Starwood Amphitheatre
Defunct logo for venue, 2004-06
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Bird's-eye view of venue c.2007
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| Former names | Starwood Amphitheatre (1985-98; 2004-07) First American Music Center (1999) AmSouth Amphitheatre (2000-04) |
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| Address | 3839 Murfreesboro Rd Nashville, TN 37013-2215 |
| Location | Antioch |
| Owner | Live Nation |
| Capacity | 17,137 |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | November 11, 1985 |
| Opened | June 20, 1986 |
| Closed | October 21, 2006 |
| Demolished | September 27, 2007 |
| Construction cost | $7.8 million ($17.4 million in 2017 dollars) |
The Starwood Amphitheatre was the primary outdoor music venue in the Nashville, Tennessee area from 1986 to 2006. It was owned by Live Nation and had a capacity of 17,137. It had previously been owned by SFX Entertainment and Clear Channel Worldwide, both predecessors of Live Nation.
The venue was the idea of Steve Moore, former CEO of the Country Music Association. Moore began working for PACE Concerts, in Houston booking acts for AstroWorld and Six Flags Over Texas. In 1985, Moore moved to Nashville in hopes of opening a venue tailored to acts like The Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band and the Eagles.
The amphitheater broke ground November 11, 1985. In June 1986, the amphitheater opened as Nashville's premier outdoor venue, opposed to the Mud Island Amphitheate, which opened four years earlier.
Located in the Nashville suburb of Antioch, the amphitheatre featured one large stage, a covered pavilion with reserved box seating, and an open-air grassy area for general admission seating. A much smaller stage was located near the venue's north entrance and usually featured local bands entertaining audiences as they entered the venue. For larger music festivals, a temporary third stage would be erected in a fenced area normally used as a parking lot.
Starwood regularly hosted most of Nashville's summer concerts featuring A-list artists from all genres of music. The typical season, which generally ran from April to October, featured 20 to 25 events.
Starwood was criticized for the lack of sufficient road infrastructure in the area. Though within two miles (3 km) of Interstate 24, Starwood was located along Tennessee State Route 171 (Old Hickory Blvd), a two-lane road in a primarily residential and industrial neighborhood. It was also located along U.S. Route 41 (Murfreesboro Road), a four-lane highway that does not intersect a freeway in the immediate area. Therefore, larger crowds would result in major traffic problems both before and after events. Event attendees often faced hours before and after events waiting in the traffic on the two lane road location of the main venue entrance.
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