NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Award-winning country singer/songwriter Jamey Johnson will launch his 36-city headlining tour, The Last Honky Tonk Tour, on June 4 at Wichita Riverfest in Wichita, KS. Tickets are on sale now and more dates will be announced soon.
“The tour will be a lot of fun,” says Johnson. “It’s a chance for us to hang out every night, where we get to walk onstage and show off what we’ve learned over the past 20 years. This is my 20th year on the road, not counting the road gigs I did in the 10 years before that.”
The tour’s name comes from the song he recently recorded, which was the title track of the 2010 album by The Wayne Mills Band, featuring musician Jason “Rowdy” Cope on guitar. “I thought that the name sounded pretty good as a tour name – The Last Honky Tonk Tour,” he adds.
The tour title’s lyrics include, “I’ll be there when they burn the last honky tonk down/
In body, mind, and spirit, under the table, or under the ground/
The fading echoes of a barroom band might be the only sound/
I’ll be there when they burn the last honky tonk down.”
Johnson’s new recording – which was completed with producer Buddy Cannon a few weeks ago – and the tour name are in tribute to Mills and Cope, both of whom were his dear friends. Mills was murdered at a Nashville bar in 2013. Jason “Rowdy” Cope, a member of The Steel Woods who had previously been a member of Johnson’s band, died in 2021 from complications from diabetes.
“When Wayne and Rowdy got together and did that record, that song made it on my radar,” he says. “Back then, I played that song several times with Wayne. We would do it at shows. So, it is one I haven’t done in a while.
“And now Wayne’s son, Jack, is a badass guitar player. He says he learned it all from Rowdy. I don’t doubt that at all. Jack really is something else!
“I thought, ‘Man, his dad would be proud. Let’s break that song out and get Jack to play guitar on it.’ I am proud to have him playing on it.”
This is one of more than 50 new songs Johnson has recorded since releasing Midnight Gasoline, his first new solo album in 14 years, in late 2024. He will preview some of the new songs during this tour and begin releasing them later this year.
“We are going to do some of the new stuff,” Johnson adds. “We will do some of the songs from Midnight Gasoline from last year and all the years before. Whatever album you like, we will do some of those songs.
“It’s exciting to play the new songs,” he says. “I like it when people tell me they have heard the new stuff and they like it. I like it when people have something else to listen to. Sometimes it’s as simple as that.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Award-winning country singer/songwriter Jamey Johnson will launch his 36-city headlining tour, The Last Honky Tonk Tour, on June 4 at Wichita Riverfest in Wichita, KS. Tickets are on sale now and more dates will be announced soon.
“The tour will be a lot of fun,” says Johnson. “It’s a chance for us to hang out every night, where we get to walk onstage and show off what we’ve learned over the past 20 years. This is my 20th year on the road, not counting the road gigs I did in the 10 years before that.”
The tour’s name comes from the song he recently recorded, which was the title track of the 2010 album by The Wayne Mills Band, featuring musician Jason “Rowdy” Cope on guitar. “I thought that the name sounded pretty good as a tour name – The Last Honky Tonk Tour,” he adds.
The tour title’s lyrics include, “I’ll be there when they burn the last honky tonk down/
In body, mind, and spirit, under the table, or under the ground/
The fading echoes of a barroom band might be the only sound/
I’ll be there when they burn the last honky tonk down.”
Johnson’s new recording – which was completed with producer Buddy Cannon a few weeks ago – and the tour name are in tribute to Mills and Cope, both of whom were his dear friends. Mills was murdered at a Nashville bar in 2013. Jason “Rowdy” Cope, a member of The Steel Woods who had previously been a member of Johnson’s band, died in 2021 from complications from diabetes.
“When Wayne and Rowdy got together and did that record, that song made it on my radar,” he says. “Back then, I played that song several times with Wayne. We would do it at shows. So, it is one I haven’t done in a while.
“And now Wayne’s son, Jack, is a badass guitar player. He says he learned it all from Rowdy. I don’t doubt that at all. Jack really is something else!
“I thought, ‘Man, his dad would be proud. Let’s break that song out and get Jack to play guitar on it.’ I am proud to have him playing on it.”
This is one of more than 50 new songs Johnson has recorded since releasing Midnight Gasoline, his first new solo album in 14 years, in late 2024. He will preview some of the new songs during this tour and begin releasing them later this year.
“We are going to do some of the new stuff,” Johnson adds. “We will do some of the songs from Midnight Gasoline from last year and all the years before. Whatever album you like, we will do some of those songs.
“It’s exciting to play the new songs,” he says. “I like it when people tell me they have heard the new stuff and they like it. I like it when people have something else to listen to. Sometimes it’s as simple as that.”
