The highly anticipated release of Passage Du Desir in 2024 marked the beginning of a new era for Johnny Blue Skies – after promising to release only five studio albums under the name Sturgill Simpson. The album has received the most glowing reviews of Simpson’s already widely lauded career—including from Rolling Stone who calls the album “brilliant” and GQ who describes it as an “instant classic”—and was produced by Johnny Blue Skies and David Ferguson and recorded at Clement House Recording Studio in Nashville, TN and Abbey Road Studios in London, England.

Johnny Blue Skies and his band—Kevin Black (bass), Robbie Crowell (keys), Laur Joamets (guitar) and Miles Miller (drums)—made their long awaited return to the road in Fall 2024 with the “Why Not? Tour” which included stops at L.A.’s The Greek Theatre, Washington State’s The Gorge Amphitheater, Lexington’s Rupp Arena, Chicago’s Salt Shed (two nights), Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium and Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena among many more. He also headlined Outside Lands and Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Since his debut, Simpson has released five full-length studio albums—2013’s High Top Mountain, 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, 2019’s Sound & Fury and 2021’s The Ballad of Dood and Juanita—along with the 2020 projects, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Throughout his singular career, Simpson has relentlessly pushed against expectations, earning widespread acclaim and countless accolades including a Grammy Award in 2017 for Best Country Album and six Grammy nominations across four genres: country, rock, bluegrass and americana. He has also branched out into the world of film and television with recent appearances in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones.