Wheeler Walker Jr., the raunch-country alter ego of comedian Ben Hoffman, is bringing his farewell tour to Boston this fall, with a stop at Citizens House of Blues on Nov. 8. The 51-year-old announced his retirement from performing in June, and now he's closing out his career with one final album and a run of shows across North America.
Hoffman announced his retirement at age 51 in June, according to MassLive, which reported the news was first detailed by Billboard. Wheeler Walker Jr., the country music persona Hoffman has performed under since 2005, is set to embark on the “Pullin’ Out: The Farewell Tour,” which kicks off Oct. 15 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and includes more than 50 stops across North America, with dates in Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle and Atlanta before the tour hits Boston. Tickets for the Boston show are on sale now.
A Decade-Plus of Chart-Topping Vulgarity
Wheeler Walker Jr. is known for crude and comedic lyrics, and his catalog has managed a rare feat: crossing over between genres normally kept separate. He became the first artist to simultaneously chart on Billboard's Country Albums and Comedy Albums charts, and per an event listing from Showbox Presents, his 2016 debut, Redneck (expletive), landed at No. 9 on the Country Album chart and No. 1 on the Comedy Album chart at the same time. Since then he's released five albums that all reached No. 1 on Billboard's Comedy chart, and two of them debuted inside the Top 10 on Billboard's Country Albums chart. The same listing credits him with more than one billion career streams across his catalog.
His sixth and final album, “Pullin’ Out,” is out now and available through his official site, where a description reads: “Pullin' Out - Wheeler's Final Album - Available Now,” according to Wheeler Walker Jr.'s official website. Fans looking to squeeze more out of the farewell run can spring for VIP packages, which the same website says include a pre-show acoustic performance and roast, an exclusive merchandise item, a collectible Farewell Tour laminate, and early merchandise access.
Walking Away Before the Machines Take Over
Hoffman has been blunt about why he's stepping away now rather than riding out a longer career. “I can’t do this anymore,” he said, according to the same MassLive report, adding that he wants to leave while he's still on top: “I feel like I’m getting out while the getting is good.”
The comedian has repeatedly pointed to the rise of artificial intelligence in Nashville songwriting as a driving factor behind his exit. “I really don’t wanna be around when country music becomes fully AI,” he said, per MassLive's account of his comments. He's also said flatly that “country music has just turned into AI” and that he does not want to compete with it, criticizing the state of Nashville songwriting in the process. On Sept. 14, he posted a video reinforcing his retirement decision, according to the report, telling fans he plans to go out gracefully rather than let the industry's shift push him out.
Before he built a following as Wheeler Walker Jr., Hoffman created and hosted “The Ben Show,” a comedy series that ran for a single, eight-episode season in 2013. He began performing under the Wheeler Walker Jr. persona in 2005, slowly building the character into a full-blown chart-topping country act over two decades. Boston fans will get one of the last chances to see that character live when the tour rolls through Citizens House of Blues on Nov. 8.
