On the second night of Sturgill Simpson's three night, sold out stint at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, he covered Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks," Roy Orbison's "Crying" and broke up a fight. Sounds like quite the eventful night!
The fight started one verse into the band's cover of "Crying," when an audible commotion broke out in the historic church venue.
"How the f*ck can you guys possible be thinking about fighting when we're singing this song?" Simpson yelled out during the song. "Hey, f*ck that. Now you're f*cking with my time. Get them all out!"
Simpson was visibly upset but quickly composed himself and managed to finish the slow crooning song by a Nashville great.
The three-night run of shows marks the climax and tail end of his tour for last year's award winning album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. It's also symbolic of his meteoric rise from a rambling old-school country artist to the headlining act at Nashville's most prestigious venue.
Rolling Stone Country in its review of the show noted the especially high levels of jubilance for the show given that it was Halloween night. For this special occasion he whipped out some new covers including the rudely interrupted cover of "Crying," as well as a slid-guitar fueled update of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks."
On paper a country cover of Led Zeppelin sounds like a disaster, but with Simpson behind the vocals and guitar, the psychedelic hard rock song was in good hands. The band sped things up a tad, but ultimately stayed true to that vicious guitar part while adapting it to Simpson's outlaw country style.
Simpson still has a run of dates throughout the U.S. to fill out the rest of the year from California to Georgia, check out his full schedule over on his website.
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