Grand Ole Opry

Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, May 2007 Mel Tillis on the Opry House stage on the night he was asked to join the Grand Ole Opry, beside the darker circle of wood set into the floor. That circle is the point: on January 9, 1974, a square was cut from the Ryman's stage and carved into a six-foot circle for the new house. Roy Acuff opened the first show in the 4,440-seat Opry House the night after the last Ryman broadcast in March 1974. The circle has been center stage ever since and survived the 2010 flood, so artists here still sing on wood the Ryman's legends stood on.