Yes. The Johnny Cash Museum at 119 3rd Avenue South is one of the strongest single-artist museums in the country, and it works for visitors who are not country fans, not Cash fans, and who stumbled in because it was on the way to something else.
Why It Works Beyond Country
Johnny Cash occupies an unusual position in American music. He recorded at Sun Records alongside Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison. He performed at Folsom Prison and San Quentin. He appeared on The Simpsons. He recorded Nine Inch Nails covers in his eighties. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. His music sold across genre lines in a way that very few artists manage.
The museum reflects this breadth. The Sun Records section features artifacts and videos connecting Cash to Lewis, Orbison, and Elvis, including videos of Cash performing with Orbison and imitating Elvis in a way that’s funny. There’s significant coverage of his acting career, which most visitors didn’t know was as extensive as it was. His connection to Native American causes gets real space.
The cross-generational appeal is real. The museum reports visitors ranging from toddlers putting on headphones and singing along to elderly people with stories about meeting Cash personally.
What’s Inside
The collection is built primarily from the personal archive of Bill Miller, a close friend of Cash’s for 30 years who had accumulated material in his California home before moving to Nashville and opening the museum. What’s on display includes stage costumes, guitars, handwritten lyrics, personal letters, his Air Force uniform from his early military service, his San Quentin prison performance jumpsuit, vintage guitar amplifiers, and artifacts from his films.
The museum opened in 2012 and has been operating for over 12 years. Rankings have been consistently high: Forbes, Conde Nast Traveler, and National Geographic Traveler have all named it the number one music museum in the world. USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Travel Awards named it Best Music Museum in America three consecutive years from 2023 through 2025. It also holds one of only six AAA Gem Ratings among Nashville attractions.
Practical Details
Admission is $25.95 for adults. The museum is open daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Plan 1-2 hours. The location at 119 3rd Avenue South puts it one block from the heart of Lower Broadway, which means you can walk there easily from the honky-tonk strip.
Johnny Cash’s Bar & BBQ operates downstairs from the museum, which creates a convenient pairing if you’re hungry. Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottoms Up Bar & Restaurant is directly across the street. Robert’s Western World, consistently considered the best honky-tonk on Broadway, is a short walk.
The Patsy Cline Museum is in the same building on the second floor, accessible with a separate ticket or a combo admission. If you’re spending time at the Cash Museum, adding the Cline Museum to the itinerary makes sense, the two fit together naturally as mid-20th century Nashville music history.
The Honest Assessment
The Cash Museum succeeds because its subject matter transcends genre. Cash’s life story, poverty, addiction, redemption, artistic reinvention, and a catalog that spanned four decades, is compelling independent of whether you like country music. The museum treats him as a complex American figure rather than a country music institution, and that approach works.
Sources
- Johnny Cash Museum, johnnycashmuseum.com
- Country & Inn magazine, three-time visitor interview with museum SVP Angela Daeger
- USA Today 10Best Music Museum awards 2023-2025
- Forbes, Conde Nast, National Geographic museum rankings