Morgan Wallen made history as the first artist ever to play two nights at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. The East Tennessean performed back-to-back headlining shows for a total of more than 156,000 concertgoers over the weekend. That count surpasses a record that The Jackson 5 previously held across three shows in the mid-1980s, per a press release issued Monday (September 23).
Wallen’s hometown shows included appearances by Peyton Manning, surprise guests Miranda Lambert and Darius Rucker, Eric Church and others. Special guests HARDY and ERNEST also returned to the stage to join Wallen during the shows.
“When me and the boys first started playing shows, we started out playing bars, real small venues. Worked our way up to places like Cotton Eyed Joe. Then we worked our way up to clubs, theaters, arenas and amphitheaters – we pretty much played any kind of venue there is, and all of a sudden you guys went and sold out Neyland today. Thank you,” Wallen said as he addressed the crowd. “One thing that I miss though about the smaller shows is I could walk out on stage and I could look pretty much everybody in the eyes, so this is my attempt at trying to recreate some of that. To come back here and look some more of y'all in the eyes and say thank you for supporting me and my music.”
Wallen also announced the release date of his next song, “Love Somebody,” will arrive on Friday, October 18. The CMA-nominated artist announced over the summer that he was “coming home,” playing the back-to-back Neyland Stadium shows. He said at the time that he’s “had the honor of playing in a lot of college, MLB and NFL stadiums the past two years, but getting to play to my hometown at Neyland Stadium, nothing tops this for a boy from East Tennessee.”
See Wallen's remaining tour dates and additional photos from his Neyland Stadium shows below.