The curtain is closing on the Rock Shop.

Shawn Adkins, a veteran of the local music scene who owns the decade-old Fayetteville live music venue off Eastern Boulevard, said the club's last date will be April 30.

"It's just time for a break for me," he said Friday. "I've been doing this since I was 15 — being a promoter and entertainer. And I needed time to just sort of kick back and reevaluate what I'm going to do next. I'm going to take at least three months off and then figure out what I'm doing from there."

He said he hasn't taken a vacation in 10 years.

Adkins, 36, announced the Rock Shop's closure Thursday on his Facebook page. “It has been one hell of a ride," he wrote, "but as the saying goes, ‘All good things must come to an end.’ ”

The establishment, at 128 S. King St., earned a reputation for booking acts that varied from death metal to punk and alternative. Other genres of music also were staged over the years, including hip-hop, Latin, Americana, jazz and rhythm and blues.

"Everything from classical to death metal," he said in an interview. "Hair shows. Beauty pageants."

Besides the homegrown groups, the Rock Shop presented such national acts as the alternative metal band the Deftones and rapper-turned-hardcore-rocker Vanilla Ice. Over the last three years, Adkins said, the club has been rented out more as an event center.

“... We would like to express our gratitude to everybody that has supported us throughout these last 10 years,” Adkins said on Facebook.

In December 2006, Adkins and Dave Johnston launched the Rock Shop, originally operating at 106 Eastern Blvd. At the time, the plan was for it to serve as a combination club, music store and local music history repository.

In April 2010, the establishment reopened after moving to its current site, expanding club capacity from 250 to 1,000. The location features 12,000 square feet of space, including a larger main stage from the original site.

The Rock Shop was not his first dabble in the Fayetteville music scene.

At 15, Adkins and some friends opened Area 51, a club that operated for nearly two years on Bragg Boulevard, showcasing bands from the surrounding area. Through the years, he has also played music. He plays drums for Breathe New Life.

"I'm going to be working on recording music," Adkins said.

Adkins is organizer of the city's annual Zombie Walk, an October Fourth Friday tradition that draws thousands to the downtown district. The Downtown Alliance and The Rock Shop collaborated last fall to present the Zombie Walk for the seventh time.

"I'm still going to do the Zombie Walk," he said.

And between now and April 30, Adkins said, he hopes patrons will get their fill of his nightclub. He envisions local bands coming in to play on The Rock Shop stage one last time so the venue, as he put it, "can go out with a bang."

“The fact that we have been able to stick around as long as we have is solely because of you,” Adkins said of his customers on Facebook. “It has been a dream come true to have witnessed the uniting of so many great people through our love of music and art.”

Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at futchm@fayobserver.com or 486-3529.