What is the Grand Ole Opry? "It brings forth the aroma of bacon frying in a pan" as George D. Hay, the creator of the Opry, said in the beginning. The rural images that it represented are all but gone today, but we wish to always remember it the way that it was before the harsh changes that destroyed it from within began to happen back in 1998.
This webpage is in no way to undermine or demean anyone, but to reverence the hallowed place in my heart that is held by Roy Acuff, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Carl Smith, Rod Brasfield, Billy Grammer, and a host of others that kept the traditions of the Grand Ole Opry true to the end. PBS did the right thing in the late seventies when it broadcasted the Opry the way that it was, without making a big production out of it, and allowing the Opry to continue as it had for many years as a radio show. Hal Durham and Bud Wendell, during the change of the Opry from the Ryman, did the best they could do when National Life moved it out of downtown in 1974 into a new home built especially for it, and also built a wonderful park that was once known as Opryland USA. The show remained the same until after was sold in 1983 to Gaylord Entertainment Corporation. Change swiftly came in some respects, and more slowly in many other things.
The down-home friendliness of being backstage was a real treat for those of us who experienced being back there on a regular basis in the eighties and nineties (and before). Many dressing room doors were left open, but Roy Acuff's always remained so, who allowed anyone and everyone who so desired to enter into his dressing room and look around, get an autograph from him or any of his band members, or just hang out. There was always at least three bands playing backstage on Saturday nights at different intervals during the broadcast for the guests and friends that were there, and it was so wonderful to get to see and hear the sights and sounds that were once a part of the atmosphere at the Opry. Those things, like many others, have been ended thanks to people in control now. The statements made by some that there were too many people backstage, and that the older artists were to be pushed aside to favor the younger - and more pop-oriented - sealed the fate of the old way of life for the Grand Ole Opry.
These same people wonder why the numbers are down (or will be in some delusional cloud saying that there is nothing wrong), or maybe they don't care. Those of us who know what the Grand Ole Opry is, what it stood for, and what it was like to be there during any part of the golden era of the history of the Opry understand and will never forget.
May the spirit of the Grand Ole Opry live within each of us throughout the years no matter what anyone else may do to end it now.