Sturgill Simpson Turns (Johnny Blue) Skies Golden During London ‘Why Not?’ Tour Stop

‘No openers. If you’re on time, you’re late’ the new Johnny Blue Skies tour tagline states. On March 1, 2025 at the Eventim Apollo, London, Sturgill Simpson proved that to be true.

Walking on stage at 8pm sharp to the words of “Well I wish I was in London, or some other seaport town” from the bluegrass traditional ‘Handsome Molly’, Simpson was about to set off on an almost three-hour ever-cosmic journey through his stellar discography.

After brazenly kicking things off with ‘Brace for Impact’ from 2016’s ‘Sailor’s Guide to Earth’, Simpson and the band immediately threw themselves into the first of some remarkable covers of the night. William Bell, Otis Redding, The Byrds; ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’ is one of Simpson’s now too.

The night revisited Simpson’s past catalogue with plenty of the Johnny Blue Skies masterpieces placed throughout, all seamlessly woven together into a night of unparalleled musical talent. The first emergence of Blue Skies came with ‘If the Sun Never Rises Again’, before returning to his Metamodern Sounds of Country Music days with ‘Living the Dream.’

Over an hour into the setlist, Simpson made his first direct address to the packed-out Apollo: ‘We’re not even halfway done yet’ he said with a smirk on his face - he knows he’s that damn good. A fleeting promise that the music we’d heard so far wasn’t stopping anytime soon, it was a quick reminder that yes, this was really happening.

A cover of The Allman Brothers Band’s ‘Midnight Rider’ proved that this might just be the best live band of our time. Followed by ‘Welcome to Earth’ and Metamodern big-hitter ‘It Ain’t All Flowers’, it wasn’t until the only Cuttin’ Grass feature of the night, ‘I Don’t Mind’, that Sturgill let up just a little and made it obvious just how good he is at bearing his soul to a crowd – let up, but didn’t let down.

It was only after Simpson had crashed his way through the honky-tonkin High Top Mountain favourite ‘Railroad of Sin’ that he took a brief moment to soak in some of that London energy, to introduce himself as Johnny Blue Skies, and each of his band members by name. For the nineteenth song of the set, he knows there’s no real need for an introduction, he’s here to play and London is here to listen. Other than a quick interruption to call out ‘you motherfuckers upstairs’ for not standing, that was Simpson’s conversation for the evening done.

If it wasn’t clear by now, Sturgill Simpson is a genius, but this is no one-man-show. Miles Miller on drums is simply unstoppable. How he keeps a groove going for almost three hours without dropping a beat, without dragging a millisecond, is a question surely only he can answer. Glimpses of smooth blues are offered when Robbie Crowell steps away from keys and delivers a saxophone solo on songs like ‘Water in a Well’. Laur Joamets is a legend, and that’s not just with a Fender in his hands, but when he takes a seat behind his pedal steel too, reigning us back into the country elements that so much of Sturgill’s music is rooted in. Kevin Black, meanwhile, is the glue that holds these guys together on bass.

The possible peak of what was an evening full of highs comes after an epic rendition of the Passage du Desir closer ‘One For The Road’. The lights dimming and giving the Apollo a purple hue wasn’t even necessary; it was obvious that something of an even greater magnitude was coming after an indulgently bluesy guitar interlude. Sturgill seamlessly slipped into a cover of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’. Taking on a song that big is no easy feat, perhaps a cover that only the bravest of artists will do. Simpson, or Blue Skies, did it though - blowing it out of the purple rainwater.

Moving towards the end of the set, there was not even a moment to recover from ‘Jupiter’s Fairie’ – a song that takes on a whole new dimension of emotion and, if any, would be worthy of a breather. Instead, the band plummets into Sound and Fury’s ‘Best Clockmaker on Mars’, before ferociously ending the night with a cover of Procol Harum’s ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’. A lasting reminder that this jam band can rock. Hard.

No opener, no encore, no wasting time. A man with a Midas touch. Every string that Sturgill Simpson touches, every note he throws out, every word spoken – are all completely golden. The Apollo was left a little shell-shocked after seeing Blue Skies turn into solid gold that night. But hell, Why Not?

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