Nashville Predators Chants: A Local's Guide to the Loudest Barn in Hockey
By Paul Whitten, Founder of Nashville Adventures
The first time somebody drags you into Bridgestone Arena for a Preds game, you do not really watch hockey. You survive it.
The Nashville Predators chants hit you like weather. Thirty seconds in, a wall of noise rolls down from the upper bowl, the whole building answers back, and you realize the fans are running a script that everybody but you has memorized. There is no building in the NHL louder when the playoffs roll in, and trust me I have stood in a few.
So before your first game, let me teach you the words. This is the stuff that makes "Smashville" Smashville.
The Nashville Predators Chants That Built Smashville
Most of this did not come from the team. It came from the cheap seats.
A core group of superfans up in Section 303, lovingly nicknamed Cellblock 303, built these traditions from scratch when the team was a brand-new expansion franchise in 1998. Longtime 303 regular Mark Hollingsworth put their role about as plainly as it gets:
We've been called the ignition that starts the arena. We get a lot of the chants going. (via WMOT)
They decided early on, as Hollingsworth tells it, to "start some traditions that no other NHL team has had before." Mission accomplished. Here are the big ones, in the order you will hear them.
The Anthem Roar
Nashville does the national anthem differently, and it gives me chills every single time.
A country singer takes the mic, the crowd stays quiet and respectful through most of it, and then everybody detonates on the last line, screaming "the home of the BRAVE" loud enough to rattle the rafters before the puck has even dropped. It is part patriotism, part war cry, and it tells the visiting team exactly what kind of night they are in for.
The Goal Song: I Like It, I Love It
When the Predators score, you will hear the horn, and then you will hear Tim McGraw.
"I Like It, I Love It" has been the Preds goal song for years, and there is something perfectly Nashville about celebrating a goal with a country hit from a hometown star. The whole arena sings the hook. Learn one line of it before you go and you will fit right in by the second period.
It's All Your Fault: The Signature Chant
This is the one the whole hockey world knows Nashville for, and it is ruthless.
After a Preds goal, the crowd turns on the opposing goalie with a call-and-response that builds like a storm. Fans count off the number of goals, throw in a flat "you suck," chant the goalie's name back at him, and then drop the hammer in unison: "It's all your fault! It's all your fault!" Mark Hollingsworth once broke the ritual down himself: "You count off the number of goals. You suck, Murray, Murray, Murray. You suck. It's all your fault."
It is relentless, it is a little mean, and goalies genuinely hate it. Which, of course, is the entire point.
The Catfish on the Ice
Detroit throws an octopus. Nashville, being Nashville, throws a catfish.
The tradition goes back to the late 1990s, and former Nashville bar owner Bob Wolf claims the very first toss. He told CBS how it started as a bit of barroom scheming:
We was sitting at Wolfie's, and after we had come up with the idea of what we were going to throw, the catfish, the next idea was how we're going to get a catfish. (via CBS)
By playoff time, fans sneak whole catfish past security and hurl them onto the ice after big goals, and broadcasters literally keep a running "catfish counter" on the screen. Is it allowed? Not really. Does it stop? Never.
The Rest of the Smashville Songbook
Those are the headliners, but Bridgestone has a deep bench of call-and-response bits. Here are the ones to listen for:
"Thanks, Paul!" When PA announcer Paul McCann tells the crowd there is one minute left in the period, the whole building yells back a cheerful "Thanks, Paul!" It might be the friendliest chant in all of hockey.
"Juuse!" When goalie Juuse Saros robs somebody blind, the crowd does not boo. It roars "Juuuuse," which sounds like "juice." First-timers always think the building is booing him. It is the opposite.
"Ref, you suck!" Self-explanatory, and deployed early and often the moment a call goes the wrong way.
"Hey, hey, hey, goodbye!" Sung at any opponent skating off to the penalty box, and again at a goalie who just got pulled.
"Let's go Predators!" The all-purpose rally cry, clap and clap and clapclapclap.
"We want the Cup!" Playoff season only, equal parts hope and demand.
If you want the full cheat sheet before you go, we keep a running list of the top chants to yell at a Predators game so you can practice in the car.
Where the Fangs Come From
One more thing, because it is my favorite footnote in the whole building.
The team mascot is a sabretooth cat named Gnash, and he is not some random logo a marketing team dreamed up. Back in 1971, crews blasting for a downtown tower broke into a hidden cave and pulled out the skeleton of a real saber-toothed cat that once hunted Ice Age Nashville. That fossil is the reason this team is named the Predators, fangs, logo, and all. So when you are screaming "it's all your fault" at some poor goalie, remember you are doing it inside a city named, in a roundabout way, for a 10,000 year old cat. Only in Nashville.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do Nashville Predators fans chant?
The signature Nashville Predators chant is "it's all your fault," aimed at the opposing goalie after a Preds goal, usually paired with counting the goals, a "you suck," and the goalie's name shouted back at him. Fans also roar the end of the national anthem and sing along to the goal song.
What is the Nashville Predators goal song?
The Nashville Predators goal song is "I Like It, I Love It" by country star Tim McGraw. It plays after the goal horn every time Nashville scores at Bridgestone Arena, and the crowd sings the hook.
Why do Predators fans throw catfish?
Throwing catfish is a Nashville playoff tradition inspired by Detroit's octopus toss. It started in the late 1990s, and fans now smuggle catfish into Bridgestone Arena and throw them on the ice to fire up the crowd after big goals.
Why is Nashville called Smashville?
"Smashville" is the nickname for Nashville as a hockey town, built on the Predators' hard-hitting style and the famously loud, chant-heavy crowd at Bridgestone Arena. The atmosphere is regularly compared to a European soccer match.
Catch a Game, Then Let Me Show You the City That Screams for It
Here is how I would spend a perfect Preds night: a loud one downtown, start to finish.
Bridgestone Arena sits right at the foot of Broadway, so a game slots perfectly into a night in the heart of the city. Before the puck drops or after the final horn, our Nashville walking tour unpacks the real story of that neighborhood, and if you want to keep the party rolling, our Historically Tipsy pub crawl is built for it. For the backstory on the street the arena shares, read the real story behind Lower Broadway and my Nashville nightlife guide. Want it all mapped out? Take a look at what to do in Nashville or just get in touch and we will time it around the next home game.
