Sturgill Simpson’s “Who The F**k Is Johnny Blue Skies?” Tour On Sale
So much for retirement. Sturgill Simpson may have been forced to change his stage name to not renege on his “only five albums” promise. But the worry he’d slunk back into the shadows after releasing 2024’s Passage Du Desir under the pseudonym Johnny Blue Skies appears to not be a concern. Those who’ve seen Simpson live can attest that he’s having too much damn fun at the moment with the reconstituted lineup of his legendary band to stay home.
The presale for Sturgill’s “Who The F**k Is Johnny Blue Skies?” tour is underway now, with the general sale starting this Friday (2-21). The tour follows his current sold-out run in Europe through March. He’ll return in April to perform 23 shows across the United States starting April 5th in Durant, OK, and wrapping up May 24 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. Sturgill is also playing headlining sets at this year’s Stagecoach Festival, Two Step Inn, and FairWell Fest.
Similar to Billy String and Sturgill’s last tour, official audio from the tour will be available on nugs.net for streaming or purchase in hi-res formats. To cut down on scalping, fans who purchase tickets on Ticketmaster and can only resell their tickets at the original price using Face Value Exchange. Ticketmaster will use tickets that are mobile-only and restricted from transfer.
Joining Sturgill Simpson on stage will be guitarist Laur Joamets, Kevin Black on bass, Miles Miller on drums, and keyboardist Robbie Crowell. No openers on the tour, but Sturgill plays a full show. Along with playing Passage Du Desir tracks and other songs from his catalog, Simpson has been working an extensive list of classic rock covers into his set. You never know what you’re going to get, but according to attendees, it’s always an incredible show.
General tickets go on sale Friday, February 21 at 12pm local time via sturgillsimpsonlive.com.
“Who The F**k Is Johnny Blue Skies?” Tour Dates
Apr 5 Sat – Durant, OK – Choctaw Casino – Grand Theater
Apr 6 Sun – Georgetown, TX – Two Step Inn *
Apr 8 Tue – Orange Beach, AL – The Wharf at Orange Beach
Apr 10 Thu – Birmingham, AL – Legacy Arena at BJCC
Apr 11 Fri – Southaven, MS – Landers Center
Apr 14 Mon – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
Apr 15 Tue – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
Apr 17 Thu – Bozeman, MT – Brick Breeden Fieldhouse
Apr 19 Sat – Spokane, WA – Spokane Arena
Apr 24 Thu – Berkeley, CA – Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley
Apr 26 Sat – Indio, CA – Stagecoach *
Apr 27 Sun – Las Vegas, NV – The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas
Apr 29 Tue – Mesa, AZ – Mesa Amphitheatre
May 2 Fri – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
May 3 Sat – Independence, MO – Cable Dahmer Arena
May 6 Tue – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory
May 9 Fri – Rosemont, IL – Allstate Arena
May 10 Sat – Rochester Hills, MI – Meadow Brook Amphitheatre
May 13 Tue – Charlotte, NC – Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre
May 16 Fri – Knoxville, TN – Knoxville Civic Coliseum
May 17 Sat – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
May 20 Tue – Asheville, NC – ExploreAsheville.com Arena
May 21 Wed – Asheville, NC – ExploreAsheville.com Arena
May 23 Fri – Charleston, SC – Credit One Stadium
May 24 Sat – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
July 19 Sat – Redmond, OR – FairWell Festival*
Sep 13 Sat – Louisville, KY – Bourbon & Beyond*
*FESTIVAL DATE
February 19, 2025 @ 7:24 pm
I’ve seen Sturgill more times than I can count over the years, including the Sunday Valley days, and I have to agree that he’s has more fun this go around than in a long time when I caught a show in Hampton. For sure one of the best live shows I’ve seen in a long time
February 19, 2025 @ 7:43 pm
Got my tickets to see him in Charlotte today. Then got a notification he added another show in Charlotte the day before. I guess demand was high. Really hope I finally get to see him after the tour was canceled by Covid and then he pulled out day of when he injured his vocal cords. But yeah I have heard great things about the current tour
February 19, 2025 @ 8:35 pm
Well now, making love, & enjoying life.
https://youtu.be/rfQ52WoR90Q?si=Q5xGPouigEEt5zkV
February 19, 2025 @ 10:04 pm
I highly recommend finding a good plastic surgeon before the show. You’re going to need them after the 3 hour face melting he gives you.
February 19, 2025 @ 10:24 pm
I’ve seen 7 times starting 2014. Pretty much all the line ups, all the phases. I saw him two nights in a row on this tour my 8 and 9, and it was just a complete immersive musical experience. I think he has found the perfect balance to let him rip anything he wants from his discography. Everything just sounds right and fits together. All the albums. There are always the Sturgill haters, but a number of people have told me he is putting on one of the best shows they’ve seen.
February 20, 2025 @ 3:24 am
I have never understood why Sturgill gets such critical acclaim. His music has never grabbed me. I have always thought there are a few good tracks on each of his albums, which are pretty ordinary overall. . Maybe that will change after I see him in concert on March 2nd. I am looking forward to it.
February 20, 2025 @ 7:39 pm
Your mind will change after seeing him.
February 20, 2025 @ 7:47 am
Around the turn of the century,Detroit Lions quarterback Joey Harrington was called “Joey Blue Skies” because of his upbeat disposition,but the “Johnny Blue Skies” tour by Sturgill Simpson should be good.
February 20, 2025 @ 8:40 am
No NY or NJ? Crock of shit.
February 22, 2025 @ 8:59 am
No Florida, either. I’m unhappy.
February 20, 2025 @ 9:04 am
Saw him in 2016 with horns during the Sailor’s Guide days. A truly wonderful experience (and I, for one, loved the horns. The Grammys performance of All Around You is one of the best Grammys performances in the last 25 years). I hope to catch him live again at some point.
February 20, 2025 @ 9:14 am
Looking forward to the gig in Belfast, Ireland on Sunday the 23rd February.
February 20, 2025 @ 11:11 am
From Chris Gaines to Sasha Fierce, I guess making tons of money by recording music just isn’t enough for those poor souls, they have to tickle their artistic taint with made up characters and then insist on shoving them down our throats as a stale joke that only they know the punchline of. I hope he also refuses to play any of that Sturgill Simpson songs because he ain’t him.
February 20, 2025 @ 11:53 am
Yeah, fuck that Mark Twain guy too, thinking he’s too good to go by Samuel.
I think you’re taking this thing a little too serious. It is a strange thing to be personally upset about. I think the name change is sorta weird, and don’t really understand it, but couldn’t imagine being upset by it. I’m gonna really piss you off now, Sturgill isn’t even his first name.
February 20, 2025 @ 2:52 pm
Sometimes in life my friends, someone gives you a nickname, and you go with it. Sturgill has told the story, it’s kind of funny, and I love it.
February 20, 2025 @ 10:59 pm
A pen name is another issue altogether, I’m not against or “personally upset” about using a pen name, I mean, next I’ll demand he’ll only work as “John Simpson”. No, I’m saying that, for some reason, artists apparently get bored with making music, because let’s face it, writing an hour of music and then spending months recording it and years playing it on the road is, I guess, not fulfilling enough, so they come up with “stuff”, like doing a rock album, doing an EDM album, doing an ambient soundtrack, altogether “retiring” from making music, or creating personas.
Some of those may be very appealing, mind you. I love Simpson’s bluegrass releases. Some of those personas may even take off and become bigger than the artist himself, Alice Cooper, Ziggy Stardust, but still, I can’t shake the feeling that what is, for us mere humans, the sole essence of an artist, which is making music we like, is just not interesting enough for the artists who have to find new ways of becoming excited about their way of life.
February 21, 2025 @ 4:48 am
Erez
Im not the guy who will defend John Simpson, so don’t take it that way, but he admittedly deals with a bi-polar type of condition, not uncommon to creative people. He had said in interviews, that he’s got this problem where he makes an album, people love it, it gets acclaim, and it pisses him off that people love it, so he intentionally goes away and does something very different in an attempt to shake those fans away. It’s been a cycle with him for some time. Strange and counterintuitive way to make money making music, but apparently his fanbase doesn’t care. Each new release he puts out is hailed as genius. Go figure. 😆
February 20, 2025 @ 2:18 pm
Apparently his sold-out show in the shit box known as Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul was one of the Twin Cities’ best shows of 2024, barn-like acoustics and all.
Excited to see them when they blow back through town in 2025.
February 22, 2025 @ 12:59 pm
I saw him in Moorhead at Bluestem, and that was my favorite show of the year. The one at Roy Wilkins is probably my #3 for top shows in 2024, with Billy Strings at #2. I snagged tickets to both Minneapolis dates this year and can’t wait.
February 20, 2025 @ 4:11 pm
Another BS pre-sales process where notices are available after less than 3 minutes
February 21, 2025 @ 9:26 am
Meriwether Post Pavilion seats are $236… that seems excessive.
February 21, 2025 @ 11:08 am
“So much for retirement. Those who’ve seen Simpson live can attest that he’s having too much damn fun at the moment with the reconstituted lineup of his legendary band to stay home. ”
Or, as he insinuated in that puff piece that ran in Vanity Fair a little while back, it’s time to get away from his family again, and there were no more bars to build in Thailand.
February 21, 2025 @ 11:35 am
Yeah, Nothing to do with making some money to take care of his family.
February 22, 2025 @ 1:23 pm
Right, it couldn’t possibly be because he’s a massively successful, arena act with a critically acclaimed discography and live show.
At this point, this solo tour has already put hundreds of thousands of asses in seats with bare bones production. They probably want to keep the momentum going, seems like a reasonable thing to do with no ulterior motive.
These kinds of personal attacks are pretty low, dude. Perhaps that’s all that’s left at this point though.
February 21, 2025 @ 1:13 pm
Grabbed tickets for the Merriweather Post show. Cool that it will be pretty much the same band as when I first saw him do that no cover show at Hill Country BBQ in DC back in 2013. Really, really looking forward to this one. Love the new album and excited about whatever else (backlog, covers) they’ll have for us. Saw him a grand total of of six times between 2013 and 2017 and had tickets for him and Childers at The Anthem in March 2020, but that of course got cancelled. I’m way overdue.
February 21, 2025 @ 2:17 pm
It was the best show I saw last year. Just got tickets for OBA in April and expecting another solid 3+ hours of straight fire.
February 22, 2025 @ 3:26 am
Gonna see him in Amsterdam in a couple of days. I’ve received a message from a venue ‘ warning’ he is going to play a long show. I’ve walked out on Bruce Springsteen, Billy Strings and Hank lll shows. I’m not sure i’m ready for 2,5 hours of Sturgill (even though the Metamodern tour show in Amsterdam is one of my all time favorites)
February 23, 2025 @ 11:21 am
Stagecoach?
Nope. Not gonna do it.
February 23, 2025 @ 3:39 pm
Absolutely love the way he is selling tickets to his shows. Can’t resell them for more than you paid for them so no need for scalpers to swoop them all up. I also don’t mind having no openers.
February 24, 2025 @ 5:43 am
What a gig last night in Belfast!!! A near 3 hours non- stop, high performance from a great band. And a great mix of tunes!!!
March 3, 2025 @ 12:35 pm
I gotta say, when we saw him at The Greek in LA we were blown away by how long he played for… They played a festival set the week before, but The Greek was the first real show of the tour. What an unbelievable experience for a long time Sturgill fan! After about 90 minutes we felt, “well that was great, probably get one or two more and that’s it.” and then he kept going… and going… after two hours I stopped looking at my clock on wondering how much longer it would go.
A complete reinvention of the entire catalog… “My First Jam Band” vibes… killer covers… It was everything I ever wanted and more. And then to see him sitting in with Grateful Dead adjacent bands, man. Long Live John Sturgill Simpson!
March 5, 2025 @ 6:24 am
Over here in Hamburg, Germany contemplating going to see him at the Markthalle. Saw him at the AMP in Rogers, AR, but had to leave before he finished (at approx 3 hours, we had a drive back home to Tulsa). We have tix to the BOK center in Tulsa in May, but it is a 20k seat arena, so seeing him here presents a good opportunity (plus the tix are half the price as what we paid for the BOK)….anyway–wondering if he has any Beatles tunes prepared for the city of their rise to fame…..