One Last Ride? - Soapbox Jr.
This week I was looking through some various Facebook posts after checking Dad’s page for comments or trolls. I didn’t see anything that required my attention, so I was briefly checking out a few of the posts that Facebook had spoon fed to us.
The first one I noticed was the lovely and extremely talented Rhonda Vincent in which she was announcing her farewell tour, “One Last Ride • 2026.” Every entertainer eventually has to decide when it’s time to hang it up, but Rhonda seems way too young to be considering retirement, and we saw here a few weeks ago at the Opry 100 tribute to Dad and she never mentioned any need to retire.
Then I looked again and saw where Willie Nelson was also going to call it a career and take time off the road and he was announcing a tour, “One Last Ride • 2026.”
nteresting that two such prolific artists would both look at retiring at the same time, although Willie would seem to make more sense than Rhonda, not to mention, both of them launching tours with identical names. SO I decided to take take a deep dive and see if my ”Spidey Sense” was tingling for a reason.
In fact, I had seen one or two cases of this phenomenon in the past month or so, but I was always too busy to take a dive down the rabbit hole… Just for the record, I’m still too busy for this deep dive, but I feel that it’s important to speak up.
“One Last Ride” seems to currently be the most popular tour name, and this is across all genres, from Country, to Rock to Hip Hop.
So far, the rabbit hole has taken me to George Strait and Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Randy Owen from Alabama and Carrie Underwood. What’s unique is that while George and Alan have their One Last Ride, some of the dates are apparently being joined by all or some of the other artists I mentioned.The first one I noticed was the lovely and extremely talented Rhonda Vincent in which she was announcing her farewell tour, “One Last Ride • 2026.” Every entertainer eventually has to decide when it’s time to hang it up, but Rhonda seems way too young to be considering retirement, and we saw here a few weeks ago at the Opry 100 tribute to Dad and she never mentioned any need to retire.
Then I looked again and saw where Willie Nelson was also going to call it a career and take time off the road and he was announcing a tour, “One Last Ride • 2026.”
Interesting that two such prolific artists would both look at retiring at the same time, although Willie would seem to make more sense than Rhonda, not to mention, both of them launching tours with identical names. SO I decided to take take a deep dive and see if my ”Spidey Sense” was tingling for a reason.
It was.
In fact, I had seen one or two cases of this phenomenon in the past month or so, but I was always too busy to take a dive down the rabbit hole… Just for the record, I’m still too busy for this deep dive, but I feel that it’s important to speak up.
“One Last Ride” seems to currently be the most popular tour name, and this is across all genres, from Country, to Rock to Hip Hop.
So far, the rabbit hole has taken me to George Strait and Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Randy Owen from Alabama and Carrie Underwood. What’s unique is that while George and Alan have their One Last Ride, some of the dates are apparently being joined by all or some of the other artists I mentioned.
But wait, we’re not done yet…
Also riding for the last time in 2026, Vince Gill and Amy Grant, Richard Carpenter from The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, Eminem, Snoop Dog, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Rihanna, Bob Dylan, Mickey Dolenz from The Monkees, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Stevie Nicks…
Still not done!
Led Zeppelin, Brooks & Dunn, Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand, Barry Gibb, Diana Ross, Celine Dion, Frankie Valli, Phil Collins, Elton John, Billy Joel, Sting, Rod Stewart, The Rolling Stones (this will be their 320th farewell tour by my count) and the Traveling Willburys.
I have to admit, I’m intrigued by this last one because the announcement clearly states, “The iconic singers Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty have announced plans for the One Last Ride tour in 2026 — a powerful musical journey that promises to ignite the undying heart of folk-rock.”
<>This is sure to be one unbelievably spectacular show. Sadly It won’t be all the Willburys, as death will keep the reunion from being complete, it just won’t be the same without Roy Orbison who we lost back in the late 80s, but Dylan, George, Jeff and Tom are all apparently signed on, which is very exciting. I’ve never seen Tom or George perform, so this will be a real treat!
According to these announcements, so many legendary artists are retiring after 2026 that 2027 is going to be an extremely boring year for live music.
I’m also anticipating an upcoming announcement for Dad’s “One Last Ride” tour.
Obviously, these are not real. They are the creation by a multitude of FB pages and websites to draw attention and get “Clicks” to the pages which is why they are called “clickbait.’
What is new this time around is that thanks to the miracle of “AI” – Artificial Intelligence – you can create realistic images promoting these nonexistent tours. In fact, AI can go one better and create fictional stories of how Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood crashed Ozzy Osbourne’s funeral to perform a tribute to him and almost a whole week before Ozzy’s funeral to boot. Our friend, Rhonda Vincent even performed at Jeanne Seely’s funeral a week before her actual funeral.
It appears that “Fake News” is no longer a concern on social media, and I’m tempted to list some of these websites and pages but I don’t want to give them any more clicks or highlight them in any way other than to encourage fans to avoid them completely.
A fake tour or questionable reporting on some funeral performances is bad enough, but there are multiple stories where they lead you to believe there is some sort of unknown story that someone is “finally breaking their silence” about very personal matters, or take it even further and creating AI art of an artist, or family member in a hospital bed, but just click for the “inside story” which is never revealed, and encouraging you to click around their site in order to find what you’re looking for.
Tabloid reporting is never going away, but we’ve given it a new sense of realism with AI written stories and artwork that can say whatever they want it to. And for some reason, you won’t see any fact checking on the real “fake news.”
And the really sad thing is that you can click on the posts and see that the majority of the fans believe what they see posted.
e aware that unless it comes from the artist’s own website, social media or publicist, it’s most likely fake.
Maybe report these stories as fakes, but for some reason, I don’t have a lot of faith in the the powers that be at the old FB.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to find when Traveling Wilburys tickets go on sale…
What do you think?
Let’s all make the day count!
ray for our troops, our police, the Peace of Jerusalem and our nation.
God Bless America!
#SonyReleaseHonkyTonkAve
#BenghaziAintGoingAway #End22
Charlie Daniels, Jr.
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