Even the King makes mistakes now and again.
On an action-packed weekend across country music which saw Arlington, Texas’ Lonestar Smokeout festival get cancelled in its second night and force Koe Wetzel to play a pop-up show, Stagecoach rocking the entire weekend out in Indio, California and Zach Bryan getting a whole lot of flack on Twitter after weather delayed and shortened his Memorial Stadium show, the most smooth, hassle-free event was undoubtedly George Strait’s back-to-back nights at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.
Originally, Strait was only set to play on show on Friday; however, thanks to selling out almost immediately, the living legend would add a second show for Friday, April 24th as well. Even more notably at the time, both Zach Top and Dylan Gossett were added as openers for night one and joined Miranda Lambert and the red-hot Texan, Hudson Westbrook, as part of Strait’s all-star cast of support.
Unsurprisingly, Strait did what he did best and absolutely packed Texas Tech’s stadium, performing to a crowd of over 133,00 across both sold-out nights.
Though night two was filled with some highs, most notably Miranda Lambert teaming up with Strait for an absolutely killer performance of his 1997 #1 hit, “She’ll Leave You With a Smile,” night one was undoubtedly a concert for the ages.
Per usual, Top delivered a phenomenal opening set, which featured hits like “I Never Lie,” “South of Sanity” and “Use Me” as well as some killer covers of Shenandoah’s “Two Dozen Roses,” Conway Twitty’s “Slow Hand” and Jimmy Martin’s “Freeborn Man,” and continued his status as one of the torchbearers for traditional country for the current generation.
Clearly, the King himself was pretty impressed by Top’s opening performance. Taking time between songs, Strait would note how strong the vibe was in the stadium when he got there before telling the crowd how great it was to be there with… Zac Brown.
“I could feel this vibe when I got here today. When I stepped inside this stadium, it was an amazing feeling, and I appreciate that very much. It’s great to be here with Zac Brown.”
Quickly realizing that he’s not performing with the “Chicken Fried” singer (he’s probably off cooking up his next round of shows at the Sphere in Las Vegas which will probably once again be labeled “demonic” or something of that sort), Strait would quickly correct himself and compliment Top, calling him an “amazing performer.”
“Zach Top, excuse me. ‘ZT,’ I call him. Amazing performer.”
@alfredarossy Last night George Strait called @Zach Top Zac Brown, but the king corrected himself right away great show from both these talents #georgestrait #zachtop #concerts #countrymusic #theking ♬ original sound – alfredarossy
Obviously, you can’t knock Strait at all. Lord knows, there’s way too many Zac(h)s in country music nowadays. I mean seriously, you have Zach Bryan, Zach Top, Zac Brown, Zach John King and probably more. The fact that he’s 73 years old and still performing this well and on some of the biggest stages in something to marvel at, but the small slip-up did make for a pretty funny moment all things considered.
2026 George Strait Shows
Saturday, April 11 Austin, Texas Moody Center
Friday, April 24 Lubbock, Texas Jones AT&T Stadium
Saturday, April 25 Lubbock, Texas Jones AT&T Stadium
Saturday, May 2 Clemson, SC Death Valley
Friday, May 15 Austin, Texas Moody Center
Saturday, May 16 Austin, Texas Moody Center
