John Zara hasn’t been with The Grey Eagle since its inception, but he’s worked there long enough to have witnessed some amazing artists swing through, as well as some inspirational resilience from his colleagues.

The business’ marketing director started working at one of Asheville’s longest-running music venue in 2013, handling all things social media, then parlayed his experience into a GM role and went full time in 2015. By then, roughly 20 years had elapsed since the establishment opened in 1994, and approximately 15 revolutions around the sun since it ceased operations at its original Black Mountain location in 1998 and reopened the next June at its current River Arts District space.

Now, three decades have gone by since The Grey Eagle first opened its doors, and to celebrate the occasion, The Budos Band, Amy Ray Band, Greenliners, and Electro Lust will play a festival-esque bill on Saturday, May 18. The event was originally going to be at the venue’s outdoor Outpost location, but in keeping with its mobile history — and mostly in response to a less-than-ideal weather forecast — the performances will now take place indoors at the GE.

Prior to igniting some serious birthday candles, Zara spoke with Asheville Stages about his ongoing tenure at the storied business and what he and his colleagues hope lies ahead.

Edwin Arnaudin: What are some highlights from your time working at The Grey Eagle?

John Zara: A lot of the shows that I get to see folks on their way up. A good example of that is I got to see Tyler Childers two or three times before he took off like a rocket. Those are the kind of shows that stick in my head — the ones that where the artist has this unnatural propulsion, you know what I mean? Like, skip The Grey Eagle or skip The Orange Peel — go straight to Thomas Wolfe [Auditorium], or something like that. Noah Kahan is one that's recently exploded that played just a couple years ago. But there's a lot of those that stick out, the ones that end up really taking off.

EA: Yeah, those are fun stories to hear. I know people talk about seeing Fleet Foxes there [in 2008] when Father John Misty was still on the drums. There's a lot of little, cool, “before they were stars” types of opportunities when you can see them up close.

JZ: I think that's a lot of what people come here for. We're a small club [550 occupancy]; we're only about half the size of The Orange Peel. And you know just as well as I do that it's just the natural progression of things — we're kind of a stepping stone towards bigger and better things for a lot of artists. And we take a lot of pride in being in that role. We like to build audiences and have artists here and kind of build them up in the Asheville area and watch them take flight, if you will.

I mean, we've had Andrew Bird — a lot of those guys that we're seeing now that are playing Rabbit Rabbit, which is, like, 4,000 cap.

EA: Yeah, definitely. Thinking about accomplishments over the past 30 years for The Grey Eagle, it is that artistry and really keeping an eye out for talent. Are there other things that you and the leadership team kind of consider the greatest accomplishments, even dating back from before you started working there?

JZ: I think one of our biggest accomplishments is kind of remaining unchanged a little bit. The ownership has changed hands a few times since it moved from Black Mountain in ’94 and, over the years, The Grey Eagle is not much different than it was when it moved over here.

There's been some improvements and lighting upgrades and sound upgrades and things that make the show experience a little better. But for the most part, people walk in here and they're like, “Man, this place looks just the same as it did 20 years ago” or whatever. And I kind of like that. I always tell people that it's “just enough dive.” You know? It's not too fancy, and it's not a complete disaster area. But it's the kind of bar that people feel comfortable in.

EA: Also thinking about accomplishments, thinking about notable challenges that you and the team have overcome — I feel like [the] COVID[-19 pandemic] and pivoting all through that was definitely one. But are there other things that y'all feel like you’ve really have to navigate over the past decade or so?

JZ: Yeah, COVID is definitely the one standout. Our current challenge is encroaching development. There's an apartment complex going up literally on the other side of the fence on the patio. I can almost reach out and touch it, it's so close.

We've been fortunate enough that the city has designated a little spot here a no-no for hotels and stuff like that. And the building owners like what we're doing and they seem behind us and they don't seem like they're looking to get out of the building or move us anytime soon. So, we feel like we're in a good place, so we can keep fighting off all those outside influences and hopefully these people that move in next door like live music, and like it loud. [laughs] We'll see how that goes.

EA: I feel like another accomplishment is adding The Outpost. What kind of opportunities has that opened up?

JZ: That's allowed us to hold on to some of those artists that are taking off — just one more time or a little bit longer. We dipped our toes into the outdoor space when COVID hit. We did some drive-in shows [in Maggie Valley] and we were able to bring in bigger acts like Jason Isbell and moe. and stuff like that.

Normally, they can’t play The Grey Eagle just because they're well beyond that capacity. And I think that gave us a little bit of an itch to go out there and compete for some of these bigger shows and get into outdoor production. And so The Outpost has been a vehicle for that.

The 30th anniversary party out there will be the first show on the big stage. That’s kind of the season kickoff for us. We've got Fruit Bats in July; Grateful Shred and Circles Around the Sun at the end of May [the 23rd]. And we’ve got some more things up our sleeve that we're trying to sneak in here before the end of summer. Of course, AVLFest will be out there and we're looking forward to that.

We just see it as another gathering place for the community to come together over some live music. And the partnership with [Asheville Adventure Company] has been working out really well, They run rentals and stuff out during the day, and then we kind of take over at night. And we have some smaller shows out there, usually on the weekends. But The Outpost has been a nice little addition for us.

EA: And I remember five years ago, for the 25th anniversary, it seemed like those were artists that all had pretty strong historical ties to The Grey Eagle. Is that kind of similar to what was driving the curation for the 30th anniversary show?

JZ: Jeff [Whitworth] does all the booking. He’s the previous owner here and has been booking for the Eagle for probably 20 years. But all the relationships and the rapport that he’s built with agents and industry folks has helped us land those up-and-coming artists that we talked about. A lot of those are agents that are like, “You gotta check these guys out! They're about to blow up!” They're in our ear about what's coming.

But we definitely like to focus on acts that we have history with. The Budos Band was actually our very first show at The Outpost in 2019. So, we're excited to have them back. We had them at the 25th and they've done a lot of Halloween shows here over the years that have been pretty big.

And we always like to include local folks — that’s where Electro Lust and Greenliners come in. And we have a little history with Amy [Ray] and Emily [Saliers] from the Indigo Girls here, and we felt like that was a nice round out. It's a diverse lineup and pretty different genres.

And we think it really encompasses what we do here, because we're not just a rock ‘n roll club. Maybe even 20 years ago, The Grey Eagle was pretty easily pigeonholed as a bluegrass/Americana/folk club. And with Jeff’s help, we've really diversified that. We have everything from hip-hop to comedy and vaudeville shows, and we take a little bit of pride in having something for everybody if you look at the calendar at any given time.

EA: And then lastly, looking ahead — you know, I don't know about another 30 years. [laughs] Maybe! But what’s y'all's long-term vision? How far down the road are y'all looking?

JZ: We're just talking it year by year. We’re focused on continuing to have a full calendar. We have shows almost every day, and sometimes two a day if you count the patio show that we do earlier in the evening. So, upwards of 30-ish events every month.

We just want to be able to keep up that pace and hopefully continue to grow The Outpost. There’s been a lot of infrastructure updates out there, and so that place is continuing to evolve also. I think that we're going to see more with that further down the road and how things could evolve and change.

IF YOU GO

Who: The Budos Band, Amy Ray Band, Greenliners, and Electro Lust
When: Saturday, May 18, 6 p.m.
Where: The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave., thegreyeagle.com
Tickets: $45

(Lead photo of Shovels & Rope and all other photos courtesy of The Grey Eagle)