Jamey Johnson’s 2025 The Last Honky Tonk Tour – Plays ASEC – September 4

ANDERSON, SC – The Anderson Sports and Entertainment Center is proud to host Jamey Johnson for the Last Honky Tonk Tour and welcomes concert promoters,  Cardinal Music Group to South Carolina.

“It’s always a thrill to be included in a national touring date. We are going to transform the Civic Center into a ‘Honky Tonk’ for the night and give the fans a great night out.” said Rusty Burns, County Administrator.

The tour will route to 36 cities from June to October starting in Wichita and ending with two nights in  Nashville. “We chose Anderson because the fan base for Jamey Johnson is strong in the upstate of South Carolina and because the venue offered an incredible fan experience,”  said Zack Johnson, Cardinal Music Group.

Radio sponsor, WESC, will be hosting contests for tickets and sharing more information about the show. Kix Layton, Sr VP of Programming for iHeart Media, shares the enthusiasm for this show, noting that getting to hear Jamey Johnson’s rich vocals and storytelling in an intimate setting is special.

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. Artist presale is on now and tickets for the public on sale begins Friday, June 6th.

“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.”

About Jamey Johnson The 10-time GRAMMY nominee has been called “one of the greatest country singers of our time,” by The released a 2012 duets project, the GRAMMY-nominated Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran.)

“In Color” has received a 5X-Platinum certification for sales/streams of five million, and “High Cost of Living” was certified platinum. “Between Jennings and Jones” and “That Lonesome Song” have been certified gold for sales/streams of 500,000.

Washington Post. His music has garnered international acclaim and is embraced by fans of classic and contemporary country, as well as Americana and mainstream rock.

The Grand Ole Opry member is also widely regarded as one of the greatest country songwriters of his generation. He is one of only two people in the history of country music (along with Kris Kristofferson) to win two Song of the Year awards in the same year – for “Give It Away” and “In Color” – from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association.

A consummate storyteller, his songs have been recorded by George Strait, Trace Adkins, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, James Otto, Joe Nichols and others. He is “a first-rate preservationist of classic country songwriting,” says The New York Times.

His 2024 album, Midnight Gasoline is a musical continuation of his last two solo studio albums, That Lonesome Song, which was certified double platinum for 2 million in sales, and the gold-certified 2010 album, The Guitar Song, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Album Chart. Rolling Stone and SPIN named The Guitar Song to their all-genre Top 5 Best Albums of the Year.