What’s a country superstar to do after scoring hits? Set up camp on downtown Nashville’s main drag and open a namesake bar — six in the last 18 months alone.
1. Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse
Owner: Kid Rock
Address: 221 Broadway
The vibe here is Kid Rock all the way: a neon-splashed bar with black lights overhead, the singer’s “American Badass” emblem hanging over the first floor and a sign shaped like a woman’s behind. There’s decent steak, too, including a 36-ounce Tomahawk ribeye.
2. Luke’s 32 Bridge
Owner: Luke Bryan
Address: 301 Broadway
3. Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar
Owner: Jason Aldean
Address: 307 Broadway
Visitors can bounce between the rooftops of Aldean’s and Bryan’s bars (they’re housed in the same building), but the spaces, which both opened in 2018, are distinct: Aldean’s features a big, green tractor on the first floor (an ode to his 2009 Hot Country Songs No. 1) as well as his mom’s peach cobbler on the menu. Bryan’s, named for a bridge in his native Georgia (and, now, his clothing line), has a sushi bar, plus the black Chevy truck from his That’s My Kind of Night Tour.
4. AJ’s Good Time Bar
Owner: Alan Jackson
Address: 421 Broadway
In its past lives, Broadway’s oldest building was a Civil War hospital, Nashville’s first used-record store and home to Bullet Records from 1946 to 1952. In October 2016, it became a three-floor honky-tonk and a Jackson mini-museum, featuring a bar that’s an exact replica of its owner’s Merritt sports fish boat, Hillbilly.
5. Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row
Owner: Dierks Bentley
Address: 400 Broadway
The Phoenix-born singer named his bar — which opened in January 2018, and has three other locations in Arizona — after the state’s famous downtown strip in Prescott. The former Gruhn Guitars space, where Bentley used to test out banjos when he moved to Nashville, features vintage guitars, a motorcycle that hangs above one bar and, above another bar, a lit-up sign name-checking his hit “Tip It On Back.”
6. Ole Red
Owner: Blake Shelton
Address: 300 Broadway
Shelton partnered with Ryman Hospitality Properties to open this spot last June (one in a franchise that includes locations in his hometown of Tishomingo, Okla.; Gatlinburg, Tenn.; and, in 2020, Orlando, Fla.). It’s the only bar on Broadway with snacks inspired by Shelton’s irreverent sense of humor, like Redneck Nachos and a Kiss My Country Ass Quesadilla.
7. Redneck Riviera
Owner: John Rich
Address: 208 Broadway
The Big & Rich star enlisted his brother to build almost everything inside, including the tractor-wheel light fixtures. The two Heroes bars — which honor first responders, veterans and active military personnel, all of whom receive discounted drinks — have an American flag backdrop (albeit one made of beer cans). A neon sign of Rich’s likeness lights up when he’s at the bar.
This article originally appeared in the June 1 issue of Billboard.