NashvilleGab - Country music news and Nashville celebrity gossip

Kenny Rogers' fancy house yanked from auction at last minute

Beer's are on Kenny!

A couple of weeks ago I had told you about Kenny Rogers getting ready to auction off his mansion in Athens, Georgia. Turns out Kenny didn't need the auction and sold it before it took place, although not without the flair of a real showman.  

According to onlineathens.com, the auction was all set to start on Tuesday, June 26th, with bidders coming from all over the country with their $100,000 registered checks in hand (what you had to have to be able to bid), when the auction was suddenly and without explanation called off.  

Later on, a lawyer took the podium and told those in attendance, "Kenny has decided to take the house off the market."

On Wednesday, the auction company explained that Kenny had sold the property for $2.25 million. The appraisal price had been $3.5 million.

The website that had been set up to help publicize the auction said:

On a beautiful sunny Georgia afternoon bidders came forward for the once in a lifetime opportunity to bid on the famed "Lake House" estate designed and owned by The Gambler himself, Kenny Rogers. Interest for the property came from far and wide, as is typical for a Grand Estates auction. Over 11,000 people visited the auction website, 270 prospective buyers inquired from 16 states and Canada, 80 groups previewed the home, and 12 bidders registered for the auction. "It was a great sale today and the Gambler's bet paid off. Both Kenny and the buyer are very happy with the sale and look forward to closing!", stated Scott Kirk, VP of Grand Estates Auction. 

If you're still in the market for a mega-mansion with a hefty price tag that belongs to a living country legend, there's always George Jones' place in Tennessee. It's set to be auctioned off on July 7th. Info here.

Kenny Rogers and George Jones set to auction off huge homes

Usually when you hear about people auctioning off a home it's not by choice and the property is being sold for taxes or due to a bankruptcy or something equally sad, but apparently that's not the case anymore and it's become the hip and quick way of selling your home.  

Now two celebrities are set to give the home auction world a whirl.

Let's just hope these two have better luck than Sheryl Crow who wasn't able to unload her huge Tennessee farm when she put it up for auction back in 2010.

So first we have George Jones who is all set to auction off his beautiful Franklin, Tennessee property on July 7.

The house features 78 acres and is 10,000+ square feet with 4 bedrooms and 6 baths. Amenities include a 9 stall stable, 2 lakes, 5 large outbuildings, 2 separate caretaker residences, 2 private gated entrances, outdoor kitchen & entertainment area, and a swimming pool.  

George and his wife Nancy originally listed the property back in 2011 for $15.5 million but were unable to find a buyer. Reportedly, though, the property will be sold off in parcels rather than as a huge estate, probably in hopes of actually finding a buyer this time.  If interested, the property will be auctioned off by J.P. King.   

Another celeb who is going to give home auction a try is Kenny Rogers. Kenny has listed his gorgeous Athens, Georgia mansion up for auction, which will take place June 26th.  

The property features 5 bedrooms, 5-1/2 baths, 150 acres, an 8-acre lake, multiple horse pastures, a small barn and miles of private hiking and riding trails, as well as a private beach and waterfalls, pool, 3-car (only 3? Guess Kenny's no Jay Leno) garage, and is being sold fully furnished and includes Pontoon Boat, SeaDoo, and other fun stuff.

Sounds like heaven.   

Kenny's selling the whole bit lock, stock, and barrel it appears.  To find out more info, visit KennyRogersAuction.com. If you're interested in actually trying to buy the property, you can contact Grand Estates Auction -- but be warned, the property is valued at $3.5 million and you have to have a $100,000.00 certified check or personal check along with a bank letter of guarantee in order to just register to bid. 

A $100,000 personal check?  I have a hard time writing a $100 check, couldn't imagine ever writing a $100,000 one.  Makes me faint just thinking about it.  

Good luck on the auctioning, George and Kenny.  

Lady A's Charles Kelley and wife Cassie sell a house and buy a house

Charles Kelley's new home

Charles Kelley is moving up in the world.  

The Real Estalker is reporting that Charles and his lovely wife of nearly three years, Cassie, have sold their modest-by-celebrity-standards (pic below) 2710 square feet, 4 bedroom, 4 bath home in Nashville for an equally modest $720,000.  

Charles' new home is more what you'd expect from a hugely successful music man with 6,682 square feet, 4 bedrooms, and 4 full and 2 half bathrooms and is complete with a swimming pool, all on 1.56 acres of prime Nashville land. The purchase price is also more along the lines what you'd expect a celebrity to pay --$1.6 million.   

You can read all the info on the new house here.  Photos below. 

Well Charles is happily married and now has a big, fancy new home.  How long 'til a wee one comes along do you suppose? 

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Alan Jackson has officially become a mountain man

Heaven's Landing runway photo courgesy Heaven's Landing website

Alan Jackson has been selling off quite a bit of property in the last couple of years, reportedly so he can simplify his life.  

First there was the huge 19,000 square foot home called Sweetbriar that he sold for $28 million a few years back. Now he's trying to sell another Tennessee property for a little less than $3.4 million and he's also trying to unload his Jupiter Island, Florida property.  

If you were worried about Alan being homeless with all this property selling, don't worry too much because he's apparently found a slice of heaven in a gated community in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia that, while only a seven minute drive to Clayton, Georgia, population 2198, is geared more towards the resident who likes to come by plane rather than by more earthbound means.  

Heaven's Landing is an exclusive 635 acre mountainous community geared towards pilots that now proudly boasts a very famous resident. In their monthly newsletter, they officially introduced Jackson to his neighbors:

Heaven’s Landing is proud to introduce a world famous new addition, to our also world famous fly-in community.  Grammy Award winning country music star Alan Jackson, and his wife Denise recently became new owners at Heaven’s Landing.  You’ll notice the couple flying in regularly in either their Falcon 50 or their Lear 24.  

“They are some of the most down to earth people that you will ever meet”, says developer Mike Ciochetti Jr.  Being an avid pilot himself, Alan appreciates his small fleet of private jets as he uses them for both business and family travel.  Heaven’s Landing is proud to have both Alan and Denise as new members of the Heaven’s Landing family of owners.

They even include a picture of Alan and Denise coming in for a landing in one of their above-mentioned planes.  

No word on whether Alan and Denise bought an already-built home or are planning on building a custom one (I'm thinking they will be going custom), but if you're looking to relocate to be closer to your idol, it's gonna cost you. This real estate site has some properties in Heaven's Landing including hangars, bare land, and actual homes and they definitely cost a pretty penny....but I'm pretty sure you probably already guessed it would. 

Thanks Gayle for the heads up on this.  

Take a tour of Kellie Pickler's home on wheels

Motor Home Tour with Kellie Pickler

How in the world have I never seen this show?  How awesome!

HTGV has a very cool show called Celebrity Motor Homes that does just what it sounds like, it takes you inside the stars' homes away from home.  

Wait until you see Kellie's shoe collection.  Oh.My.Goodness!  

You can find out more info about the show and when to watch on HGTV.  

And just for good measure, here's Zac Brown's home/mobile recording studio on wheels.  

Zac Brown Shows Off Motor Home

LeAnn Rimes finally unloads old love nest at a huge loss

Wow, tough break. 

Back in 2008 when LeAnn Rimes and then husband Dean Sheremet still appeared happily married, the couple built their 13,310 square foot dream home in Franklin, Tennessee. Then a year or two year later the couple split and divorced after LeAnn headed to greener pastures with now husband Eddie Cibrian.

The dream home then hit the market for $7.45 million and sat and sat and sat some more. LeAnn got desperate enough that she even tried renting the massive property out for $25,000 a month.

I don't know if she ever got it rented, but she did finally sell the house - unfortunately she only got a little over half what she was originally asking for.

RealEstalker reports that LeAnn has finally unloaded the unlucky abode for $4,100,100 - $3,350,000 less than the original asking price. 

I guess money's not a big deal for LeAnn but still....damn!

WhyOptions.com provides you the ultimate resource for broker comparisons and Forex education.

John Rich would really like you to buy his house and be his neighbor

Well look who's taken to personally trying to sell his house...it's John Rich.  

Yesterday I had a story about a house that had once belonged to John being for sale right down the road from John's new giant Cold War Bunker style house on Love Circle, but I wasn't 100% sure if it still belonged to him or if it was someone else just using the Big & Richmeister's name to try and unload the property. 

Now we have our answer....it still belongs to John and he's going to personally bring you a big bottle of champagne if you take it off his hands. 

Check out the video below of John reminiscing about the house and trying to sweeten the deal with tales of overnight jam sessions with Keith Urban and songwriting with Taylor Swift. 

Now that's my kind of shameless!  And yes, I'm totally sold.  If I had an extra 600 K (well $580,000) lying around, I'd definitely be John's neighbor.  

If the video doesn't hook ya, there's also a website set up with lots of pictures of the property at johnrichsneighbor.com. 

Yes, that's John Rich's Neighbor.com.  

{via John Rich's Twitter}

Untitled from Phillip Poynor on Vimeo.

John Rich's home is for sale....no, not that one

Hey, wanna own a piece of history?  Then you're in luck because John Rich's home is for sale. 

No, not the big, ugly, industrial Mt. Richmore....nope, this one is a little bit more family friendly and probably a whole lot more neighbor friendly.  

It's also pretty much a steal at a little under $580,000.  

Let's check out the video description, shall we? 

OWN A PIECE OF COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY - THIS IS THE FIRST HOME OF COUNTRY MUSIC STAR/CELEBRITY APPRENTICE JOHN RICH - THIS PERFECT 10 SITS IN THE HEART OF WEST END - LOTS OF HARDWOODS - CUSTOM KITCHEN WITH SILESTONE COUNTERS - STAINLESS STEEL APPLIANCES - LARGE MASTER SUITE WITH JACUZZI - COZY FIREPLACE - DOUBLE VANITIES - WALK-IN CLOSET - 10 FT BRICK PRIVACY FENCE WITH ELECTRIC GATE - 10 PERSON SPA - FABULOUS VIEW - 3 FIREPLACES

Now it's funny because this house is located on Love Circle, which is the same Love Circle where John's big ugly house is located - in fact, it's just down the road.  

I assume it's John selling it, but I could be wrong.  

More info here and here's a street view if you're in the market.

And in case you're curious, John's Mt. Richmore street view (while it was still being built) is here and some history of John's much-hated home here. 

Taylor Swift has bought the White House!

Just look at that there giant hunk of white house, isn't it purdy?

This, folks, is Taylor Swift's newest purchase - a $2.5 million dollar historic home in Nashville.  

So maybe this is why Taylor up and sold the house she bought for her parents recently...she was upgrading.

Taylor has reportedly recently acquired this stately 5,601 square foot, 4 bedroom, 4.5 bathroom home in Nashville that was formerly owned by U.S. ambassador to Denmark Guilford Dudley Jr. and that is in the same general posh area as Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman's home.   

Taylor's rumored new digs is so darn fancy and important it even has its own website (complete with excellent virtual tour).  

Crazy cool. 

If you're feeling especially stalkerish, you can check out the general area on Google Maps.

 

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Tim McGraw and Faith Hill reportedly nearly finished building their island getaway home

Oh hey, looky here, the Tim and Faith island-owning story is back.  

This was one of my first big stories not too long after I first started this blog back in 2008. I found a happy little piece that I had dug up in some obscure place about Tim and Faith Hill owning an island. A few hours later and bam, the story was everywhere, and I mean ever-eee-where with no mention of where the story had originally come from. 

That was my first foray into the odd and often frustrating world of no-one-friggin'-gives-credit-where-credit-is-due world of blogging.  

Sigh. 

Well history does what history does and an old story is suddenly new again.  This time though, there appears to be a house added into the mix.  Yep, Tim and Faith have apparently been quietly building their paradise home away from home.

According to reports, the power duo are close to finishing their 15,000 (yikes!) square foot home on their own private island in the Bahamas.  

Country music stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are in the final stages of construction on their 15,000-square-foot, four-bedroom on their 17-acre island, Goat Cay.

The plantation-style home main house will have a lookout tower and will be flanked by three smaller homes for a manager and staff, sources familiar with the construction told the Journal.

From what I can dig up, it appears the couple bought the island back around 2006, so I'm not sure what's taken so long to build the home, but I'm sure it'll be worth it once it's finished.  Check out some pictures of the surrounding islands here, but be warned, you may find yourself turning a bit green with envy.