Two veteran pop music superstars are joining forces for a national stadium tour — including a stop at Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Billy Joel and Sting will co-headline a concert scheduled for May 23, 2025, at the stadium on the University of Utah campus, stadium officials and the booking agency Live Nation announced Thursday.
General tickets will go on sale to the public on Friday, Oct. 4, at 10 a.m. Mountain time at ticketmaster.com, Sting announced on his website.
Citi cardmembers will be able to buy presale tickets beginning Monday at 10 a.m. until Thursday, Oct. 3 at 10 p.m. through the Citi Entertainment program. (All times are Mountain time.)
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah Head Football Coach Kyle Whittingham rides into the stadium for the announcement of the the Billy Joel & Sting concert coming to Rice-Eccles Stadium in May, during a news conference on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024.
Rice-Eccles made a splash with its Thursday announcement, which featured a visit from a “major Billy Joel fan” whose day job is at the stadium: University of Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham.
“When I heard he was coming, I was elated about that,” said Whittingham, who rode in on a motorcycle wearing a “Piano Man” shirt in Joel’s honor.
“I’ve been listening to Billy for 50-plus years,” Whittingham said. “I’ve been a Billy Joel fan forever. … I couldn’t be more thrilled to have the Piano Man coming to us, Salt Lake City.”
Whittingham joked, “I’ll be here, hopefully, if I can get tickets.”
(Chad Batka | The New York Times) American singer-songwriter Billy Joel performs his 100th show at Madison Square Garden in New York, July 18, 2018. Joel and Sting are scheduled to co-headline a concert on May 25, 2025, at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
Jason Ferrell, president of Live Nation Utah, told reporters assembled Thursday that “Utah has become more than a stop out of convenience. It’s not just a place to refuel driving through the West. But rather it has become a market that is a destination for music artists of all sizes.”
Joel and Sting also announced stadium dates in Indianapolis on Feb. 8, Syracuse, N.Y., on April 11, and Charlotte, N.C., on May 10. The pair had previously announced stadium shows in St. Louis on Friday, San Antonio on Oct. 25 and Las Vegas on Nov. 9. It is the first time they have toured together.
(Amy Harris | Invision/Associated Press file photo) English musician Sting, seen here in 2019, is scheduled to co-headline with Billy Joel at Salt Lake City's Rice-Eccles Stadium on May 25, 2025.
Rice-Eccles Stadium officials said Monday that a major announcement was coming, setting off a flood of speculation about which music superstar might be touring. Taylor Swift, whose worldwide Eras Tour is scheduled to end Dec. 8 in Vancouver, B.C., was mentioned but considered a long shot. Other rumored names included Linkin Park, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen.
Joel hasn’t performed in Utah since November 2017, at what was then Vivint Smart Home Arena (now Delta Center) in Salt Lake City. Sting played Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre in West Valley City in September 2023.
Rice-Eccles Stadium has brought in other musical acts, including Imagine Dragons in 2022 and the Irish rock band U2 (and their 164-foot-high “claw” stage, now based at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper) in 2011. This summer, the stadium played host to two major country tours: Luke Combs on June 7 and 8, and George Strait, Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town on June 29.
