How to meet famous people in Nashville?

Nashville is a city like no other, full of vast opportunities. This city is constantly growing, growing, growing. Young adults are moving here for new jobs, musicians are coming here to catch their big break, tourists are flocking just to get a taste of this city. With great history, music, education, sports teams and nightlife it’s no wonder that this place is flooded with famous athletes, musicians, and actors. Florida Georgia Line owns a bar on the Broadway strip, Reese Witherspoon has a storefront on 12th South, Miley Cyrus was raised and went to school here, the connections of fame to Nashville is neverending.

So here we are to give you the ins and the outs of meeting famous people in Nashville. Together we’ve met anywhere from bands, to an entire hockey team, to rappers. We’ll give you an extensive list of people we have had the chance to meet, and leave you with some tips on how to bump into some of your favorite idols.

Turn up the radio: We never really thought much into radio contests...that was until Nic begun winning concert tickets (like Halsey in July!!) and meet and greet tickets. There are so, so, so many stations and so, so, so many contests for you to try to win. It can be as complicated as making a video or finding a spot around town, or something as easy as making a phone call or posting an Instagram comment. Our top stations for rockin’ jamz AND awesome contests are 101.1 The Beat, 107.5 The River, and 106.7. You can follow them on the car radio, at home on the iHeart Radio app, or through social media--all of their platforms list their neverending contests.

Echosmith

Wells Adam (yeah--as in the Bachelorette contest) from 107.5 posts a “daily question of the day,” on Instagram. It’s a totally random open-ended question, and he picks an answer to win tickets. We answer these easy 10-second questions every day, and it worked!! We won meet and greet tickets for the band Echosmith (the “I wish that I could be like the cool kids,” kids). They did a short private concert for us, a Q&A session with them, took a few pictures, AND then they gave us FREE tickets to their show that night.

Hayley Kiyoko

Ya’ll Nic literally won these tickets because of a RETWEET from 106.7, next thing you know she’s meeting the queen of Lemonade Mouth and rising pop star. It was a literal treat--we met up at the Soda Parlor (peep the complimentary Strawberry Soda Float), and hung out with Hayley. We did a goofy Q&A, talked about her new music, drank some bomb soda floats, and stocked up on some 106.7 goodies.

 

Ed Sheeran

Some radio contests aren’t that easy, they take actual talent or creativity, but if you have it, FLAUNT IT! So we didn’t actually meet Ed Sheeran, but our amazingly talented and beautiful friend, Britney did! This was not an easy contest but boy was it rewarding. Britney spent hours upon hours painting a masterpiece pumpkin for a contest and absolutely hit it out of the ballpark. I mean look at the detail in that thing?!! From this contest, she not only won meet and greet tickets with Ed Sheeran but also concert tickets--go Britney!!

Meet & Greets: Sometimes you don’t have to win a contest to meet a famous person, they just host meet and greets for their fans. And the best place to keep updated on these events is to keep up to date on social media because often times they’ll advertise where and when they’ll be. Miley Cyrus did a free concert at Tootsie’s last summer, and all she did was put out a few tweets to alert her fans.

Josh Turner

*very, very low voice* “Baby lock them doors and turn the lights down low.” You know this man, he’s tall dark, handsome, and has that deep country voice that will leave you with chills. And Nic just so happened to meet him at World Market. Nic found out about this event through Facebook and waited in line to meet up with this country babe.

Hunter Hayes

Sometimes being a student pays off! Our school hosted a meet and greet concert for students to meet and talk to this country heartthrob. Students were able to hear stories of his musical journey and songwriting abilities. This was such a cool opportunity, that we only really found out about by keeping our eyes open at the hundreds of event posters around campus.

Aaron Carter

So this one was weird, it wasn’t necessarily a meet and greet, it was a Facetime call..with the ultimate childhood star, Aaron Carter (“I Want Candy” boy). Nic was browsing through Twitter when she noticed that THE Aaron Carter had tweeted out his number so that fans could call him. After what had to be hundreds of calls, we finally got connected him. Our childhood dreams were answered.

 

For King & Country

Nic was able to bump into this Christian pop duo at a Christian leadership conference last year. They did a short, surprise concert at the beginning of the conference to promote their amazingly, impactful film, Priceless (plz watch!!). During our lunch break, they were outside meeting fans, and signing movie posters.

Being at the right place at the right time: You can’t really plan this one. But this is just a benefit of enjoying the city around you. The more you take time to go out and explore Nashville, the more opportunities you’ll have to run into one of your favorite stars.

Kanye West & Tyler the Creator

Probably one of Nic’s all time favorite stories. She had just gotten off a late night shift at work, and wanted a late night snack--at the one and only, Waffle House. She was absolutely stunned to see this dynamic duo hanging out here. Definitely, the most memorable Waffle House story, although they weren’t really talking to anyone there. So if you ever have the opportunity to make a Waffle House run with your friends, don’t turn it down--you just might bump into Kanye after his concert.

Chase Rice

Birthdays are usually spent with a nice dinner and a stroll around town. Going to Taco Mamacita for a birthday dinner Ash noticed Chase Rice enjoying the same tacos as her. Although Nashville is known for letting the celebrities just chill - without asking for autographs or even pictures - Ash couldn’t help myself and make a small video with Chase Rice.

Lucy Hale

Working with Helping Hands - a wait staff and bar service- often works at the Broadcast Music Inc. building and while working coat check on a cold night Ash noticed the Pretty Little Liar star, Lucy Hale. While spending every Tuesday night dedicated to PLL Ash couldn’t pass up a photo. This is a great example of being at the right place at the right time.

Washington Capitals

Born and raised in the D.C. area of course Nic is always in attendance of the Washington Capitals vs. Nashville Predators games. Being an avid caps fan she watched their pre-game practice, and then waited outside the Bridgestone Arena (in the snow!) for them to come out. She cheered on the players, posing for pictures, and asking for autographs. Absolutely one of her best experiences in Nashville to-date.

Chaley Rose

Ash worked at Urban Outfitters for about eight months and only saw one celebrity!? This is a low ratio if you ask her but the sighting of Chaley Rose was so genuine. Ash worked as a sale associate and was able to help Chaley Rose the whole time she was there shopping. (No photo is provided because Ash is a good employee and didn’t have her phone on the floor.)

Barry Trotz

The one and only, former Nashville Predators coach, and current Washington Capitals coach was caught hanging out around 12th South. Nic was casually eating her Jeni’s ice cream (Lavender Honey--yum), when she saw Barry Trotz eating outside on a park bench. Of course she had to say hi and get a picture for her dad.

Radio Contests, Meet and Greets, and Accidental Bump Ins, those are the 'not-so-secret' secrets to meeting your favorite stars in Nashville. There’s nothing really to it, we have definitely lucked out having the opportunity to meet some pretty cool people. The one thing to keep in mind when seeing some of your idols around town, is to keep it casual--they are just people after all. We definitely couldn’t resist stopping to say hi and asking for a photo most of the times, but didn’t want to take up all their personal time.

So go out, and maybe you’ll just bump into someone too! Comment below on the story of a famous person you’ve bumped into and Nashville, or just who you’d love to bump into! Wait and see what we'll do next!