Austin: Buddy Guy at ACL Live

Buddy Guy brings his “Damn Right Farewell Tour” to ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, a stop billed as “Buddy Guy 90” for the blues legend’s 90th year. Doors open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. show, tickets start at $121, and Texas guitarist Ally Venable opens.

Born July 30, 1936, in Lettsworth, Louisiana, Buddy Guy moved to Chicago in 1957 and became a house guitarist at Chess Records, backing Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson while developing the raw, showmanship-heavy style that would define Chicago’s West Side sound. He went on to open Buddy Guy’s Legends, the Chicago blues club he still owns, and to mentor a generation of guitarists who openly credit him as a foundation — Jimi Hendrix reportedly taped their conversations, and Eric Clapton has called him the best guitarist alive.

Guy’s fingerprints are all over Austin’s own blues lineage. Stevie Ray Vaughan cited him as a direct influence, and the city still marks that connection with the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue on Lady Bird Lake, just blocks from ACL Live. A farewell stop from Guy carries extra weight in a city that owes so much of its blues identity to the tradition he helped build.

Buy tickets on StubHub while seats remain for one of Guy’s final Austin dates.

A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and multiple Grammy winner, Buddy Guy has spent nearly seven decades turning raw Chicago blues into arena-scale showmanship, influencing everyone from Hendrix to John Mayer along the way. At 90, he’s still touring hard, and the Damn Right Farewell Tour gives fans across the country a final chance to see him do it live.

Doors open at 7 p.m. with the show starting at 8 p.m. Parking is available in the Moody Theater’s attached garage and nearby downtown lots.