The Ernest Tubb Record Shop, first opened its doors at 417 Broadway in downtown Nashville back in 1951.
In 2022, the record shop announced that it would unfortunately be closing its doors after both the building and the business were sold to new owners. The country music fanbase was livid and I was definitely one of them too. No one wanted to see another iconic piece of country music history just go away due to new developments.
Luckily Ernest Tubb’s nephew didn’t take this news lightly and he launched a petition to save the 72-year old record shop.
Then the building along with the business was purchased for $18.3 million in 2023 by a group of people that included Nashville real estate developer Brad Bars and some of his friends. Those friends included local attorney Grover Collins, a musician named Ilya Toshinskiy, and of course Dale Tubb, who also happens to be the grandson of Ernest Tubb.
Bars did confirm though in 2023 that the historic record shop would remain open and the building itself, which housed Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop in a statement at the time, would be getting some much needed renovations. Then, the news just kind of stopped there.
When the iconic sign got taken down, I thought the plans on the renovations had unfortunately failed. The new owners assured people though the sign being removed was only temporary during the renovations and that the sign would be going back up after the renovations were completed.
Here we are now in October of 2025 and those renovations have been completed. The Ernest Tubb Record Shop is finally reopened its doors y’all. Which is also complete with the original sign, that was fully restored in all its glory.
The Nashville Experience got a chance to tour the new shop and it looks amazingly different…but it looks amazing nonetheless.
It’s got two new bars and a rooftop honky tonk. Ernest would be proud of what they’ve done with the place and I definitely can’t wait to check it out myself. I’m also glad that it’s finally back. Downtown Nashville needs that record shop.