After 50 years plus of touring, Little Feat kick off ‘Last Farewell Tour’ at The Plaza Live in Orlando
- Alastair Mac
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
After 56 years, Americana jam band Little Feat are calling it quits from touring, with one last headline tour.
Little Feat are heading out on the road for one last time with “The Last Farewell Tour.” The band are not retiring, just calling it quits from touring, with Little Feat noting that the tour is “not an absolute, never-gonna-play again statement.
This wind-down will take several years to accomplish, and while it does, Feat will continue to perform and record as long as they are able. It’s a retirement from the travel of touring.”
Co-founder Billy Payne (vocals, keyboards), Kenny Gradney (bass), and Sam Clayton (percussion) will head out on the road with longtime guitarist Fred Tackett and newer additions singer-guitarist Scott Sharrard and drummer Tony Leone, with the first round of dates for the tour described as the beginning of what the band are callings the "process of retiring."
The tour will kick off on Friday, April 10, 2026 in Orlando, stopping in cities including Knoxville, Austin, Kansas City, and more.
Tickets for the Orlando show at The Plaza Live are still available.
Keep up to date with the latest concert and music news in Orlando and Tampa! From major headlining tours, to local indie music nights, Florida features an eclectic music scene! Catch the latest shows at Kia Center, House of Blues, The Plaza Live, Hard Rock Live, Addition Financial Arena, Benchmark International Arena, Yuengling Center, and more.
Little Feat is the classic example of a fusion of many styles and musical genres made into something utterly distinctive. Their brilliant musicianship transcends boundaries, uniting California rock, funk, folk, jazz, country, rockabilly, and New Orleans swamp boogie into a rich gumbo, that has been leading people in joyful dance ever since.
It began in 1969 when Frank Zappa was smart enough to fire Lowell George from the Mothers of Invention and tell him to go start a band of his own. Soon after, Lowell connected with Bill Payne, which stirred up sparks. They then found drummer Richie Hayward.
They were quickly signed by Warner Bros. and began working on the first of twelve albums with that venerable company. The first album, Little Feat, featured the instant-classic tune “Willin’,” and the follow-up Sailin’ Shoes added “Easy to Slip,” “Trouble,” “Tripe Face Boogie,” “Cold Cold Cold” and the title track to their repertoire. Paul Barrére, Kenny Gradney (bass), and Sam Clayton (percussion), joined up, and the latter two remain rock-solid members of Little Feat’s rhythm section.
1973’s Dixie Chicken gave them the title track and “Fat Man in the Bathtub,” as good a blues as any rock band has ever written. Their career to that point was summed up with the live Waiting for Columbus, truly one of the best live albums rock has ever heard.
Fifty years on the road cost them Lowell George, then Richie Hayward and Paul Barrére, but the music has carried them forward. When you spend your life on the road you can get eaten up by the stresses, or you can hold on to your music and your friends and the joy of the people out front and keep the priorities straight the way the Featsters have.
Fifty years on, they’ve been up and they’ve been down and now it's time to say farewell to the road.
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