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Scotty McCreery and his wife, Gabi, have welcomed their first child, son Merrick Avery McCreery, who was born Oct. 24 at 4:34 a.m. ET in Raleigh, N.C.
The couple’s son is named after Gabi’s father, Merrick (Tre) Dugal III, and will be called Avery.
“Next to his mother, he is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” North Carolina native McCreery said via a statement. “We have been waiting and preparing all year, and now we are so excited to have our little man here with us. We have begun a grand new adventure that will continue for the rest of our lives.” “Gabi was a total rock star during Avery’s birth. I could not be more proud of her,” he added. “She has already taken to motherhood like a champ. Part of my joy as his Dad is watching Gabi already crush it as his Mom.”
Scotty and Gabi McCreery announce the birth of their son Merrick Avery McCreery.
Courtesy of Scotty McCreery
McCreery is off the road until his next concert on Nov. 30 in Las Vegas at the Downtown Hoedown on Fremont Street. His current single, “It Matters to Her,” which McCreery co-wrote with Rhett Akins and Lee Thomas Miller, is at No. 48 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart.
McCreery previously added a fifth chart-leader to his arsenal with the three-week Billboard Country Airplay No. 1, “Damn Strait.”
“My first country music concert was George Strait, and along with my love for Elvis [Presley], he inspired me to become a country music singer myself,” McCreery told Billboard when the song first went No. 1. “When I did American Idol, George called me and requested I sing his [1995] hit ‘Check Yes or No,’ and I still sing it from time to time in concert. Now, having my fifth straight No. 1 on a song that pays tribute to George, while at the same time being a classic country heartbreaker such as he might have sung, is such a full-circle moment that means the world to me. Trent Tomlinson and Jim Collins wrote a clever song that reaches beyond name-dropping Strait hits to tell a meaningful story.”
McCreery’s upcoming Same Truck: The Deluxe Album is set to release Nov. 18, featuring six additional new songs that were not included on his original Same Truck album, which released last year.
When psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced the five stages of grief in her 1969 book On Death and Dying, the original intent was to teach about coping with the loss of significant people in our lives.
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But those stages — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — don’t apply solely to the passage of our loved ones. They play out with all sorts of losses, including the end of a job, a friend moving away, the crash of a dream or a romantic breakup. Kolby Cooper’s first radio single, “Excuses,” puts that latter scenario into a hyper context, seemingly cycling through three stages before the first chorus even appears.
The pain “may not be as great as grieving a lost loved one,” Cooper reasons, “but it’s still a bad one for a lot of people. And I really think we did a decent job of getting that ‘Oh my God, what has happened’ feeling.”
It helped that Cooper’s road guitarist, Paul Oliger, offered a real-life road map when the subject emerged in a writing room on Oct. 13, 2020. Oliger’s girlfriend had dumped him the weekend prior, and all of her namby-pamby waffling in the breakup only made it worse.
“She was like, ‘You’re too good for me,’ and ‘I don’t deserve you’ — all this bulls–t, like, ‘You can do better than me,’ ” recalls Cooper. “Everything was just all these excuses.”
That single word, “excuses,” provided the impetus to explore the topic when Cooper met up with fellow songwriters Jordan Walker (“When It Rains It Pours,” “Can’t Do Without Me”) and Brett Tyler (“Cold Beer Calling My Name,” “Wild As Her”) at Combustion Music in Nashville. After perhaps an hour of scrolling through ideas that didn’t spark much interest, Tyler ran across “Excuses.” He had the title, the melody for the back half of the chorus and not much more. But, of course, Cooper had his bandmember’s heartbreak storyline. Those elements were a better match, it seems, than Oliger and his ex-girlfriend.
“I think it took like an hour to write,” Walker says. “It was one of those things where we didn’t really overthink anything and we kept everything simple. I think that’s what kind of helps portray it to the audience because it’s not something you have to think about. You just hear it once, and you get it.”
They developed the scenario in a realistic manner, capturing a moment that nearly everyone has experienced.
“For me, it was a relationship from my past,” notes Tyler. “When we started talking about stories and things like that, we were just kind of like, you know, ‘That’s just excuses. Let’s cut through the crap.’”
They did that very directly in the chorus. The singer calls out his girlfriend’s let-him-down-easy lines as “bulls–t,” saying the word outright in the initial version of “Excuses.” “I like a well-placed cuss word,” Tyler says. “We were all kind of against saying ‘B.S.’ because B.S. just sounds like such a ridiculous way to say ‘bull–it.’ ”
Verse two allows the guy to vent even more, though it also obliquely references the can’t-win situation the girlfriend is in. He laments in the stanza that she “coulda saved us both some time/ And just left me a letter.” Of course, had she split by writing a letter — or, worse, by text — he would have thought she was cold and heartless.
“We were trying to figure out how we were going to write into the second chorus,” says Walker. “I had the line, ‘You coulda come up with a couple better,’ and so needed a rhyme for ‘better.’ It was kind of a joke at first. I was like, ‘What if she just wrote a letter?’ We talked about it, that he’d probably be even more mad if she did write a letter, but it just rhymed so well that we ran with it.”
They wrote a bridge that outlined a few more options for how to dump a man and left time for a guitar solo, too. Before they parted company, they cut a work tape with acoustic guitars that Cooper could play for his producer, Philip Mosley (Blacktop Mojo, Colby Keeling). Mosley subsequently recorded a demo that sounded a bit heavier than the work tape, as well as a new scratch vocal on Cooper before a late-2020 session at Sound Stage.
The studio band mixed familiar country session players and local rock guys: bassist Jacob Lowery, drummer Miles McPherson, Hammond B3 player Will Houchens, steel guitarist Justin Schipper and three other guitarists — Tim Galloway on acoustic and Rob McNelley and Spence Peppard on electric. The crew mostly found its own direction while framing the music with a harder edge than what they heard on the demo.
“The last thing you want to do is just tell somebody of that caliber, ‘Play this,’” Mosley reasons. “You’ve got those guys that are playing on Joe Bonamassa albums and playing with Bob Seger. The last thing you need is some little producer from East Texas telling those guys, ‘Here’s what you’re going to play.’ ”
They started the production with drums, guitar and piano all playing light eighth notes, creating forward motion behind an otherwise languid and pensive verse melody. But that led to a bigger-sounding chorus. “Miles McPherson is just a monster,” says Walker, who attended the session. “Watching him bring it to life behind the drums was the moment that we all looked around like, ‘Damn, this could be a lot bigger than we thought it was.’ ”
“Excuses” helped Cooper secure his recording deal with Wheelhouse, which featured his unvarnished “bulls–t” in the vocal on his EP Boy From Anderson County, released Aug. 6, 2021. When they issued a single to radio via PlayMPE on Aug. 29, 2022, the profanity was edited to sound like a sonic asterisk — “bullsh*t.” They ended up trying multiple approaches to it, and finally, Mosley was summoned to Nashville from his family vacation on Sept. 10, the same day Cooper made his Opry debut. Cooper didn’t want to bleep it, so they cut a version of the line that changed “some bullsh*t that you said” to “somethin’ that you said,” offering an even safer option to broadcasters.
“He wasn’t a fan of doing a radio edit,” Mosley says. “We just backed off trying to be clever with how we got around the edit. And he just said, ‘You know what? I’ll just write another completely different line, just to take its place.’ And it worked out great.”
In its fifth charted week, “Excuses” moves to a new high of No. 52 on the Country Airplay list dated Sept. 29. It’s now a staple in Cooper’s live set, which finds Oliger — whose 2020 breakup inspired it — handling the song’s guitar solo onstage. Now engaged to another woman, Oliger is no longer grieving as he was when “Excuses” was conceived.
“He definitely wouldn’t be as happy with his ex as he is now,” says Cooper. “The thing was, the week after she broke up with him, she was on a date with a rich dude from Dallas. And I don’t know if they’re still together, but I’m sure she’s happier wherever she is.”
Christian music hitmaker Anne Wilson has inked a management deal with Matthew West‘s Story House Collective. The company has also brought in Crowd Surf, led by Jade Driver, as a strategic management partner.
During Friday’s (Oct. 21) GMA Dove Awards, Wilson won two trophies, including new artist of the year, while her hit “My Jesus” was named pop/contemporary recorded song of the year. Wilson wrote “My Jesus” with West and Jeff Pardo. The song proved to be a hit, and Wilson became the first female soloist to top Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart with a debut single since the chart’s launch in 2003.
“Our Story House team is thrilled for the opportunity to partner with an artist as remarkable as Anne,” West said via a statement. “I’ve been a believer in her since our very first writing session a few years ago. She’s the real deal. Her talent is undeniable, her story is powerful, and her mission is clear. We are honored to serve her artistic vision and beyond excited to help plot the course for even bigger and better things ahead for her.”
“I’m so excited to announce that I’ve signed with Story House Collective,” Wilson added. “I’ve been blown away by their expertise but also their love for Jesus. So grateful for their hard work and all that’s to come! God is good!”
West has served as a mentor for Wilson and is a co-writer alongside Wilson and Pardo on Wilson’s latest song, “Me on Your Mind.” They also released a duet version of the song earlier this year.
Bailey Zimmerman‘s debut collection Leave the Light On debuts at No. 2 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart (dated Oct. 29). Released Oct. 14, the eight-song set earned 32,000 equivalent album units in its first week, ending Oct. 20, according to Luminate.
The first Top Country Albums entry for the 22-year-old from Louisville, Ill., concurrently starts at No. 9 on the all-genre Billboard 200, where he also makes his first appearance. Zimmerman, who worked at a meat processing plant and on a gas pipeline prior to his career in music, co-wrote six songs on the project, which Austin Shawn produced.
Zimmerman made history on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart dated Sept. 3 when he became the first act to place three career-opening entries in the top 10 simultaneously, since the list began as an all-encompassing genre ranking in October 1958: “Rock and a Hard Place,” “Where It Ends” and “Fall in Love.”
“My life went from, like, nothing to 100, just so fast,” Zimmerman — who boasts 1.7 million followers on TikTok — recently told Billboard. “I started reading books. [Fellow country artist] Drew Baldridge has been like a mentor for me. He was like, ‘Dude, get the book All You Need to Know About the Music Business [by Donald Passman].’ I learned how labels worked, all kinds of stuff. I still have a lot to learn, but I dove in to learn what’s going on.”
On the Oct. 29 dated Hot Country Songs survey, Zimmerman charts five titles, including two in the top 10. “Rock” pushes 9-6 with 13.7 official streams and 2,000 downloads sold. It also ranks at No. 58 on Country Airplay with 568,000 audience impressions (up 7%). “Fall,” his current proper radio single, holds at its No. 8 Country Airplay high (17.2 million, up 3%), also with 9 million streams and 3,000 sold.
Zimmerman rounds out his current Hot Country Songs haul with “Where” (No. 28; 4.9 million streams); “Never Leave” (No. 35; 5.1 million streams, up 40%); and “Waiting” (No. 36 debut; 2.5 million first-week streams).
‘Delight’-ful Debut
Alabama‘s “Dixieland Delight” arrives on the Country Digital Song Sales chart, sparked by the intense college football rivalry between University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide and the University of Tennessee’s Volunteers.
The track, which led Hot Country Songs in April 1983, becoming the band’s ninth of 33 No. 1s (the most among duos or groups), enters Country Digital Song Sales at No. 13 with 1,500 sold, up 684%.
For those who don’t follow NCAA football, here’s a playbook on the song’s resurgence: Tennessee beat Alabama 52-49 on Oct. 15 at the former’s Neyland Stadium courtesy of a game-winning 40-yard field goal by Chase McGrath, ending a 15-game losing streak for Tennessee against Alabama dating to 2006.
Not unexpectedly, Tennessee fans got a tad rambunctious after the game, flooding the field and knocking over one of their own goalposts (reportedly at a cost of $100,000). As the orange-clad kids filed onto the field, the public address system ribbingly blared “Dixieland Delight” … normally played after the Crimson Tide wins at its home field (Bryant-Denny Stadium, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.)
Aided by buzz and press coverage, the song, solo-penned by Ronnie Rogers (who also wrote Alabama’s 1990 Hot Country Songs No. 1 “Jukebox in My Mind”), additionally gained by 44% in official on-demand streams, to 1.2 million, in the week ending Oct. 20.
Since Country Digital Song Sales began in 2010, Alabama charted one prior entry: Brad Paisley’s “Old Alabama,” on which the band is featured. The collaboration arrived at its No. 2 peak in April 2011. It went on to dominate Hot Country Songs for two frames that June, marking the group’s most recent No. 1 and first since “Reckless” in 1993.
The first round of performers for the upcoming 56th annual CMA Awards was announced Tuesday morning (Oct. 25), and it includes a mix of veteran hitmakers and rising artists.
This year’s performer lineup includes Jimmie Allen, Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Bryan, Kelly Clarkson, HARDY, Marcus King, Miranda Lambert, Carly Pearce, Carrie Underwood, Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson and Zac Brown Band. This year’s show will be co-hosted by two-time CMA entertainer of the year winner Bryan, and NFL star Peyton Manning.
The 56th annual CMA Awards will air Wednesday, Nov. 9 from Nashville. The ABC broadcast will open with a tribute to the late singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn. Bryan will perform his new single “Country On,” while current five-time nominee Carly Pearce will perform a song from her recent album 29: Written in Stone.
Lambert, the most-nominated female artist in CMA Awards history, who has three nominations this year including entertainer of the year, will perform “Geraldene” from her album Palomino, which is nominated for album of the year.
Underwood, who also has three nominations this year including entertainer of the year, will perform her new single “Hate My Heart.” As previously confirmed by Billboard, Ballerini will team with Pearce and Clarkson to perform Ballerini’s new song “You’re Drunk, Go Home.”
Wallen, who receives his first CMA entertainer of the year nod this year, will perform his latest chart-topper “You Proof.” Three-time CMA Awards nominee this year HARDY will be joined by Wilson, the top nominee this year with six nods, for their duet “wait in the truck.”
Meanwhile, CMA vocal group of the year nominee Zac Brown Band will team with reigning CMA new artist of the year Allen and blues guitarist King to perform the single “Out in the Middle.” Additional performers and presenters for CMAs will be announced in the coming weeks.
Tickets for the awards are on sale beginning today at 11 a.m. ET via Ticketmaster. The winners of this year’s awards show will be determined via a final round of voting by eligible voting CMA members. The third and final ballot is open now for CMA members, with voting for the final ballot set to close on Friday (Oct. 28) at 7 p.m. ET.
Several in the country music community are paying tribute to late actor/comedian Leslie Jordan, who died Monday (Oct. 24) at age 67. Jordan died following a car accident in Los Angeles.
He was known for his work in the television series Will & Grace, as well as Call Me Kat and American Horror Story. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan regularly posted hilarious and heartwarming videos, drawing in millions of social media followers
Last year, Jordan added to his creative endeavors when he released Company’s Comin’, a collection of gospel hymns such as “Farther Along” and “Workin’ on a Building.” The project featured Brandi Carlile, Dolly Parton, Katie Pruitt, Brothers Osborne’s TJ Osborne, Morgane & Chris Stapleton, Tanya Tucker, Eddie Vedder and more. The album peaked at No. 13 on Billboard‘s Top Christian Albums chart in April 2021. Clad in a blue-and-white fringed suit jacket, Jordan also made his Grand Ole Opry debut, where he performed the gospel classic “Workin’ on a Building” with Vince Gill and recent ACM Awards acoustic guitar player of the year winner Charlie Worsham.
In a statement obtained by Billboard, Parton said, “Well I am as hurt and shocked as if I have lost a family member. Leslie and I had a special bond, I think the world felt they had a special bond with him. I know people always say ‘Oh, they will be missed,’ but in this case that could not be more true. He will be missed by everyone who knew him personally and by everyone who was entertained by him. Rest in peace lil’ brother.”
Below, see tributes and remembrances from country music artists including Jimmie Allen, Osborne, Randy Houser, Charlie Worsham, Chapel Hart, Lady A’s Hillary Scott, Tucker, songwriter Danny Myrick and more:
Dolly Parton is among the many famous friends and fans paying tribute to late actor/comedian Leslie Jordan, her fellow Tennessee native.
In a statement obtained by Billboard, Parton said, “Well I am as hurt and shocked as if I have lost a family member. Leslie and I had a special bond, I think the world felt they had a special bond with him. I know people always say ‘Oh, they will be missed,’ but in this case that could not be more true. He will be missed by everyone who knew him personally and by everyone who was entertained by him. Rest in peace lil’ brother.”
Jordan died Monday (Oct. 24) at age 67, following a car accident in Los Angeles.
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Jordan was known for his work in the television series Will & Grace, as well as Call Me Kat and American Horror Story, the Fox sitcom The Cool Kids, and the Discovery+ series The Book of Queer. He had recently concluded work on the Tracy Pellegrino project Strangers in a Strange Land. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan also regularly posted hilarious and heartwarming videos, drawing in millions of social media followers.
Last year, Jordan added to his creative endeavors when he released the album Company’s Comin’, a collection of traditional hymns. The project featured Parton, Brandi Carlile, Katie Pruitt, TJ Osborne, Morgane & Chris Stapleton, Tanya Tucker, Eddie Vedder and more. Company’s Comin’ peaked at No. 13 on Billboard‘s Top Christian Albums chart in 2021.
Clad in a blue and white fringed suit jacket, Jordan also made his Grand Ole Opry debut in 2021, where he performed the gospel classic “Workin’ on a Building” with Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill and recent ACM Awards acoustic guitar player of the year winner Charlie Worsham.
Elle King will kick off 2023 in a big way. Not only will her debut country project, Come Get Your Wife, release Jan. 27, but she will bring her music to fans starting Feb. 14 with her headlining Elle King A-Freakin-Men Tour, presented by Low and Slow.
The nearly 30-city tour will launch in New Orleans on Valentine’s Day, with Red Clay Strays opening the shows.
“I am so excited to be going back out on tour, not just because I love to perform, but because I’m finally putting out a new record,” King said via a statement. “I have put all of my energy and love into this album and I cannot wait to share it live for everyone.”
Known for the Grammy-nominated “Ex’s and Oh’s,” King already has two country hits to her credit, her Dierks Bentley collaboration “Different for Girls,” as well as the Miranda Lambert collaboration “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home).”
The Alabama natives Red Clay Strays include Brandon Coleman (lead vocals/guitar), Drew Nix (vocals/electric guitar/harmonica), Zach Rishel (electric guitar), Andrew Bishop (bass) and John Hall (drums).
See the tour dates for King’s A-Freakin-Men Tour below:
Feb 14 – New Orleans – The Fillmore Feb 16 – Atlanta – TabernacleFeb 17 – Asheville, N.C. – The Orange PeelFeb 18 – Asheville, N.C. – The Orange PeelFeb 19 – Lexington, Ky. – Manchester Music HallFeb 21 – Silver Spring, Md. – The FillmoreFeb 22 – Huntington, N.Y. – The ParamountFeb 24 – Boston – RoadrunnerFeb 25 – Harrisburg, Pa. – XL LiveFeb 27 – Cleveland, Ohio – Masonic AuditoriumFeb 28 – Cincinnati – The Andrew J Brady Music CenterMarch 1 – Indianapolis – Egyptian Room at Old Red CentreMarch 3 – Detroit – The FillmoreMarch 4 – Chicago – TBAMarch 5 – St. Paul, Minn. – The PalaceMarch 7 – St. Louis – The PageantMarch 8 – Kansas City, Mo. – Uptown TheaterMarch 10 – Denver – SummitMarch 11 – Salt Lake City – Union Event CenterMarch 14 – Portland, Ore. – Revolution HallMarch 15 – Portland, Ore. – Revolution HallMarch 17 – Stateline, Nev. – Harrah’s Lake Tahoe South Shore RoomMarch 18 – Sacramento, Calf. – Ace Of SpadesMarch 20 – Tempe, Ariz. – Marquee TheaterMarch 23 – Austin, Texas – Austin City Limits Live At Moody TheaterMarch 24 – Tulsa, Okla. – Cain’s BallroomMarch 25 – Bossier City, La. – Margaritaville Resort Theater (*Red Clay Strays not available for this show)
Wynonna Judd has added 15 additional shows to The Judds: The Final Tour, allowing the tour to continue into 2023.
Initially, the tour had been slated as a Judds farewell tour with Wynonna and her mother, Naomi Judd, prior to Naomi’s death on April 30 at age 76, just one day prior to The Judds’ induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Wynonna later revealed she would continue with the tour dates in honor of her late mother’s life and legacy, and welcomed a rotating roster of female artists to join her, including Martina McBride, Ashley McBryde, Kelsea Ballerini, Brandi Carlile, Trisha Yearwood, and Little Big Town.
The tour, which had been slated to run through Oct. 29 in Lexington, Ky., will now extend through February 2023, with McBryde, McBride, Ballerini, Carlile and Little Big Town all returning as opening acts on various dates for the 2023 run of shows.
“I have never felt so overwhelmed by this much love and support!” Wynonna said via a statement. “The emotions that flow while listening to the different generations of fans sing back to me each night has been otherworldly. I am so humbled by every artist that has come to sing with me on this tour. They’ve all managed to bring something so unique to The Judds music and I can say that no two shows are the same. It has been so life-giving!”
She added, “The decision to add 15 more shows was a no-brainer for me. The fans have been such a gift during my time of grieving and honoring my mother in song. What an amazing season this is. I look so forward to continuing the celebration of the music that has changed my life forever. In my 39 years of performing, these shows have truly been some of my absolute favorite experiences ever and I look forward to making new memories with the fans and guest artists in 2023.”
The Judds: The Final Tour, will visit Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Friday (Oct. 28).
See the full list of 2023 tour dates below. Presale tickets became available at 10 a.m. local time on Monday, Oct. 24. General public tickets will be on sale on Friday, Oct. 28, at 10 a.m. local time.
The Judds: The Final Tour Dates:
Jan. 26, 2023 – Hershey, Pa. – GIANT Center Jan. 28, 2023 – Bridgeport, Conn. – Total Mortgage Arena Jan. 29, 2023 – Worcester, Mass. – DCU Center Feb. 2, 2023 – Tulsa, Okla. -BOK Center Feb. 3, 2023 – Kansas City, Mo. – T-Mobile Center Feb. 4, 2023 – St. Louis, Mo. – Chaifetz Arena Feb. 9, 2023 – Omaha, Neb. – CHI Health Center Omaha Feb. 10, 2023 – Moline, Ill. – Vibrant Arena at THE MARK Feb. 11, 2023 – Dayton, Ohio – WSU Nutter Center Feb. 16, 2023 – Greenville, S.C. – Bon Secours Wellness Arena Feb. 17, 2023 – Fairfax, Va. – EagleBank Arena Feb. 18, 2023 – Charleston, W. Va. – Charleston Coliseum Feb. 23, 2023 – Savannah, Ga. – Enmarket Arena Feb. 24, 2023 – Tampa, Fla. – Amalie Arena Feb. 25, 2023 – Hollywood, Fla. Hard Rock Live at Seminole/Hard Rock Hollywood
Next year, George Strait is preparing to play his most extensive stadium run in nine years since he completed his two-year “The Cowboy Rides Away” tour in 2014.
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The country titan and his Ace in the Hole Band will perform six stadium dates starting May 6 at Glendale, Arizona’s State Farm Stadium and ending Aug. 5 at Tampa, Florida’s Raymond James Stadium. There is the potential for one more city to be added. All stops will feature Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town.
“It just felt right,” Strait tells Billboard via email of the mini-tour. “I had the opportunity to work with Chris and Little Big Town and everything just kind of fell in place for next year. I don’t do that many shows anymore, so if we can do a stadium where we can play for more people, that works for me.”
In 2012, Strait announced that he wasn’t “retiring,” but that “the old road-warrior days are just going to be over” after more than 30 years of touring. In 2016, he began an affiliation with Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, which saw him playing several times a year at the venue (the Las Vegas dates will be on hiatus for 2023). He has sprinkled his calendar with a handful of arena, festival and stadium dates each year, but next year marks his biggest stadium commitment in nearly a decade.
Each year, Strait and Messina Group CEO Louis Messina, who has been promoting Strait’s concerts for around 30 years, and Messina Group senior vp Bridget Bauer talk about what’s next, Messina says. “There’s something about him and Chris together that’s magical. They love playing with each other,” Messina continues. “I said, ‘We should do something a little different than we’ve been doing.’ We’ve been doing one or two stadiums every year, but we said, ‘This is all we should do.’ Having him and Chris together and Little Big Town up there, it’s a pretty, pretty amazing show.”
George Strait and Chris Stapleton
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The outing includes stops at stadiums in Seattle and Milwaukee, venues Strait hasn’t previously played, as well as cities where he hasn’t performed in a long time. Unlike his arena shows, which are often in the round, the stadium stage will be in the end zone with minimal but top-of-the-line production, befitting Strait’s low-key presence. “We’re not carrying pyro or lasers or sh– like that,” Messina says. “There’s no dancers. People are there to see George.”
Tickets will go on pre-sale Oct. 26 and start at $59. The regular on-sale begins Nov. 4.
The ability to still sell out stadiums five decades into his career fills Strait, 70, with gratitude. “It’s amazing,” he says. “I’ve got the best fans in the world and I’m glad they still come out to hear us play. My whole career has been amazing as far as that goes. I’ve been blessed to be with a great record company, MCA, and although they don’t play me much anymore, country radio was really good to me for a lot of years and I really appreciate those years.”
And Strait has been great for country radio. With iconic songs like “Amarillo by Morning,” “The Chair,” “The Fireman” and “All My Ex’s Live in Texas,” his 61 top 10s on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart are the most of any artist, as are his 100 total entries on the chart. On Hot Country Songs, his 44 No. 1s also set a record, as do his 86 top 10s.
With so many smashes, Strait’s shows are usually wall-to-wall hits, and while he tries to change the set list up, “there are certain songs that I feel we have to do – I don’t want anything thrown at me!” he jokes. “I’m kidding, of course, but I just know when I go to see a certain artist it’s usually because of certain songs. If I don’t hear them, I’m disappointed.”
Like many artists, Strait gained a new appreciation for performing live when he was unable to play concerts during the pandemic shutdown. “I never took being able to play music for granted, but I certainly didn’t expect something like the pandemic to happen,” he says. “I think we all were afraid we might never get to play in those arenas or stadiums again; that it would be too restricted. I love watching football on TV again now and seeing people sitting shoulder to shoulder in these huge stadiums. It happened faster than I expected.”
While many artists find it hard to build a connection with their fans in a huge stadium, Strait says he’s just the opposite, and incredibly, still gets butterflies before he hits the stage. “For me it’s very personal. I can feel every person out there. It’s a huge vibe. Huge,” he says. “I’m always very nervous days or even weeks before. The day of, I’m not very good to be around, I don’t think. It all goes away though as soon as I walk onstage.”
George Strait and Little Big Town
Jason Stoltzfutz
Strait has known Stapleton and Little Big Town for years. The lineup played a stadium show in Minneapolis in November 2021 (in a concert rescheduled from the pandemic) and in Kansas City this past July, but Strait says the dates were less of a test run for the 2023 stadium shows than they were simply playing with his friends: “They’re both super talented artists. I love working with both.”
During the Kansas City date, Stapleton’s wife, Morgane, asked the pair when they were going to do a duet together. “They go, ‘We’re going to figure something out,’” Messina says, though he adds, “George and Chris aren’t the most talkative people in the world when it comes to giving an answer. Though at least when you have Morgane pushing the envelope a little bit, that sure makes it easier instead of me asking. I know they love working with each other.”
On those dates, Stapleton joined Strait for a cover of Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me” (a frequent selection on Strait’s setlist) and LBT harmonized with Strait on his hit “You Look So Good in Love.” Strait says while “there’s no guarantee that we’ll do songs together, [there’s] a high probability” that some crossover will occur. “If we do, we’ll pick something that works for both of us. Whether or not it’s ‘You Wreck Me’ or something else, you’ll just have to come and see,” he teases.
Strait’s last release was 2019’s Honky Tonk Time Machine, which was his 27th album to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, the most of any artist. While he says he can’t promise that he’ll have new music by the time the first stadium date rolls around in May, “we could possibly have something new by then. It’s been a while for me and I’m definitely getting the itch.”
Though the first date isn’t until May, Strait is getting the itch to get back onstage as well, as he quotes his own lyrics from a 2011 song to describe his long love affair with his audience. “By the time showtime arrives every night, I’m usually tired of waiting and champing at the bit to go,” he says. “’When I walk through those curtains and see those smiling faces, my feet don’t touch the ground again till I walk back out and get on that bus that got me here’ — that’s from a song I wrote called ‘I’ll Always Remember You.’ It’s a true statement.”
Strait doesn’t rule out a similar run in 2024. “Whether or not we do it again the following year depends on how we all feel it went when we’re finished with these shows,” he says. “Chris and I haven’t talked about 2024 at this point.” Messina adds that a tour with shows 20 weekends in a row isn’t going to repeat, but a short outing could happen again. “It depends upon how he likes it or doesn’t like it,” he says. “The good thing about George Strait is we can do anything that he wants to do.”
George Strait 2023 tour dates:
May 6: Glendale, Arizona, State Farm StadiumJune 3: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, American Family FieldJune 17: Seattle, Washington, Lumen FieldJune 24: Denver, Colorado, Empower Field at Mile HighJuly 29: Nashville, Tennessee, Nissan StadiumAugust 5: Tampa, Florida, Raymond James Stadium
