10 Celebs Who Went To School In Nashville

Nashville is famously known as "Music City," serving as the home of country music.

Several of country's biggest names got a head start by calling Tennessee's capital city home early in their careers. Other celebrities also called Music City home before gaining fame in different industries.

Here's a look at 10 celebrities who went to school in Tennessee before reaching superstar status.

Dierks Bentley (Vanderbilt University)

Dierks Bentley has left his mark on Music City. The CMA Award winner is one of the biggest names in country music and has his own honky tonk bar in the heart of Nashville's famed lower Broadway area. But the Phoenix native initially made Nashville his home when he transferred to Vanderbilt University, where he graduated in 1997.

Miley Cyrus (Heritage Elementary)

As the daughter of a country superstar, it's no surprise that Miley Cyrus spent her early years living in the Nashville area. Cyrus was born in Franklin,Tennessee, which is minutes south of Nashville, and attended Heritage Elementary School before her family moved to Toronto when her father, singer Billy Ray Cyrus, filmed the television show "Doc."

Miley Cyrus reportedly moved back to Franklin in 2016, purchasing a $5.8 million ranch.

Al Gore (Vanderbilt University)

Former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore attended Vanderbilt University Divinity School in 1971 on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship in order to explore "spiritual issues" after returning from the Vietnam War. As a student, Gore began working the night shift for the city's biggest newspaper, the Tennessean, as an investigative reporter, which included publishing stories on corruption among members of Nashville's Metro Council and the subsequent arrest and prosecution of two councilmen for separate offenses.

Gore took a leave of absence to attend Vanderbilt University Law School before deciding to leave the school in 1976 in order to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he eventually won a seat previously held by his father.

Gore, who won a Nobel Prize alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, also gave a 24-hour presentation at Vanderbilt regarding climate change in 2019.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (McGavock High School/Glencliff High School)

Before his legendary wrestling career and eventual climb to the top of the box office, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson experienced humble beginnings at two Metro Nashville high schools. As the son of legendary wrestler "Soulman" Rocky Johnson, the "People's Champ" bounced around different schools as his family moved to coincide with his father wrestling in different territories.

While Rocky wrestled in the Mid South territory, a teenage Dwayne attended both McGavock and Glencliff high schools in Nashville. Johnson has joked that his high school classmates thought he was "an undercover cop," given his massive 6'4, 225-pound frame at age 15.

Rep. John Lewis (Fisk University/American Baptist College)

Following his recent passing, many celebrated the life of Rep. John Lewis and his legacy as a Civil Rights Icon, which began during his college years as a student at two Nashville HBCUs, Fisk and American Baptist College.

Lewis organized sit-in demonstrations at lunch counters during the Civil Rights Era and was among the young leaders who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.

Brad Paisley (Belmont University)

Brad Paisley rose to country music stardom with his debut 1999 album "Who Needs Pictures" and won the CMA Horizon Award and ACM for best male vocalist award in 2000.

But his Nashville journey began when he transferred to Belmont University on a fully paid ASCAP scholarship, where he graduated with Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1995. Paisley has stayed true to his Belmont roots, establishing an endowment scholarship for Curb College students in 2012 and opening a nonprofit grocery with his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley near the university's campus earlier this year.

Chris Stapleton (Vanderbilt University)

Kentucky native Chris Stapleton revealed in a 2018 interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune that he didn't make a move to Nashville to pursue music, but instead to study engineering and later business at Vanderbilt University, before eventually dropping out.

“The main thing I learned from both of those things is that Ididn’t want to be an engineer or an economist," Stapleton said. "Sometimes, when you’re 18, career paths are not clear. You have things you like to do, but everyone I knew made a living in business. My dad was an electrical engineer who worked on coal mines. My brother is an FBI agent.”

Stapleton eventually pursued his musical aspirations, finding success as both as singer and songwriter credited for more than 170 songs.

Taylor Swift (Hendersonville High School/Aaron Academy)

Taylor Swift, on the other hand, did make the move to Music City in order to pursue her dream of superstardom. The West Reading, Pennsylvania native and her family moved to nearby Hendersonville in 2004, just two years prior to her self-titled debut album in 2006.

At the time, Swift attended Hendersonville High School and later transferred to Aaron Academy, a local private home education alternative to accommodate with the demand of her growing career.

Oprah Winfrey (Tennessee State University/East Nashville High School)

Oprah Winfrey moved several times during her youth before returning to live with her father in Nashville, where she graduated from East High School, now known as East Nashville Magnet High School. Winfrey was voted Most Popular Girl and severed as a member of the speech team, placing second nationally in dramatic interpretation.

She also worked part-time at WVOL, a local Black radio station, while she was still in high school. The future talk show host and media mogul earned a full scholarship to the Nashville HBCU Tennessee State University, where she studied communication, before getting her first television break as both the youngest news anchor and first Black female anchor at then-WLAC-TV, which has since rebranded to WTVF Newschannel 5.

Reese Witherspoon (Harpeth High School/Harding Academy)

Born in New Orleans and raised in Nashville, Reese Witherspoon began her acting career early, making her film debut in "The Man in the Moon" at the age of 15. Witherspoon, the daughter of a Vanderbilt professor, attended the Nashville middle school Harding Academy and all-girls high school Harpeth Hall, during which she was a cheerleader.

In 2015, Witherspoon opened her Draper James store's first retail outlet in Nashville's 12 South neighborhood.

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