Hayley Williams vs. Morgan Wallen, and Understanding Lower Broadway

Random Notes 46 Comments


There’s been some positive news from the Lower Broadway Entertainment District in Nashville recently, at least if you care about some of the cool spots still located down there in between all the terrible establishments named after douchebag mainstream country stars.

After waiting for over three years for any news about the reopening of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, they recently unveiled a new, refurbished sign, and say the establishment will celebrate a grand re-opening at some point this fall. The historic business and building will now include a 4-story bar and venue, but the new owners have also been soliciting for a new record shop manager recently, so that means vinyl will be part of the revamped property.

Some were sad to learn that the long-running Jack’s Bar-B-Que just beside Robert’s Western World, or “The Home of Traditional Country Music” on Lower Broadway was closing. But then this week, we got the good news that neighbors JesseLee Jones and wife Emily Ann Jones will be the new owners of the property located at 416A Broadway. In fact, Robert’s is located at 416B, and at one point the two properties were connected. Now the plan is to reunite them again, and expand Robert’s to a third floor eventually.

Jack’s Bar-B-Que, just like Robert’s, is given credit for revitalizing the entertainment corridor after it had gone abandoned in large part, and overrun by pawn shops and dirty bookstores in the late ’80s into the early ’90s when the Ryman Auditorium (a.k.a. The “Mother Church of Country Music”) was shuttered after the Grand Ole Opry moved east of downtown. Now Robert’s will have the space to rival the other major establishments on Lower Broadway in the coming years.

More about the plans for the expanded Robert’s Western World and re-opening of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop when that info becomes available.

But despite all of these positive developments for meaningful and historic properties on Lower Broadway recently, many still see the area as a wasteland of commercialization, only good for separating bachelorettes and their entourages from their expendable income, and entertaining drunk tourists with classic rock covers. Those repulsed by the nightly doings on Lower Broadway apparently include long-time Nashville resident, and front woman for the pop punk/indie rock band Paramore, Hayley Williams.

Williams recently surprise released 17 singles in a solo capacity, with some grouping them together and calling the release Ego. One of the singles, and the one creating the most buzz is called “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party,” and is sort of a hazy recollection of a Lower Broadway escapade, with Hayley Williams starting off the song by proclaiming, “I’ll be the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar.”

After repeating the line, Williams goes onto replace “racist country singer’s bar” with “bachelorette party bar” and “f-cking karaoke bar” later in the song. The track is basically a cynical take down of Lower Broadway en masse, with the video shot on location, including in a pedal cab, and Hayley dry humping the Elvis Presley photo op in front of Legend’s Corner.


It really speaks to where we’re at in both country music and American culture when Hayley Williams mentions a “racist country singer’s bar,” and you don’t know exactly who she might mean. Both Morgan Wallen and Jason Aldean own prominent Lower Broadway bars, and both have seen the “racist” accusation land at their feet.

When asked by Stereogum about the song and video, and if there are any good artist-owned bars on Lower Broadway, Hayley Williams responded.

“There’s really no good ones. I don’t have one. My favorite country music artists … yeah no. Pass. Hard pass to all of them. They all have terrible names too. Like when you open a business, you don’t just put your name on it. You come up with something, right? It can have your DNA in it, but I just don’t understand the bars, the names that are just people’s names. So I don’t have a favorite, but I have a lot of beef with all of them.”

When asked if she had a least favorite, Williams answered “Morgan Wallen’s spot, whatever it is.” That is how many are landing on Morgan Wallen being the racist villain in Hayley’s “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party.”

But what’s unfortunate about the song, video, and Hayley’s portrayal of Lower Broadway is how she paints with such a broad brush, she’s basically lambasting the entire area, while not taking the time to mention somewhere like Robert’s Western World, Layla’s, or some of the other establishments that are doing what they can to keep true, live country music alive in Music City. Some might even call Hayley’s wholesale repudiation of Lower Broadway the same kind of bigotry she’s accusing Morgan Wallen of.

Sure, the ire of Williams lands mostly upon the artist-named bars, but even the recently-opened Chief’s by Eric Church has become an important hub for up-and-coming artists who want to play Lower Broadway, or who happen to be touring through Nashville. Ashley McBryde just announced a mocktail bar at the location for sober individuals who still like to have a good time. Dolly Parton just opened a wine bar inside the Assembly Food Hall. Alan Jackson’s bar is one of the better locations as well. So not all of the artists represented on Lower Broadway are of ill repute.

The video for Hayley’s “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party” concludes at the legendary Santa’s Pub south of downtown. As she’s singing “this f-cking karaoke bar…” you see shots from the place where the Ice Cold Pickers have backed up independent country greats like Logan Ledger, Kristina Murray, and Luke Bell over the years, and has been an important proving ground for true country talent on Sunday nights.

Hayley Williams and Paramore have released some great music over the years. They’ve also released some rather saccharine, vapid music too. But the band’s big single from their last album “This Is Why” really helped encapsulate the madness, paranoia, and isolation of the pandemic and cancel culture era in the United States that tore at people’s mental health, and the fabric of society itself. The song seemed purposeful and message-driven, while also being wise and self-aware.

“Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party” doesn’t feel that way. It feels like anger gettinmg the better of an artist, and judgemental. Is Morgan Wallen really a “racist”? He’s definitely plenty stupid, and was caught on a Ring doorbell in 2021 using the N-word. Granted, he basically used it in the parlance of a common hip-hop lyric, and among friends as opposed to in anger at someone. Before and after, Wallen has commonly collaborated with Black hip-hop artists, and is probably more influenced by hip-hop than country in his music. That’s not exactly the mark of a racist.

That’s not to excuse Morgan Wallen’s actions whatsoever. What he did was ignorant and irresponsible. Morgan Wallen opened up country music to a severe level of criticism and scrutiny that here four years later, it’s still facing. And that doesn’t even begin to mention the scores of other Wallen incidents, including nearly braining two police officers by hurling a deck chair off the top of Eric Church’s aforementioned Chief’s—an offense Wallen was initially charged with two felonies for.

But a lot of people love to hate on Lower Broadway without context or qualifiers. Really, it’s kind of it’s own cliché at this point. And yes, the mainstream country douchebag bars and the clientele they attract can be nauseating. The traffic and parking is a nightmare. And the bachelorette parties rolling by on their pedal taverns belching out De Leppard are about as repulsive as it gets.

But drive across the United States some time. You roll through town after town where downtown has been completely hollowed out and abandoned. Go to the upper Midwest where so many post industrial towns have absolutely no cultural districts to speak of. Think of how Lower Broadway was in 1983 when Jason and the Scorchers recorded their video for “Absolutely Sweet Marie” when it was hookers and dirty bookstores, and they threw a punk concert in the shuttered Mother Church.


Think of Iris Dement’s song “Our Town” about the communities all across America that are no more. The equivalent of Lower Broadway in Austin, TX is 6th Street, which is still struggling to recover post pandemic, and is only coming to life because comedy clubs are now opening in spots that used to house live music.

Yeah, Lower Broadway in Nashville sucks … mostly. What used to be a cool, hip place revitalized by post punk neotraditionalists has now become country music’s version of Disney World. But even Jason Isbell took the time to tribute one the cool places down there with the song “Ride To Robert’s” off his last album Foxes in the Snow, and Isbell doesn’t think too kindly of Morgan Wallen either.

At some point in the video for Hayley’s song, she’s seen scribbling “I Still Believe in Nashville.” Then believe and support the places that illustrate Nashville at its best.

Hate on Lower Broadway all you want. But if you really want to make a difference about how that area is evolving, steer people to the places down there that are still doing it right, that act like beacons of true artistic expression in a region where they need to be heard the most, that are proving grounds for important talent, and are beating back the wave of gentrification and commercialization to keep the true spirit of live music alive in the heart of Music City.

Because it’s never fair to stereotype, whether you’re a racist, or attempting to fight against it.

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