Grand Ole Opry: Everything you need to know

Nashville has been taken over by celebrities. You’ll find so many of their names on bars and restaurants in the area.

But, there are so many non-celebrity bars and restaurants in Nashville that you need to check out. That list is filled with all of the best ones.

Grand Ole Opry: History

The Grand Ole Opry is the live country music show that’s simultaneously broadcast on the radio. It’s the longest-running radio broadcast in the United States.

The program, airing on WSM, originally aired on November 28, 1925. So it mark s100 years the day after Thanksgiving this year.

And what a program to be grateful for.

It was launched as the WSM Barn Dance, changing its name to the Grand Ole Opry two years later.

The Opry had a few homes, the most famous being the Ryman Auditorium, where it broadcast solely from June 1943 until March 15, 1974.

The very next day, March 16, 1974, was the first show at the current Opry House. The Circle, a famous 6-foot piece of wood, was brought from the Ryman to the Opry House and laid in the stage.

Opry 100

The official date of the Opry’s 100th anniversary is November 28, 2025. However, the Opry has been celebrating #Opry100 for months.

Opry member Blake Shelton held a star-studded “Opry 100: A Live Celebration” show, broadcast on NBC, on March 19, 2025.

There were a bunch of Opry shows, spanning more than a year, that are dubbed Opry 100 shows to celebrate the centennial.

Other weekly shows are dubbed Country Classics. For the holidays, there are Opry Country Christmas shows all December long.

Of course, there’s a huge show on the Opry’s actual anniversary. The November 28 show has 27 Opry members listed on the bill.

Grand Ole Opry: Members

Despite celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, there are actually very few Opry members. Uncle Jimmy Thompson was the first member, inducted on the first day of the Opry, and less than 250 acts have been inducted since.

Currently, there are about 75 members.

A member is a member until they pass. A duo or group remains members until every member has passed. There had been a stipulation about a number of shows you had to play annually to keep your membership, but that kept dropping and exceptions have been made for incapacitated members.

Not everyone who performs at the Opry are members. Some are part of the Opry Nextstage, a group of up-and-coming country artists. The Opry Nextstage Class of 2025 only had seven members, so it is really prestigious.

Fun fact, Lainey Wilson was in the Class of 2021 and was inducted as a full member in 2024.

Grand Ole Opry: Performance

I will be very honest with you. I went into our Opry experience a little bit bummed.

Let me back up a little bit.

When you book your tickets for the Grand Ole Opry, you have no idea who you’re going to see. There may be one person on the list, maybe two, if you’re booking early.

As the show gets closer, the Opry sort of figures out what artists are going to be around and adds them to that set.

You usually end up with six to eight artists performing at your show, although you might not know who is performing until the day before.

I booked a Tuesday performance for the Opry because that’s the day that fit into our schedule.

Well, after our flight was booked and our Opry tickets were secured, it was announced that Sabrina Carpenter would be making her Grand Old Opry debut … the Tuesday after we were going to be there.

Out of nowhere (!), the Opry announced one of the biggest pop stars was going to perform.

I complained to anyone who would listen that we were missing her by a week.

Imagine. Sabrina Carpenter tickets are going for hundreds of dollars. And, if my trip to Nashville was one week later, I could’ve been seeing her for $45.

So honestly, you never know what you’re gonna get.

This Saturday after we were there, Garth Brooks showed up for no reason. He just wanted to. The Monday before we were there, Jelly Roll showed up on stage (I heard unannounced, but I’m not sure).

No one surprised us. Well, I mean there were no surprise performances.

But Dustin Lynch closed our show and he surprised me. I didn’t know who he was, but I really liked one of the songs that he played and I had stuck in my head after.

Two days later, we were in Teddy‘s Tavern, which is off Broadway in Nashville, and I was waiting for Pete to get out of the bathroom when I heard a familiar song playing over the speakers. It was the Dustin Lynch song we saw at the Opry.

I texted my mom and told her what happened and she said “Well, I guess you did see someone famous at the Opry. You just didn’t know it. “

When we got back home, I casually mentioned that we saw Dustin Lynch to my friend who actually likes country music. “Have you ever heard of him?”

“You’re. Kidding.” she said. “He’s really famous. Like, plays arenas and has a lot of number ones.”

“Oh,” I said. “So you’ve heard of him.”

“Uh, yeah,” she laughed.

Grand Ole Opry: Our Experience

When you get to the Opry, there are tons of photo spots outside of the building. There’s a giant OPRY sign where you can take photos, a few giant guitars, and of course, the outside of the building.

If you do you want these photos for your social media accounts, get there early. Everyone else wants these shots too, so it’s crowded and you’ll have to wait a bit before it’s your turn.

Once you get inside, the crowds don’t really dissipate. If you wait until everyone has found their seats, you can take photos against the walls, which have Opry themed posters on them.

There is a huge picture of Dolly Parton with the special Opry 100 microphone stand near her, some memorabilia, and more to look at.

If you have time to walk around and look at everything, definitely do that.

The seats are long rows rather than individual seats. So you’ll be sitting in close quarters with the other patrons. That didn’t bother me, and the seats were super comfortable, but I wanted to mention it, just so you know.

We sat on the upper mezzanine, in the center. Tickets for that spot were a lot cheaper than if we had sat in the main level.

We were able to see the performers although they were a little small on stage. But we could see the entire stage, which changes the background depending on what song is being played. And I don’t know how well we could have seen that if we were closer.

Playing at the Grand Ole Opry is such a reverent experience for the performers.

One of the performers at our show, Opry Nextstage Class of 2025 member, Avery Anna, was so overwhelmed by it all that she got very emotional. Standing on that stage and being in the Circle is such an incredible experience and achievement for the performers. So, that might be why the stage shows are a little subdued.

Not to say that they’re not good or entertaining, because they are. But, I say this to say every seat is a good seat. You’re not missing anything by sitting further in the back. You’re still getting the full experience and maybe even a better experience because you can just take in the Opry in its entirety.

Each show has six to eight performers who perform three songs. We were lucky that Dustin Lynch was the seventh and final performer at our show so he performed four song.

It’s not just music, though. We also saw comedian Henry Cho is is an Opry member. When he was inducted, it was the first time in almost 50 years that the Opry inducted a comedian.

There is a host of the Opry, who introduces the performers, speaks to them after, and also does the commercials.

Keep in mind, the Opry, at its core, is a radio show, currently broadcast around the world. So, radio programs have commercials. And so does the Opry.

We saw Dailey & Vincent, who are sponsored by Springer Mountain Farms. And so there was a commercial, read by the host, for Springer Mountain Farms chicken.

I wasn’t well enough in country music lore to know if this was a joke or not. But then, one of the Opry audience members won some chicken, and that’s when I realized that this was an actual sponsorship, not a joke.

The show runs for about 2 1/2 hours, and that includes a short intermission after the fourth performer.

That’s just enough time to stretch your legs, go to the bathroom, and check out the mirrors that line part of the Opry’s second floor. They have all quotes on them from country music stars and it was cool to stand in front of them and try to take a photo.

Despite not knowing any of the performers beforehand, and despite being bummed that we missed Sabrina Carpenter by a week, the Opry itself was amazing.

Just being there, watching the performers, some of which have been here hundreds of times, perform on a stage that is so meaningful and iconic to them, it just feels good. I don’t know any other way to put it.

You just feel it when you’re there. There’s some sort of magic within those walls.

Even if you don’t know any of the performers, even if you don’t listen to country music on the radio during your commute to work, you’ll still enjoy and appreciate this experience.

Grand Ole Opry: Backstage Tour

For an additional cost, you can take a backstage tour of the Opry. There are daytime tours, which are held before the show and on non-show days and then there’s the backstage tour held after performances.

We did the latter.

If I’m being completely honest, our backstage Opry tour was a little underwhelming.

This is not to say that being backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was underwhelming because I’m glad we were there.

You go backstage in groups to see the Artist Entry, a covered pathway where the performers enter and exit, which, of course, is a different entry than the general public has.

You see some of the Opry’s 18 dressing rooms, which are all themed and decorated with memorabilia.

Opry tradition is to always leave the door to Dressing Room #1, the closest to the stage door, open. That’s because  Roy Acuff, known as “The King Of Country Music,” wanted everyone to feel welcome at the Opry.

So, when he was there, his dressing room door was always open. And so, it remains that way today.

The tour takes you to the family room, a space backstage with famous lemonade made by backstage concierge Diana McBride, who, now, is nicknamed “Lemonade.” That’s where the family of performers hang out during the show.

It’s also where the famous The “Good Natured Riot” painting hangs. It was painted by Archie Campbell in 1966 and installed at the Grand Ole Opry House in 1981.

Well, decades later, in 2010, Nashville flooded. The water reached six feet high — and you can actually see the flood line because the print is discolored straight across.

You see the Jimmy Capps Music Room, the space where the house band keeps its instruments and rehearses, named after the musician who was in the famous Opry house band for over 60 years.

And, of course, on the backstage tour, you get to stand on the famous Opry stage, in the Circle, despite having no country radio airplay.

In hindsight, seeing those things and having that experience was worth the ticket price.

However, our tour guide was terrible. She complained quite often about being up at 4 am that day and still being at work at 10:30 at night. She said — numerous times — that she was very tired.

And I get it. I hate being tired, and I hate having to be “on” when I’m exhausted and just want to go home, put on pajamas, and crawl into bed.

But, here’s the thing. We paid a lot of money to come to the Opry and take the backstage tour. And so, if she was so tired, to the point where she was going to be so disengaged from the tour and give us this very lackluster experience, she should’ve stayed home.

The tour behind us had the most charismatic tour guide.

He told a funny story about a small kitchen ladder backstage. Brad Paisley had Little Jimmy Dickens, who famously stood at 4-foor-10 or 4-foor-11, climb the ladder to invite 6-foot-6 Trace Adkins to be an Opry member.

He had a bunch of other fun facts too, like mentioning how each Opry member gets to hang his or her name plaque on the wall with the rest of the members. Blake Shelton famously was excited or nervous (or both) and hung his a little crooked.

I tried to linger behind and listen to his tour. When I did, it gave me a much better experience. So is the backstage tour worth it? Am I glad we did it? Kind of.

If we didn’t have that fantastic tour guide giving the tour behind us, I think I would’ve regretted the tour a lot more. So thank goodness for that man.

But, if you don’t take the tour, we would’ve never been able to say we were backstage the Opry and that’s such a great experience on its own, so it was worth it.