NASHVILLE, Tenn. (November 1, 2024) — Bill Miller, the visionary Founder and CEO of Icon Entertainment & Hospitality, continues to earn his well-deserved spot on the annual Power 100 list, a prestigious accolade by the Nashville Business Journal. Renowned as a true trendsetter in the vibrant heart of Nashville, Miller’s accolade is a testament to his outstanding contributions to the city’s cultural landscape. He’s celebrated for his ownership and management of iconic establishments that have become landmarks in downtown Nashville, such as the Johnny Cash Museum, House of Cards, Skull’s Rainbow Room, the Patsy Cline Museum, Johnny Cash’s Bar & BBQ, Nudie’s Honky Tonk and more.
Bill Miller has played an instrumental role in fostering and launching Nashville’s thriving entertainment scene, and 2024 has continued a major winning streak for Icon Entertainment & Hospitality. The company has added four remarkable businesses to its impressive portfolio in the past year and a half: Sinatra Bar & Lounge in an exciting partnership with Frank Sinatra Enterprises, the Southern Turf Lofts, the Southern Turf Club and a noteworthy expansion beyond downtown Nashville with the opening of Schulman’s, East Nashville’s buzziest neighborhood bar.
“It’s great to be recognized by the Nashville Business Journal again for our work in Nashville. 2025 will be an active year for Icon with several exciting new projects in the pipeline all of which will debut in 2025,” said Miller.
The Nashville Business Journal’s Power 100 list for 2024 features the city’s 100 most influential and powerful figures in the business community. Within this esteemed list, the Trendsetter category stands out, recognizing individuals who have ushered in new, creative ideas that have been instrumental in shaping Nashville into the vibrant metropolis it is today.
About Bill Miller
Bill Miller’s passion for music and history combined with his longtime friendship with the legendary Johnny Cash set the foundation for his ascension to one of Nashville’s most successful and visionary entrepreneurs. Now the owner of six buildings that total more than 100,000 square feet of commercial real estate, it is the California native’s potent combination of intuition and acumen that fuel such thriving Nashville ventures as the Johnny Cash Museum, the Patsy Cline Museum, Nudie’s Honky Tonk and Tanya Tucker’s Tequila Cantina, Johnny Cash’s Bar & BBQ, House of Cards (a unique upscale eatery featuring live magic), Music City Threads merchandise line and Sinatra Bar & Lounge, which shares a home with Miller’s popular nightspot Skull’s Rainbow Room and the newly opened Southern Turf Lofts in the historic Southern Turf building. Indeed, Miller has come a long way from his rural California roots, where he founded a real estate company and served three terms as mayor of his hometown before launching the Odyssey Group. One of the largest dealers of historical documents and memorabilia in the country, the Odyssey Group sold everything from handwritten letters by George Washington to George Harrison’s Telecaster, and helped establish Miller as the noted and highly-respected authority on such documents and celebrity memorabilia that he is today. Miller’s business endeavors have traversed through a variety of clientele – including Dolly Parton, the White House, Graceland, the Country Music Hall of Fame (he appraised and authenticated every single item in the Hall of Fame collection), Marty Stuart, President Gerald Ford, the Estates of Minnie Pearl and Hank Snow to name just a few – while he drew on his preservation and musical history passions to author the critically-acclaimed Cash: An American Man, which Larry King hailed as “the best celebrity biography coffee table book ever done.” Ultimately, it was his friendship with Cash that led him to Nashville, where Miller most recently opened the Southern Turf Club, a members-only club on the fourth level of the legendary Southern Turf building, and Schulman’s Neighborhood Bar, his first venture into the East Nashville neighborhood in the historic Southern Grist building.
About Icon Entertainment & Hospitality
Founded by celebrated entrepreneur and real estate investor Bill Miller, Icon Entertainment & Hospitality is a real estate development and hospitality company that owns and operates some of the most popular establishments in Nashville – including the Johnny Cash Museum, Sinatra Bar & Lounge, Patsy Cline Museum, Nudie’s Honky Tonk, House of Cards, Johnny Cash’s Bar & BBQ and Skull’s Rainbow Room – as well as the Southern Turf Lofts and Music City Threads merchandise line. Icon’s newest ventures include the Southern Turf Club and East Nashville neighborhood bar Schulman’s – as well as a special pop-up, Tanya Tucker’s Tequila Cantina on Broadway. Since opening the Johnny Cash Museum in 2013 – the first component of a presence in downtown Nashville that is now comprised of more than 100,000 square feet of commercial real estate – Icon has welcomed millions of patrons from around the world to its dining and entertainment establishments. USA Today, Forbes, Time, Rolling Stone, Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic, Southern Living, Marie Claire, AAA and TripAdvisor are just a few of the outlets and organizations that have honored and awarded Icon’s establishments with distinction, solidifying their status as “must-visit” Music City attractions and dining experiences.
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