A trip to Nashville is not complete if you don’t visit the Grand Ole Opry. It’s one of the founding blocks of Nashville’s country music scene dating all the way back to the 1920’s. The history contained within the walls of the Opry is amazing.
The Opry sells tickets to both tours and concerts. Within those two categories there are many options to choose from. We’ll cover those options and how you can go about getting discounts to get inside the Opry at a fair price!
What is the Grand Ole Opry?
Many people visiting Nashville are surprised to find out the Grand Ole Opry is actually the name of a weekly concert that began in 1925. In fact, it still continues to air every Saturday morning on WSM radio.
Currently, The Grand Ole Opry broadcasts from the Grand Ole Opry House which is located about 12 miles from downtown Nashville. The Opry house is located next to Gaylord Opryland Resort, Opry Mills Mall and the General Jackson Showboat.
The current location that broadcasts the Grand Ole Opry didn’t open until 1974. Prior to this location, the Grand Ole Opry broadcasted from 5 other locations around Nashville including the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville.
How do singers join the Opry?
Another surprising fact about the Opry is that members of the show must be invited to join and are required to perform at least 6 shows per year in order to maintain their membership. Back in the 1960’s, this requirement was set at a lofty 26 shows per year, but it has slowly declined over the years.
As of the time of this writing, there are 66 active members of the Grand Ole Opry. The longest tenured member is Stonewall Jackson who joined the Opry back in 1956.
Who performs at the Opry?
The great thing about the Grand Ole Opry is that you can catch some of country music’s biggest names in concert here for a great price. Since members are required to perform 6 shows per year, it’s guaranteed that you will have an opportunity to see your favorite artist on stage at some point during the year. In addition, a Grand Ole Opry taping will consist of multiple artists per show, so 
you’ll likely see a few stars on stage at once.
As previously mentioned, the membership list contains some of the biggest names in the industry. Currently, names like Little Big Town, Keith Urban, Kelsea Ballerini, Blake Shelton, Darius Rucker, Carrie Underwood, Dirks Bentley, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks are on the list.
Some of the older legends on the list include Clint Black, Pam Tillis, Vince Gill, Dolly Parton and Barbara Mandrell.
Backstage Tours
As mentioned earlier, there are several options when looking at tickets to get into the Grand Ole Opry. Backstage tours have always been popular at the Opry. The Opry does a great job at offering some truly unique tours. Here’s the current options available:
Daytime Backstage Tours – Adults (12 and older) $35, Kids (4-11) $30 – This tour takes you behind the scenes to see where all the starts like Garth and Dolly get ready before heading on stage. You also may get the opportunity to walk out onto the Opry stage and see the set where Hee-Haw was filmed.
Post Show Tours – Must have a ticket for the show preceding the tour. This tour offers a unique experience because you get to complete it right after a show has completed. It’s important to note, that in order to go on this tour, you MUST attend one of the shows. Therefore, your cost will be the ticket price for the tour plus the cost of the show.
Behind the Curtain Star Experience – Adults (12 and older) $90 – Must be at least 12 years old to attend. Must also have a ticket to attend the concert for that night. This tour offers a truly unique experience. I’ve never heard of any other venue offering this type of tour. If you do this tour, you will get to be behind stage DURING the live show. You’ll get to see all the things to that on behind the scenes that aren’t visible from the audience.
What You Will See on Backstage Tours
The Artist Entrance – The artist entrance is just that. It’s the lobby where all the start arrive and get assigned their dressing room. You’ll also see the mailboxes that all Opry members have assigned to them.
The Stage – This is where the music and entertainment magic comes to life. While on one of the backstage tours, you’ll get to see the stage where countless legends have performed. There’s few places in the world that has seen more legends than the hardwood making up the Grand Ole Opry’s stage.
Studio A – The show Hee Haw ran for 26 seasons and was filmed in Studio A. The show featured legends such as Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl and Grandpa Jones. The studio is now home to shows like Crook and Chase and CMT’s show called Crossroads.
Dressing Rooms – The Grand Ole Opry has 18 dressing rooms for its performers. In front of each door are large, beautiful guitar picks inlaid into the floor to show the dressing room numbers.
The other interesting thing about the dressing rooms is how they are decorated. Some of the dressing rooms have very specific decor to pay tribute to a group or music legend. One room is decorated to honor those who have served in the military while another room is bedazzled with flashy rhinestones to honor the great Porter Wagner!
The Circle – The name of it sounds so insignificant. However, “The Circle” is THE SPOT inside of the Grand Ole Opry. The circle is the focal point of the Opry stage. It’s the spot where generations of legends have stood and performed over the years.
The circle has been around longer than it’s current home. In fact, The Circle was created from the flooring of the old Ryman Auditoriam which was home to the show before it’s current location. In an effort to preserve some of it’s history, the decision was made to cut part of the hardwood from the Ryman and move it to the new stage at the Opry House.
It was later decided that the white oak and maple boards that were removed would be cut into a 6 foot circle and placed at center stage. Music legend Roy Acuff was the person who oversaw the move and final placement of this centerpiece.
Discount Tickets for Backstage Tours
Packages and deals are always changing, but we will do our best to ensure the listing of offers below stay up to date to provide you with the ultimate savings!
Here’s the best deals we have found for backstage tours:
Opry.com Website
The first place you should check for discounted tickets and packages for the Opry is their own website. You can access it by clicking here. They offer several different ticket packages depending on the time of the year. This should be your starting point to get a feel for what’s available.
It doesn’t happen often, but on occasion, you can find a promo code on the Grand Ole Opry’s Facebook page. It should be one of the first places you check, as their discount will likely be one of the best you can find. Here’s a link to their page (Click Here).
Old Town Trolley Tours
Like most other big cities, Nashville has a trolley company that provides tourists transportations around town to see the major sights in the area. Since Nashville traffic and parking can be difficult to maneuver at times, this is a great option to consider. Trolley Tours typically offers a Grand Ole Opry package on their site that will help save you a few dollars. You can find their deals by clicking here.
Tour Beaver
Tour Beaver is a site that specializes in savings purchasing tickets in bulk and passing the discounts on to their customers. This is an option to check out for sure, but the savings will likely be rather small. You can find offerings by clicking here.
AAA Discount
You can also get tickets to the tours by calling the ticket office and telling them you are a AAA member. Be sure to have your membership ID ready for you to be verified as a member. This discount is typically 10%.
RetailMeNot & DontPayFull sites
In the past, I’ve always had decent luck using sites like RetailMeNot and DontPayFull. Howevever, for discounts to the Grand Ole Opry, you’re going to waste your time. You’ll find lots of codes on their sites, but they rarely, if ever work.
Tickets for Concerts
Gaylord Opryland Resort Package
Since the Gaylord Resort (see additional details about the resort below) is close to the Opry, they usually have a package available that includes tickets to see a show. Prices will typically be higher near the holidays due to the increase in visitors to the area to catch the amazing Christmas displays that the resort offers. Click here to view the details of the package offered by the Gaylord Resort.
Vivid Seats and Stubhub
As you can imagine, when the big names come to the Opry, tickets for the concerts sell out quickly. If you are caught without tickets, you can still pick up tickets on the secondary market to see your favorite artist. The two best sites that I’ve found for secondary tickets are Vivid Seats and Stubhub. Stubhub is likely the one you’ve heard of, but Vivid Seats offers a great selection and pricing too. To see the tickets that each ticket service has available for the Opry concerts, click on their links here: Vivid Seats and Stubhub.
Attractions near the Opry
There are several great attractions near the Grand Ole Opry. You could easily park your car and spend the day in the vicinity on the day of your tour. Whether you are doing a tour (they last about 45 minutes) or catching a concert, there should be plenty of time in your day to explore the other attractions nearby.
General Jackson Showboat
The General Jackson is a 274 foot long paddle wheel boat that began operating in 1985. Taking a ride on the General Jackson is an awesome experience. You board the boat at a small dock behind
the Opry Mills mall. The boat ride lasts between 2.5 and 4 hours and takes you down the Cumberland River. Riding the boat offers riders a truly unique perspective of the Nashville skyline.
While on the boat, you can sit on one of the outside docks and enjoy the views or you can have a seat inside and watch one of the many performances that are offered.
Ticket pricing starts at $30 if you are just looking to do the boat ride and shows. To have a meal while on board, the price goes up to just $42 per person.
Gaylord Opryland Resort
It may sound odd to list a hotel as an attraction, but the Gaylord Opryland Resort is not a normal hotel. This resort is massive! It is ranked as one of the 30 biggest hotels in the world! The hotel offers just under 2,900 rooms and over 700,000 square feet of meeting space.
In addition, it has 3 atriums ranging from 2 to 4.5 acres. These atriums are kept at a comfortable 71 degrees year round which is perfect for the more than 10,000 plants that reside here. Inside the Delta Atrium you will also find a quarter mile long river which has flatboats that you can ride. An interesting fact about the river – water samples from 1700 rivers from around the world were collected and pours into it when it was built!
The size and elegance of the hotel is known throughout the world. Multiple United States Presidents have stayed at the resort during visits to the Music City area. There are also many large conferences that are held at the resort, including the MLB Owner’s meetings on occasion.
Due to the size of the resort, you can easily spend 2-3 hours walking around the hotel. It’s very easy to get lost while wandering all of the pathways in the atriums.
If you are visiting between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, expect heavy crowds. People travel from all over the country to see the Christmas lights displays at the resort. I highly recommend it if you get the chance. Crowds can be very heavy during this time of year. Since the hotel is next to a major mall, traffic can be very heavy as well. Once you get inside the hotel and into the atriums, the crowds will dissipate due to the sheer size of the resort.
Opry Mills Mall
If you are looking for shopping while visiting the Grand Ole Opry, the Opry Mills Mall is a must stop! The mall has about 200 stores and is about 1.2 million square feet. An interesting fact about this mall is that it is built over a large theme park that was called Opryland. The decision to build the mall over the theme park was very controversial when the decision was made.
