Roy Acuff:
The King of Country Music Won’t
Abdicate His Musical Throne
Although Roy Acuff may not have been blessed with—or cursed by—as colorful of a country music career as his contemporary, Hank Williams, Acuff’s contributions to country music are just as pioneering and his legacy just as long-lasting as Williams’s. They do, after all, call Acuff “the King of Country Music” for a reason. Acuff takes on Williams in another category: country music spooky ghost stories.
While Williams’s ghost, just like his Luke the Drifter persona, has been spotted all along the highways and byways, reports of run-ins with Acuff’s ghost are primarily centered in a house he built near his beloved Grand Ole Opry Theater.
Early in his career, Acuff considered the chance to sing on the Grand Ole Opry radio show a life-changer and he never forgot the opportunity. He loved performing on the radio show so much that he built a home in what became Opryland plaza, just to be close to the action. The performer was active at the Grand Ole Opry nearly until he died in 1992—and he may still be active there after his death.
Acuff was born in 1903 in Maynardville, Tennessee. His father, who was a lawyer, a minister, and a fine fiddle player, introduced him to music and the musical influences of the church, which played an important role in the musical upbringing of lots of the country stars we examine in this book. He performed as a singer and front man for a number of bands for years, but his big break came singing on the Grand Ole Opry in 1938. Listeners enjoyed his performance on the show that night so much that he was asked to be a regular on the weekly show. The rest is musical history; the haunted history of the Roy Acuff House, on the other hand, began more than a half century after that pivotal Grand Ole Opry show.
Since Opryland is so haunted—something we’ll cover in an upcoming section—you might assume that the Roy Acuff House, just like other buildings in the area, could be haunted by any number of wandering souls. But paranormal researchers tie it directly to Acuff’s passing. They are quick to point out that people began to report paranormal hauntings at the building in 1992, shortly after Acuff passed away.
The incidents became so numerous and occurred so regularly that word got out about the house soon after Acuff’s passing. Once the house was turned into a museum, more people—staff and visitors—began to observe the strange phenomena. The building’s haunted reputation zoomed to the top of Nashville’s paranormal top ten. One of the first things that witnesses noticed were the odd footsteps. They said they heard someone walking through the house. Those were definite footfalls that would echo down the halls, these witnesses suggested, not the creaks of the house settling. But when these witnesses chased down the sound—perhaps expecting an intruder or a lost guest—they found no one. The building was empty.
When people began to notice an inexplicable light show, the rumors that Acuff was still haunting the building began to escalate. Lights would turn on and then turn off, all by themselves. You might think this is easily debunked: it’s just a case of loose or faulty wiring, right? But it turns out the management of the museum had electricians check the wiring and everything seemed to be fine. There’s something else about the activity that makes electrical issues a less likely source of the problem. The lights aren’t flickering. They turn on for a long time—and then turn off. It’s like someone is controlling the lights, witnesses say. In an upcoming story, we’ll discover there are other places that the ghost of Acuff apparently likes to fiddle with the lighting.
Acuff lets the staff know he’s around in other ways—strange ways. The staff blames the singer for a few pranks. Over the years, several employees reported that items disappeared and then reappeared a few hours or a few days later, sometimes in a totally different spot than where they remember placing them. Several stories have circulated of staff members tossing something on a table or a desk and then, when they go back to retrieve the item, find that it’s gone. Disappeared. Vanished. Then, just when they forget about the incident, they’ll walk into a room and there—in plain sight—will be the missing item.
Skeptics would easily discount the missing-objects phenomena. It’s just a bunch of forgetful employees blaming the paranormal on their own incompetence. But that theory starts to shake in light of other evidence. Some folks have claimed not to be the victims of a missing object paranormal prank, but to have actually seen these things move without any human—at least a living human—nearby. The witnesses watched—horrified—as items start to slide down desks and table tops or across mantels. Chairs have moved by themselves, too.
For those familiar with the haunting, this odd phenomena is just Acuff still going about his business—a business that he always loved—in a place that he called home for most of his life.
More Acuff Hauntings
We could easily discount the stories of Acuff’s eternal attachment to his Nashville home, if it weren’t for other stories about the King of Country Music’s ghost popping up in other haunted hot spots in the music city.
Nashville is full of ghosts and some say that Acuff is one of the leading paranormal attractions at one of Nashville’s most visited landmarks. According to those who worked at the Opry House, the site where some of country’s biggest names have performed and continue to perform, Acuff kept watch over the stable of talent that hits the stage at the Opry. He must still want to share the stage with them, too.
Most of the accounts came from employees who had the unenviable task of closing up the Opry House once the show is over. The performers are gone. The audience members have snapped their last pictures and have moved on, too. Most of the technical crew—the guys and gals who take care of the light and the sound—have left. It’s just a few members of the skeleton crew and the dark, empty, and reportedly haunted auditorium.
In the darkness, employees report a lot of false paranormal alarms. The acoustics are so good that sounds are magnified. Sounds from naturally occurring phenomena sound creepy and supernatural. You can forgive the staff for being a little on edge. However, the employees say they adjust to the weird sound effects—and that makes their reported run-ins with the paranormal even more compelling and believable.
One activity that the employees have no rational explanation for is the light and curtains show. Several staff members say they go through their closing checklist, making sure the lights are off and the curtain closed. However, as they make their way out the door, the employees can hear the lights switching on and the curtains move. They go back inside and—low and behold—the stage lights are on and the curtain is pulled back like another act is hitting the stage.
The most likely spirit suspect is Acuff, these workers say. They believe the King of Country Music just wants to feel the floor of the stage beneath him and imagine the roar of the crowds just one more time.
It should be noted that a serious flood in 2010 harmed Roy Acuff’s former home, as well as several other buildings in the area. The theme park has also been closed, although there is talk about rebuilding. As of the writing of this section, Acuff’s home is still standing. We don’t know whether or not it’s still paranormally active.