The Rolling Stones are coming to Charlotte, as BofA Stadium adds more concerts
After a couple of days of teasing, The Rolling Stones revealed Thursday that their critically acclaimed “No Filter Tour” will return to North America for a 15-city run in 2020 — and Charlotte is on the list.
The concert is set for July 1 at Bank of America Stadium. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 14.
Ticket prices have not yet been set, but get ready to go to war for them: When tickets went on sale in early December for country music star Garth Brooks’ May 2 concert at Bank of America Stadium, all 74,000 of them sold out in just 90 minutes as frenzied buyers flooded Ticketmaster’s website.
The Rolling Stones tickets may very well go even faster. That’s in part because they haven’t been here in almost a decade and a half; the band was last in Charlotte on Oct. 21, 2005, when it christened the opening of the former Charlotte Bobcats Arena (now Spectrum Center) in front of a sold-out crowd as part of its “A Bigger Bang Tour.” (They played another North Carolina stadium in 2015 — Raleigh’s Carter-Finley Stadium.)
It’s also, in large part, because it’s unclear if and when we’ll ever get another chance after this. For those keeping score at home, frontman Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards are now both 76, guitarist Ronnie Wood is 72, and drummer Charlie Watts is 78.
The “No Filter Tour” kicks off in San Diego on May 8.
It’s been a long time coming for several other cities that will get a visit, according to The Associated Press, including Cleveland; St. Louis; Austin, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; Tampa, Florida; and Vancouver, British Columbia. The band will also perform in Minneapolis; Dallas; Detroit; Pittsburgh; Nashville, Tennessee; and Buffalo, New York. The shows will end July 9 with a concert in Atlanta.
Though the general on-sale date is Feb. 14, American Express Card Members can purchase tickets earlier — beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, and through 10 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13. A limited number of exclusive VIP packages will be available.
Rolling Stones tease announcement
Thursday’s news is the culmination of almost three days of anticipation.
On Monday afternoon, a gigantic pair of red lips appeared on the video board inside Bank of America Stadium in uptown Charlotte, as well as on a video board at uptown’s EpiCentre. And though the images were only accompanied by the words “Miss You,” it wasn’t difficult to guess what the real message was, especially since similar teasers went up simultaneously in other cities across the country around the same time.
Now that it’s official, this marks the fourth major concert announced at the stadium since September, when the Panthers and concert promoter Live Nation announced that Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Billy Joel would perform at the venue on April 18.
In November, it was revealed that Brooks will perform an in-the-round concert at the stadium on Saturday, May 2. And in December, a rock tour featuring Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts was announced for Saturday, July 11.
Joel’s show will mark the first concert at Bank of America Stadium in almost eight years. Country stars Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw brought their “Brothers of the Sun Tour” to the stadium in June 2012.
The only other show in Panthers history, prior to that? The Rolling Stones played in their home in October 1997, back when it was Ericsson Stadium.
Rolling Stones on the road
The Stones’ tour through North America last year was postponed after Mick Jagger had heart surgery, according to the Associated Press, but the band rescheduled those dates and returned triumphantly to the road with a show in Chicago.
But when they show up, they show up. On the final night of the 2019 leg of the tour, at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, the Stones went on despite the threat of a Category 4 storm with 135 mph winds and flooding rains.
For further inspiration, we’ll leave you with the ending of Rolling Stone magazine’s review of the band’s show at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts last July:
“The band closed out with a nearly 10-minute ‘Satisfaction.’ It’s a song that could easily feel uninspired at this point in their career, but on Sunday, it became a highlight. As Richards and Wood improvised over the riff, Jagger sprinted down the catwalk and threw off his jacket, getting lost in the song’s R&B reverie. As backup singers sang ‘Give me some satisfaction,’ Jagger howled, ‘I’ve got to get it!’ He kept shouting, ‘Got to, got to, got to!’ louder and louder. On this tour, the band are still searching for satisfaction, and as long as they are, the world is a better place.”
Additional details about the “No Filter Tour” have been posted at the band’s website at rollingstones.com.
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 7:21 AM with the headline "The Rolling Stones are coming to Charlotte, as BofA Stadium adds more concerts."
