On Miranda Lambert Opening Controversial New LiveNation Venue “The Truth”
There’s worse offenses for sure. Nobody should be looking to “cancel” Miranda Lambert over this issue. Artists deserve to get paid, and Live Nation is often the devil you have to dance with in the music industry, for artists both big and small. But is it a bad look? It kind of is. Could she have ceded this opportunity to someone else? Yes, she could have.
For those that are unaware, Nashville’s new mid-sized indoor music venue The Truth was already stirring controversy before they even broke ground. First announced in October of 2025, The Truth was clearly the corporate attempt to rip off the Mother Church of Country Music, The Ryman Auditorium, which only sits 1.5 miles away, and has a very similar architectural structure and size.
Even the name for the new venue is derived from the old Harlan Howard quote that defines country music as “Three chords and the truth.” Sally Williams, who is President of Nashville Music & Business Strategy for Live Nation—and was the one who formally announced the project—also happens to be the former general manager of the Ryman Auditorium.
But hey, Live Nation owns and operates venues all across the United States, and already has a major footprint in Nashville. There are worse things to transpire than them opening another venue, even if it is a little too close for comfort with a country music historical landmark.
But then Live Nation really showed off the predatory, tone deaf nature of the business by how they decided to promote it. As construction commenced at 500 Chestnut St. in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood on The Truth, Live Nation hired a company who went around Nashville stenciling graffiti-style advertisements for it on sidewalks around town, and specifically in front of multiple locally-owned venues. The ads read, “The Sound of New Nashville Text ‘TRUTH’ to + 1 (615) ——–.” Texting the number signed you up for automated ticketing alerts for the venue.
One such spray-painted advertisement was stenciled right outside their front door of the beloved East Nashville music venue The 5 Spot. The community-oriented venue is considered the epicenter of the city’s independent music scene. The Springwater Supper Club near Centennial Park—which the oldest operating bar in Tennessee and a place many up-and-comers got their start—also got hit with one of the ads. Incidentally, Nashville city code strictly prohibits such ads.
This is when ire for the new venue really permeated the population of music artists and fans in Nashville and beyond. When the first slate of performers were announced, there were only a few country or country-adjacent acts. Sting, Beck, Limp Bizkit, Bleachers, GloRilla, and more were booked to appear this fall. Previously, opening night was scheduled to be on October 5th when Disney actor Freya Skye took the stage.
But now it’s been announced that none other than Miranda Lambert will be the inaugural performer at The Truth, officially opening up the venue on October 1st. The show will come the night before Lambert releases her new record, the Disco-inspired Crisco, and will feature a 12-piece string section to go along with her regular tour band.
“It was magical to hear the way strings can transform a song when we were in the studio creating this record, and I can’t wait to bring that to life in an even bigger way with our full setlist,” Lambert says in a statement. “We’ve never gotten to play that way on stage, and to have the opportunity to do it for the first time at the opening of a beautiful new venue right here in Nashville is going to be really special.”
Again, this isn’t a hanging offense. But being the opening performer of this Live Nation venue in the aftermath of the company’s massive lawsuit and their behavior promoting it just isn’t a good look.
Miranda Lambert has always been one of those performers with mainstream impact that more independent and traditional country fans can still appreciate. Her championing of songwriters has been exceptional, and generally speaking, she’s always kept her music more rooted in the roots compared to contemporaries. But in part, its this street cred and legitimacy that The Truth wants to sponge off by putting Miranda Lambert on the stage first.
Eventually, The Truth will simply blend in with the rest of Nashville’s live music inventory as just another venue, and there won’t be any kind of stigma around playing it. But they could have allowed some aging rocker from out-of-town to forever be the first person to have played a venue that very well might affect the efficacy of the Ryman Auditorium and other independently-owned music venues in Nashville moving forward. Now it will be what is likely to be a future Country Music Hall of Famer.
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August 18, 2026 @ 11:19 am
The Truth isn’t really seen as competition to The Ryman in Nashville. It’s a direct response to AEG’s 4000 cap The Pinnacle opened last year. Both fill a whole in the market, with over double the capacity of the Ryman. And nothing will ever replace the Ryman- their calendar stays fully booked and there’s no shortage of acts trying to play there. The history of it will always keep it in demand. But it’s a stepping stone- artists who play one or two nights at the Ryman need a venue to play before Ascend Amp at 6000+ and Bridgestone Arena. 4+ nights at the Ryman might be cooler, but just isn’t in the cards for every act, and there isn’t enough calendar space at The Ryman to keep up with the demand.
August 18, 2026 @ 11:43 am
I agree that The Truth will not be able to confer the credibility playing The Ryman does to many artists every year who get to debut there, and as I have said in previous articles about the venue, The Pinnacle is also a comparable or rival venue.
I don’t think The Ryman is going anywhere. But I absolutely think there will be performers who choose to play The Truth and/or The Pinnacle over the Ryman, while in a previous era, the decreased capacity was the reason they wanted to play it.
Nonetheless, you’d have to play “see no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” to not clearly identify what’s going on here. Live Nation wanted their version of The Ryman. And so they built a bigger and better one … then targeted independently-owned venues and their clientele with their marketing.
August 18, 2026 @ 11:36 am
I’ve been following Miranda for a long time and it seems to me that if she gets paid to show up she just shows up. She doesn’t seem to particularly care about scandals or controversies or “how things look.”
Need a promotional single for a TV show about gay men doing makeovers on straight men? Call Miranda. Need an act to play a festival with Jason Aldean and Kid Rock? Call Miranda. Need someone with some country music credibility to play opening night for a club run by the company ripping off the most artists and fans? Call Miranda.
I could be totally wrong but it seems to me as if she just doesn’t care about any of the controversies or the criticism she often gets for these types or decisions. She just want to play her music and get paid for it.