Diane Carrier
With heavy hearts, we at the Scene send our deepest condolences to The 5 Spot family upon learning that the East Nashville club's co-owner and co-founder Diane Carrier died Wednesday night following a long illness. She was 69.
Carrier was an East Nashville pioneer. Her first East Side club venture, Backwoods Studios, opened in 2000, roughly a decade before all the tall-and-skinnies started sprouting up. She was one of the folks who helped make East Nashville one of the hippest 'hoods in America. Her faith in the creative potential of that community helped it prosper and grow, as did her belief in the players and promoters in this town who helped make Five Points an inclusive cultural citadel worthy of international attention.
On a personal note, Carrier and her husband and 5 Spot business partner William “Bones” Verhiede were some of my earliest supporters in Music City. Whether it was letting my shit show of a punk band play gigs, letting me book overly ambitious weekenders in the days before tourists crossed the river, or their early support of Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp, Diane was always encouraging. I’d like to think that was because we were both Massachusetts ex-pats, but I know it was because she was a supportive and encouraging person. And there are dozens — hundreds? thousands? — of other musicians who can back me up on this.
Those early years at The 5 Spot — which itself has garnered national attention as a recurring location in the Nashville TV series, as well as recently hosting a live-streamed-worldwide Lady Gaga pop-up club show — were weird and wild and responsible for some of my happiest memories. So much of that was due to Diane. And while things in East Nashville have changed over the years — like, everything, really — I think the spirit that Diane brought to the neighborhood is as strong as ever. The scene that she envisioned at the turn of the century has become a reality, and that reality has become a fantasy for people across the globe, attracting and inspiring new and exciting talent every day, building new and different magical moments every night. It will continue to do so for years to come. That’s one helluva legacy, frankly.
Funeral arrangements are still pending as of press time.
