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EXPLORE MUSIC’S MOST ICONIC STAGE. THE MUST-SEE NASHVILLE LANDMARK ON EVERY ARTIST’S AND FAN’S BUCKET LIST.

Self-Guided Tour

Tap in to the spirit of over 130 years of iconic performances and pop culture moments on a self-guided tour through the hallowed halls of Ryman Auditorium.

• Go behind the scenes of Elvis’s infamous Opry debut and see artifacts from the King of Rock
• Stop at Rock Hall at the Ryman – in partnership Rock & Roll Hall of Fame  - New artifacts added!
• Get a professional souvenir photo onstage
• Discover the immersive “Soul of Nashville” theater
• Explore our gallery of signed Hatch Show Prints
• Check out this season’s starstudded exhibits
• Take home a piece of music’s most iconic stage from the gift shop

*Please note: The Johnny Cash bus is temporarily closed

*Onstage photo availability may vary

Guided Backstage Tour

See the Ryman the way your favorite performers do. Get a one-of-a-kind look at what goes on behind the scenes on a Guided Backstage Tour.  

*Buy early – limited availability & select dates only! 

• Hear insider stories about the venue’s iconic performances and the stars who have taken its stage 
• Take advantage of exclusive photo opportunities 
• Step into the footsteps of music legends backstage  
• Free souvenir photo on stage 
• New Rock & Roll Hall of Fame feature 
• Immersive “Soul of Nashville” theater experience 
• Star-studded exhibits 

Backstage access based on availability.

Ryman VIP Tour

Grab your entourage and let an expert guide walk you through the untold stories and exclusive memorabilia that make the Ryman the “Soul of Nashville.”

• Stop at Rock Hall at the Ryman – a powerful new exhibit with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on the Ryman tour
• Get a customizable tour with backstage access (when available)
• Take home a commemorative VIP lanyard & Ryman poster

* The maximum group size is 10 people.

Country Duos Tour

Make it a double! Tour both the legendary Grand Ole Opry House AND Ryman Auditorium for one low price.

• Start with an immersive video hosted by Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood
• Go on an expertguided tour backstage
• See the themed dressing rooms where superstars & rising stars prepare to take the stage
• Stand where your favorite country artists have stood at the Opry

Ryman Tour:

• For a limited-time, you can step into Johnny Cash’s personal tour bus for over 20 years
• Take in over 130 years of diverse music history
• See this season’s starstudded exhibits
• Watch the immersive “Soul of Nashville” video
• Step onto the stage where your favorite artists play

Group Tours

Plan an unforgettable outing. Bring your group of 15 or more to the Ryman for a group-friendly tour or performance.

To speak to a Group Sales representative call 615-871-5043 or contact us .

“I genuinely, hands-on-heart, believe this is the best venue in the United States of America.” Ed Sheeran

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Grand Ole Opry House Tickets

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How to Tour the Grand Ole Opry: Ryman vs Opry House

Undoubtedly the home of country music, the Grand Ole Opry has been country music’s biggest stage for the last (almost) 100 years. Since the first radio broadcast of WSM’s Barn Dance in 1925, the Opry has been the world’s longest running broadcast and the history that’s taken place on the stage has made it Nashville’s most popular attraction.  

If you’re a country music fan planning a trip to Nashville, I KNOW the Grand Ole Opry is on your bucket list. With shows every Friday and Saturday night (plus 1-3 extra shows during the week depending on the season), you’re sure to find a lineup that piques your interest. But if you want more (MORE, MORE, MORE) then you’re definitely going to want to book a backstage tour. Peek inside the dressing rooms, walk out onto the stage, and hear plenty of stories. 

On my trip to Nashville, I did TWO different Grand Ole Opry tours and in this post I’m going to give you the lowdown on your options and your best pick if you’re short on time.

Grand Ole Opry 101

If you’re new to country music (of you’re not 100% up to speed with how the Opry works), here’s what you need to know:

The Grand Ole Opry is a show, not a place. The Opry has had 6 different homes in Nashville since its debut in 1925. From 1925-1943 the Opry bounced between four different venues before starting its 30 year run at the Ryman Auditorium. The Opry left the Ryman in 1974 to move into its current home, the Grand Ole Opry House. So the Grand Ole Opry is most notably connected to the Ryman Auditorium (it’s long term historic roots) and the Opry House (it’s current home). 

The Grand Ole Opry is a live show (performed for a live audience and also for a radio and television broadcast) featuring country music and comedy acts. It pulls heavily on tradition.

Shows are performed every Friday and Saturday night (plus 1-3 week nights depending on the season) and feature 4-5 different artists/acts. 

Anyone can perform on the Grand Ole Opry, but some performers are inducted as members which is seen as a great honor among certain sets. It’s interesting that some of the biggest stars in country music aren’t (or never were) Opry members. Criteria for being invited to be a member is a little vague, but it generally seems to require a commitment to play a certain number of shows a year and stars who don’t live in Nashville often don’t make the commitment. 

Patsy Cline is the only member to have asked about joining and to receive an invitation on the spot. 

Both Hank Williams and Johnny Cash both had their Opry memberships revoked for drunk and disorderly conduct, but Cash had his reinstated later in his career. 

Johnny Cash first met June Carter backstage at an Opry show. 

Grand Ole Opry Tour Options in Nashville

Okaaaay, technically Grand Ole Opry tours are at the Grand Ole Opry House, but I say you’ve actually got TWO options in Nashville. 

Grand Ole Opry : The current home of the Grand Ole Opry is where you want to go if you want to see where they’re currently doing the show. 

Ryman Auditorium : Right in the middle of downtown Nashville and a stone’s throw from the honky tonks on Broadway, the Ryman arguably has the most history with the Opry. 

Both of these spots are available to tour, and if you’re a country music mega fan, you just might want to see both. 

Keep reading for the ins and outs of both tours:

Ryman Auditorium Tours

Let’s start with the Ryman Auditorium since it comes first on the Opry timeline. The Grand Ole Opry was performed at the Ryman Auditorium from 1943-1974, but on its own the Ryman is one of the most beloved music venues in the world. 

Built in 1892 and originally opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, the building was leased to promoters for secular events to help cover its debt. Renowned for its amazing acoustics, the Ryman saw the likes of Will Rogers, Charlie Chaplin, John Philip Sousa, and Harry Houdini before it eventually gained the moniker of the “Mother Church of Country Music.” 

Pretty much everybody who was anybody has played at the Ryman including Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Dolly Parton (and soooo many artists whose roots have nothing to do with country music). And its legacy became inextricably linked with the Grand Ole Opry.

After the Opry left in 1974, the Ryman’s future was uncertain and it deteriorated and sat empty for some time. But renovations began in the 90s and today the Ryman is a hopping entertainment venue in the middle of Nashville’s revitalized downtown. 

Tour Details

Ryman Auditorium tours are self guided and your tickets give you entry anytime between 9AM to 4PM. You can buy tickets online, but they’ll charge you an extra $5ish dollars per person in convenience fees. If you buy tickets at the box office, it’s about $27.50/adult. 

When you enter the auditorium, you’ll be guided upstairs to a small theater to watch a video about the history of the Ryman. The narrator is Lula C. Naff who became the Ryman’s official manager in the 1920s and was responsible for booking and promoting some of its biggest acts. The show is very well done (has some cool effects). It runs continuously (lasts probably 15 minutes or so) and depending on when you show up you could be in a full theater or have it all to yourself. 

When you exit the film, you move onto the balcony of the main auditorium. There are exhibits along the back wall to look at and there’s a schedule of talks by a historian that run every 30 minutes. You move at your own pace and when you make it to the other end of the balcony, there’s a staircase to go down. Once you’re on the main level, you can have your picture taken on the stage. They print them out in the gift shop and they’re included in your tour admission. 

There are more exhibits along the back wall on the bottom level and when you finish with those you can exit back through the lobby and the gift shop. 

We probably spent a little over an hour on the tour. But you can stick around as long as you’d like and listen to more of the history talks if you want to. 

Book your Ryman tour tickets here . 

What’s Nearby

Literally everything is right near the Ryman. It sits at 5th & Broadway so you can head over to the honky tonks (or country music celebrity restaurants) after. Hit the Hattie B’s Hot Chicken (or Assembly Food Hall) and shops across the street. Or pair it with an afternoon at the Country Music Hall of Fame or the National Museum of African American Music, both of which are within walking distance. 

Grand Ole Opry Tours

This is the granddaddy of them all. Country music fans from around the world make the pilgrimage out to the Grand Ole Opry even if they’re not going to see a show. The Grand Ole Opry has been at its new home at the Grand Ole Opry House since 1974 when the theater was built as a modern venue for the iconic show. 

What the new Opry house lacked in history, it made up for in space. The facilities for both the performers and the audience are much more comfortable and spacious. Not to mention everything that’s been built up around it. 

The Grand Ole Opry sits on the banks of the Cumberland River about 30 minutes from downtown Nashville. And…it’s a complex. I don’t say this in a bad way (it is what it is), but it reminds me a lot of Branson. It could be the demographic of people who are drawn to it, but it’s also just really built up in a way that could possibly be described as tacky. I’ll get into it more later, but just a note that this is not a historic part of Nashville even if it’s been there going on 50 years. 

Okay, onto the tour itself. Tours of the Opry are guided and timed (every 15 minutes) so you’ll want to buy your tickets online to ensure that you get a time that works for you and you’re standing around waiting. 

Opry tours aren’t cheap, y’all! They’re about $45/adult (and only a few dollars less for kids). 

Now here’s a pro tip for you…when you arrive for your tour, do NOT park in the official Opry House parking lot. They charge $15 to park and EVERYBODY parks in the Dave and Buster’s parking lot instead. There’s literally a pathway from the parking lot up to the main entrance so it’s like they know that’s what people are going to do. Now, it might be different for actual shows, but that’s how it is during the day for tours. 

Tour groups are about 20-30 people each and you gather outside the main entrance just to the left. At your tour time, they’ll open up the side door and everyone files into a theater to watch a video about the Opry hosted by Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood. I would say the video focuses more on the legacy of the Opry and what it means for country music artists to perform there (and be a member) instead of the actual history, but it’s really well done. 

From there you move into the lobby where they have a group of video screens set up that shows you what it’s like backstage before the show starts. And at that point you get to know your guide a bit (he asks where everybody is from, blah blah blah). 

And from there on it’s pretty much all backstage! You’ll walk by the performer’s entrance and see all of the backstage prep areas on your way onto a soundstage where they used to film Hee Haw (plus scenes from the show Nashville). You’ll watch another video about getting to become a member of the Opry there hosted by Brad Paisley. 

Then you’ll move into a room where they have plaques for all of the Opry members plus their mailboxes where they receive fan mail before heading into the dressing rooms. This part was really cool. There are probably 20 different dressing rooms all with different themes or histories and your guide will tell you stories about who likes what dressing rooms. There’s also a room of lockers for storing valuables (which seemed interesting) and a common room where people can hang out. 

When you leave the dressing rooms, you’ll walk the path that the performers take to the stage. The stage is soooo much bigger than I was expecting (especially after being at the Ryman first). There’s a photographer set up and each group gets their photo taken on the circle (cut out of the stage at the Ryman when the Opry left in 1974). And from there you walk up the aisle and you can get a really good look at the theater from a different perspective. 

And then your guide leads you back through the lobby and you exit through the gift shop. You always exit through the giftshop haha. The gift shop is enormous and has pretty much any item you can think of with the “Grand Ole Opry” printed on it, but I really loved the Hatch Show Print posters that they had. Most of them were for new artists, but they had some classic ones too. 

Last note about the Opry tour: make sure you have some cash on hand to tip your guide. Unlike some tours/excursions, he never mentioned anything about tips, but there were a few people in our group that did and he seemed very appreciative. 

Book tickets for the Grand Ole Opry tour here . 

Well, there’s the aforementioned Dave and Buster’s, a wax museum, an IMAX theater, a riverboat, and a Paula Deen restaurant. You get the picture. When they originally built the new Opry House, there was an Opryland amusement park next door, but that got paved for a mall in the 90s and like most malls these days, it seems to be moving in a downward trend. But you’ve got typical mall stores and restaurants (hey Bass Pro!) and the old Opryland Hotel is now the Gaylord Opryland. 

Ryman Auditorium Tour vs Grand Ole Opry Tour

So what’s the scoop? Which one is better? Do you need to do them both? Well…I did both tours because of the travel blogger gig and I like to have the full picture before I start dishing out recommendations. I was really hoping that one tour would be infinitely superior to the other so that I could definitively say which tour you should do and which one you should skip. But…it didn’t quite turn out that way. 

Here’s what I can say about the two tours:

The Grand Ole Opry tour is a better tour overall. 1) It’s guided. 2) You see so much backstage. 3) There are a lot of show elements (mostly videos) that are just for the tour. 

I think there’s more history at the Ryman and even though there wasn’t as much to see on the tour itself, it felt like a more special place. 

Tickets for the Ryman tour are $27.50/adult and tickets for the Grand Ole Opry tour are $45/adult. 

Total time on the self guided tour of the Ryman was a little over 45 minutes. Total time on the guided Grand Ole Opry tour was just shy of an hour. So pretty even. I was honestly a little surprised when I tallied up the time for both (based on time stamps of photos at the beginning and the end). Equal-ish time on both tours but the Opry tour moved really fast and felt like we say a lot. The Ryman tour we kind of poked along at our own pace. 

The Ryman is right in the middle of downtown Nashville where most visitors are spending 90% of their time. Walking distance to so many hotels. All the big restaurants are right nearby. Other notable attractions (Broadway, Country Music Hall of Fame, etc.) also within walking distance. The Grand Ole Opry’s location is its biggest deterrent. Not only is it about 30 minutes from downtown Nashville, but it’s basically in the middle of a huge, outdated mall. It verrrrrry much feels like a giant tourist attraction rather than a part of music history. 

The Ryman tour doesn’t really take you anywhere that you can’t see if you’re there to see a show (besides the small theater where you watch the film). You don’t go backstage and all of the exhibits to look at are just in display cases at the back of the theater (balcony and main level) so you could look at them before the show. So much of the Opry tour is backstage so even if you go to a show there, you’re not going to see what you see on the tour. If you can see a show at the Ryman, I’m inclined to say skip the tour. But if you can’t see a show, then it really is special to go inside on a tour. 

If you want to tour the Grand Ole Opry AND see a show…book the last tour of the day and then have dinner somewhere in the area (maybe try Paula Deen’s??) before the show. 

Special Tours at the Ryman & Grand Ole Opry

Besides the tours I’ve mentioned, there are a couple of options that look interesting if your schedule lines up. 

Ryman Backstage Tour : There is a guided backstage tour of the Ryman that takes place sometimes. When I was planning my Nashville trip, it wasn’t available at all and I couldn’t even find any dates on the calendar in the future, so I’m not sure about the status of the tour overall. But if it happens to line up with your trip dates, I would 100% do the backstage tour instead of the self guided tour. 

Opry House Post-Show Backstage Tour : This is only offered on show nights. From reading the tour description, you’ll see the same things as you would on the daytime tour (maybe a little less depending on what’s in use/restricted from the show) but there will be that post-show “buzz” that’s lacking during the day.

More posts about the area:

Is Nashville Worth a Visit? The Lowdown on One of the US’ Trendiest Cities

Hot Chicken, Fried Chicken, Chicken ‘n Biscuits: Nashville’s Best Local Food

A Country Music Lover’s Guide to Nashville

Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee

The National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee

The Noelle: A Historic Hotel in the Middle of Downtown Nashville

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• April 18, 2024 Setlist

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Whiskey Riff Raff Podcast With Shane Smith & The Saints

A long time coming for Shane Smith & the Saints .

Ahead of their Grand Ole Opry debut, frontman Shane Smith of Shane Smith & The Saints talks about grinding out on the road for years and building a passionate fan base, releasing a new album Norther this year, his influences and favorite music, goals for the future and much more.

Download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “ Whiskey Riff Raff ” or  click here.

We’re also available on  Spotify  and wherever else you can listen to podcasts.

Cheers, y’all.

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Moscow: City Sightseeing by Car/Bus

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Visiting a new city is akin to going on a first date, it is something you will never forget. Many people imagine Moscow as just a bunch of sporadic landmarks: Red Square, the Kremlin, Lenin’s Mausoleum and GUM. There is so much more to this wonderful city than that and even though we only have a few hours, we will do all we can to show you everything we know and love about our capital in one fell swoop. We will take you on a journey through the ages, from centuries ago, right up to the modern day, soaking in the sights of this vast and bustling metropolis. Bright, luxurious and both ancient and modern at the same time, Moscow invites you on a date you’ll never forget!

On our sightseeing bus tour of the city, you will see:

• The wonderfully historic city centre and its unique museums, magnificent cathedrals, the exquisite Chambers of the Romanov Boyars and of course, the famous towering red brick walls of the Kremlin, The charming beauty of the Alexander Garden awaits the capital's guests - a lush green oasis in the midst of the glass and concrete clad metropolis, basking in the etherial aura emanating from the whitewashed stone walls of the restored Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the world- renowned fairytale onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral and other impressive monumental buildings such as the library built in Lenin's honour - the Russian State Library - and the State Duma.
• The Lubyanka KGB headquarters is notorious to members of older generations and although nowadays, the face of the secret police has changed dramatically, the looming enigmatic building on the waterfront maintains its aura of mystery, shrouded in a variety of murky rumours and dark myths. Then, there’s another of Moscow's main attractions - the marvellous Bolshoi Theatre, yew simply cant leave Moscow without taking in its breathtaking architecture. Engrained in the fabric of Russia's cultural heritage, virtuoso performers such as prima ballerina Galina Ulanova, opera singer Feodor Chaliapin and pianist, composer and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff once stood centre stage of this vaunted institution.
• The memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill was constructed in the glory and honour of our heroes who defended our nation in the many crucial battles of the Great Patriotic War (WWII). This is a place that embodies a particularly acute and inextricable link between older ancf younger generations. Moving on to the Moscow International Business Centre, not dubbed ‘Moscow City' for nothing, a true glimpse of the future in the present. This incredible, rather jaw-dropping project in the capital has shown that Moscow has come to accept the age of the skyscraper. Finally, the stunning views from the observation deck at Sparrow Hills will leave professional and amateur photographers alike itching to capture them. How could one resist?

The most beautiful of all the world's cities - lady Moscow invites you out on a date!

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St. Basil's Cathedral

House on the Embankment

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Vorobyovy Hills

Poklonnaya Hill Poklonnaya Gora

Moscow-City

Alexander garden

Russian State Library

Bolshoi Theatre

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In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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20 Surprising Famous Guests of the Grand Ole Opry

From barn dance musicians to bluegrass virtuosos to modern country megastars, many of the world’s greatest performers have stepped foot on the grand ole opry stage, but what many people don’t realize is that a number of well-known faces beyond the country music community have made opry debuts of their own..

By Bayley Renovich

U.S. Presidents

1.  Numerous U.S. presidents have paid visits to the Opry, each leaving a lasting mark on the show’s history. President Richard Nixon was the first to do so in 1974 during the grand opening of the Grand Ole Opry House. He played “Happy Birthday” for his wife and “God Bless America” for the audience on the piano, making him the only president to actually perform on the show. President Nixon was joined on stage by Roy Acuff, who was not only a master of the fiddle but also the yo-yo. Acuff gave Nixon a quick yo-yo lesson, but the president had some trouble learning the ropes. Nixon quipped, “I will stay here and try to learn how to use the yo-yo; you go up and be president, Roy.”

2.  In 1980, President Jimmy Carter held a town hall-style meeting at the Grand Ole Opry House when running for re-election. A longtime politician with Georgia roots, he opened his speech by saying, “It is really good to be back down home. You probably think I came down here to campaign for president, but I really came down here to hear Bill Monroe and his band.” He recalled how he had long dreamed of standing on the Grand Ole Opry stage — he just never would’ve thought that being able to do so would first require becoming commander in chief.

3. President Ronald Reagan was next to visit on Sept. 13, 1984. He stopped by the Opry to help celebrate Acuff’s 81st birthday. There, he campaigned for his second term as president and praised the life and lyrics of Mr. Acuff.

4. Reagan’s successor, President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush were big fans of the Opry. The couple showed their love for country music by enjoying multiple visits to the Opry while serving in office. Their passion for the show is immortalized in a letter written by the president on Air Force Two stationery, in which he thanked Minnie Pearl for the hospitality she showed them during one of their famed visits.

5. President George W. Bush was the most recent president to visit. Just one day after giving his fifth State of the Union address, President Bush gave a speech at the Opry. At this gathering, the president was greeted on stage by Opry group Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers.

6. During an extended stay in Nashville, music legend and former member of The Beatles, Paul McCartney, made his first appearance at the Opry. On June 16, 1974, McCartney and his wife, Linda, watched the third annual Grand Masters Fiddling Contest from the audience. Afterward, they spent time backstage with Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner. It was the final show that Parton and Wagoner were billed together as a duet before Parton pursued a solo career. McCartney returned to the Opry again just 12 days later, where he was introduced to the audience by Roy Acuff. He did not perform, but he did mingle backstage with various artists, including Chet Atkins.

7. In 1979, soul singer James Brown made his legendary Opry debut. He was invited to perform on stage by Porter Wagoner when in Nashville finishing up his song “It’s Too Funky in Here.” While on stage, he performed a medley of songs including “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “Tennessee Waltz,” and “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” A lifelong country music fan, Brown later said that performing on the Opry was a career highlight.

8. Singer, songwriter, and producer Pharrell Williams was recently invited on stage as the special guest of Opry group Little Big Town. He joined the band on stage on June 7, 2016 to help them sing “C’mon,” a track off their album  Wanderlust . The album was produced by Williams and features other collaborations with Justin Timberlake and Chad Hugo of N.E.R.D.

9. The 1980 biopic film  Coal Miner’s Daughter  tells the story of Opry member Loretta Lynn’s rise to fame. The film’s Academy Award-winning actress, Sissy Spacek, would later be introduced on the Grand Ole Opry stage by none other than Loretta Lynn herself. 

10. In 2007, famed actor Kevin Costner formed a country-rock band, Kevin Costner & Modern West. It was after the release of the band’s fourth studio album that they made their Opry debut. There, they performed the title song off of their album  Famous for Killing Each Other . The band has performed at the Opry several times since their debut.

11. It wasn’t a complete shock when comedian and musician Jack Black made his Opry debut. After all, he grew up with bluegrass roots and had a father-in-law, Charlie Haden, who was a famed jazz bassist. Black and Haden performed on the Opry stage on Feb. 28, 2009. Alongside them were bluegrass stars Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Andy Hall, Jim Mills, and Bryan Sutton.

12. On Sept. 1, 2009, Golden Globe-winning actor Kevin Bacon and his Emmy-winning brother Michael Bacon made their Grand Ole Opry debut as The Bacon Brothers. They performed on stage with The Bellamy Brothers, singing “Guilty of the Crime.” The duo has recorded a number of albums and continue to tour together.

13. At the age of 17, a young Steve Martin paid homage to his roots when he began playing the banjo. It wasn’t until 1976 when the actor and comedian decided to incorporate the instrument into his standup routine on an episode of  Saturday Night Live  that many people saw his musical talents. It was only fitting when in 2009, Martin made his Opry debut playing songs from his album  The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo . He was joined onstage by Vince Gill, Amy Grant, and John McEuen.

TV Personalities

14. Many talk show hosts and radio personalities have stopped by the Opry. In 1976, future news anchor Anderson Cooper, then just a child, visited the Grand Ole Opry. He attended the show with his well-known parents, author Wyatt Cooper and designer Gloria Vanderbilt, and his brother Carter. He mingled with Minnie Pearl and other Opry stars, collecting autographs backstage.

15.  Good Morning America  anchor Robin Roberts has visited on two occasions, serving as a guest announcer for Opry Goes Pink, a special show that helps raise funds in the fight against breast cancer.

16. Bob Schieffer of CBS attended the Opry in 2008 while in town for a presidential debate. He performed “Alcohol” alongside Brad Paisley.

17. Charles Osgood, former host of  CBS Sunday Morning , made his Opry debut in 2010 as a guest announcer. Osgood performed “You Are My Sunshine” on the piano in honor of the Opry’s 85th birthday.

18. At each of the Grand Ole Opry’s birthday celebrations, a giant cake is rolled out on stage, but a milestone like 85 years called for an extra special cake made by Chef Duff Goldman, best known for his Food Network show,  Ace of Cakes . His 4-feet-tall cake was an edible replica of the Opry’s iconic microphone stand and circle flanked by two guitars. After the big on-stage reveal, Goldman and his sous chef, Geof Manthorne, played on stage with Opry member Charley Pride.

Other Surprising Guests

19. While in Nashville for an art exhibit and reception at the Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, artists Andy Warhol and Jamie Wyeth received an invitation from Dorothy Ritter — a Western movie actress, widow of Opry member Tex Ritter, and unofficial backstage host — to be guests of the show. On Jan. 29, 1977, they caught the show and later met many of the Opry members backstage.

20. 2010 marked 85 years for both the Grand Ole Opry and the Harlem Globetrotters, so it only made sense for both to celebrate together. Charlie Daniels was joined on stage by three members of the exhibition basketball team. During Daniels' performance of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” player Scooter Christensen demonstrated his ball-handling wizardry by spinning a basketball on the tip of Daniels’ fiddle bow.

Go Backstage The Grand Ole Opry House's Friends and Neighbors dressing room is dedicated to show's many notable visitors. See it, along with other unique dressing rooms, on a backstage tour.

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