The Ryman's haunted history: a ghost tour

Nashville has a lot of stages, but few carry as much weight as the Ryman Auditorium. Built in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, it spent its first few decades as a place for Christians to gather and pray before it ever became the Mother Church of Country Music. The man behind it was Captain Thomas Ryman, a Cumberland River boat captain who conceived and financed the building, which took seven years and about $100,000 to complete in a Gothic Victorian style. Its first concert was actually a fundraiser to save the Andrew Jackson house downtown, and four years later, the Fisk Jubilee Singers made their debut here — they have performed at the Ryman ever since.

The place is best known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974, the radio broadcast that put country music on the map. For eleven of those years, the building was renamed the Grand Ole Opry House. The Opry's last show here was on March 15, 1974, when Johnny and June Carter Cash sang Will The Circle Be Unbroken on Grand Ole Gospel Time. After that, the building stood nearly empty for close to twenty years until it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001, having already been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. It reopened in 1994 as a concert hall and museum, and the bill since has run from Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Ringo Starr to Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Wu-Tang Clan and Lizzo, with Katharine Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin and Harry Houdini among the earlier names to grace the stage.

That history is exactly what the Ryman leans into for its ghost tour. The Haunted History Tour runs on Saturday, October 31, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, costs $50.85, and lasts 45 minutes, with exclusive access beneath the stage and a commemorative photo. The stories it covers are the ones that have stuck around for decades. There is the ghost of Thomas Ryman himself, said to interrupt shows by stomping across the hall with enough noise to drive spectators out — most famously during a performance of Carmen. Then there is the Curse of the Opry, the idea that the venue is cursed because 37 artists who played here ended up dead from overdoses, car accidents, fires or massacres, with names like Stringbean Akeman, Patsy Cline, Texas Ruby and Hank Williams Sr. among the alleged victims. Williams died in 1953 after mixing prescribed medication with alcohol.

Rounding out the roster are the Grey Man, believed to be a Confederate soldier seen sitting in the gallery during rehearsals and vanishing when anyone gets close, and the Lady, thought to be Patsy Cline, whose singing staff have reported hearing late at night. Employees have also claimed to hear Hank Williams Sr.'s voice and songs. If you would rather skip the ghosts, the Ryman keeps its other tours running: a one-hour self-guided tour for $25 plus tax, a 1.5-hour guided backstage tour at $42.52 plus tax, a two-hour VIP tour for $62.02 plus tax, and a private curator's tour for $200 a person. There is also a Country Duos tour and group rates for 15 or more, with a 10% discount for military, first responders and law enforcement. The Ryman sits at 116 5th Avenue North, also known as 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North.