Grammy Award-winning American country music singer and songwriter Brad Paisley is urging people to speak against a proposed data center that would be constructed near the Nashville Zoo. In an Instagram reel, Paisley called the project an “absolute nightmare scenario.” “First of all, they don’t have the power to build this. They don’t have the water. It doesn’t belong there. It would be an enormous monstrosity, an absolute eyesore, and detract in every way from not only that zoo, but that area,” Paisley said in his video. Watch below: Should a data center right be built right next to the Nashville Zoo? Brad Paisley has entered the chat and joins thousands who have already signed a petition against the building proposal. In a statement to NewsChannel 5 today, the Nashville Zoo said it has every intention of… pic.twitter.com/tXtax7k7so — NewsChannel 5 (@NC5) June 8, 2026 NBC News shared further: The video comes days after the zoo created a petition and promoted it on social media, which brought national attention to the dispute and had amassed 331,824 signatures and over 126,599 shares Monday afternoon. The zoo’s president and CEO, Rick Schwartz, said in an interview Friday he was particularly concerned about its impact on rare and vulnerable species at the facility, such as the clouded leopard, whose population the zoo is working to conserve. Paisley, a Nashville resident, is so far the most widely recognized figure to push back against the project. “No one has shared studies or environmental impact assessments. Just their word. That’s why the Nashville Zoo is asking the community to join in vehemently opposing the proposed data center being built adjacent to the Zoo,” the petition says. The proposed data center is from DC BLOX, an Atlanta-based company that specializes in building and operating data centers as a service to “hyperscalers, enterprises, communications providers, and technology companies,” according to its website. With 23 data centers in operation and development, DC BLOX aims to expand the number of data centers across the country. “More data centers are required outside the major cities nearer to edge markets to house the necessary technology to run services closer to data producers and consumers,” its website says. “As we move forward, we have taken the next step in our fight against the proposed data center,” the zoo told NBC News. “Our Land Use Attorney and former Metro Codes Director Bill Herbert has filed a zoning appeal with the city. The goal of this appeal is to overturn the permits that DC BLOX has filed and that have been approved,” it added. A DC BLOX spokesperson told the outlet that the data center would “not be an AI factory placing a burden on local resources and is proposed on a site that had previously operated a data center.” Brad Paisley urges his followers to sign a petition to stop the construction of a 69,000-square-foot data center that would be 50 yards from the Nashville Zoo, which he called “an absolute nightmare scenario” in an Instagram Reel. https://t.co/EmxKUw5oav — NBC News (@NBCNews) June 9, 2026 WSMV noted: According to the permit application by Jeremy Dreiling, the data center would be a single-story building that would span 69,220 square feet. The facility known as the DC Blox Data Center, would be located at 648 Grassmere Park in South Nashville, which lies just feet away from the Nashville Zoo. Dreiling has also filed for a permit to demolish two existing buildings at the location.