It took Eric Church and AJ Capital Partners’ founder and CEO Ben Weprin three years to reimagine and rebuild the historic building at 200 Broadway that officially opened last night as Chief’s. With a celebratory grand opening, the six-story bar, music venue and restaurant handed its keys over to the Church Choir.
“This building is a lot like the songs I write … they’re mine until I release them, and then they’re not mine anymore, they’re yours,” shares Church.
“We’re pretty good at storytelling through song, and I trusted Ben implicitly to bring what was in my heart and head for Chief’s to life as way of storytelling through space. The genesis of this place started with the vision of what the venue would be that we built the building around,” he adds of the two-story, 400-capacity Neon Steeple performance space in the heart of the building situated on floors 3 & 4.
“When I came to Nashville in search of a place to play my songs, nowhere on this strip would have me. I went to Fiddle & Steel in Printers Alley and found my tribe,” Church shared with the original neon sign illuminating the theater balcony. “So, when we started building this, it was designed to be a place to bring original music back to the heart of historic Broadway.”
Church delivered on that promise with his first-of-nineteen residency shows, the aptly titled “To Beat The Devil.” In a journey chronicling his life and career, Church Choir members — as tickets were sold only to them — were treated to a nearly two-hour set solely for their eyes and ears.
“I wanted a place I play songs that didn’t make albums — and this is the only place I’ll do a lot of these songs and share a lot of these stories. It’s a conversation in a place only for the people there.”
Chief’s ticketed music venue is accompanied by Chief’s Tavern, a first-floor additional live entertainment space papered by more than 4,000 concert posters from throughout the CMA Entertainer of the Year’s career, and the second-floor Friendly Shadows Dueling Piano Bar, accented by highly-curated décor elements. Chief’s also houses a studio for broadcasting, inclusive of Eric Church Outsiders Radio on SiriusXM, with the capability of hosting broadcasts by various media partners. With street-level windows, the studio provides fans from around the world with a thrilling behind-the-scenes experience with a front-row view of broadcasting in action.
The venue also taps into Church’s Carolina roots in partnership with Rodney Scott, whose Whole Hog BBQ – part of the Pihakis Restaurant Group – occupies the fifth and sixth floors, overlooking downtown with its ‘Hell of a Q’ rooftop location.
Just as the Tennessean proclaimed of Church’s residency show, all six stories of Chief’s itself offer the “ultimate display of the honesty, personal touches and against-the-grain actions and thinking that have defined his quarter-century in Nashville.”
More at ChiefsonBroadway.com
About Eric Church:
A seven-time ACM Award winner, four-time CMA Award winner (including the 2020 award for Entertainer of the Year) and 10-time GRAMMY nominee, Church has amassed a passionate fan base around the globe known as the Church Choir, plus a critically acclaimed catalog of music. Church is currently working on new music as the follow up to his most recent chart-topping project, the Heart & Soul triple album, which featured the results of a marathon session during which he spent nearly a month writing and recording a song per day while sequestered in rural North Carolina. This followed his Gold-certified Desperate Man, which earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album (his third nod in the category) and prior releases including the Platinum-certified Sinners Like Me (“How ’Bout You,” “Guys Like Me”), Carolina (“Smoke a Little Smoke,” “Love Your Love the Most”) and Mr. Misunderstood (“Record Year,” “Round Here Buzz”), the Double-Platinum certified The Outsiders (“Like a Wrecking Ball,” “Talladega”) and the 3x Platinum-certified Chief (“Springsteen,” “Drink In My Hand”), as well as 30 Gold, Platinum and multi-Platinum certified songs. Church is also a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets, a co-owner of the iconic Field & Stream brand, has his own SiriusXM music channel, “Eric Church Outsiders Radio,” his own liquor offering, Whiskey JYPSI, and Chief’s, a six-story venue on Nashville’s famed lower Broadway.
