80 Unforgettable Moments

1965 – Johnny Cash drags his microphone stand across the front of the Ryman stage, breaking all the footlights. He is banished from the Opry. Later that night, Cash wrecks his car, breaking his nose and his jaw.

May 13, 1967 – Merle Haggard debuts at the Opry.

March 15, 1968 – Rock group the Byrds, featuring Gram Parsons and future Desert Rose Band member Chris Hillman, perform on the Grand Ole Opry. The group sings Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” then substitutes the original “Hickory Wind” for a planned cover of Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home.”

April 6, 1968 – A curfew imposed by the city of Nashville following the Rev. Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis two days earlier forces the Opry to cancel its live performance. For the only time in its history, the Opry broadcast is a previously taped show. Roy Acuff , Sam and Kirk McGee, and other performers put on a makeshift show at a nearby square-dance hall for Opry fans that afternoon.

May 11, 1968 – The Opry pays tribute to founder George D. Hay, who had died in Virginia on May 8. Opry announcer and Hay protégé Grant Turner says: “He called himself the Solemn Old Judge. If he was solemn, it was only the face of those who sought to change or corrupt the purity of the barn dance ballads he sought to preserve. We, the performers and friends of the Grand Ole Opry, salute the memory of one whose influence is felt on the stage of the Opry tonight—the Solemn Old Judge, George D. Hay.”

November 10, 1973 – Popular Opry member David “Stringbean” Akeman appears on the Opry for the final time. When Stringbean returns home from the Opry that night, he and his wife, Estelle, are ambushed and murdered by two men who hoped to rob the couple of money Stringbean reputedly had hidden in his home. Twenty-three years later, some $20,000 would be found, rotted and worthless, in the walls of the house.

March 15, 1974 – The Opry broadcasts its last Friday show from the Ryman. George Morgan’s “Candy Kisses” ends the show. After the Opry, Johnny and June Carter Cash sing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” on Grand Ole Gospel Time to end the final broadcast from the Ryman. A young writer named Garrison Keillor covers the Opry’s final Ryman performance and is inspired to create his own unique radio show, A Prairie Home Companion.

March 16, 1974 – Roy Acuff opens the new 4,440-seat Grand Ole Opry House with a performance of “The Wabash Cannonball.” President Richard Nixon attends and leads the Opry audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to First Lady Pat Nixon, who is 62. Acuff attempts to teach the President how to yo-yo before the Opry audience.

June 28, 1974 – Roy Acuff introduces former Beatle Paul McCartney to the Friday Night Opry crowd, and he and his family visit with the performers backstage. McCartney and his band Wings have been visiting Nashville and recording.

March 15, 1975 – The Cumberland River floods the Opry House parking lot, coming to within just 17 inches of the venue’s main floor. The Opry must celebrate the Opry House’s first anniversary in the Municipal Auditorium downtown. More than 7,000 attend the broadcast—the largest live Opry audience to date.