Sturgill Simpson, performing as Johnny Blue Skies with his band the Dark Clouds, announced today the full North American tour in support of Mutiny After Midnight.
The run is called the Mutiny for the Masses Tour. It spans 29 dates across September and October 2026, opens Labor Day weekend in Austin, closes just before Halloween in Lexington, Kentucky, and every single show is in an arena.
There are no opening acts. The tour goes on general sale Friday, April 10 at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster and AXS. Artist presales begin Wednesday, April 8 at 10 a.m. local time.
In a move designed specifically to combat the secondary market, Simpson is using Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange and AXS Resale platforms, which allow fans to resell tickets only at the original purchase price.
The announcement lands on the same day Mutiny After Midnight became available as a digital download on iTunes for the first time, with a bonus track cover of Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time,” ending nearly three weeks of physical-media-only availability that was one of the more unusual album rollouts in recent memory.
The Full Tour Schedule
The Mutiny for the Masses Tour opens September 4 at the Moody Center in Austin, then moves through Rio Rancho, Glendale, Santa Barbara, Inglewood (Kia Forum), San Diego, and Berkeley before heading north to Seattle, Vancouver, and Eugene. The Western leg closes September 23 at Ball Arena in Denver.
October picks up October 2 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and continues through Indianapolis, St. Louis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn (Barclays Center), Washington D.C., and Charlotte before finishing October 30 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, Simpson’s home state.
The complete schedule:
September 4, Austin TX, Moody Center.
September 6, Rio Rancho NM, Rio Rancho Events Center.
September 8, Glendale AZ, Desert Diamond Arena.
September 9, Santa Barbara CA, Santa Barbara Bowl.
September 11, Inglewood CA, Kia Forum.
September 13, San Diego CA, Viejas Arena.
September 15, Berkeley CA, Greek Theatre.
September 18, Seattle WA, Climate Pledge Arena.
September 19, Vancouver BC, Pacific Coliseum.
September 21, Eugene OR, Matthew Knight Arena.
September 23, Denver CO, Ball Arena.
September 26, Kansas City MO, T-Mobile Center.
September 27, St. Paul MN, Grand Casino Arena.
September 29, Chicago IL, United Center.
October 2, Nashville TN, Bridgestone Arena.
October 3, Indianapolis IN, Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
October 6, St. Louis MO, Enterprise Center.
October 7, Columbus OH, Nationwide Arena.
October 9, Pittsburgh PA, Petersen Events Center.
October 10, Detroit MI, Little Caesars Arena.
October 13, Boston MA, TD Garden.
October 15, Philadelphia PA, Xfinity Mobile Arena.
October 16, Brooklyn NY, Barclays Center.
October 18, Washington DC.
October 30, Lexington KY, Rupp Arena.
The Album Behind The Tour
Mutiny After Midnight is the second album under the Johnny Blue Skies moniker and the follow-up to 2024’s Passage du Desir.
It was recorded at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville with the Dark Clouds, guitarist Laur Joamets, keyboardist Robbie Crowell, bassist Kevin Black, and drummer Miles Miller.
The album has nine tracks and opens with “Make America Fuk Again,” lyrics that include the lines “Maybe things have been worse but I can’t remember when / Wanna start a revolution and watch it begin,” and closes with “Ain’t That a Bitch.”
Simpson described the creative intent plainly in the album’s announcement, “There’s a simple goal we as a band set out to achieve: to make a dance record.”
He elaborated elsewhere that the album was designed as “a protest against oppression and suppression” powered by what he called “pure, unfiltered, unapologetic, relentless disco-hedonism.”
In his longer artist statement he wrote,
“You can break down the songs on this album into two categories, the dark state of the world and the bright state of love. Light lives in darkness just as darkness lives in light. I have come to find over time that it’s far easier to just embrace contradictions rather than attempting to resolve them.”
Paste Magazine reviewed it as “uncensored, depraved, and totally batshit” and compared the band’s live energy to both the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead in terms of how they navigate between forcing and waiting for the magic.
Consequence named it one of the best albums of March 2026. It debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200, a career best for Simpson and one accomplished without a single stream, since the album was not available digitally at release.
The Physical-Only Rollout And The Self-Leak
The album’s path to the public was one of the stranger stories in music this year. When Mutiny After Midnight was announced in February, Simpson declared it would be released exclusively on vinyl, CD, and cassette, no streaming and no digital download.
The stated reason was solidarity with independent record stores and a desire to restore what he called “an increasingly bygone physical and tangible connection between music and music fans.”
Then on March 1, nearly two weeks before the album’s official release date of March 13, Simpson posted the complete album to YouTube himself.
His message to fans was characteristically blunt, “Ooops…. might’ve just posted the whole fuk’n album on YouTube…. for the real ones.”
The full album, uploaded as a vinyl rip, was available to stream for eight days before being removed, with March 13 remaining the official release date.
On release day, Simpson explained the decision in a lengthy Instagram story, acknowledging the album would eventually reach streaming services but urging fans in the meantime to buy a physical copy, find somewhere loud to play it, and to put down their phones.
He signed off with the kind of advice only he would give, “as your attorney, I advise you to put the phone down, get out of the house, and go grab a copy and find a place to crank it with some friends or even strangers…you might even get laid.”
Today, April 1, the album arrived on iTunes as a digital download for $9.99, with the Eddie Murphy bonus track.
Simpson signaled the drop on Instagram with a Murphy meme and the caption, “The album is on iTunes…now you can party all the time.”
He has said the album will eventually reach streaming services with bonus tracks, though no timeline has been confirmed.
The Live Reputation
The Mutiny for the Masses Tour follows Simpson’s extensive 2025 run in support of Passage du Desir, which Rolling Stone described as having established Johnny Blue Skies and the Dark Clouds as “one of the best live bands working now.”
Those shows were known for three-hour sets and professional recordings released the following day. No openers, no filler, no abbreviated performances. The same format is expected for the fall run.
Simpson spent 2025 on the road, including a performance at the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary celebration in San Francisco in August.
He also appeared at the Kennedy Center Honors in late 2024, where he performed the Dead’s “Ripple.”
Tickets go on sale April 10. Presales start April 8.
