Brantley Gilbert brings The Tattoos Tour to Alliant Energy PowerHouse

Brantley Gilbert undoubtedly opened some eyes over the past couple of summers – and likely ruffled the feathers of some country purists – by teaming up for tours with the heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch in 2022 and hard rockers Nickelback in 2023.

More recent tours have seen him bring out artists like Demun Jones and Adam Calhoun, who both mix rap and country in their music, as opening acts.

Now, Gilbert is starting a headlining tour that mixes genres, with hard rockers Black Stone Cherry and country act Travis Denning among the openers.

But Gilbert assures fans that these cross-genre tours aren’t a signal that he’s shifting his career path away from country.

“I am who I am,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I write songs about my life. I don’t know anything but small town country stuff, so at the end of the day, whatever it is that we do that will still be a part of it. We’re not doing anything crazy. We’re not leaving country music and trying to become a rock band. We’re doing the same thing we’ve been doing and building for the last 20 years. We’re just kind of adding experiences to the résumé.”

Gilbert said both the Five Finger Death Punch and Nickelback tours went well and were enthusiastically received by most concert-goers.

Gilbert himself figures to give fans some surprises in his show. He said he plans to mix in songs from his new album, “Tattoos,” while his set won’t just feature the hits played the way fans heard them on radio or album.

“We’re slipping in a good bit of new stuff, a little more than usual,” he said. “But what we’ve done with the rest of the show, even with the new stuff, instead of pulling out a three-and-a-half or four-and-a-half-minute song and expecting somebody to sit and listen through it without losing interest or being distracted, we’ve condensed the show to where we can fit more songs in. We’re adding more new stuff. There will be more songs, you know, older songs that folks are used to. There will be little medley kind of sections and of course we’ve got the rock jam and everything, so the show really doesn’t slow down.”

Gilbert has now amassed enough hits that he could play it safe and almost fill a show with those songs. Since breaking through with a pair of chart-topping singles — “Country Must Be Country Wide” and “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” — from his second album, 2010’s “Halfway To Heaven,” Gilbert has stayed at the forefront of country music.

The five albums that have followed since have added three more No. 1 singles to his resume, as well as another half dozen top 20 songs.

Along the way, he’s gotten his act together on a personal level as well.

In 2011, Gilbert went through rehab to deal with a serious problem with alcohol and opiates. He’s been sober since, and in 2014, he reconnected with a former girlfriend, Amber Cochran, and they married a year later. They now have three children and Gilbert has dedicated himself to being a good husband and father, and has also, with his wife’s encouragement, re-engaged and recommitted to his Christian faith.

Gilbert’s beliefs have been reflected in the titles of his albums, which have all had a connection to faith and spirituality, and Gilbert said “Tattoos” continues that tradition. But on a musical level, it’s not a carbon copy of his previous releases.

“It covers a little more ground stylistically,” Gilbert said. “Like you’ll hear some songs on there that you’re like ‘I cannot believe they’re from the same album,’ which I love that. It’s a little bit of a shock factor. We also went to a more live-band sound as opposed to some of the more digital stuff that we’ve done in the past. This one is geared more toward real instrumentation and kind of letting those aspects of the songs bleed through a little more in the mix. So I’m excited about that.”