(Today’s article is written by new contributing writer Matt Hollingsworth — who introduced me to the Kelsi Ballerini song below. Matt has written local interest articles for Farragut Life, Monroe Life, and McMinn Life, as well as science fiction stories for various magazines.)
A lot of us enjoyed seeing Knoxville depicted in the Burt Reynolds film The Last Movie Star, but I think I got a bit more of a kick out of it than most, because I got to see the name of one of my best friends in the credits as an intern. A personal connection always makes movies more interesting, and it got me thinking—what other fun pop culture references can I find to our wonderful city?
Here are a few, some well-known, others maybe less so:
The Simpsons: Toppling the Sunsphere
In season 7 episode 20, Bart on the Road, Bart, Milhouse, Martin, and Nelson make a fake ID and take a road trip to Knoxville to see the 1982 World’s Fair… in 1996, about 14 years too late. The episode depicts a version of the World’s Fair site that looks like it survived a zombie apocalypse, complete with toppled telephone poles, broken windows, and a crumbling sign that nearly crushes poor Martin. Most famously, this episode has one of the boys knock over the Sunsphere by throwing a small rock at it. I was rather busy developing within my mother’s uterus when this episode premiered, so I was surprised to learn while researching this article, that the World’s Fair site was really run down at this time. It certainly looks a lot nicer now, if only Bart and the boys had waited a few decades to see it.
Pulp Fiction: A Safe Refuge
Quinten Tarantino is one of Knoxville’s most famous scions, so it’s not too surprising that he has a reference to a Tennessee town in nearly all his movies. It’s his second film, Pulp Fiction, that references Knoxville itself, however. Pulp Fiction is often considered a masterpiece—even among prudes like me; users of IMDb ranked it the eighth greatest movie of all time.
The film is divided into three main chapters, and it’s in the middle that we find the reference to Knoxville. The story is about a boxer named Butch who is paid by a mob boss to throw a fight. He takes the money but instead wins as part of a scam with the bookies. He plans to flee for his life with his ill-gotten gain to Knoxville, Tennessee to escape the mob boss’s fury. Unfortunately, his girlfriend has forgotten to pack his most treasured possession—a gold watch passed down in his family for four generations, a watch originally bought in Knoxville. Knowing the family legacy of this heirloom, Butch risks his life to retrieve his watch.
Johnny Knoxville: Taking the Town’s Name
I couldn’t very well leave off the most obvious reference to Knoxville, could I? Adopting his hometown’s name as his own, Johnny is a stunt performer and actor famous for his Jacka** TV show turned movie series. The stunt/comedy/something series is, uh, not exactly my cup of tea, but it’s certainly something that’s brought a lot of laughs to a lot of people within our city and without. An additional personal connection for me — I went to high school with one of Johnny Knoxville’s cousins.
Thunder Road: A Moonshiner Meets His Fate in Bearden
This 1958 film written by and starring Robert Mitchum depicts a man running illegal moonshine in East Tennessee and Kentucky. The accompanying theme song is great, and you’ll catch the names of some very familiar cities, but it’s in Knoxville that the main character faces the consequences of his actions. He races down Kingston Pike, before being hitting spike strips laid out for him by a rival gangster and fatally crashing in Bearden.
Blazing right through Knoxville, out on Kingston Pike
Then right outside of Bearden, they made the fatal strike
He left the road at 90; that’s all there is to say
The devil got the moonshine and the mountain boy that day.
Kelsea Ballerini: Half of My Hometown
This song from Grammy Award-nominated artist Kelsea Ballerini takes us from Downtown Knoxville and into nearby Fountain City. The song is a loving tribute to her roots, and you can hear the emotion in every verse. Watch the music video to spy some very familiar scenery.
Knoxville Girl: A Dark Turn
If you’ve never heard this song before, you’d be forgiven for assuming it was a love song after the first three verses. It’s on verse four that things take an… interesting turn.
I met a little girl in Knoxville, a town we all know well
And every Sunday evening, out in her home, I’d dwell
We went to take an evening walk about a mile from town
I picked a stick up off the ground and knocked that fair girl down
The next stanza continues with the singer viciously beating her to death, throwing her body into the river, then returning home with blood on his clothes where he is eventually arrested. The song is an example of a “murder ballad” which is a genre that exists apparently. It’s a folk song with a long history, and it’s unclear who originally wrote it. The Louvin Brothers did a popular cover of it in 1956.
It’s quite the depressing song, and speaking of depressing…
Cormac McCarthy: Really Sad Novels
Pulitzer Prize-winner Cormac McCarthy has an entire novel set in Knoxville which is not too surprising since he had close connections to the city. The novel is called Suttree. I must confess, I’m still recovering from my journey through McCarthy’s extraordinarily violent and disturbing masterpiece—Blood Meridian—so it may be a bit before I can work up the mental fortitude for a deep-dive into this 500-page, probably-very-depressing book, but as such an incredible writer from my hometown, I’ve got to keep reading his works.
A Death in the Family by James Agee: An Oversight
As somebody who absolutely adores books and literature, I was quite embarrassed to find I’d never even heard of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set in my hometown. It wasn’t until I sent this article in to Inside of Knoxville that its owner, Alan Sims, asked me why I’d left this out. I’d left it out because I didn’t know it existed. This autobiographical novel was based on the author’s grief over the death of his father.
The novel begins with a very promising opening line: “We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child.”
Alan Sims, thank you for the book recommendation. I look forward to reading it someday.
Conclusion
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. From references in the show Ozark to The Body Farm series by Jefferson Bass, Knoxville pops up everywhere. As a native of West Knoxville myself, I always got a kick from knowing that, before the Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk got his start aboard the starship Farragut. (Named after the admiral, presumably and not the town itself, but it was still a cool discovery for a young sci-fi nerd.)
So many of the pop culture references to Knoxville, naturally, come from people who grew up here. It’s nice to know that we’ve produced so many incredible artists and that we’ve left enough of an impression to be referenced in their work. Maybe you’re an artist, too, dreaming of hitting it big. If you do, just don’t forget about the Scruffy City, and maybe one day you’ll be on a list like this for some loving homage you’ve created to your hometown.