Nashville.com Visitors Guide To Nashville, TN
As East Tennessean Morgan Wallen concluded his two-show run at Neyland Stadium – the sixth largest college football stadium in the U.S. – the current seven-time CMA Award nominee made history with Knoxville’s largest weekend on-record, totalling 156,161 fans across both nights. The tally surpasses the record previously held by The Jackson 5 across three shows in 1984 (148,407).
Two-time Super Bowl champion and former University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) quarterback Peyton Manning joined for the second-of-two weekend walkouts, donning his retired college uniform – flanked by current UTK football coach Josh Heupel, quarterback Nico Iamaleava and wide receiver Bru McCoy – as their alma mater eagerly welcomed the All Vols walk-out back on their turf.
Transferring to a more intimate B-Stage toward the back of the venue for a stripped-down performance of his 4x-Platinum rendition of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up,” Wallen reflected on his career, which was first fostered in local bars throughout Knoxville, saying, “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.
“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.”
After “Cover Me Up,” Wallen welcomed his first-of-two surprise guests of the evening, Miranda Lambert, for a live performance of the No. 1 “Thought You Should Know,” which Lambert co-wrote alongside Wallen and Nicolle Galyon. Introducing Lambert to the audience, the East Tennessean shared, “Me and this next artist, we got together one day and wrote a few songs, and this is the first song we ever wrote. I brought this song into the room and I needed some help from a lady’s perspective to help me write a song for my mama.”
Returning to the main stage, Wallen once again welcomed HARDY and ERNEST for “Up Down” and “Cowgirls,” respectively, before singing cuts off of Dangerous: The Double Album, including “Talkin’ Tennessee,” an homage to his roots which was added to his setlist only for his Neyland Stadium shows.
Two songs before the encore, three-time GRAMMY-Award-winner Darius Rucker surprised the crowd joining Wallen for a joint performance of his Diamond-certified rendition of “Wagon Wheel” to rousing reception.
On Friday, Sept. 20, Wallen made his first weekend walk-out flanked by the 2024 National Champion Tennessee Volunteers baseball team and Coach Tony Vitello – trophy in hand. Later in the evening, Wallen welcomed the first entertainer he ever saw in concert in his hometown, Eric Church, to his acoustic stage for the Dangerous Church-penned cut “Quittin’ Time,” before being joined by HARDY and ERNEST for “Up Down” and “Flower Shops”/“Cowgirls,” respectively, back on the main stage.
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