Eric Church’s sold-out audience at Red Rock Amphitheater tonight grew by more than four thousand people just before he took the stage. That’s roughly how many were tuned in at the very beginning of a Facebook Live stream that kicked off with a major announcement by the country superstar: his 2017 Holdin’ My Own tour.

The trek will kick off January 13th in Lincoln, Nebraska, hitting about 60 cities before wrapping in May with two shows in the singer’s adopted hometown of Nashville. And for the first time in his headlining history, Church will not have any opening acts. Instead, he and his band will play two sets with an intermission in between.

Fan club member registration for pre-sales begins today via the Church Choir fan club site and runs through August 23rd. Notoriously outspoken about his disgust with scalpers, Church and his team have come up with an intricate digital system that aims to ensure all tickets are sold at face value — and thus kept out of scalpers’ hands. In fact, any orders found to be made by scalpers will be canceled.

The tour is named after a song on Church’s Mr. Misunderstood album, which he released last fall without an ounce of press beforehand. He and his closest team members kept the secret project under wraps until its very day of release.

“The way this album came together mandated we release it as a surprise, straight to our fans, as it was important for me to deliver the music the same way the creativity hit me — directly and swiftly,” says Church. “What I didn’t anticipate is that it left me scratching my head a little as this year was supposed to be spent writing. . . What this year’s open schedule did afford us was time to think through the way the fans experience our music live, and it was important to us that we find a way to stick to these same principles when it came to approaching our shows, down to the way they go on sale.”

Ironically, the track “Holdin’ My Own” is about finding true happiness off the road, at home with his wife and two sons. Lyrics tell of dodging temptations of touring, yet wearing road scars with nostalgic pride, as he blissfully has “one arm around my baby and one arm around my boys.”

Catch Eric Church live in Dallas at American Airlines Center, February 3. Click here for ticket information.

– Rolling Stone