The all-star tribute to Robbie Robertson coming to Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Oct. 17 won’t be just a one-off event. Two days later, the Life Is a Carnival: Last Waltz Tour ‘24 will kick off with a bill that includes Ryan Bingham, Jamey Johnson, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Don Was, John Medeski, Dave Malone, Terence Higgins, Cyril Neville, and Mark Mullins & he Levee Horns. (Lukas Nelson will appear at three shows in Colorado in the place of Jamey Johnson.)
The tour begins Oct. 19 at the Warfield in San Francisco, just a mile and a half from the Winterland Ballroom where the Band gave its original “Last Waltz” 48 years ago. It crisscrosses North America over the next month, wrapping up Nov. 16 at Meridian Hall in Toronto, Ontario.
Blackbirds Presents is promoting the tour. They’ve staged several Last Waltz tours over the past decade with lineups that included Warren Haynes, Jamey Johnson, Don Was, Michael McDonald, Dr. John. Garth Hudson, now the last surviving member of the Band, was a special guest on the 2016 tour.
This year’s Last Waltz tour reunites Campbell and Tench on the road. They played together on several one-off occasions, most notably at Farm Aid in 2023 when they backed Bob Dylan, but they’ve resisted the opportunity to reform the Heartbreakers with guest singers.
“We’ll never go out with Paul Rodgers [who performed with Queen for five years] or someone else,” Campbell told Rolling Stone in 2018. “Nobody can fill those shoes. I can’t fill them and I don’t know anybody else that I would want to fill them.”
Campbell slightly softened his stance earlier this year when he said the idea of a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 50th anniversary tour in 2026 has been floated. “The management said that if we did it, we’d get the original band back together, have some guest singers, and maybe just do a couple of shows,” Campbell told Rolling Stone in May. “But then I always throw my hands up and go, ‘I can’t think about that. I’m not ready to go back and do that.’ And I don’t want to do anything to dishonor the legacy. I’m not sure how that would feel to me, to have a bunch of people singing Tom’s parts. I’m open, but I’m not overly enthralled with the idea.”
Clearly, the idea of playing Band songs with Tench, Johnson, Was, and Bingham was more enthralling to Campbell. Here are the dates for the tour. Tickets go on sale Friday, Aug. 16.
Oct. 19 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
Oct. 22 – Boise, ID @ Revolution Concert House and Event Center
Oct. 24 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
Oct. 25 – Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater
Oct. 26 – Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek, CO
Oct. 29 – Omaha, NE – Orpheum Theater
Oct. 30 – Rockford, IL @ Coronado Theatre
Nov. 1 – Louisville, KY @ The Louisville Palace
Nov. 2 – Cincinnati, OH @ Brady Music Center
Nov. 4 – Red Bank, NJ @ Count Basie Center for the Arts
Nov. 6 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre,
Nov. 7 – Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre
Nov. 8 – Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre
Nov. 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia
Nov. 12 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
Nov. 14 – Schenectady, NY @ Proctors
Nov. 15 – Rochester, NY @ Kodak Center
Nov. 16 – Toronto, ON @ Meridian Hall
