Take A Step Back Grateful Dead: George Strait Breaks 47-Year-Old Concert Attendance Record

The King of Country Music, George Strait, broke a 47-year-old U.S. concert attendance record previously held by the Grateful Dead. The Texas native performed on Saturday for 110,905 ticket-buying fans at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.

The Grateful Dead clocked their record on September 3, 1977 at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey with 107,019 fans officially in attendance. Audio from the concert was released on Dick’s Picks Volume 15 in October 1999.

Strait’s record-breaking concert on Saturday took place at Kyle Field, the massive stadium home to the Texas A&M Aggies football team nicknamed Home of the 12th Man. It’s the biggest stadium in Texas, fifth largest in the U.S. and seventh largest in the world. George’s show was the largest event held at Kyle Field to date beating out the previous record for the Aggies’ 2014 football game versus Old Miss.

Billed as The King at Kyle Field, the concert also saw performances by Strait’s MCA Nashville labelmates and fellow Texans Parker McCollum and Catie Offerman.

“It’s so good to be here with Catie Offerman and Parker McCollum – let’s have another big round of applause for those two,” George said during the concert. “And happy birthday Parker, my gosh, what a day, what a place to spend your birthday, right?”

Strait also took part in the Kyle Field traditional “Whoop.”

“Man, I wanna whoop so bad, but you can’t whoop if you’re not/you don’t go to school here?” He said. “Can I whoop, one time, just once? ‘Whoop! I had to do it – my son said it’s okay if I did that, he graduated from A&M…”

“We got a lot of songs to play for y’all tonight,” he continued. “What a beautiful night, too, right? We got some new stuff that we’re gonna do also, we got a new album … out in September called Cowboys And Dreamers, so we got some stuff from that we’re gonna play for you also and we got a really special thing we’re gonna do for you, so alright, what are we here for?!” Strait and his band then delivered “Here For A Good Time.”

Strait delivered a few songs off Cowboys and Dreamers including “MIA in MIA,” “Three Drinks Behind,” his cover of Waylon Jennings’ “Waymore’s Blues” and the unreleased cut “To The Moon.” He also included favorites from his catalog like “All My Ex’s Live in Texas,” “Check Yes or No,” “I Can Still Make Cheyenne,” “Troubadour” and “Take Me To Texas” along with additional covers of Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho & Lefty,” Terry Stafford’s “Amarillo By Morning” and Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me.”

Check out video from the concert below:

Strait has a few more stadium plays on his itinerary this summer. Check them out below with ticket info.