FAME Studios Home of the Muscle Shoals Sound

Last Updated 3/20/2024Posted in The Shoals (Colbert County), Stories, AL North, Music

Must Do The VIP Backstage Passes

FAME Studios

603 East Avalon Ave.
Muscle Shoals, AL
  • Standard Tours Monday-Friday 9 a.m. only
  • Saturday 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.
  • Backstage Tours Monday - Friday 9 a.m and 3:30 p.m.
  • Saturday 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Ticket Prices

  • Standard Tour Tickets are $20 adults and $15 children under 12
  • Backstage Tour Tickets are $40 adults, $30 children under 12 Group rates for parties of 10 or more. www.famestudios.com

Recording Aretha, Duane Allman, and Wilson Picket oh my!

Splurge on the VIP BackStage Pass! We had the most terrific tour guide in Sam the Man! He was so much fun. FAME Studios has so much history, and the fact they are a working recording studio means that you never really know who may be in the area or behind the door for that matter, when you are at the Shoals. Sam explained how the different studios had different sounds and then gave inside scoop on artists and what they like… He talked about Steven Tyler too… When he was recording he kept rubbing the corner of the baffle (a partition that was used to help control sound in the room) when he was recording in 2018. It was really worn ragged on the corners and he said that’s where the mojo was. So of course I needed a little mojo too! in the Shoals. 

The lounge had pictures of people that had recorded at FAME and oh my goodness talk about the greats… Aretha Franklin found her sound thanks to FAME Studios and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Duane Allman left his band in LA and camped in the parking lot because he wanted to be a part of what was happening in the Shoals… He later sat in with Wilson Picket on a cover of “Hey Jude” that is seriously better than the original.


A word to the wise though…. It is an active recording studio and you never know who may be working. As our tour finished two musicians came in to work out some music before heading out on tour later this year.

We went for the backstage pass and toured upstairs which included seeing the founder of FAME Studios Rick Hall's personal office that he used until he died in 2018.

 

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