8 Things Tennesseans Defend About Their State That Even They Can’t Explain

Tennessee residents will defend just about anything tied to their state, whether the facts hold up or not.

These are the things Tennesseans defend hardest about their state, even when they can’t fully explain why.

1. Jack Daniel’s

Tennesseans wear Jack Daniel’s like a state symbol, stamped on koozies, murals, and welcome signs from Bristol to Memphis.

The whiskey comes from one place: The Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, inside Moore County.

Moore County has stayed legally dry since Tennessee passed statewide prohibition in 1909, and it never reversed course when the rest of the state did.

No bar pours it there.

Moore County voters approved a workaround in 1995, letting the distillery sell whiskey as a souvenir bottle instead of a drink, so visitors leave with a keepsake that happens to be full.

Ask a Tennessean to explain why the home of their favorite whiskey still can’t pour a legal drink, and the confident defense stalls out fast.

2. Tennessee Whiskey

Tennesseans get prickly when someone calls Jack Daniel’s or George Dickel a bourbon, even Tennesseans who’ve never poured a glass of either.

State law backs them up.

Tennessee requires any spirit labeled “Tennessee whiskey” to pass through the Lincoln County Process, dripping the new whiskey through a thick bed of sugar maple charcoal before it ever touches a barrel.

Lawmakers wrote that rule into the state code in 2013, decades after distillers had already been doing it out of habit.

Many Tennesseans couldn’t say what the charcoal-mellowing step changes in the finished whiskey.

It just isn’t bourbon.

3. “Rocky Top”

Tennesseans belt out “Rocky Top” at every University of Tennessee football game as if the song has been around as long as the state has.

The Bryants wrote it in about ten minutes in 1967, holed up in a room at the Gatlinburg Inn while working on an entirely different project.

Neither Felice nor Boudleaux Bryant was born in Tennessee, and Felice later said the lyrics weren’t tied to any one mountain.

Rival Southeastern Conference (SEC) fans call “Rocky Top” the most obnoxious tradition in the conference.

They’re not exaggerating by much: The Pride of the Southland Band plays it so often that opposing fans guess the total lands close to 100 times a game.

Tennessee doesn’t apologize for it.

The university holds a special license from the Bryant family’s publishing company letting the band play the song as often as it wants.

“Rocky Top” isn’t even the university’s official fight song.

That title belongs to “Down the Field,” a tune many fans couldn’t hum on request.

Few fans stop to check the songwriting credits.

Tennessee already had four other official state songs on the books when “Rocky Top” became the fifth in 1982.

The state’s list has grown to a dozen since.

The crowd still loses it over the chorus every single time regardless.

4. Loyalty to Their Grand Division

Could a Tennessean from Memphis and one from Knoxville agree on anything about their state?

Tennessee’s own state flag splits the state into three grand divisions: East, Middle, and West.

Tennessee runs roughly 432 miles from its eastern mountains to its western river bluffs.

It also touches eight other states along the way, tied with Missouri for more neighbors than any state in the country.

The three stars sit at an angle so none points higher than the others, a detail its 1905 designer built in on purpose.

Colonel Le Roy Reeves called the arrangement an “indissoluble trinity” when he explained his design to state lawmakers.

Someone from Knoxville and someone from Memphis rarely see eye to eye on much beyond that flag.

The loyalty to their own third of the state runs deeper than plain hometown pride.

Hardly anyone backs down.

Many Tennesseans defending their own third of the state couldn’t recite what Reeves wrote about the stars, even while they’ll argue for an hour about which grand division does things right.

5. Dolly Parton

Tennesseans agree on shockingly little when it comes to politics, sports, or barbecue, but Dolly Parton is the exception.

That held up even in 2018, when Dolly Parton dropped “Dixie” from the name of her Pigeon Forge dinner show and renamed it Dolly Parton’s Stampede.

More than a dozen protesters showed up outside the show carrying Confederate flags, arguing the name never should have changed.

Many Tennesseans defended her anyway: Whatever “Dixie” meant to history, Dolly could rename her own show.

Three years later, state lawmakers tried to hand her an honor few people ever get.

State Representative John Mark Windle filed a bill in January 2021 proposing a statue of Parton on the Capitol grounds.

It cleared a House committee that February.

Parton herself asked lawmakers to withdraw the bill, saying she didn’t think “putting me on a pedestal” was appropriate at the time.

The state made it official another way instead: January 19 now carries the title Dolly Parton Day by proclamation.

Few Tennesseans could explain why she’s the one name everyone still agrees on.

They don’t spend much time trying.

6. Hot Chicken's Romantic Legend

Tennesseans repeat the story behind Nashville hot chicken like it's settled history: A girlfriend loaded Thornton Prince's breakfast with pepper as revenge for a late night out, and he loved it so much he opened a restaurant around it.

Prince's family still runs Prince's Hot Chicken Shack today, and even they say nobody knows for certain which woman cooked that plate.

A historian who researched the story found five women linked to romances with Prince around that time, with no proof pointing to just one of them.

One dish, several possible cooks.

Tennesseans will defend the jilted-lover version as gospel at hot chicken counters across Nashville anyway, extra pepper included, no questions asked.

7. Zero State Income Tax

Tennesseans point to their paycheck as proof their state treats them right: No state income tax, full stop.

The state repealed its last income tax, the Hall Tax on interest and dividends, back in 2021.

That pride skips a trade-off.

Tennessee runs the second-highest combined sales tax rate in the country, close to 9.61%, beaten only by Louisiana.

Groceries, gas, and every trip to the store all carry that rate.

Tennesseans who defend "no income tax" as the whole story rarely bring up the sales tax bill waiting at checkout.

8. Volunteer State Name

Tennesseans slap "Volunteer State" on license plates, team names, and welcome signs without blinking.

The nickname traces back to the War of 1812, when Governor Willie Blount asked for 3,500 soldiers and Tennesseans answered by the thousands to fight under Andrew Jackson.

The muster ground at Camp Blount in Fayetteville filled up within weeks.

The reputation held up for decades.

The Mexican War call for 2,800 volunteers pulled in roughly 30,000 Tennesseans who showed up anyway.