Knoxville, Tennessee

Everything Knoxville is known for

43 songs mention this city 106 artists from here

Knoxville, Tennessee, nestled between the Cumberland Plateau and the Great Smoky Mountains, boasts a rich and surprising musical heritage. Often called the "Cradle of Country Music," the city played a significant role in nurturing the early careers of major figures in country and early rock and roll. Our collection features 106 artists who call Knoxville home, including blues artist Jack D. Johnson and metal band 10 Years. The city is also mentioned in 43 songs, such as "Rocky Top" by the Osborne Brothers and "Knoxville Courthouse Blues" by Hank Williams Jr.

Music in Knoxville

Songs About Knoxville

Rocky Top
Osborne Brothers
100%
Knoxville Courthouse Blues
Hank Williams Jr.
97%
"I'm sittin' in Knoxville courthouse"
Waitin’ On a Woman
Brad Paisley
96%
"Sittin' on a bench at West Town Mall"
Just To Say We Did
Kenny Chesney
95%
"Drove from Knoxville to Myrtle Beach"
knoxville
the worley boys
77%
Take Me Back to Texas
David Grissom
55%
"Somehow I worked my way across to Knoxville"
Feelin’ Better
Hank Williams Jr.
54%
"knocked 'em out of Knoxville"
Orange and White
Conner Smith
53%
"In the mornin', me and Knoxville are gonna miss ya"
Natural Progression of Love
The Montvales
51%
"When I come home to Knoxville all the leaves will be changed"
Stars In Alabama
Jamey Johnson
51%
"tonight we played in Knoxville"
Tennessee Orange
Megan Moroney
50%
"Took me to Knoxville last Saturday"
The Deepening Snow
George Hamilton IV
50%
"Now she lies in a grave back in Knoxville"
Smoky Mountain Rain
Ronnie Milsap
49%
"I thumbed my way from LA back to Knoxville"
Copperhead Road
Steve Earle
49%
"He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load"
Tennessee Blue
Hayden Coffman
49%
"You drove down to Knoxville just to break my heart in two"
Ring Around the Moon
The Montvales
25%
"Cutting class and raising hell off Broadway"
I'm a Vol for Life Y'all
Matt Stillwell
18%
"Pride of the south land band playing rocky top"
Back Home In Texas
Casey Donahew Band
17%
"rocky top I had to see"
Tennessee Fan
Morgan Wallen
14%
"If they heard her singin’ every word of "Rocky Top""
Tennessee
The Creekers
13%
"Where Rocky Top's their song"

Showing top 20 of 43 songs

Artists From Knoxville

J
Jack D. Johnson
blues Pop: 81
J
Jacob Whitesides
pop Pop: 66
C
Cannon
hip-hop Pop: 64
C
Carlton Anderson
country Pop: 60
R
Rodney Atkins
country Pop: 60
B
Briston Maroney
indie Pop: 58
1
10 Years
metal Pop: 56
W
Whitechapel
metal Pop: 55
U
United Pursuit
gospel Pop: 55
A
Ashley Monroe
country Pop: 51
B
Brownie McGhee
blues Pop: 51
S
Straight Line Stitch
metal Pop: 49
S
Simeon
electronic Pop: 49
D
Disciple
rock Pop: 47
L
Liturgy
metal Pop: 47
J
Johnny Knoxville
other Pop: 47
M
Mary Costa
classical Pop: 44
E
Emily Ann Roberts
country Pop: 42
B
Big Giant Circles
electronic Pop: 42
Q
Quentin Tarantino
other Pop: 41

Showing top 20 of 106 artists

Rivers & Roads in Song near Knoxville

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Knoxville.

Highway I 40 10 songs Tennessee River 11 songs

History of Knoxville

The Golden Sunsphere RoadyGoat

Knoxville's skyline is crowned by a giant gold ball on a stick, and locals wouldn't have it any other way. The Sunsphere is a 266-foot steel tower topped with a five-story golden globe, built as the symbol of the 1982 World's Fair, officially the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, themed 'Energy Turns the World.' The fair drew more than 11 million visitors to a 70-acre site between downtown and the University of Tennessee. Those gleaming panes really are gilded: each window holds a film of 24-karat gold dust. When the fair ended, almost everything was torn down, but the Sunsphere and the amphitheater stayed, and the grounds became World's Fair Park. Today you can ride up to the observation deck for a 360-degree view of the Tennessee River, the UT campus, and the Smokies beyond. One bold gold globe outlived the whole world's fair around it.

When Aluminum Cost More Than Gold RoadyGoat

1855

The metal this town was built on was once a treasure more precious than gold. In the mid-eighteen hundreds aluminum was so hard to refine that it traded like a jewel. The story goes that Emperor Napoleon the Third of France served his most honored guests with aluminum forks and spoons, while lesser visitors had to make do with mere gold. Across the ocean in eighteen eighty-four, builders capped the brand-new Washington Monument with a small pyramid of solid aluminum, chosen partly as a showpiece of a metal then valued like silver. It was the largest single piece of aluminum anyone had ever cast. A few decades later that same once-priceless metal would be smelted by the ton, in an entire Tennessee town named for the company that made it.

12.1 mi away

Everywhere in the Ground, Never Just Lying Around RoadyGoat

Here's the paradox at the heart of this town. Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the entire Earth's crust. It makes up about eight percent of the ground under your tires, more than any other metal there is. And yet you will never dig up a nugget of pure aluminum, not once, anywhere on the planet. The reason is that aluminum is fiercely reactive. It grabs onto oxygen so hard that in nature it stays permanently locked inside rock and ore, mostly a reddish stone called bauxite. That same reactivity is why aluminum doesn't rust away. The instant it meets air it grows a thin, tough skin of oxide that seals and even self-heals when scratched. To get the shiny metal, you have to rip it out of its oxide by force, which is exactly the work that built Alcoa.

12.1 mi away

Oak Ridge - Manhattan Project National Historical Park

1942

One of three secret cities built for the Manhattan Project, Oak Ridge enriched the uranium used in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945.

19.8 mi away

Things to Do in Knoxville

historical 24.7 mi away
Dollywood

Dolly Parton's theme park in the Smoky Mountains. Southern food roller coasters and pure Dolly.
quirky
Mountain Dew Birthplace

The neon-green soda was invented in Knoxville TN in 1940 as a whiskey mixer.

Everything Near Knoxville

45 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Knoxville on the Map
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