Bob Dylan will join Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival this summer and will perform at all 25 shows during the annual traveling festival.
The legendary musicians and longtime friends will be joined by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on the first leg of the tour, which kicks off June 21 in Alpharetta, Georgia. John Mellencamp will join the second leg on July 29, with his first Outlaw show. for the North Island Credit Union Amphitheater in Chula Vista, California.
Dylan and Nelson are scheduled to play the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on July 31, where Mellencamp and “Sober & Skinny” singer Brittney Spencer will join them. Nelson notably played at the Bowl last summer when he celebrated his 90th birthday with many of his friends, including Neil Young, Beck, George Strait, Kris Kristofferson, Snoop Dogg, Chris Stapleton, Miranda Lambert, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews and the Chicks .
As for Outlaw, known for its consortium of progressive country and Americana acts, Celisse and Southern Avenue will play several stops and Billy Strings will join the tour for a show at the Gorge Amphitheater outside Seattle on August 10.
The festival concludes September 17 in Buffalo, New York, and tickets go on sale Friday. Citi cardholders will be able to access pre-sale tickets from Tuesday through Thursday through the Citi Entertainment program.
“This year's Outlaw Music Festival tour promises to be the biggest and best yet with this lineup of legendary artists,” Nelson said Tuesday in a statement on the festival's website. “I’m excited to get back on the road with my family and friends playing the music we love for the fans we love.”
Among those friends is Dylan, who will be joining the full tour for the first time. Nelson's “Heartland” co-writer previously performed a few shows with the festival in 2017. More recently, the singer-songwriter of “Knockin' on Heaven's Door” and “The Times They Are a-Changin'” has primarily performed in intimate theaters in North America.
The Outlaw Music Festival debuted in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 2016. Its success led Nelson, his former manager Mark Rothbaum and promoter Blackbird Presents to turn it into a touring franchise, expanding to 10 cities in 2017 and 18 in 2018. The festival made their first stop in Los Angeles in 2018, when Nelson and his Family Band were joined at the Bowl by Grateful Dead alum Phil Lesh & Friends, along with Sturgill Simpson and Margo Price, Nelson's son Lukas Nelson and his band, the Promise of the Real, and Particle. Child.
