Post Malone‘s “Big Ass Stadium Tour Part 2” just got smaller. The artist took to social media Friday night to announce that he was canceling the first few weeks of his outing in stadiums with Jelly Roll, saying that he wants to get his forthcoming album finished before hitting the road in earnest.
The cancellation affects the first six regularly scheduled dates on the Live Nation-produced joint tour, or almost a third of the North American dates altogether. The tour was to officially kick off May 13 at El Paso’s Sun Bowl Stadium, with the other scotched dates were to have taken place at stadiums in Waco, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Tampa and Oxford, Miss.. Not counting three festival dates that the star plans to fulfill in the interim, the tour with Malone and Jelly Roll will now kick off three and a half weeks later than planned in Charlotte, NC on June 9.
Despite reports of slower-than-expected ticket sales, Malone was adamant in his message that a focus on getting through an epic album-in-progress was the reason for putting this first batch of dates on ice.
“Looking at the upcoming schedule after Stagecoach,” Malone wrote fans, “I came to the realization that what we’re trying to do, and what’s possible, isn’t really lining up. The truth is, I promised y’all beautiful people new music, and I don’t have the time to finish it before tour starts. We ain’t ready for tour just yet, so I’m making the decision to push the tour back about 3 weeks to get this music done.”
Malone has been touting a 40-track album on the way, to be titled “The Eternal Buzz.” No release date has been announced, nor have any other details beyond the title. Malone’s announcement indicates it still has a way to go to the finish line. (In an interview with Billboard at Stagecoach last weekend, Malone said he’d recorded “probably 35 songs” for the project but had only gotten as far as scratch vocals.)
“That being said,” Malone’s announcement continued, “I’m so sorry to the folks who were planing on coming to the few canceled shows. I was looking forward to going nuts with y’all. That THAT being said, we been making some badass shit for this double album… and I can’t wait to perform for y’all again.”
The pushing back of the start of the tour comes on the heels of widespread reports that ticket sales have been soft for many dates on the tour, in contrast to last summer’s initial “Big Ass Stadium Tour” by Malone and Jelly Roll, which sold out every date and grossed a reported $170 million. The disparity between last year’s sales and this year’s was the subject of a Lefsetz Report newsletter that went out to music industry readers shortly before Malone made his announcement.
Neither Malone nor Jelly Roll has had an album out since 2024. The thinking may be that if Malone can get “The Eternal Buzz” and/or a hit single into the marketplace sooner rather than later, it could goose ticket sales for the remaining dates, in the same way that the popularity of “F-1 Trillion” a year and a half ago undoubtedly spurred a rush on the sold-out 2025 tour.
Industry observers have engaged in debate about why this year’s tour has so far not seemed as hot as the red-hot outing last summer. Most of this year’s shows are not in the same cities as last year’s, so in most instances it isn’t a case of revisiting the same market too soon. Some have put it down to speculation or confusion over whether Malone will emphasize his country side or his hip-hop/rock side on the tour — and in the comments, it’s not hard to find fans who are hoping the concerts will veer more one way or the other — although, again, this did not seem to be a hindrance in 2025.
Malone may be aware of the guessing game going on about whether the forthcoming album and tour will lean one musical direction or another. He’s indicated “The Eternal Buzz” will have its 40 songs divided up into a two-part format (spread evenly across two CDs, in the physical realm), leaving some to wonder if he might be planning to divide it up among genres, as opposed to the strict country focus of “F-1 Trillion.”
The rapper-turned-rocker-turned-country-star may have hinted at a resolution that could mark at least a partial return to his roots, with a slightly cryptic comment tagged on to the end of Friday’s social media post.
“And to a lot of little stinkers that think I’ve forgotten about old Stoney, I haven’t,” he wrote. (“Stoney” was the title of his debut album in 2016.) “I love you, and can’t wait to see you crazy motherfuckers soon,” he concluded.
Once the Malone/Jelly Roll belatedly starts up in June, it will run through 13 shows in North America, with Carter Faith as opener (stepping in for last year’s support act, Sierra Ferrell). After a month and a half off, starting in mid-September, Malone will move his “Big Ass” tour to Asian territories, with hip-hop star Don Toliver taking Jelly Roll’s place on the bill overseas.
Malone nixing about a third of his U.S. stadium shows is actually on the less severe side of a recent rash of tour cancellations, just about all of which have been officially ascribed to personal circumstances and not headwinds in the concert economy. Earlier Friday, Zayn canceled his entire U.S. arena tour, although he is going on with the overseas portions, citing unspecified health issues. In mid-April, Meghan Trainor also called off her entire arena tour, citing a desire to spend time with her young children.
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