Nashville celebrities, notables gather for ‘Murder on Music Row’ Season 2 podcast launch

Ghosts and celebrities gathered this week at the historic Southern Turf Club in Printer’s Alley to kick off the second season of The Tennessean’s award-winning “Murder on Music Row” podcast.

You can listen to the first episode of Season 2 for free at Tennessean.com. Tennessean subscribers can binge all eight episodes immediately.

Held the evening of Oct. 6 in the building featured in the podcast, the event attracted business leaders, country singers, a Metro council member and burlesque dancers. Tanya Tucker, the country music legend, was there to tell nostalgic stories and honor her friend.

David “Skull” Schulman was stabbed and bludgeoned to death Jan. 21, 1998, inside Skull’s Rainbow Room, which he had owned and operated for 50 years. Skull’s life and death are the focus of “Murder on Music Row Season 2: The Skull at the End of the Rainbow.”

The premiere event was held in the exclusive fourth floor club. Southern Turf Building owner Bill Miller, who also owns the Johnny Cash Museum and the House of Cards, welcomed the crowd, as did Tennessean executive editor Ben Goad.

Guests included Michael Anastasi, Senior Vice President, Local News for the USA TODAY Network, Nashville Lifestyles Publisher Brian Barry, Metro Council member Sheri Weiner, Nashville historian David Steele Ewing, Icon Entertainment & Hospitality Group cofounder Shannon Miller, HGTV star Lauren Makk, Jeanette Barker, vice president of strategic development at Nashville Downtown Partnership and singer Dianne Sherrill.

The Southern Turf Building once housed The Tennessean newspaper and print operation, as well as the Nashville Banner’s. That’s where the “Printers Alley” name came from.

The party was held two floors above the Ike Johnson suite, which is named for the former Southern Turf manager who took his life in the building in 1916, apparently despondent at the prospect of moving. Skull and Johnson, whose spirits are said to haunt the building, attract daily ghost tours in Printers Alley.

“Murder on Music Row” Season 1 focused on the execution-style shooting of Cash Box Magazine chart director Kevin Hughes. It was named Best Podcast by Editor & Publisher Magazine and The Green Eyeshade Awards.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tanya Tucker, Dianne Sherrill help Tennessean celebrate podcast launch