Jamey Johnson just launched his 36-city headlining tour, The Last Honky Tonk Tour, on June 4th at Wichita Riverfest in Wichita, Kansas.
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. Johnson shares: “I thought that the name sounded pretty good as a tour name – The Last Honky Tonk Tour … The tour will be a lot of fun … 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 ten years before that.”
Johnson’s new recording 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; while Cope, a member of The Steel Woods who had previously been a member of Johnson’s band, died in 2021 from complications from diabetes. Johnson said: “When Wayne and Rowdy got together and did that record, that song made it on my radar. 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.”
Johnson has recorded more than 50 new songs since releasing 2024’s Midnight Gasoline, his first new solo album in 14 years. He adds: “se are going to do some of the new stuff [on tour]. 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. 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.”
Tickets for the tour are on sale now.
Editorial credit: Adam McCullough / Shutterstock.com
