Brantley Gilbert celebrated kicking off the North American leg of his arena-sized Blackout Tour by having to open up seats in Saginaw’s Dow Center, Lexington, Kentucky’s Rupp Arena and Indiana State University’s Hulman Center in Terre Haute. For Gilbert, who’s keeping his ticket prices reasonable, playing major venues across blue collar America is a big piece of who he is – not only for bringing his music to the people, but because he believes in giving back to the ones who work the hardest and thereby also rock the hardest.
The crowds were on their feet from the moment the 3-D “Sin City”-style clip rolled into “Read Me My Rights” until the encore 90 minutes later. In Lexington, his acoustic set was paused after “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” for a marriage proposal.
With Canaan Smith and Michael Ray in support roles, the Blackout Tour runs through April, including a break to take it Down Under. Look for another tour announcement to come, one that is just as big and possibly even louder.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244839695?secret_token=s-vuR4v” params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Audio player not loading? Click here.
“I’ve said, you know, and I think the guys agree with me, we try to put on the same show for 10 as we would for 10,000. But the amount of energy in the room is about as far as you can see, you know, for me. And it’s taken me a long time and a lot of shows to get to the point where I’m able to put on the same show now. It used to be I felt like I was more affected by…you know, there’s only 300 people in here tonight, there’s supposed to be 400! And depending on the mood of the crowd, like a lot of times when we play overseas, from venue to venue it’s always different. All shows are their own animal. For me it’s finding a group or a couple people in the crowd that are really into it, that are right there, and you get to where you feed off the crowd and they feed off of you. We’ve been able to do that on agrander scale, that’s been really awesome. That emotional rollercoaster thing we’re talking about, there are a lot of people on that thing.”
WHAT HE’S DOING THIS WEEK – FEBRUARY 1, 2015 – MONDAY
- Brantley Gilbert’s plays show in Georgia and Florida this weekend (2/5-6) on his 2016 Blackout Tour. You can see all dates here.
BRANTLEY GILBERT – THE FACTS
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://brantleygilbert.com/home
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/BrantleyGilbertMusic
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/brantleygilbert
RECENT TWEETS:
Brantley Gilbert @BrantleyGilbert Jan 30
Kentucky knows how to throw down…. Indiana what have yall got for us tonight? https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZ_48IvWQAAy97M.jpg
Brantley Gilbert @BrantleyGilbert Jan 29
Saginaw…. Thanks for a great night…. We’re just getting started.
Brantley Gilbert @BrantleyGilbert Jan 28
Limited-edition blackout flag only for this tour….What do y’all think? https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZ2pvtjUcAAjK8t.jpg
INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/brantleygilbert/
- BIRTH DATE: January 20, 1985 (He’s 30)
- HOMETOWN: Jefferson, Georgia
- PARENTS: Keith and Becky Gilbert
- DEBUT SINGLE VALORY: “Kick It In The Sticks” – 2010
- DEBUT ALBUM: Modern Day Prodigal Son – 2009
- CURRENT ALBUM: Just As I Am – RELEASED: May 19, 2014
- CURRENT SINGLE: “Stone Cold Sober”
- GRAND OLE OPRY DEBUT: August 2012
- CURRENT TOUR: His own “Blackout Tour”
- LATEST MUSIC VIDEO – 2014 – “One Hell Of An Amen” See the video
BRANTLEY GILBERT – AWARD WINS
2012 – American Country Awards – Breakthrough Artist Single of the Year (“You Don’t Know Her Like I Do”)
2013 – CRS New Faces
2013 – Country Music Awards – CMA Triple Play Award – “Country Must Be Country Wide,” “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” and “Dirt Road Anthem”
2013 – Academy Of Country Music Awards – Top New Male Artist
2014 – American Music Awards – Favorite Country Album – Brantley Gilbert – Just As I Am
2015 – iHeart Radio Awards – Renegade Award