Sturgill Simpson’s Johnny Blue Skies Debuts Prince & The Doors Covers At Tour Opener In Los Angeles

Sturgill Simpson’s Why Not? Tour in support of his new Johnny Blue Skies album, Passage du Desir, got underway in earnest on Saturday at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Simpson played songs from the record released under his newly established moniker alongside a sampling of his other albums and choice covers, including first-time takes on The Doors and Prince classics.

Simpson and his bandmates — bassist Kevin Black, keyboardist Robbie Crowell, guitarist Laur Joamets and drummer Miles Miller — last month performed a headlining festival set at Outside Lands and a warm-up show in San Francisco that marked the start of the Simpson’s first full-band tour since 2020. Saturday’s show at The Greek set the tour in motion with concerts consistently scheduled through November.

Six of the eight songs making up the Passage du Desir tracklist made the live setlist at The Greek. Simpson rounded out his setlist with songs from his 2013 debut album Hight Top Mountain, its 2014 follow-up Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide To Earth, the 2019 anime soundtrack rock album SOUND & FURY and his 2020 bluegrass album Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions.

Carrying over from the April gigs were covers of The Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider,” Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine,” Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” When in Rome’s “The Promise,” and Moore & Napier’s “Long White Line.” Additionally, Simpson covered Steven Fromholz’s “I’d Have to Be Crazy” and William Bell’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water.” Simpson also dusted off a cover of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” for the first time in several years.

Three songs into Saturday’s set in Los Angeles, Simpson offered a location-appropriate cover of The Doors’ “L.A. Woman.” The final song of the L.A. concert was an erstwhile performance of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” which segued out of the Passage du Desir track “One for the Road.” Both cover songs were repeated on Sunday night at the Santa Barbara Bowl, which featured a similar setlist though in a considerably different order.

Watch Sturgill Simpson perform “Purple Rain,” “L.A. Woman” and more via the audience-captured videos posted below: