Sturgill Simpson is, once again, in the midst of an intriguing creative restart. The ambitious country/psych-rock/bluegrass artist announced earlier this summer that you can call him Johnny Blue Skies now, the better to match the melancholy tone of his eighth studio album, Passage du Desir. If you’re wondering why he’s doing all this, he’s got a bunch of shows coming up this late summer and fall that he’s calling the Why Not? Tour.
Sturgill — er, Johnny — launched that tour on Aug. 11 with a festival performance at San Francisco’s Outside Lands, giving many fans their first chance to see some of his new music in action. For most, it was their first chance in years to see him at all: His last tour, in 2021, ended abruptly with the announcement that he’d injured his vocal cords.
His headlining set on the festival’s third night included just two Passage du Desir songs: “If the Sun Never Rises Again,” making its world debut, and “Right Kind of Dream,” which he played for the first time at a warm-up show at a local club two nights earlier.
Beginning the set with rollicking versions of “Railroad of Sin,” from his 2013 debut LP, and “Brace for Impact,” from 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, Simpson and his band shook off any rust right away. In a shaggy moptop hairdo and Chuck Taylor sneakers, he ripped one mean solo after another, reminding everyone that he’s a rock star by any name.
“Right Kind of Dream” appeared four songs into the set as a hard-charging number that kept the momentum going strong. A few minutes later, the band broke out a cover of Procul Harum’s 1967 hit “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” New band member Robbie Crowell, formerly of Midland, held down the song’s famous organ part, and Simpson delivered his vocals soaked in heartache.
After a pair of Metamodern songs (“Life of Sin,” “Living the Dream”), Simpson debuted “If the Sun Never Rises Again,” with its smooth-cruising sound and soulful vocals: “I still don’t know why you let me in/Were you just lonely? Did you need a friend?/Did you see a broken man you thought you could mend?” Simpson punctuated the verses with lyrical lead guitar parts, harmonizing with bandmate Laur Joamets’ playing.
“I just wanna say real quick — this is all I’m gonna say tonight because I don’t like to talk when I could be singing,” Simpson told the crowd. “This is our third time playing in Golden Gate Park. We did Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2014, we did Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2018, and now we’re playing Outside Lands in 2024. And I think most of these guys were in the band for most of those shows, and those were some of the greatest shows we’ve ever gotten to play in the whole history of the band, driving around the world, fucked up out of our heads, doing this stuff.”
He added: “All of you have a big, bright light inside of you. Let that shit shine, all right?”
Earlier in the weekend, Kacey Musgraves came out as a surprise guest during Night Two headliner Sabrina Carpenter’s set for a cover of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” The Killers headlined Night One.
The Why Not? Tour is scheduled to resume on Sept. 14 in Los Angeles, running for two months before wrapping in Boston on Nov. 23.
Nicolas Gerardin
Macklemore performing in France in August
Macklemore Dropped From Ed Sheeran Tour After Onstage ‘Free Palestine’ Statements
Macklemore has been removed from the rest of Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour after several venues allegedly told the trek’s promoter that they would not allow the rapper to perform. The news came after Macklemore made several onstage statements in support of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and called for a “free Palestine.”
In an exclusive statement shared with Rolling Stone, Messina Touring Group, promoter of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour, said: “As the concert promoter for Ed Sheeran’s U.S. Loop Tour, we have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans. After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”
Macklemore was slated to appear at eight of the 10 shows left on the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s tour, which is set to resume this Friday, Sept. 19, in Philadelphia. The venues that allegedly objected to the rapper include: Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia; Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts; Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta; Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina; AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Reps for Sheeran, Macklemore, and most of the venues did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Macklemore — who’s been an outspoken supporter of Palestinians and those in Gaza for several years — joined the Loop Tour earlier this month, performing two shows at MetLife Stadium outside of New York City, on Sept. 4 and 5. At the first show, the Seattle rapper yelled “Free Palestine” onstage and expressed solidarity with people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. He also showed images from the devastation in Gaza and performed his protest song, “Hind’s Hall,” about pro-Palestine demonstrators at Columbia, who occupied a building and named it after Hind Raja, a six-year-old killed by the Israeli military.
“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘Free Palestine,’” he said during the first MetLife show. “I said, ‘Free Palestine!’ I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them.”
This spurred much criticism and backlash from pro-Israel groups. StopAntisemitism accused the rapper of ambushing fans with “anti-Israel propaganda” in an Instagram post, which the pop singer Pink amplified.
Pink later explained that she did not object to Macklemore’s calls for a “Free Palestine,” but said, “I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund. What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘that scared me, and it scared people I love,’ without being told our fear is just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide because I noticed?”
Additionally, the Israeli American Council launched a petition demanding Sheeran remove Macklemore from the rest of the tour, claiming his actions raised questions over “where the line should be drawn when an opening act uses a global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda.”
At the second MetLife show, Macklemore reiterated his calls for a “Free Palestine” and addressed Jewish members of the audience, saying, “Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.” (Humanitarian groups and a United Nations commission have said Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide. Israel and its allies, including the United States, have denied this.)
The stadiums that allegedly would not allow a Macklemore show did not immediately return requests for comments either, including for explanations as to why they objected to the rapper performing at their venue. While two of those stadiums are privately owned — Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte and Gillette Stadium in Foxborough — the rest are owned and, in many cases, operated by cities, states, or other government entities, potentially raising First Amendment issues if the venues barred Macklemore over his statements.
The last stop on Sheeran’s Loop Tour, for instance, is Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, which found itself in a similar spot earlier this summer after booking two Kanye West concerts. The shows, unsurprisingly, drew backlash and calls for cancellation due to West’s many past antisemitic statements, but they went ahead as planned.
Pointedly, Ye’s promoter included a clause in his contract prohibiting Raymond James Stadium from canceling the gigs based on the rapper’s past public statements or viewpoints. But legal experts also told local news that canceling the shows would’ve likely violated the First Amendment. Because Raymond James is owned by Hillsborough County, Florida, and operated by a public board, the Tampa Sports Authority, any cancellation based on Ye’s past statements could have been seen as the government restricting speech.
When reached for comment on the Macklemore decision, a rep for the Tampa Sports Authority told Rolling Stone, “We can confirm Macklemore will not be performing at the upcoming show. Apart from this lineup change, the concert will go forward as planned.”
The North American leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour is set to run through the fall, wrapping Nov. 7 at Raymond James Stadium. During the trek, Sheeran will continue to receive support from Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe. A South American leg of the Loop Tour will follow in November and December.