Prince Teases First Date of Spontaneous ‘Hit and Run’ US Tour
UPDATE: Prince has added another date to his pop-up Hit & Run tour, booking a May 19th gig at Toronto’s Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. Tickets for the concert go on sale Monday, May 18th at noon local time at Live Nation. Like the Hit & Run stop in Louisville, hometown of 3rd Eye Girl drummer Hannah Welton, the group’s guitarist Donna Grantis hails from the outskirts of Toronto.
Prince performs where Prince pleases. The Purple One and backing band 3rdEyeGirl have announced their Hit & Run American tour, which kicks off May 14th in Louisville, Kentucky at an as-yet-unspecified venue. The location was chosen to honor the group’s drummer, Louisville native Hannah Welton. Tickets for that performance go on sale Monday, March 9th at 10 a.m. local time through Live Nation, and a portion of proceeds from the concert will benefit Louisville-based charities.
The trek follows the spontaneous approach of his 2014 UK Hit & Run tour, which found Prince playing two to three shows per night at major venues like London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire – with dates announced via Twitter after little advance notice. The iconic musician has a knack for crashing venues at the last minute: In December, he casually strolled onstage at the W Hollywood Hotel’s jazz night and ripped out a fierce guitar solo during a cover of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends.”
Last year, Prince released two new studio albums: a solo LP, Art Official Age, and his debut with 3rdEyeGirl, Plectrumelectrum. He capped off a productive 2014 with an unprecedented eight-minute medley as the musical guest for a November episode of Saturday Night Live.
More recently, Prince stole the 2015 Grammy Awards with his cane-twirling entrance to present Album of the Year. “Like books and black lives, albums still matter,” Prince said, managing as usual to out-cool everyone in the room.