Photo: Summer Weaver
Morgan Wallen celebrated the release of his third studio album with 19,000 of his closest "Whiskey Friends."
Only a select few were able to attend Wallen's surprise show at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Friday (March 3) night, but the ones who were at the one-night-only show were in for a special treat. During his acoustic set on a round stage in the middle of the packed arena, Wallen performed a slew of new songs from One Thing At A Time, which was released the same day, for the first time. He sang "Born With A Beer In My Hand," "I Wrote The Book," "Dying Man" and "Tennessee Fan," just to name a few.
"This is so bada-- and makes me so proud," Wallen said during the show. "You guys are truly remarkable. Thank you for making this happen on such short notice. We gonna sing some new ones, some old ones — and that's about it, I guess."
Before a few of those aforementioned new songs, he gave a little background into the writing and inspiration behind them.
He dedicated "Dying Man" to his 2-year-old son, Indigo Wilder. "I'm singing to a woman (in the song), but in real life, it's dedicated to my son," he told the crowd. "He's in here somewhere tonight. I went back to East Tennessee yesterday to play a show at my old high school for the album release, which was special in its own right. My son was there and I saw him and he was like, 'Damn, these people think dad's cool.' He's just getting to that age. If you understand me out there, Indie I love you. This one's for you."
As far as "Tennessee Fan" goes, he was sure to brag about his Tennessee Volunteers during the show — which most of the crowd understood and agreed with (since, ya know, we're in Tennessee). "I'm sure most of y'all know how much I love my Tennessee Volunteers. I got some really good buddies who went to Alabama and they always are giving me s---. There ain't really much I can say, at least not for the past while. Before the Tennessee-Alabama game I wrote a song about us losing. Of course, the year I write about us losing, we win the damn game. But I'm okay with that," he said before breaking out into the lyrics, "They beat us every damn year/It's been a minute since we pulled out a win."
He also brought the house down with some of his most popular songs, like "Whiskey Glasses," "Sand In My Boots," "Chasin' You" and "You Proof."
Friday night's show came as a surprise to fans, who didn't even know they would be attending the show until the day before. He announced on social media he would be hosting an album release concert at Bridgestone Arena, but the only way to get tickets was to hop in the box office line. Thousands of fans showed up at the Downtown Nashville arena early Thursday morning and the entire ticket allotment was ran through in just a few hours. For those who weren't able to snag a pair of free tickets, Wallen live streamed the event on social media.
Earlier on Friday, Wallen released One Thing At A Time, a 36-track album featuring Eric Church, Hardy and ERNEST. None of them, however, were special guests at the show. He'll be heading out on the road for the North American leg of the "One Night At A Time" world tour alongside Bailey Zimmerman, ERNEST, Hardy and Parker McCollum in mid-April.
Here's a look at the entire set list from Morgan Wallen's album release show at Bridgestone Arena:
- Born With A Beer In My Hand
- One Thing At A Time
- I Wrote The Book
- Keith Whitley
- Me + All Your Reasons
- Dying Man
- Whiskey Friends
- Tennessee Fan
- Everything I Love
- Thinkin' Bout Me
- Sunrise
- 180 (Lifestyle)
- Thought You Should Know
- Devil Don't Know
- Sand In My Boots
- Chasin' You
- More Than My Hometown
- The Way I Talk
- Whiskey Glasses
- Wasted On You
- Last Night
- You Proof