Wheeler Walker, Jr. at the Rust Belt -- October 26.
Thursday, October 26, 7 p.m.
The Rust Belt, 533 12th Avenue, East Moline IL
A comedian, actor, writer, and musician whose diverse accomplishments include a chart-topping comedy album, writing credits on TV's Archer and The Late Late Show with James Corden, and acting roles on Arrested Development, New Girl, and Drunk History, creator Ben Hoffman's stage alter ego Wheeler Walker Jr. brings "The Spread Eagle Tour" to East Moline venue The Rust Belt on October 26, his 2016 Redneck Shit the first album in more than a decade to debut on the Billboard Hot Country Albums chart and Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart simultaneously.
Having debuted as a sketch-comedy character in 2013 before becoming a full-fledged sensation in 2016, the Wheeler Walker Jr. persona has been compared to other artists such as Chinga Chavin, Andy Kaufman, and David Allan Coe. The character's fictional biography outlines his history as an unsigned Nashville talent too crude for mainstream radio due to his desire to revamp the classic outlaw country style by playing songs that would have "gotten him yanked off the Grand Ol' Opry broadcast in a matter of seconds," although he finally found success with the rise of uncensored satellite radio and the Internet. He recorded and released his first album Redneck Shit in early 2016 via Thirty Tigers and Pepper Hill Records, and it originally premiered via stream on the Web site PornHub. Redneck Shit debuted at number nine on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, number one on the Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart, and number 127 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and Rolling Stone stated, "Unfathomably obscene and undeniably offensive, the debut album from Nashville never-was Wheeler Walker Jr. is also goddamn funny. But Redneck Shit is far from just an X-rated novelty record."
Walker's second album Ol' Wheeler was released in June of 2017 and debuted at number 10 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, with 7,800 copies sold in its first week. It also debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart, where it remained for three consecutive weeks, and peaked at number five on the Billboard Country chart. His third album, WW III, debuted the following November, with Walker's latest topping the Comedy chart and hitting the number-one spot on the iTunes Country chart. He went on to release his first greatest-hits compilation titled Fuck You Bitch: All Time Greatest Hits in May of 2020, the recording featuring material from Walker's three studio albums along with two new tracks: "Drunk as Fuck" and "Go Big or Go Home". Worldwide, Hoffman was the third-most-streamed country artist in 2021, and since then he's delivered a pair of additional Billboard smashes in last year's Sex Drugs & Country Music and last month's Ram.
Wheeler Walker Jr. brings his “The Spread Eagle Tour” to East Moline on October 26 alongside musical guest Channing Wilson, admission to the 7 p.m. concert is $45.75-145.75, and more information and tickets are available by visiting TheRustBeltQC.com.
