Hello, Pine Knob

The official 2026 season preview for the largest entertainment amphitheater in the country. We'll be joined by some frequent visitors, including Carlos Santana, Foreigner, Godsmack, Motley Crue, Salt-N-Pepa, Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band, Barenaked Ladies, and others to help get you ready for the next four-months-plus of music under the stars.

Welcome to our final episode of the 2025 Pine Knob season — 41 shows starting in June with Halsey and wrapping up October 2nd with Alice Cooper and Judas Priest. With acts from just about every genre playing during the past four months, there's been something for every music fan and certainly another season of shows that we'll be talking about for years to come.

It's officially fall, but things are not falling off at Pine Knob as it heads to the close of its 53rd year. We'll start with a favorite Pine Knob photo of the J. Geils Band. The B-52s will be bringing its 12-date Cosmic De-Evolution Tour with Devo to town on Thursday, September 25th. The next night, Friday, Sept. 26th, country star Lainey Wilson brings her Whirlwind Tour to Pine Knob for her first performance ever at the venue. It will also be the first performance there for one of her band members, multi-instrumentalist Sav Madigan, who's also part of the Accidentals, a band she and longtime friend Katie Larson formed 13 years ago in Traverse City. Recently visiting town was the British band James, who also played at Pine Knob as part of the 1997 Lollapalooza festival that stopped there for two dates in July of that year.

We welcome one of the venue's regular photographers, who chose a fiery image of Slayer guitarist Kerry King as one of his favorites from over the years. Back on August 4th, the Doobie Brothers, one of Pine Knob's most frequent visitors, opened its latest North American tour there. Also in town recently was Jerry Cantrell, guitarist with the band Alice in Chains, who also tours and records as a solo artist. Coming to Pine Knob on September 10th are the Tedeschi Trucks Band and Gov't Mule, a must-see for guitar fans. We also visited recently with Wesley Schultz from the Lumineers, who will be playing their biggest Detroit area show yet on September 13th at Comerica Park. That same night, Bonnie Raitt will be headlining just across the street at the Fox Theatre. On Saturday, September 20th, Riff Fest returns to Pine Knob, bringing Canada's Three Days Grace along with Breaking Benjamin as co-headliners.

We start with Chris Schwegler and the story of the final photograph from Bob Seger's final hometown concert on June 21st, 2019. In the more recent past, we caught up with Halestorm, who played at Pine Knob for a sixth time on August 19th. In the realm of coming attractions, we have Billy Idol hitting Pine Knob on Thursday, August 28th. Two nights later, on Aug. 30, it's 99.5 WYCD's Hoedown, this time with Dierks Bentley headlining and joined by Zach Top and The Band Loula. The night after Hoedown, on Aug. 31, Tommy Clufetos is bringing his new band, Tommy's Rock Trip, to town opening for Ted Nuget at the Michigan Lottery Amhitheatre.

We kick things off with photographer feature Scott Legato. Scott picks a 2013 shot of the late Ozzy Osbourne, taken during a performance by Black Sabbath as part of its reunion tour. Toto, Men at Work and Christopher Cross are playing Monday, August 11. Five days later, on August 16th, fans of classic rock will be treated to the Brotherhood of Rock Tour 2025, which features Styx, the Kevin Cronin Band from REO Speedwagon and Don Felder from Eagles We move then to Tuesday, Aug. 19, when Volbeat brings its Greatest Of All Time Tours Worldwide to Pine Knob, with support from Halestorm and the Ghost inside.

Things are really heating up at Pine Knob, with a busy August and September ahead, into the early days of October. We're starting with some recent visitors who hit stages in the metro area, but took time to share their thoughts about playing at Pine Knob. In upcoming attractions, Cyndi Lauper, who performed last fall at the Fox Theatre, is bringing her "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" Farewell Tour to Pine Knob on Friday, August 1. The following night, Saturday August 2, brings Barenaked Ladies back to Pine Knob with its latest Last Summer on Earth Tour. The Doobie Brothers has been playing Pine Knob since 1974. Its August 4 performance will be the start of the North American leg of a tour supporting a new album, Walk this Road, the Doobies' 16th studio set. Opening for the Doobie Brothers on August 4th will be the Coral Reefer Band, making its first appearance in the metro area since its founder and leader Jimmy Buffett passed away in September of 2023.

We kick off episode four with a new segment spotlighting the concert photographers who work regularly at Pine Knob, and their work. Our first comes from Ken Settle, recalling when Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band were joined by a special appearance from former drummer Charlie Martin, who had been paralyzed from the waist down after an automobile accident in 1977. I Prevail was formed in Oakland County, Michigan during 2013 and made its first splash with a remake of Taylor Swift's Blank Space that became a viral hit in 2014. The quintet co-headlines the Summer of Loud 2025 package on Wednesday, July 16 at Pine Knob. Things stay heavy the next night -- Thursday, July 17 -- when Pantera and Amon Amarth will be rocking Pine Knob. This is Pantera's first headline show in the metro area since 2001, and its first Pine Knob appearance since OZZFest during July of 2000. Wrapping things up, Styx will not perform at Pine Knob until August 16. But on Friday, July 18 the veteran group releases its 18th studio album, Circling From Above -- the follow-up to Crash of the Crown in 2021 and Styx's third album in eight years after taking a 12-year break from recording.

In this third episode of our fourth season, we`re shooting wide and brining you memories from some of the performers who have played at Pine Knob over the years. Our first guest, however, is playing there on July 2nd, his first show at Pine Knob in eight years. Moving on, we had the chance to talk with Chan Kinchla from the band Blues Traveler, which is performing July 11 at the Meadow Brook Amphitheatre. Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins is another fan of Pine Knob. The band has played there just twice, including a three-night stand with Lollapalooza in 1994 during which the Pumpkins pulled a fun prank on the crowd. Also sharing fond memories of Pine Knob with us is John Oates, who as part of Hall & Oates played the theater 18 times between 1977 and 2021, including several multi-night runs.

The summer season got off to a later than usual start this year, but things are up to speed with three consecutive nights of shows ahead — a Friday night visit by the Outlaw Music Festival's 10th Anniversary Tour, headlined by Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, a Saturday date with Simple Minds and a Sunday finish with country start Keith Urban.