(EBM) 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."
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