Wayne Mills Death: The Shooting, Trial, and Appeals

Country singer Wayne Mills died on November 23, 2013, after being shot once in the back of the head at a Nashville bar called the Pit and Barrel. The bar’s owner, Chris Ferrell, fired three shots from a .22-caliber pistol during an after-hours argument that began over a lit cigarette. Ferrell claimed self-defense, but a Davidson County jury rejected that account in March 2015 and convicted him of second-degree murder. He is serving a 20-year sentence with no possibility of parole.¹

What Happened at the Pit and Barrel

Mills, 44, and Ferrell were among a small group gathered after hours at the Pit and Barrel, a bar and barbecue joint at 515 2nd Avenue South in Nashville, in the predawn hours of November 23, 2013. The trouble started when Mills lit a cigarette in a part of the bar designated as non-smoking.² The dispute escalated. Ferrell grabbed a .22-caliber pistol and fired three times, striking Mills once in the back of the head.¹ Mills was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and died there.³

No witnesses to the shooting itself were reported at the time. Ferrell told police he had acted in self-defense. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said its investigation did not support that claim.²

What the Autopsy Showed

The Davidson County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, fired from some distance. The autopsy found no evidence the gun had been discharged at close range.⁴ Mills also had two fractured ribs, bruises on his chest, arms, and legs, and cuts on his face, consistent with a physical altercation before he was shot.⁵ Toxicology showed Mills had a blood-alcohol level of 0.221, nearly three times Tennessee’s legal driving limit, and tested positive for amphetamines.

Who Chris Ferrell Was

Chris Ferrell, 45, owned the Pit and Barrel. He had moved to Nashville from Alabama roughly two decades earlier to pursue music and later worked in construction, classic car restoration, and the bar business.⁶ His bar had previously operated as BoondoxXx and had been remodeled by Spike TV’s reality show Bar Rescue only two months before the shooting.⁷

Ferrell was not taken into custody at the scene. He surrendered on December 6, 2013, after a Davidson County grand jury indicted him on a charge of second-degree murder, and was released on bond ten days later. At the bond hearing, prosecutors cited prior arrests for domestic assault and interfering with an emergency call, both dismissed earlier that year, and a pending vandalism charge. Ferrell said he had been placed in protective custody in jail after receiving at least a dozen death threats.⁶

The Trial and the Self-Defense Claim

Ferrell’s trial opened in early March 2015 in Davidson County Criminal Court. His attorney, David Raybin, argued that Mills had threatened to kill Ferrell during the cigarette dispute and had smashed a glass on the ground. Witness Eric Beddingfield testified that Ferrell had phoned him after the initial confrontation saying Mills was “going crazy” and that he felt threatened.⁸

Prosecutors told the jury the killing was deliberate. Assistant District Attorney Wesley King said the shooting happened “over the stupidest of arguments” and that Ferrell, unable to win the verbal dispute, “decided to take matters into his own hands” by grabbing his pistol and firing three times. Assistant DA Tammy Meade said the state believed “very strongly this was a conscious act.”⁹ The physical evidence pulled against self-defense: Mills had been shot in the back of the head, from a distance.

On March 6, 2015, after roughly two hours of deliberation on the fifth day of trial, the jury convicted Ferrell of second-degree murder.⁹

The Sentence

Sentencing began on April 11, 2015, before Judge Steve Dozier and concluded on April 24. Prosecutors sought the 25-year maximum; the defense asked for the 15-year minimum. Judge Dozier settled on 20 years and ordered Ferrell to serve every day of it.¹⁰

“There was anger over smoking and words passed, but that doesn’t justify getting a gun and shooting someone,” the judge said. He pointed to Ferrell’s prior misdemeanor DUI conviction, the fact that Ferrell possessed two handguns, and what he described as Ferrell’s conduct after the shooting, which included placing a gun near Mills’ body to stage a self-defense scene and initially lying to police.¹⁰

Ferrell addressed the court before the sentence was handed down. “I stand here today with the heaviest of hearts, conscious and soul,” he said. “I will carry the memory of that horrible night with me forever. I’ve wished every minute of every day that I could go back and do it differently.”¹¹ Mills’ widow, Carol Mills, said afterward that no length of prison time could truly be just, but that she was satisfied and relieved the trial was over.¹⁰

Appeals

Ferrell’s defense team appealed on July 19, 2016, arguing in part that the sentence was excessive. On March 13, 2017, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee affirmed both the conviction and the 20-year sentence.¹² Ferrell then filed a petition for post-conviction relief in June 2017, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel at trial and on direct appeal. Judge Dozier denied the petition. On September 2, 2020, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed that denial, effectively exhausting Ferrell’s state appeals.¹³

Who Wayne Mills Was

Jerald Wayne Mills was born in 1969 in Arab, Alabama. He played baseball at Wallace State Community College and football at the University of Alabama, where he earned a degree in education, before turning to music. The Wayne Mills Band toured nationally for more than 15 years and released seven studio albums, with a long-running Tuesday night slot at Harry’s Bar in Tuscaloosa and dates across the Southeastern college circuit, Europe, and Australia.³

Mills was best known in outlaw country circles for “The Last Honky Tonk” and “Bad Side of Me,” and his 2010 album The Last Honky Tonk drew on Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson influences.¹⁴ Early in their careers, Jamey Johnson, Blake Shelton, and Taylor Hicks all opened for his band.¹⁵ He left behind Carol and their young son, Jack, for whom a family fund was established.¹⁶

Aftermath

The Pit and Barrel closed immediately after the shooting, and Ferrell’s business was liquidated.⁶ A Bar Rescue episode featuring the bar, titled “Music City Mess,” had been scheduled to premiere on Spike TV the day after the shooting. The network pulled its 10 p.m. airing but failed to catch a midnight encore. Spike TV later apologized, calling the slip “an unfortunate human error.”¹⁷ The building sat boarded up for years. After the property was sold, the 3,000-square-foot structure was demolished in mid-2016.⁷

In 2018, country singer Brent Cobb, whom Mills had mentored, released “King of Alabama” on his album Providence Canyon. Cobb described Mills as “a man among men, the old-school kind” with “a great big heart” and “a laid-back mind.” The song opens with the line, “Nothing good ever happens after midnight — so the story goes,” a nod to the circumstances of Mills’ death, though the track itself celebrates his life on the road.¹⁸ A Wayne Mills Memorial Ride, held each year on Mills’ birthday, raises money for an education fund for his son.¹⁹

1
Rolling Stone. Bar Owner Found Guilty in Murder of Country Singer Wayne Mills
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NBC Miami. Wayne Mills Nashville Shot in the Back of Head Chris Ferrell
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Tuscaloosa News. Wayne Mills Singer With Tuscaloosa Ties Dies After Nashville Altercation
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AL.com. Autopsy Shows Singer Wayne Mills Shot in Back of Head
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WAFF. Autopsy Shows Wayne Mills Shot in Back of Head
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USA Today. Country Singer Killed
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Saving Country Music. Bar Where Country Artist Wayne Mills Killed Finally Demolished
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WKRN. Ferrell Feared for His Life Before Wayne Mills Shot to Death
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Jackson Sun. Chris Ferrell Found Guilty
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NashvilleTNLaw.com. Murder Comes Between 2 Good Friends Judge Says
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WKRN. Man Convicted of Wayne Mills Murder Sentenced to 20 Years
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Saving Country Music. Conviction for Wayne Mills Killer Confirmed by Appeals Court
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Tennessee Courts. Christopher M. Ferrell v. State of Tennessee
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AL.com. Brent Cobb Wayne Mills
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MusicRow. Wayne Mills Remembered During Alabama Memorial Service
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KSDK. Country Singer Shot Dead in Nashville Bar
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Hollywood Reporter. Spike TV Apologizes for Airing Bar Rescue Episode
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Rolling Stone. Hear Brent Cobb Honor Slain Country Singer Wayne Mills in King of Alabama
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Cullman Tribune. Friends Ride to Remember Wayne Mills