BY KATIE KAILUS
Sam Ash veterans Todd Austin and Jamie Jackson knew they only had one choice when the chain store announced its closure: open a store of their own. One year after the announcement, Tone Central Station is becoming a haven for former Sam Ash shoppers in the Nashville, Tennessee, area.
S ome saw last year’s closure of Sam Ash Music as the end of a legacy. Todd “Toddzilla” Austin and Jamie Jackson saw it as a cue to start one of their own. After news of the MI chain’s closure came via a company-wide Zoom meeting in May 2024, Austin said he turned to Jackson and said, “You know what we have to do now, right?” On Nov. 2, 2024 — six months to the day of the official closing announcement — Austin and Jackson made that dream a reality when they opened the doors of Tone Central Station, a well-appointed guitar shop that Austin described as a “sanctuary for musicians in east Nashville.” “We have a lounge room with a big-screen TV, and we have a 9-foot pool table from 1937, so the shop is a whole vibe,” Austin described, adding that his gigs in a 12-piece punk band and a local rock ’n’ roll circus are channeled into the store’s
decor. “On our front door, we have a sign that reads ‘Just. Be. Cool.’ And that’s the mantra that we’re living by. We want to invite our Nashville community to come experience music with us.” ON THE SCENE After 22 years at Sam Ash Music, including a stint as the Nashville store’s general manager, Jackson is deeply rooted in the Music City scene — just like Austin, who began working in MI retail in 1996 at Nashville’s Corner Music and joined Jackson’s Sam Ash location in 2023. Jackson and Austin tapped into their deep connections within the Nashville music community — both as musicians and former MI retail employees — to help get the word out about Tone Central Station. “It’s been a happy reunion with past customers from our previous stores, and we’ve received noth- ing but praise from everyone as to how the store
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