Kacey Musgraves will hit North American arenas this fall in support of her sixth studio album, Middle of Nowhere, out Friday (May 1). The tour opens on her birthday, Aug. 21, at the United Center in Chicago and runs through October, closing with two nights at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Opening acts include Midland, Flatland Cavalry, Carter Faith, Estevie, Charles Wesley Godwin, William Beckmann, Gabriella Rose, and the Brudi Brothers.
Middle of Nowhere, which includes guest vocals from Willie Nelson, Billy Strings, and Miranda Lambert, takes its title from a sign in the East Texas town where Musgraves grew up: “Golden, TX: Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere.” She debuted four songs from the new album during the second weekend of Coachella. The lead single, the twangy “Dry Spell,” arrived in March, followed by the equally rootsy title track in April.
Ahead of the tour, Musgraves will perform on the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards on May 17. She will also play three shows at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, on May 3, 4, and 5, with the Mariachi Brothers as the opening act — who, with their parents, were detained by ICE in February and released several weeks later. She will also play the Bourbon & Beyond festival in Louisville, Ky., on Sept. 25.
An American Express cardholder presale for the tour runs from May 5 at 10 a.m. local time through May 7 at 10 p.m. A general fan presale follows on May 6 and 7. Remaining tickets go on sale to the public on May 8 at kaceymusgraves.com/tour.
Middle of Nowhere Tour — North American Dates
Aug. 21 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
Aug. 24 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
Aug. 28 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
Aug. 31 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Sept. 1 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Sept. 4 — Philadelphia, PA @ Xfinity Mobile Arena
Sept. 5 — Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
Sept. 8 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
Sept. 9 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
Sept. 11 — Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
Sept. 12 — St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center
Sept. 22 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
Sept. 23 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
Sept. 25 — Louisville, KY @ Bourbon & Beyond
Sept. 27 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Sept. 28 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Sept. 30 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
Oct. 2 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
Oct. 5 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
Oct. 7 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
Oct. 10 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
Oct. 13 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
Oct. 15 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Delta Center
Oct. 17 — Phoenix, AZ @ Mortgage Matchup Center
Oct. 18 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
Oct. 19 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
Oct. 23 — Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
Oct. 26 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
Oct. 27 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
Ken Casey stuck around after the show in San Diego, California, talking to members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.John Francis Peters for Rolling Stone
Some of the challenge-coin haul.
The band started as a bet. “My band has a show in three weeks,” Casey’s coworker told him in 1996. “I dare you to open for us.”John Francis Peters for Rolling Stone
Dropkick Murphys (from left): Casey, DaRosa, Webster, Kelly, Rheault, Brennan, and Lynch John Francis Peters for Rolling Stone
Casey is largely the voice of the band, but the other members back him up. “We’re so lucky he’s the mouthpiece,” says Brennan, left. John Francis Peters for Rolling Stone
“Only the Irish can take a song about death and destruction, famine, alcoholism, and raise a glass like it’s an anthem,” says Casey. John Francis Peters for Rolling Stone
“Anytime it feels like things are about to plateau for us, something gives us a little bump,” says guitarist Lynch. “It feels exciting. It feels dangerous. It feels like doing something.” John Francis Peters for Rolling Stone
Jay-Z performing at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis in Paris.
Jay-Z Deserves the Super Bowl Halftime Gig
Where’s the love? Jay-Z asked that question 25 years ago, in the chorus of one of many songs in his catalog that still move audiences today. If he performs “Heart of the City” as part of his Super Bowl halftime show next February, those indignant bars are sure to be a highlight: “First the Fat Boys break up, now every day I wake up, somebody got a problem with Hov…” It would be an appropriate choice, too — because then as now, any time Jay-Z notches a new achievement, people find a way to complain.
The jokes and nonsense started almost as soon as the first rumors trickled out that Jay, whose company Roc Nation has executive-produced the Super Bowl halftime show since 2019, might be choosing himself to headline next year’s show. “Jay-Z just Dick Cheney’d himself for the Super Bowl,” Puck‘s Matthew Belloni quipped on X last week, alluding to the time that the late prince of darkness, who’d been asked to run the vice-presidential search committee for George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign, put himself on the ticket. (Super hip and current reference, and not at all apples-and-oranges.) Others pointed to TMZ reports that pop stars like Harry Styles and Justin Bieber had been asked first. “How are they the frontrunners, and he end up in the front?” Cam’Ron, who’s delighted in trolling Jay for many years, wondered aloud on his podcast. “Out of all the people on the roster, they couldn’t pick nobody else?” asked Cam’Ron‘s co-host, Ma$e.
These critiques miss the point, which is that Jay-Z is one of the best choices for a high-profile gig like this. He’s a superstar with a comparable level of name recognition to any other A-lister in music. He has a deep stack of classic songs going back decades. And he’s a highly skillful live performer who knows his way around a stadium stage, as he’s spent this year reminding people on his Jay-Z 30 tour. He tore down Yankee Stadium three nights in a row this summer; just last week, he rocked SoFi Stadium, which happens to be the same place where the 2027 Super Bowl is being held. He held the crowd’s attention with ease at all of those shows, and though there were plenty of glittery guests — that’s a given at a Jay show, and it will surely be true at the Super Bowl, too — he did it mostly through the force of his own magnetic energy. Let’s state the obvious here: Jay-Z is really, really good at rapping. We’re talking about one of the slickest, sharpest talkers in the history of words, someone who made it to the top through a sustained act of myth-making, then kept going. Are we seriously asking whether he can handle a 15-minute televised performance?
And yeah, there’s a touch of self-congratulation in the way he appointed himself. So what? Praising his own gifts is arguably Jay-Z’s greatest talent of all. He made a fine art out of self-applause. He told his story again and again, retracing the steps from Marcy Projects to the corner suite, and he made us believe. It would almost be insulting to the audience if he didn’t give himself the gig at some point.
Pop culture observers in recent years surely remember the backlash to Super Bowl headliners like Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny — all of it at least culturally conservative, and much of it frankly just racist. The blowback to Jay’s announcement is mostly coming from other quarters, at least for now (let’s just wait to see what the right-wing swamps make of this one). But it’s disappointing in a different way. Jay-Z has spent his career expounding hip-hop as a mainstream commercial force. He’s not a businessman, he’s a business, man. But he’s also an artist. He’s made huge amounts of money, and gotten himself into the rarefied rooms where he even has the ability to give himself a gig like this, by spinning his experiences into compelling narrative art, one verse at a time. Let’s not lose sight of how impressive his life’s work really is. Jay-Z is not some random C-suite bro, and he’s definitely not Dick Cheney. He’s one of the greatest rappers of all time, by any measure. He’s earned that Super Bowl spot.