SO here for this.
Over the weekend, the King George Strait kicked off his run of 2025 stadium shows, which started in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Lincoln Financial Field, home of reigning Super Bowl champions the Philadelphia Eagles.
And he made it extra special for fans there, pulling out a classic by the one and only Waylon Jennings. You can usually count on a Waylon cover from the King, as he typically covers “Waymore’s Blues,” but he told the crowd that this was the first time in decades that he’s played “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)” as part of his concert set list.
Of course, it was released in 1977 that features Willie Nelson, and was released at the height of outlaw country movement. From his hit album Ol’ Waylon, “Luckenbach, Texas” was written by Chips Moman and Bobby Emmons. Emmons proposed the song to Jennings because his “name’s in it,” and I guess that was enough for him to say yes…
But funny enough, at the time it was written, neither Waylon nor any of the writers had ever even been to Luckenbach, Texas and in his 1996 book Waylon: An Autobiography, he noted:
“I knew it was a hit song, even though I didn’t like it, and still don’t.”
Though, he did say he understood why it became such a big hit:
“Every state has a Luckenbach; a place to get away from things.”
His drummer Richie Albright recalls Waylon talking about it in a later recording session, which is honestly my favorite part of the whole song and story of how it came to be:
“Just remind me when I’m picking singles from now on that I got to sing that mother****** every night.”
God bless Waylon Jennings… I imagine he probably just got tired of singing it so much, or got tired of saying his own name in the song, but it’s kind of funny to think that a song he didn’t really even want to record in the first place became one of his biggest hits and fan-favorite songs.
The entire ‘Ol Waylon album was a huge success too, becoming the first country album to ship Gold (meaning it had advanced sales of 500,000 units before it was even released), and has since been certified Platinum by the RIAA. Ol’ Waylon debuted at #1 on Billboard’s country album chart, where it remained for 13 weeks.
Obviously, Strait is one of very few living country artists who could do Waylon any sort of justice at all, and this is just an all-time classic. He did an incredible job and I can’t get enough. He still sounds pitch-perfect at 72 years young, and I will never get over his voice.
In the intro, Strait revealed that he probably hasn’t done this one since the ’70s, or maybe the ’80s… either way, it was so long ago that he couldn’t even remember the last time he played it:
“I mean, it’s just such a good oldie and I know you’re gonna wanna sing along with it. I don’t know, we probably haven’t done it since the ’70s, maybe we did it once in the ’80s. It’s called ‘Luckenbach, Texas.'”
Check it out:
Turn it up…
“Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)”
George Strait w/ Chris Stapleton & special guest Parker McCollum:
May 10, 2025 Philadelphia, PA Lincoln Financial Field
May 31, 2025 Pittsburgh, PA Acrisure Stadium
June 14, 2025 Buffalo, NY Highmark Stadium
June 21, 2025 Foxborough, MA Gillette Stadium
George Strait w/ Chris Stapleton & special guest Little Big Town:
July 19, 2025 Inglewood, CA SoFi Stadium