George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville will be hosting a benefit concert for KUAF Public Radio on April 26. The lineup will include local bands Ted Hammig & The Campaign and Frailstate. George's originally opened its doors in 1927 and is nearing its 100th anniversary in January. Brian Crowne is the third and current owner of George's Majestic Lounge. He spoke with Ozarks at Large's Sophia Nourani about what it's like to run the Fayetteville landmark and changes he's seen during his tenure at the bar and music venue.
Crowne says nonprofit work like the KUAF fundraiser has always been important to him and his wife and partner, Day Crowne.
Brian Crowne: Nonprofits are an important part of all the communities around the country, and George's — my wife and I — it's always been important to us and our time as owners to continue on a tradition that I think the previous owners had with George's as being part of the community. And I think part of that is, within reason, trying to make our space available as a comfortable facilitating space where people know and they can — sometimes it's about raising money for the nonprofits, sometimes it's just about giving opportunity to create awareness. It's a place where people know and they come together. And I think it just kind of helps keep us as a supporter of the community, and the nonprofits are kind of a byproduct of that support. The support that they get through George's.
Sophia Nourani: Your start as a musician, becoming the owner of George's — what do you take from your work as a musician and your past experience in the music industry and traveling, into your work as the owner of George's and how you curate the music there?
Crowne: I saw the Blues Brothers when I was young — that style of music, that '60s R&B, soul, blues. And some years later, I was a sophomore in high school, I decided I wanted to play saxophone. So I borrowed a saxophone and I taught myself how to play. And fast forward a few years, I became proficient enough to get some gigs, and I actually came through Fayetteville. George's was the first place I ever performed in Fayetteville, on a Friday happy hour. I was invited to sit in with a band, and I was just enamored with George's at the time. Just the diversity of folks that were there. I loved that music and live music especially — it's a place where people from all walks of life can kind of come and check everything at the door and realize what they have in common, a love for the music that's on stage.
I was driving a 1977 Datsun 280Z with my saxophone and my guitar. I was couch surfing back then and didn't necessarily have a place to live and never dreamed I was going to own anything, but became best friends with the owners at the time, their son, and he and I were roommates. Ben Harrison — I remember telling him, if you ever decided to sell George's, give me a shot. I don't have any money, but who knows, someday it might work out. And many, many years later, they said, we want to sell. And they gave me first shot. And I was very fortunate to have one of my best friends in the world, a lady named Susie Stevens, who had the financial wherewithal to facilitate purchasing the property and the business. At the time that she did that, my wife and I also entered a deal with her to buy the business. And I remember telling Susie, I want to focus it on music. And if it doesn't go, worst case scenario, if you own the dirt, you don't lose any money. And some years later we were in a position to be able to buy the property too. But it was an opportunity that we happened into and something that I would have never imagined. And I remember at the time telling my wife, I think I have a three to five year plan if we can get George's and do something with it. And this is year 22 now.
So it's a labor of love. I made a transition from being an artist and a performer and a producer to being a concert promoter and an event planner — wasn't something I initially made a conscious decision about. I never dreamed I'd own a music venue. But it's been a cool trip. Life has offered opportunities and we've been blessed to make the most of them. And it's kind of crazy to think that we're now the second longest owners of George's. George Pappas had it for 20 years. Mary Hinton ran it for 40 years. And then Dr. Bill and Betty Harrison — they had their first date there in the '50s in college — they bought it from Mary and had it 17 years. And we're 22 years in. So I like to tell people that we're the curators of this institution during our time as the owner. Long answer to a short question, but that's how I found music. And I like to tell people that the joy that I used to give being on stage, helping give folks an escape from the reality of day-to-day life — I still am blessed to have that same opportunity, to be the guy behind the curtain that gets to put on a bunch of cool shows.
Nourani: You mentioned there have been three past owners and 100 years of this business. Are there pressures there with so much history, coming up on 100 years?
Crowne: It's not just the building — that goes without saying — it's the institution that George's is. I wouldn't necessarily call it pressure. It's a responsibility that I feel, and my wife feels as my partner, to not lose what George's has and has been to the community, but continue to be relevant as the community evolves and grows and new people discover it. I joke with some folks: when you get a legacy institution, there's a lot of sense of ownership from the community. Sometimes it's like, well, you don't own it, and I have to make some changes and we have to do some things, and here's why. Trying to do that dance to let people know that we really do respect the history and appreciate that, but we needed to evolve it a little bit with some of the modifications. But fortunately most of the things we've tried have landed pretty well with folks.
And yeah, we're going to turn 100 on Jan. 31, 2027. Kevin Kinder has been telling me for five or six years that he's going to write a book about George's, and he's truly going to do it. He actually found a newspaper clipping a couple of months ago — because I could never figure out when George's really opened — and there was a newspaper clipping from 1927 that said it opened. So on the 31st, I don't know what we're going to do yet in January, but we're going to have a party. We're going to plan to celebrate George's hundredth year over the course of the year with some special events in George's and probably outside of George's as well. I am stressed a little bit about hoping that we do something that's cool enough that people go, that's cool — that's where that pressure is — as opposed to, really, that's all they did for the birthday. I think we'll figure that one out.
Nourani: How has the landscape of music in Northwest Arkansas changed, on a local level, with the AMP bringing in different acts?
Crowne: 36 years ago when I came to Fayetteville, vibrant music community, still a vibrant music community, great artists. Obviously the evolution of social media, how people consume their music and find their music has changed over the years. Cell phones, iPhones, social media platforms, Instagram, TikTok — all of it has been a trip to watch. Sometimes I think about, man, I wonder what I would have done in 1992 if I had all these platforms to take my music to market. Seeing that change has been really fun. It's been cool that George's has been a constant in all that as a place for people to gather. That evolution of how artists take their music to the public, and how the public can find what they want to consume — it's been a cool and exciting thing to see. I feel very fortunate. I tell people I'm upright in the music business after almost 40 years. And I'm blessed to have a little bit of a finger on the pulse of the music in the region, from the front room at George's to the back room at George's to the shows that I bring to the Walmart AMP. That's a surreal trip to look back on, and I'm just glad that I'm still on the trip.
That was Brian Crowne, owner of George's Majestic Lounge and vice president of the Walmart AMP, speaking with Ozarks at Large's Sophia Nourani. KUAF will be hosting a music fundraiser at George's on Sunday, April 26, at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. Three Fayetteville-based bands will be performing, including Ted Hammig & The Campaign and Frailstate. You can get tickets at georgesmajesticlounge.com.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
