The Ryman Auditorium is a 2,362-seat concert hall at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North in downtown Nashville, built in 1892. It is one block from Lower Broadway. It is the most acoustically celebrated music venue in America, the historical home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974, a National Historic Landmark, and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark since 2022. Almost every major artist who has performed in Nashville has played the Ryman.
How It Started
Thomas Ryman was a riverboat captain who ran a fleet of steamboats on the Cumberland River and was, by many accounts, a rough man. In 1885, he attended a revival meeting run by preacher Sam Jones with the intention of disrupting it. He came out converted. Ryman spent the rest of his life funding the construction of the Union Gospel Tabernacle, completed in 1892, as a venue for religious gatherings. When Ryman died in 1904, Sam Jones presided at the funeral held inside the building. The city renamed it Ryman Auditorium in his honor.
Before it became a music venue, the Ryman hosted Booker T. Washington, Harry Houdini, and Katharine Hepburn. The building’s original purpose was spiritual. The acoustics that were designed to carry a sermon turned out to be extraordinary for music.
The Opry Years
The Grand Ole Opry moved to the Ryman on June 5, 1943. The next 31 years were the defining period in American country music history. Hank Williams made his debut here. Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Jeannie Seely all became Opry members on this stage. Johnny Cash became a member, met his wife June Carter Cash in this building, and during one notorious show, broke all the footlights at the front of the stage. Elvis Presley made his only Opry appearance here in 1954 – and was told by the Opry’s talent director Jim Denny that he should go back to driving trucks.
In 1974, the Opry moved to the new Grand Ole Opry House in a suburban location. Before leaving, a circle was cut from the Ryman’s stage floor and transported to the new venue, where it was installed in the center of the new stage. Every Opry performer has stood on it since.
After the Opry
The Ryman sat largely unused through the late 1970s and 1980s, briefly considered for demolition. A renovation in 1994 restored it and relaunched it as a concert venue. The revival took hold. Since then, the Ryman has hosted performers across every genre: Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Wu-Tang Clan, Harry Styles, Lizzo, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, and thousands more. It has been named Pollstar’s Theater of the Year 13 consecutive years through 2021.
The venue currently hosts more than 200 shows annually. It returns to Opry use during winter months, when the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts from the Ryman stage rather than the suburban Opry House.
The Physical Space
The Ryman holds 2,362 people in original church pew seating – the actual pews from the tabernacle’s gospel era. The main floor is pews. The upstairs balcony is also pews. This is notable because wooden church pews in a room built for acoustic sermons produce sound that modern concert engineers can’t quite replicate with contemporary materials. Artists who have played the Ryman consistently describe the experience of performing there as unlike any other venue.
The stage is small by modern concert standards. There is no general admission floor – everyone is seated. The sight lines from the back of the main floor are somewhat obscured by the deep balcony overhang, which is why some experienced visitors prefer the balcony’s front rows to the rear of the floor.
Daytime Tours
The Ryman is open for tours daily, 9am to 4pm (subject to the concert schedule). Self-guided tours include the “Soul of Nashville” theater experience, exhibits on Opry history with artifacts from Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and Dolly Parton, the “Passing the Torch” exhibit featuring Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame gallery covering performers who played both the Ryman and the Rock Hall, and a stage photo. Children 12 and under are free with a paid adult. The 2025 guided backstage tour was completely reimagined with new stories and photos from the venue’s 133-year history.
Self-guided tours are approximately 90 minutes. Guided backstage tours run 45 minutes guided plus 45 minutes self-guided.
The combination of the building’s history, the acoustic quality, and the specific weight of what happened on that stage between 1943 and 1974 makes the Ryman worth visiting even for people who aren’t country music fans. Some venues are more significant than what plays in them. The Ryman is one of them.
Sources
- ryman.com
- ryman.com/tours
- ryman.com/tours/guided-tour
- axs.com – Ryman Auditorium venue information
- visitmusiccity.com – Ryman Auditorium Bluegrass Nights 2025 press release