Why the Country Music Hall of Fame Tour Ended Up Being My Favorite Thing in Nashville
I had the Country Music Hall of Fame tour high on my list before I even landed in Nashville, but I went in with zero expectations about what it would actually be like. What I didn’t anticipate was how much the experience would depend on two things: arriving before the crowds and having a guide who knew how to bring the history to life.
The museum seriously undermarkets its early access tour, and I want to fix that. This is the one guided tour in Nashville I’d tell almost anyone to book, and I say that as someone who also brought their mom along.
She raved about it to her friends afterward and described it as “awesome” no less than four times before the day was over. That’s extremely high praise from someone who doesn’t hand it out freely.
If my overly critical mother’s stamp of approval still hasn’t convinced you, here’s why the Country Music Hall of Fame and Studio B tour ended up being one of my favorite experiences in Nashville.
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Quick Answer: Is the Country Music Hall of Fame Tour Worth It?
Yes, if you only do one music-related tour in Nashville, I think it should be the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and RCA Studio B tour.
Why I think it’s worth it:
Personally, I enjoyed this experience more than the Grand Ole Opry tour because it gives you a much deeper understanding of Nashville’s music culture and history as a whole.
Experience the Country Music Hall of Fame Before the Crowds
Book the early access guided tour to get the museum almost entirely to yourself before it opens to the public at 9am.
Jump to:
What’s Included
Why You’ll Want to Book the Early Access Tour
Museum Highlights
RCA Studio B Tour
What I Didn’t Love
Tips for Visiting
Country Music Hall of Fame vs Grand Ole Opry
FAQs
The Country Music Hall of Fame Tour and The RCA Studio B Tour: What’s Included
Here’s what’s included with the early access guided tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the RCA Studio B.
Important: If you want to do both the Early Access Guided Tour and the Studio B Tour, you’ll need to book the Studio B Tour separately as an add-on.
| Feature | Early Access Guided Museum Tour | Studio B Tour + Museum Admission |
| Access to the museum before it opens | Yes | No |
| Guided Museum Tour | Yes | No |
| Guided Studio B Tour | Additional Ticket | Yes |
| Return Entry to the Museum | Yes | Yes |
| Transportation to Studio B | No | Yes |
| Cost | Check Prices | Check Prices |
Unlike the guided museum tour, which only runs in the morning, the Studio B tour runs throughout the day. Booking them back to back is the most efficient way to experience both. And that’s exactly what I did: the guided museum tour at 8:30am and the Studio B tour at 10:00am.
After the museum tour, you’ll meet your Studio B group at the front entrance of the museum. The meeting spot is very obvious thanks to the signage. The Studio B portion lasts about an hour, and the museum provides transportation both ways.
When you return, the museum is already open to the general public, so you’ll definitely notice the crowds, especially if you visit on the weekend. That said, having already completed the guided portion means you can move at your own pace and revisit the exhibits you found most interesting. We spent about another 30 minutes wandering back through a few exhibits we wanted a closer look at, which felt like the perfect amount of extra time.
Why the Early Access Tour Is 100% Worth It
I can’t overstate how much the early access timing changed the experience. When we arrived at 8:30am, we practically had the entire place to ourselves. The exhibits were quiet, the corridors were open, and you could actually stop to read things without someone bumping into you or blocking your view.
By the time we returned from Studio B around 11am, it felt like a completely different attraction.
The ticket line was at least 20 people deep. At one point, someone actually walked directly into my mom while she was standing off to the side. It went from feeling calm and spacious to every Nashville tourist descending on the city’s biggest attraction at the exact same time.
If you’re thinking about just showing up and buying tickets at the door, I’d reconsider that plan. Even if you skip the guided tour and only want general admission, arriving early will make your experience significantly better.
The guided tour covers a lot of ground, and having space to actually absorb what you’re looking at makes a huge difference. There’s a lot to read, a lot to look at and an incredible amount of detail throughout the exhibits. Trying to take all of that in while navigating heavy crowds would’ve made the experience feel rushed.
Nashville summers are brutally humid, and the air conditioning inside felt glorious even at 8:30 in the morning. If you’re planning a summer trip and looking for somewhere to spend a few hours that isn’t a bar on Broadway, this is one of the best indoor activities in the city.
Highlights From the Country Music Hall of Fame
There’s a lot to see inside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the guided tour helps you prioritize the most important exhibits without feeling like you’re being rushed through. These were the exhibits and moments that stuck with me most.
The Costumes and Memorabilia Are Incredible
I’m a sucker for rhinestones and sequins, and the museum has both in abundance.
The Dolly Parton section alone is worth the price of admission: iconic dresses with impossibly tiny waists, rhinestones and sky-high hemlines that somehow look even more impressive in person.
As someone who lives in LA, I also loved seeing the western influence on country fashion represented in the museum. Gene Autry and Dale Evans both get their due, and the section dedicated to Nudie Cohn is a highlight on its own. Seeing his actual sewing machine on display, knowing what came out of that workshop, added a layer to the exhibit I wasn’t expecting.
The History of Country Music Is Fascinating
Even if you think you know the basics, the museum does a great job tracing country music back to its roots through the instruments that built it. Three instruments sit at the center of the story: the guitar, the banjo and the fiddle.
The banjo section was the most memorable for me. One of the early banjos on display is covered in animal skin, and if you look closely, you can still make out the groundhog ears. It’s the kind of detail that makes history feel tangible rather than something you’re just reading off a placard.
The Museum Does a Great Job Highlighting Country Music Pioneers
DeFord Bailey, a founding member of the Grand Ole Opry, also has a display here featuring his harmonica and megaphone. Bailey became famous for using his harmonica to imitate the sounds of trains, and seeing his actual instruments on display felt like a bit of a full-circle moment for me. My dad had been talking about this exact harmonica player on our walk to the museum that morning, and then our tour guide brought him up less than an hour later.
I don’t recall hearing Bailey mentioned during the Grand Ole Opry tour, which feels like a pretty significant omission for one of its founding members.
Nudie Cohn’s Webb Pierce Car Completely Steals the Show
And then there’s the Nudie Mobile.
Located on the third floor past the costume exhibits, the Webb Pierce silver dollar car stops you in your tracks. It’s outfitted with giant steer horns on the front, more than 1,000 silver dollars inlaid into the body, pistols for door handles, a silver shotgun mounted on the back, a silver horse head on the gas cap and a miniature saddle between the driver and passenger seats.
It is completely, objectively impractical and absolutely perfect. I needed it immediately.
Elvis’ car is parked nearby, which is worth noting, but the Webb Pierce car is the one that’ll have you standing there trying to figure out how to fit it in your carry-on.
The RCA Studio B Tour Review
I went back and forth on whether to add the RCA Studio B tour, and I’m really glad I did. It’s a short shuttle ride from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and walking into that recording room feels like the country music equivalent of “the room where it happened.” If you know, you know.
Why Studio B Matters
RCA Studio B is where Elvis Presley recorded more than 200 songs. It’s also where Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and countless other artists recorded tracks that helped define an era of American music, making it one of the most historically significant recording spaces in the world.
From the outside, you’d never know it.
The building looks like an accountant’s office, and there’s nothing about the exterior that signals what happened, and still happens, within those walls.
The recording room itself feels more like an elementary school multipurpose room than a legendary recording studio. It’s a no frills, functional space that produced an unreasonable amount of iconic music.
The Tour Guide Completely Made the Experience
Our guide opened by promising to turn any non-Elvis fans in the room into one by the end of the tour. He made good on his promise.
The majority of the Studio B tour takes place inside the actual recording room, and the guide filled every minute of it with stories that made the history feel immediate rather than distant.
He played Elvis recordings through the studio’s original speakers, as well as Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” which she recorded right there in that room.
That led to one of the best stories of the entire tour: Elvis heard the song and wanted to cover it, but Dolly refused to give up half her publishing rights. She held firm. Elvis never recorded it. Then Whitney Houston covered it decades later and made Dolly Parton millions of dollars.
Everything worked out just fine.
The highlight of the tour came when the guide dimmed all the lights and played Elvis’ “Are You Lonesome Tonight” through the studio speakers exactly how Elvis recorded it.
Forty people stood in complete silence in a darkened recording studio listening to Elvis Presley.
It was one of those rare moments where you completely forget you’re on a tour at all.
Don’t Miss the Elvis Steinway Piano and the Sweet Spot
The studio’s Steinway piano, played by Elvis during his recordings, is still in the room and still in use. Photos are allowed inside Studio B, but videos are not, so plan accordingly.
Before you leave, find the Sweet Spot: a small X marked on the studio floor that sits at the room’s best acoustic point for recording. It’s a small detail, but it’s one of those things that makes the space feel alive rather than like a museum exhibit.
More than anything, Studio B makes the history you just learned inside the museum feel real.
Visit One of Nashville’s Most Legendary Recording Studios
The Studio B tour adds an entirely different layer to the Country Music Hall of Fame experience, especially for Elvis and classic country music fans.
What I Didn’t Love
This is a pretty short list.
The newer country music exhibits on the second floor weren’t really my thing. There’s an entire wall dedicated to Lainey Wilson that meant absolutely nothing to me because I had no idea who she was. I was there for the legends, and that section felt like a pretty sharp left turn from everything that came before it. (Surprisingly, my mom and dad both knew who she was. My mom referred to her as “that bellbottom singer.”)
I didn’t mind seeing the Taylor Swift guitar, the Trisha Yearwood memorabilia (she actually used to work at the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is a fun detail) or the Garth Brooks section. But I spent a good chunk of the second floor squinting my eyes and quietly saying “who?” to no one in particular.
That said, it’s easy enough to walk past whatever doesn’t interest you, and the newer exhibits only take up maybe a quarter of the second floor. It didn’t come close to derailing the overall experience.
Tips for Visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame
Is the Country Music Hall of Fame Better Than the Grand Ole Opry Tour?
Both are worth doing, but they offer very different experiences. The Grand Ole Opry tour is a walkthrough of the venue itself, while the Country Music Hall of Fame gives you a much deeper understanding of how country music evolved and why Nashville became Music City in the first place. Read my Grand Ole Opry tour review for the full breakdown.
If I had to choose only one, I’d pick the Country Music Hall of Fame without hesitation. But if your schedule allows for both, do the Opry first and the Hall of Fame second.
The Ryman Auditorium is also worth considering if you’re staying downtown, as it’s the original home of the Grand Ole Opry.
Need help planning your Nashville trip? I included the Country Music Hall of Fame, Grand Ole Opry and other music-focused attractions in my 2-day Nashville itinerary.
Country Music Hall of Fame Tour FAQs
Planning your visit? Here’s what most people want to know before they book.
How long is the Country Music Hall of Fame tour?
Plan for 2.5 to 3 hours if you’re doing both the guided museum tour and Studio B. Each takes about an hour, and you’ll likely want extra time afterward to explore the museum at your own pace.
Are photos allowed at Studio B?
Yes. Photos are allowed inside Studio B, but videos aren’t.
Can you visit Studio B without a tour?
No. RCA Studio B is only accessible through the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The Studio B experience is offered as an add-on to museum admission.
How crowded does the Country Music Hall of Fame get?
Very crowded, especially on weekends and later in the morning. The ticket line alone was at least 20 people deep by 11am on a Sunday. Arriving early makes a huge difference.
What is the best time to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame?
As early as possible. The early access guided tour starts at 8:30am and gives you time to explore before the museum opens to the general public at 9am. Weekend mornings fill up quickly.
Is the Country Music Hall of Fame air conditioned?
Yes, and the air conditioning is excellent. It’s one of the best indoor activities in Nashville during the summer heat and humidity.
Is the Country Music Hall of Fame accessible?
Yes. The museum is mobility-friendly and has elevators throughout the building.
Should You Add This Tour to Your Nashville Itinerary?
As someone who isn’t really a music person, or a huge country music fan, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum ended up being one of the best museum experiences I’ve had in a long time.
You don’t need to love country music to enjoy it. You just need to be curious about music history, American culture or how a single city became the center of an entire genre. And if you like rhinestone-studded clothing? Even better!
The early access timing made a huge difference, Studio B was worth every penny of the add-on cost and the entire experience gave me a much deeper appreciation for Nashville beyond the Broadway bar scene.
If you only do one tour in Nashville, make it this one.
Plan Your Visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame
The early access guided tour is the best way to experience Nashville’s music history before the crowds arrive.
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