Memphis Music Room - Urgent Appeal

An urgent message to Memphis artists and music lovers:

Memphis Music Room needs your help:

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Johnny Bennett, born and raised right here in Memphis. My earliest memories are seeing Elvis Presley perform on TV and watching street musicians play on Beale Street, and Jerry Lee Lewis play in local honky tonks. As a kid, I would ride my bicycle to Yarbrough's Music Store and spend hours playing different guitars and watching other musicians play. I finally saved up enough money cutting yards at 13, to buy my first real guitar, a Martin D-18, that I still own and play to this day. Now 40 years later, I need help and a miracle.

Music is expressed and experienced by individual notes being played together which collectively fills our lives with miraculous wonder. My dream for Memphis has been to create a music complex that exists for our musical present and our musical future. I moved into the former Al Chymia Shrine Temple in December 2021 and started the Memphis Music Room in January 2022. Over the course of the year I invested my entire life savings and more to create a facility that is a teaching space for several music education programs such as Memphis Jazz Workshop, Memphis Youth Symphony Program, and Memphis Youth Arts Initiative.

The Memphis Music Room is a 40,000 square foot facility on 5 acres has 15 rehearsal rooms that provide low or no cost space for several music education programs, local Memphis musicians, summer camp programs, and workshops. I created a place where Memphian’s from all walks of life can come together and bring their unique visions to life. We have hosted all kinds of events; everything from Gun Shows, to Drag Brunches to the most recent Tristate Black Pride Music Festival. Recently we have hosted the Memphis and Beyond release parties, School of Rock performances, Memphis Hang Suite, Keepin It Memphis, Memphis Music Initiative, Memphis Youth Arts Initiative and Memphis Black Arts Alliance. We have even used the space for Celebration of Life events for those who have passed on. Regardless of race, culture or gender, the Memphis Music Room has been presenting events that bring people together, hosting numerous educational and community events, church performances, and many multicultural events that give minority voices a platform for creativity. Where other facilities in town focus largely on the musical legacy of our city, the Memphis Music Room has always focused on our original musical and artistic present and future. I believe that Memphis can come together to keep and cultivate our musical present and future, so that our music legacy is alive for many generations to come. For this purpose, in addition to the Memphis Music Room, I have also created a state registered non-profit called the Memphis Music Group for Performing Arts & Education, Inc

However, the Memphis Music Room is at risk of facing permanent closure if we don’t have immediate financial support from the community.

So far I have self-financed the entire purchase and remodel of the former Al Chymia Shrine Temple to get Memphis Music Room open and through its first year and a half of operation. The facility is a certified Ticketmaster location and has a full commercial kitchen, and full service bar license, as well as permanent lighting and backline, not just in the main room, which has a 1000 capacity, but throughout the building in over a dozen classrooms. I have provided instruments, rehearsal and recording space for many in our music community, during a time when the music and arts industry has taken a huge financial blow during the past couple of years. I have collectively spent, both personally and through my company, over $1,000,000. I’ve given everything I have and I have nothing left. If you believe a space like this as much as I do, I am humbly asking for your support. Nothing of this caliber has ever been done independently or by the community before, but at its heart this has always been a community driven project. I need your help. I never did this for me. I would never work this hard for myself. Memphis needs this space, which provides a safe place for kids to learn, and opportunities for artists to showcase and develop their gifts, and come together in support of causes that move us forward. With your support, we will be able to continue providing rehearsal and classroom space, community and family driven events, and be a center for artistic collaboration.

Memphis Music Room features local artists weekly and has already served tens of thousands of people in our community, and can serve tens of thousands more. But to do so, we need your support, which includes not just the music community and fans of Memphis music, but everyone who believes in doing something that has never been done before. The costs of renovating this iconic property and providing the necessary resources to create the space has far exceeded the expected costs. The Memphis Music Room is in danger of permanent closure, and without your immediate financial support, which would shut off a vital resource for Memphis artists and musicians to develop their artistry and give fans the opportunity to discover new music in a live setting, one that tourists traveling through Memphis would be able to experience original Memphis Music and artistry daily, during the daytime and nighttime. In the words of my hero, who also sacrificed everything, “I have a dream.” Please help me keep this dream alive for Memphis artists and musicians. My name is Johnny Bennett, and I Am Memphis Music.

Together we are Memphis Music. Let’s save the Memphis Music Room.