Blake Shelton's Ole Red Nashville Loses Lawsuit Over Red Lighting

Blake Shelton's Ole Red Nashville Loses Lawsuit Over Red Lighting

Blake Shelton's honky-tonk venue, Ole Red Nashville, on Broadway has been banned from lighting its exterior with red lights.

The Metro Historic Zoning Commission originally filed a lawsuit against the company that owns Ole Red, Ryman Hospitality, in February of 2019. The lawsuit stated that the red light illuminating from the exterior of the building needed to be changed since the building is a historic overlay district. According to News Channel 5, a historic overlay is one where restrictions are put in place to protect the character of historical areas such as Nashville's Broadway.

The Ryman Hospitality Group claims that their red light design was planned out in advance, before the light restriction was created.

"We disagree with Tuesday's decision. We strongly believe that our original lighting design, which was planned well before the current lighting guidelines were in place, strikes the right balance between honoring the historic character of our building while also being compatible with its present-day surroundings," a Ryman Hospitality spokeswomen said. "We are exploring and intend to pursue additional avenues that will ultimately allow us to light out building in accordance with the original design.

Ole Red Nashville is located at 300 Broadway housed in the Broadway National Bank which was built in 1926. Shelton's first Ole Red location was in his hometown of Tishomingo, Oklahoma and started in 2017. The Nashville location opened in June of 2018, then following another opened in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in March of 2019.

The name Ole Red comes from Shelton's 2002 hit song, "Ol' Red" which can be heard below. "Ol" was changed to "Ole" to represent Ryman Hospitality and the Grand Ole Opry's involvement.

Photo: Getty Images


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