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Episode 147: All about Music City Pinball and Nashville

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·18m 45s·analyzed·Aug 7, 2018
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Pinball Profile visits Nashville's new Music City Pinball Stern distributor, explores local scene and expansion plans.

Summary

Jeff Teolis of Pinball Profile visits Music City Pinball in Nashville, Tennessee, a newly established Stern pinball distributor (29th in the country and only one in Tennessee). Host Patrick McKinnon discusses his transition from arcade collecting to opening the distributorship, plans to expand to a larger public arcade facility within 12 months, and the Nashville music scene's potential as a market. Tech Rob Ooze shares maintenance expertise and tool recommendations. The episode covers Nashville's cultural attractions, local competitive pinball scene, and speculates on potential country music-themed pinball machines.

Key Claims

  • Music City Pinball is the 29th Stern pinball distributor in the country and the only one in Tennessee

    high confidence · Patrick McKinnon states this directly as owner of the distributorship

  • Patrick plans to move Music City Pinball to a larger facility within the next 12 months, approximately one mile from current location, which will include public arcade, showroom, and event space

    high confidence · Patrick McKinnon reveals expansion plans as exclusive information during the episode

  • Nashville has not had a licensed Stern dealer or technician services before Music City Pinball opened

    high confidence · Patrick McKinnon states 'Nashville, Middle Tennessee, the whole state of Tennessee has not had really a licensed Stern dealer, really doesn't have anybody to work on their machines'

  • Jack White (musician from Detroit now in Nashville) loves pinball machines, especially Pat Lawlor games

    medium confidence · Patrick McKinnon states Jack White loves pinball and they hope to get him to visit Music City Pinball

  • Scott Hamilton (figure skater, three-time cancer survivor) visited Music City Pinball and owns four or five pinball machines

    high confidence · Patrick McKinnon confirms Hamilton was in the facility yesterday and is a Batman 66 fan interested in expanding his collection

  • Will Kruse is currently the number one pinball player in Tennessee

    medium confidence · Jeff Teolis mentions Kruse as a notable Tennessee player representing the state

  • Memphis currently hosts the Tennessee state pinball championship

    medium confidence · Rob mentions Memphis hosts the state championship; Patrick hopes Nashville will host it in the future

  • Iron Maiden pinball machine features four flippers and Stern 'nailed it' on the game design

    medium confidence · Rob Ooze praises Iron Maiden for its design and four-flipper configuration, noting initial anxiety about whether it would meet expectations

Notable Quotes

  • “We're banking on a lot of growth in Nashville because Nashville, Middle Tennessee, the whole state of Tennessee has not had really a licensed Stern dealer, really doesn't have anybody to work on their machines that are out there.”

    Patrick McKinnon @ early in interview — Explains the market opportunity and gap that Music City Pinball is filling

  • “It's a business of fun, and I love it.”

    Patrick McKinnon @ mid-interview — Articulates McKinnon's philosophy about the pinball distributorship business

  • “We're looking at plans in the near future, in the next 12 months, to probably up our game, move to a bigger facility that's about a mile from here...it's going to be a much larger space. It's probably going to grow into a public arcade. It will also have a showroom and a special event place as well.”

    Patrick McKinnon @ mid-interview — Exclusive announcement of expansion plans to larger public arcade facility

  • “I think Stern and their entire design team really knocked it out of the park with that game, Iron Maiden...It's going to be a successful game for quite some time.”

    Rob Ooze @ late-interview — Praise for Iron Maiden design quality and market reception prediction

  • “Pinside is a huge help. There's a lot of people on there. If you have a problem, whatever the issue is, you type it in. Usually that problem has someone else has already had it.”

    Rob Ooze @ mid-interview — Practical advice for pinball owners/technicians on troubleshooting resources

  • “The rumor is Beatles coming out, and we should see that maybe in the fall, maybe in January.”

    Patrick McKinnon @ late-interview — References rumored Beatles pinball machine announcement timing

  • “Is there anything more American than country music?”

    Jeff Teolis @ late-interview — Suggests country music as thematic opportunity for American Pinball manufacturer

Entities

Music City PinballcompanyPatrick McKinnonpersonRob OozepersonJeff TeolispersonJack WhitepersonScott HamiltonpersonWill KrusepersonFarnsworthpersonStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Music City Pinball opened as Stern distributor filling market gap in Tennessee

    high · Patrick McKinnon confirms it's the only Stern dealer in Tennessee and the 29th in the country; first licensed distributor to serve the state

  • ?

    community_signal: Nashville Wednesday night pinball league establishing regular community gathering

    high · Patrick states doors open every Wednesday for all ages to play; top players like Will Kruse and Farnsworths attend religiously

  • ?

    community_signal: Celebrity/notable figures (Jack White, Scott Hamilton) bringing visibility to Nashville pinball scene

    medium · Scott Hamilton confirmed visiting Music City Pinball; Jack White identified as potential customer and pinball enthusiast who Patrick hopes to attract to the venue

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Nashville positioning as growing competitive pinball hub with strong tournament potential

    medium · Will Kruse (number one in Tennessee), Farnsworth players, and Wednesday night regular league play; Patrick hopes to host state championship in future

  • ?

    design_innovation: Iron Maiden pinball machine exceeded market expectations despite initial anxiety

    medium · Rob Ooze: 'There was a lot of anxiety about that game...Was it going to fail? Was it going to exceed expectations? And I think Stern and their entire design team really knocked it out of the park'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.056

0:00
It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teoles. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. And check out our new under construction website, pinballprofile.com. Here in Nashville, Tennessee, Music City. And when you're in Music City, you better go to Music City Pinball. now a new Stern pinball distributor, the 29th in the country and only one in Tennessee. Joining us right now, Patrick McKinnon. Hey, Patrick, how are you? I'm doing great, thanks. Thank you for opening up on a Saturday. That's pretty cool. And I walk in here, I see three pins in the lobby. I'm like, oh, this is going to be neat. Oh, let's go in the back room. There's three more. And then this massive lineup of amazing games here. And you have really done well in such a short time. Well, it's been a big investment. We're banking on a lot of growth in Nashville because Nashville, Middle Tennessee, the whole state of Tennessee has not had really a licensed Stern dealer, really doesn't have anybody to work on their machines that are out there. So I feel like we've got a great opportunity for a lot of growth all throughout Middle Tennessee, homeowners, bars, barcades, et cetera. So I think it's going to be great long term. Now, what got you into pinball? I mean, I know I started with one and had a few to my household, but I certainly didn't start up selling machines. Well, I agree. Um, it came cause I was an arcade collector in the mid nineties, had several arcades. And then, uh, we built a house a couple of years ago and I made sure that I had an arcade listed on the, um, on the plans. And so once I did that, I looked at my wife and I said, you know what, if I'm going to build it, then all the games should come. So I started to add more arcades, added more pins, fell in love with the pin balls, because honestly, that was something later in life that I fell in love with. And so once I fell in love with it, I said, you know what, let's turn this into a business and a great opportunity. It's a business of fun, and I love it. So what was your first pinball machine? First pinball machine was Funhaus. And then after that, it was Star Wars. Which Star Wars? The Star Wars, the Data East 19. Shoot the desk, the bad C-3PO. Exactly. And I also had a renovated Kiss ballet machine, which I'm very fond of because I loved Kiss growing up in the 70s and 80s and collected all the Kiss albums, etc. So it's awesome to have a renovated 1978 ballet. It's really cool. That game goes for a big buck, too, just because of the brand Kiss, too. But it's not like the new Kiss machine where you get the music. That one was just the crappy sounds. Doesn't matter. That's right. It's Kiss. It's Gene Simmons. Well, Music City Pinball, it's huge already. but you did tell me something might be changing to Music City Pinball. Do you want to reveal that? Yes. We're looking at plans in the near future, in the next 12 months, to probably up our game, move to a bigger facility that's about a mile from here, which would probably still be four to five miles from downtown Nashville. Very convenient to the interstates. Very convenient to any and all activities going on downtown. And it's going to be a much larger space. It's probably going to grow into a public arcade. It will also have a showroom and a special event place as well. So those are the secrets kind of unleashed right now. So you're the first to know. Ooh, a scoop here on Pinball Profile. Thanks, Patrick. Joining us now, Rob Ooze, who's a great tech here at Music City Pinball. You cannot have a distributorship without a fantastic tech, and that is Rob. And he certainly can help those who want to buy a pinball machine. Maybe you have a collection at home. Rob's the guy. Now, Rob, how did you get into pinball? I got here doing house calls, actually. Ended up meeting Patrick over at his house, getting all his machines up to par. And then we sat down and just started talking about how Nashville doesn't have any techs, and they don't have any place to play, and it just kind of snowballed from there. Was your expertise on any certain type of game? Was it older games? Was it newer games? Mine was probably the 90s games. That's what I started with when I started collecting pinballs. So technically it was the 90s, day to east. as where I started and went to Williams and then Stern and so on. So I have a few games at home, and I have a couple of games that I can't remember the last time I played them because I might need to do some tech work. I don't know if you're in the Toronto area in the next little while, but my point is how does a guy like me who's obviously into pinball learn about fixing them? Because I and I said it before on Pinball Profile I an idiot I embarrassed when I hear people like Snow Galvin talk about how she can just go ahead get under there and fix anything I afraid to Help me, Rob. How I would technically, would advise is just, you know, Pinside is a huge help. There's a lot of people on there. If you have a problem, whatever the issue is, you type it in. Usually that problem has someone else has already had it. And usually they have detailed pictures, things like that. And even today, there's some things I come across, and I'm like, well, usually this is how I fix it, and it's still having this weird bug. And I'll have to dig myself to try to see if someone else has had that same bug. It's not that I'm afraid of making things worse. It's just, I mean, the right tools. What's a good starter kit for tools for someone who wants to fix pinball machines or own pinball machines? I mean, the first thing is a voltmeter. You definitely need to know where all the voltage is. And then just that Allen key probably helps. I really know nothing, Rob.
Nashville
event/location
Beatlesgame
Iron Maidengame
Kissgame
Data East Star Warsgame
Metallicagame
AC/DCgame
Aerosmithgame
Batman 66game
Funhousegame
American Pinballcompany

business_signal: Music City Pinball planning major facility expansion within 12 months

high · Patrick McKinnon announces plans to move to larger facility with public arcade, showroom, and event space approximately one mile away

  • $

    market_signal: Country music pinball machine identified as underexplored licensing opportunity

    low · Jeff Teolis and Patrick McKinnon discuss potential for country music-themed games by manufacturers like American Pinball, given music prominence in Nashville and industry-wide appeal

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Beatles pinball machine rumored for fall or January release

    medium · Patrick McKinnon states: 'The rumor is Beatles coming out, and we should see that maybe in the fall, maybe in January'

    • 5:36
    Yeah, just the basic tools. Nut drivers is a huge thing. You can't say anything dumb. I know nothing, Rob. Nothing.
    5:47
    Yes, screwdrivers. A lot of nut drivers as well. What's that long pointy thing that has a magnet on the end of it and it extends? That thing's pretty cool. I've seen people use that. I've used it too. I actually have one in the shop. Is there a name for it? Actually, I don't even know if there is a name. I could just call it the magnet extender. The magnet extender. Oh, I feel so cool. I need a work belt now.
    6:08
    Well, Rob, I appreciate that. Patrick, you've got a good guy here in Rob, and he also does some of the video game stuff, too. I saw, what was it? Were you playing Rambo when you walked in? Yes, we were playing Rambo. We've got a brought back from dead Rambo, and we were having fun shooting. No shortage of music pins here at Music City Pinball, which makes sense because little, are you born and raised here? Yes. Yes, I mean, I was born in Chattanooga but lived in Nashville since I was four years old. Okay, so you know that there are 60,000 musicians in Nashville. I learned that from my hop-on, hop-off. That is more per capita than anywhere else in the world. So do you play? Do you sing? I don't. Then you'll have to move. Get out. Exactly, I should. But where we're located, I mean, you're so close to the Country Music Hall of Fame. You've got Blackbird Studio right around the corner, which has the biggest collection of microphones in the world, some of different genres of music record right around here. But as far as talented musicians, including people like Jack White that have moved here from Detroit, it's just such an array of different types of music, musicians. It's a lot in this town. So a lot of entertainers, and that's why having Music City Pinball is a big thing because entertainers like pinball, their friends like pinball, and that's part of the need and niche that we're after. Let's do a little bit of name-dropping here. Jack White loves pinball machines, especially Pat Lawler games, correct? And you've got maybe to know Jack a little bit? I've met Jack a couple times, not related to pinball, but yes, I've met Jack. He's a great Nashvilleian. He's a great human being. He does a lot for the city and this community. But, yeah, our hopes are to get Jack in here and to play some games and share these with him because I know he's got a fondness for old nostalgia things, not only vinyl records, but also some older pinballs as well. So that's what we hope to do. Didn't you have legendary U.S. figure skating Scott Hamilton just in here? Yes, he was in here yesterday. And now me. And now you. It just gets better. Yes, it does. It gets better with time. So maybe Jack White tomorrow. Who knows?
    8:10
    But, yes, he was in here yesterday. It was great to see him. Obviously, he's had a lot of great highs in his life. He's also, I think, a three-time cancer survivor, just a great human being. I got to meet him yesterday. He's a big, stern Batman 66 fan. and he was also looking at another game in here.
    8:29
    But, yeah, we're hoping to do business with him. He lives in Franklin, which is about 20 minutes from Nashville. But, yeah, he loved coming in here. He's got four or five pinballs at his house. He's moving to a different house, and he's wanting to add to the collection. I've heard him speak. He's a great man for sure. Yeah, that's cool that he was here. Okay, teach me a little bit about Nashville. Again, I know only a few things. What is with the obsession of Greek mythology in this city? I saw the Parthenon, a one-to-one ratio scale, too. the only one like that in the world what is it you know we were called the athens of the south and i don't know when that got started but all i do know is i remember being a kid growing up in nashville and you go to the only full-size replica of the parthenon and then you have this huge athena statue as you walk inside the door it's amazing a lot of people just find it very odd you come to nashville and we called the athens of the south but we have this full replica i don know to answer your question I don really know the fascination with Greek mythology but it a great asset to the city and one of the many things and attractions here in Nashville And the statues in the city are pretty impressive. You mentioned the Athena one, but Rob, I went to a roundabout and I saw this big Musica one. I mean, it was huge. It was all these musicians, and the locals don't call it Musica. They call it Nudica because everybody was naked in it. Yeah, that's correct. It's hilarious. It's been in a couple of bars, and they've been calling it that. And then I start seeing the tourists start calling it that. And then they have to all run and get their pictures in front of it. So it's very funny. Yeah, a little creepy. All right. This town also has a curfew, I noticed, a juvenile curfew, 18 or older. I saw that. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, we're still in the conservative South. We're in the Bible Belt, a great, great place. Is that Donald Trump here? A wonderful place. No, I think it's kind of an old school.
    10:17
    Yes, it's an old school kind of rule that I think has just been probably religious, Bible Belt South tradition. Well, I went to the Nashville Sounds baseball game on the Friday night when I got here. Beautiful ballpark. I guess it's only a few years old. And they had the big guitar on the background there. Lots of fun. Obviously, the Nashville Predators had huge success in hockey just recently. there's a lot of certainly passionate people about their sports and stupid me again from up in canada i don't know anything i saw a lot of people with university of tennessee shirts i'm like oh big vols fans here i'm thinking i don't think that's a national so stupid me asked this guy i'm like oh you big university of tennessee fan this guy wasn't wearing a shirt he goes hell no vanderbilt baby and i went oh is university of tennessee not here he goes no it's in knoxville yeah okay He was nice, and he told me a little bit about Vanderbilt. That's a nice-looking school. Small school, but they call it the Harvard of the South, apparently. Yeah, it's a top-20 academic school. I mean, you've got the Vanderbilt Hospital that's associated with it, which is a leading institution in research and in medical fields, but you've also got a great baseball team there. You've got a consistently good basketball team. Football is not their strong suit, but they're the only private school in the SEC. which is obviously a very dominant powerhouse, especially in football. And so Vanderbilt's lucky and fortunate to be in the SEC, but they do well in a lot of other sports besides football. But they've had bleeps of success. No, he was nice. He was kind. He told me about the difference in schools. And I'm also a very sensitive guy. I know people are passionate about their sports. I'm a huge Rams fan. Do you think I was going to be wearing a Rams jersey here in Nashville? I remember 1999. I remember the Titans going down. I didn't wear it. No. And, of course, we lost our great coach, Jeff Fisher, that left Tennessee. Yeah, he sucked. He was terrible at the Rams. Went to the Rams. But, no, I grew up a Rams fan, actually, because that was back in the days. Eric Dickerson. When you had Eric Dickerson, number 29, I had his number 29 jersey. You were either a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, you were a Dallas Cowboys fan, or you were a Rams fan. Oh, wow. And I remember Vince Ferragamo in those days in the late 70s, early 80s. So, yeah, I was a big Rams fan. But, yeah, the Tennessee Titans do well here. They've got a big following. Yes, we did come up short, a few yards short in that Super Bowl. But there's a lot of other sports here. And we're getting the addition of a soccer stadium. So we'll have professional soccer in that stadium. It's about a mile from here towards downtown. I could see a big league baseball team or even basketball team coming here for sure too. Back to pinball. Music City Pinball here in Nashville, Tennessee. I did notice some other places. There was a pinball arcade downtown. I thought I was going to check out, somebody told me about headquarters. I guess you go in, as long as you pay for your food and your booze, the pinball is free. So I might have to check that out near Broadway. Absolutely, yeah. It's downtown. It's all near the action. So get you some games in while you're downtown. As I look down this lineup of great games, there are so many great music pins nowadays. I assume those would be popular in Music City. What are your top five or even your favorite pinball machine games music themed? Music theme? I mean, I was a KISS fan, like I said, growing up, so I've always liked KISS. I like Metallica, ACDC, Aerosmith is a great one, and I'll leave the last one for Rob. Rob can add his music theme to the last one. All right. What is it? Dolly Parton. Go ahead. No? No. No, actually, my favorite that I would have to say, it would have to be between two because I love them both, is ACDC and Metallica are my favorite. They were both great design tables. Absolutely love them. Iron Maiden is starting to grow on me. So I haven it hasn became one of the favorites yet but I have definitely played it a lot I starting to get into it more starting to learn learn the rules a little bit more So it definitely growing on me Patrick kicking himself for not saying that Yeah I feel guilty I can put it in edit I can't do it. This is live. I know. It's live. But I was hoping that Rob would. It's right behind you, too. It is right behind me, and I hope Rob was going to come out of it and say Iron Maiden right off the get-go because I was letting him have the punchline. So then he went around it. So, no, Iron Maiden is a great one. I love the four flippers. I love the design. They really stern nailed it on that game. I think there was a lot of anxiety about that game. There was a lot of talk about that game. It came out, was it going to meet expectations? Was it going to fail? Was it going to exceed expectations? And I think Stern and their entire design team really knocked it out of the park with that game, Iron Maiden. It's going to be a successful game for quite some time. Trump would say it'd be huge. It's going to be huge. It's going to be great. Stern is making pinball great again in this great country.
    14:54
    Thanks, Patrick. I'm McDonald. The rumor is Beatles coming out, and we should see that maybe in the fall, maybe in January. I think that would be a great license if that's the case. But as I'm here in Nashville, I'm thinking, you know, there are a lot of big country stars, and it's not like country music isn't big every single place. Obviously, it's bigger here in the South, but in every major metropolis, in every big city, whether it's L.A., New York, Chicago, there are country music stations. I wonder if they did a country music pinball machine, who would be best for that? Would it be someone like Garth? Yeah, I mean, you could go outlaw country and, you know, go after Merle Haggard and Hank Williams and the good old days of when country was really country. Or you could do the more popular stuff today. The new world country might be too early to do that. I think it is. I think I would hit outlaw. I mean, Willie Nelson, the old stuff. Chris Stapleton's about as close to outlaw country as you can get. I think it would be really neat if they made a newer Nashville game or something like that. It would be really cool with some great stars in it. I think they've got a lot of opportunity for that. Maybe something for American pinball. Is there anything more American than country music? No, no, there's not. Just a thought. So one thing I do know about Tennessee, there are some very good players here that will certainly represent the state in the North American Championship. Will Kruse comes to mind. He's currently number one in Tennessee. The Farnsworths are both great players. What's the action like in Tennessee for pinball? Well, specifically here in Nashville, it's great. We open our doors every Wednesday night. We let anybody and everybody bring whatever beverages they want to. We open the doors, and all ages can come and play. And Farnsworth, they are here every week, religiously, once a week, as well as William. And so he's our stern army rep with Music City Pinball. But at least here in Nashville, it's a great scene. I have not yet traveled down to Memphis or Chattanooga or Knoxville to look at some of the other, you know, the other outfits and the other groups and the other leagues. But it's something I want to do. We hope to host one day in the near future where we can let Nashville, the capital city of the state of Tennessee, host the state championship. But I think it'd be great. Rob, I think you were telling me before we started recording that Memphis hosts the state championship. And I was mentioning, well, you know, a place like California, a huge, huge state. You know, they'll rotate it between North and South California. I know New York moved it to West New York this year in the Buffalo region. So some of these bigger states, and certainly Tennessee would be one of them, maybe if the popularity is big here in Nashville, maybe it'll come here someday soon. That'd be good. Oh, yes, that'd be definitely good. We have definitely been growing a huge scene here, and that's the goal is to bring the finals here. I believe we're not far from it. Definitely, I think with our growth, we will get there. maybe not this year, but definitely for sure in the year after. Well, keep up the great work here at Music City Pinball. Rob, you're a fine tech. Techs are so, so important for these kind of distributorships. Congratulations, Patrick, with the Stern distributorship. And again, the only one in Tennessee. You've got to be proud. And thank you for opening the doors here at Music City Pinball. Thank you for coming out. We love having guests and having Scott Hamilton yesterday and now you. It's been huge. It's been a great two days. It's been wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome anytime. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. And check out our new website under construction, pinballprofile.com. I'm Jeff Teolas.
    18:39
    Thank you.