Luke Bryan is definitely in the big leagues now! The singer just announced he has added a show at the famed Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts on June 21, as part of his Sunset Repeat Tour.
The stadium, which seats almost 67,000 people, is known for hosting Kenny Chesney on several of his tours. But after Bryan played several stadium shows, as part of his What Makes You Country Tour in 2018, he is clearly preparing to do even more in 2019, even though he admits stadiums pose their own unique set of challenges.
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“Stadiums are a lot of work,” Bryan told Billboard. “You’ve gotta try to make 50,000 people feel like [they’re in] an intimate setting and an intimate environment. When you’re playing a 15,000-seat amphitheater, everybody’s right in front of you. When I get done with a stadium, I feel like I ran a marathon. There’s no just getting up there and nonchalantly making a stadium show happen. You gotta work hard at it.”
The 42-year-old never imagined that he would go from working on a peanut farm to playing in some of the largest venues in the country.
“It’s pretty overwhelming,” Bryan admitted. “Growing up in south Georgia and moving to Nashville, you think about markets like New York City and LA and all these far-off places. When you realize your music has touched people in these huge markets out here, it’s very, very surreal, and when you have the opportunity to go into these iconic places and headline ’em and sell ’em out, it’s hard to wrap your head around it and something that you try not to take for granted when it happens.”
Before Bryan kicks off his Sunset Repeat Tour, he will return to the judges’ table, alongside Lionel Richie and Katy Perry, for the upcoming season of American Idol, where he promises even better singers than what they experienced last year.
“I think one of the most important things is that we feel like the talent is really, really next-level stuff,” Bryan told ABC News Radio. “And we feel like we have people that walk out, that they’re not just walking out and they’re just singing, they truly have stories to tell.”
“They’re true artists,” he continued. “And they’re so good, they just, even help legitimize our show so much more when we have extremely talented kids on the show.”
Tickets for the Gillette Stadium show will go on sale on Friday, March 8, at Ticketmaster.
Bryan will be joined by Cole Swindell and Jon Langston for his Sunset Repeat Tour. Dates and venues can be found at Bryan’s official website.
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Scott Dudelson
