Exerpt from an article called: Hear all about Nashville’s eclectic music scene — at concerts, museums, honky tonks and the symphony
A legendary honky tonk is Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, which has withstood the passage of time. There are decades of memories on these walls and many of the legends have sang here. Walk the same boards trod by Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, Waylon Jennings and Patsy Cline, when they were all just starting out.
And Tootsie’s back door was graced by the stars of the Grand Ole Opry when it was at the adjacent Ryman Auditorium, before moving to its current location.
Nelson loved the fact the Ryman’s stage door is right across a narrow alley from the back door to Tootsie’s and what it had to offer between sets. He’d skip over for a drink or two, or three, saying “it’s 17 steps to Tootsie’s, and 34 steps back.”