in an interview that like this was not a stunt 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 Opery. Wasn't punk rocket, 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, um, good, good comeback. Yeah. I actually just bought tickets to go see her in uh, the wine country in California in August, did 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 of the winery, sipping wine, listening the cocase. That's awesome. Uh 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 Old Opry and she's like, no, that's not the case. So

we mentioned the Rieman, and obviously the Rieman's still around. Um, but the Grand Old Opry moved from the Rheman in nineteen seventy four, right, and to um this this new venue, the Grand Old Opry House that it's still in today. And it was a big deal when they moved because they've been in the Rheman for like thirty years. They started to hit like their peak of their popularity, which is plateaued really high since that time. UM. And they had their last show in March of nineteen seventy four.

And I read this really great article from the New York Times of All Things UM from nineteen seventy four by Suzanne Freeman. It's called opry Land is a Dream to believe in and it's about, you know, the Grand Old Opry and what it meant to her growing up as a kid in Pennsylvania and UM, how she ended up going to this last show and what it was like. UM. But as they moved to the opery Land, one of the reasons they moved was because of this amusement park.

It was a radio show that started out playing Hodowns in the headquarters of an insurance building in Nashville, now had its own Disney design theme park built in and this huge person cushioned seat, air conditioned venue UM to to basically celebrate the how far this this thing had come. It was pretty amazing. Um doubled almost doubled in size from the Rieman. Uh, and they took a little bit

of the tradition with them. They cut out the six ft circle they're at center stage with the artist performs from the Riemans floorboards, moved it over to the Grand Old Opry. How us opened it big with Richard Nixon on March four, who performed. He actually played the dulcimer

in the piano, sang Happy Birthday to his wife. The Rheman very sadly fell on hard times after that and hard to believe, but kind of like our our fabulous Fox Theater here in Atlanta was actually being talked about being demolished in the seventies and the eighties, and they were, like the Fox, a lot of fundraisers and a lot of people getting involved to save the Rieman. And now it's, you know, one of the oldest and still one of the most premier venues which still hosts the Grand ol

Opery from November to January every year. They hold it at the Rieman. Okay, that's pretty cool, and it's called Opery at the Rieman, but it's still the Grand ol Opry every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday, February through October. It's still at the Grand ol Opry House. And um, yeah, they don't miss those shows. Man. There was a flood. Cumberland River flooded in two thousand ten. Yeah, and uh, 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 traditional alive. So one of the things about the amusement park that I was looking up is that it was closed in 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 ever, it wasn't underwater until that flood. Um, but it was replaced in ninety seven by a mega mall, and even in 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 UM, the company that owned the amusement park, also at the same time decided that it would be best for their company to start ordering the market on online Christian music websites during the height of the dot com bubble, just before it burst. And um, this was the same person that decided to to shut down opery Land USA and replace it with them all. So it was not 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 partner smart. She started playing the Grand ol Opry when she was ten years old. She saw the riding on the wall with opery Land, and UH said, why don't I start my own uh amusement country music

amusement park. And I don't know if that helped drive opery Land 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 um opery Land made more money than Dollywood. It's last like month in exist since Wow, yeah, I'm gonna have it was just a bad move. How old I was when I we took that trip. That was us going to apry Land, the Grand all Opry House, doing

that stuff. That was a quintessential Bryant family vacation in the nineteen seventies. That's awesome. Your dad was just see being with people the whole time, totally see 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. Uh 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. It was weird, like they give you this stuff. It's funny, man. I love the Chuck Bryant saga. You know, it's interesting and not too far from years. I think it's something about growing up in that time period. That's uh. We we have some common DNA. Yeah, I stayed in hotels though we had hotels. Well yeah, the street we were camping campers, and we were also, Uh, I 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 campground. Um, what else? You got anything else? On Grand Old Opry And I got nothing else? Just check out my w S and playlist hour July one, five pm Central. Very nice and hopefully this, uh it fattened up the WSM people to get you that backstage tour of the Rheyman, Yeah, eman, he even mentioned doing introductions at the Opery House, and I was like, dude, come on, wow, Like you don't want to confuse and repulse the fine people of Nashville, So okay, you don't

have anything else about the Opery. I don't have anything else about the Opry. I would say, go forth and listen to the Grand Old Operate. It's still broadcast. Um, 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 uh, they probably broadcast the Tuesday and Friday night ones too, but definitely Saturday. And since I said definitely Saturday, it's time for a listener mail. I'm gonna 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. Uh, and I just listened to short stuff Chinatown, interesting and informative. And by the way, I picked this one because at 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 of the different pronunciations in Mandarin, Chinese, which

I speak, Cantonese Chinese, and English. I thought Chuck was wrong wen you mentioned the first formally recognized Chinatown was called Little Canton at the time, and then today Canton is known as Little Gong Jao. Okay, so that Gong Joo 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 Joongong Joe Man. I hope it is going,

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. Okay, He's somebody to model to follow, base your life on. So I mean, man, why are you bagging on Billy Joel? Hey? I know the music man, but um piano man, I think I

should have stopped talking about five minutes ago, Okay. So immediately started writing a Haha, you're wrong email to point out that Chuck was wrong, but after finishing, right before clicking Cind, 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, Uh, Sir Chuck and Sir Josh, you two American gentleman taught a Chinese boy lesson about his own country. Because, by

the way, Josh, you pronounced it super accurately. This is how you pronounce it, Guang Jao, Guang Jo, 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 twing 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 listened to with headsets that I don't like. I don't want

to miss anything. High praise. The other one is Crime Junkie Okay, Hi praise indeed, yeah, we'll take it. Uh. 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 into not correct us, especially when somebody was mean to Chuck Gosh. I don't know how that one slipped past me. You know. Um, 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 Stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you should know it is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H M.