When the doors of ear X-tacy, a staple in Louisville culture for the past two and a half decades, failed to open on Oct. 29, people immediately knew something was wrong. The store had been struggling with business for the past several years but took a huge blow in July of 2010 when it moved from about a block south of Eastern Parkway on Bardstown Road to about a mile further south down Bardstown Road in the Douglas Loop. When owner John Timmons could no longer afford the lease on the location closer to Eastern Parkway, moving to Douglas Loop was not his only option. Gil Holland, a co-owner of The Green Building on East Market Street, offered Timmons free rent in the building, but Timmons declined the offer, saying “ear X-tacy must stay in the Highlands.” This decision to stay in the Highlands arguably did not pay off, with the record store losing “about 40% of foot traffic with the location change,” Timmons said Nov. 2 at a candlelight vigil outside ear X-tacy. “It’s been my baby for 26 years,” a tearful Timmons said, “and it has been really hard for me to say goodbye to this.” Timmons started the store in 1985, naming it after the British new wave band XTC, of which he was a huge fan. “It was a little hole in the wall when I found it,” said Trinity teacher Rob Seng, a longtime ear X-tacy supporter and close friend to Timmons. This self-declared “obsession” with records did not just come out of the blue for Timmons. “I found my first true record store when I was 12 in Scottsdale, Ariz.. I’ve been hooked ever since.” Over the years, ear X-tacy expanded, beating out its main competition, Camelot Records, in the early ‘90s. Yet nothing came easy for the ambitious entrepreneur. One 10-year employee of the record store said the store “couldn’t have made it without John’s dedication.” Timmons asserts that the store “could not have made it without the employees or customers.” In the eyes of his friends and customers, Timmons was much more than just the owner of ear X-tacy. “John Timmons is ear X-tacy,” one onlooker shouted during the candlelight vigil, coordinated by Seng. Another longtime customer of the store said “ear X-tacy definitely extended beyond its walls. It was more than a store. It was an ideal.” Many people looked at ear X-tacy as the leaders of the “Keep Louisville Weird” movement. “John has been credited with starting that entire movement, and the movement has taken a significant blow with this closing,” Seng said. As far as local businesses go, Timmons remains optimistic. “Record stores will never go away,” he said, urging his customers to “please support (local record stores).” In fact, the record store Better Days just reopened on Bonnycastle about three months ago. Owner Ben Jones made the decision to reopen after being closed nearly four years. Seng said it’s “ironic that as one ‘old’ record store reopens in the Highlands, the one most closely related with Louisville closes.” Even though Timmons was “blindsided” at the closing of his once thriving store, some employees and customers “sensed it was coming.” “It had been a really rough week,” ear X-tacy manager Rebecca Mercer said, referring to the week leading up to the closing. “I have no clue what I am going to do now,” Timmons said when asked about his future. He maintains that his first priority is to make sure his former employees find jobs before he worries about himself. “I guess I could go back to how I started, selling records out of my house,” Timmons joked. One employee described ear X-tacy as “a culture,” with another claiming “it defined an era.” Timmons said, “The store may be gone, but the memory will always be there.”