Incase ya haven’t heard, Eric Church has a Nashville bar in the works.
Affectionately named Chief’s, the space will be a 6-story bar, BBQ restaurant and music venue featuring located at 200 Broadway, in the building that formerly housed Cotton Eyed Joe, right beside John Rich’s Redneck Riviera.
Church bought the building for $24.5 million from Rich along with Ben Weprin, founder of boutique venture capital firm AJ Capital Partners, which also owns the building housing the famous Exit/In music venue in Nashville and is best known for its chain of Graduate Hotels across the country.
He’s also bringing in a taste of his local Carolinas by partnering with famous BBQ chef Rodney Scott, the James Beard Award-winning pitmaster and founder of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ, for the bar’s food program, which will be served from the rooftop and contain all-weather seating for visitors.
With that being said, Church recently opened up about the details regarding the new bar while in a recent interview with SiriusXM’s The Highway, and how it will coincide with Church’s new SiriusXM channel, Outsiders Radio.
He said in the interview:
“There’s gonna be a studio in Chief’s, and we’re going to do a lot of stuff live there. We’re gonna to do a couple of exclusive shows there. It’s 470 people, it’s a venue, so it’s a ticketed venue.
It’s gonna be more of a storyteller/songwriter stuff, stories about my life, challenges I’ve had, songs that relate to that, just me on a stage, no mics, no gear, just me.
I’m gonna walk around, it’s not going to be a set position. It’s going to be a little bit like a Broadway show… like Bruce has done except it’s a different Broadway, Broadway South… but that’s what I’m gonna do for a year, whether it’s once or twice a month, I don’t know yet.
In there will be a studio that will be broadcasting live and there will be other shows involved but our station ‘Outsiders Radio’ will be a big part of Chief’s and what it is.”
He also revealed how he got his start in Nashville and why her performed more in Printer’s Alley, particularly at a bar called Fiddle & Steel:
“When I first came to town, I really couldn’t get on Broadway. The reason I went to Printer’s Alley and to The Fiddle And Steel is because that’s where kind of the misfits went, the rejects, the people that weren’t allowed to play on Broadway. It took a lot, especially when I came to town, to play on Broadway.
There weren’t as many places, and the places were pretty coveted. Those people, they didn’t give up their slots and so we would always go… all the musicians and artists that were counted as the misfits, we would end up on Printer’s Alley at The Fiddle And Steel.
What our hope our place has and it will have, is the spirit of that, the musical spirit. And the other part of this story is we got the Fiddle & Steel, the original sign that hung in that alley, its gonna hang in Chief’s. We found it two days ago.”
Here’s a look at the exterior of the space, which features a giant “Turn The Quiet Up” banner in front of the scaffolding:
He also detailed his new radio station, and what fans can expect to hear:
