Cheap Trick is gearing up to launch an early-2026 headlining tour in support of the power-pop legends latest studio album, All Washed Up, which was released in November 2025.
Videos by American Songwriter
The trek kicks off on Tuesday, March 3, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and runs through an April 25 show in Winterhaven, California. Cheap Trick actually began its 2026 itinerary with a trio of Florida dates opening for Styx. The first concert took place on February 25 in Estero, followed by shows on February 27 in Clearwater and February 28 in St. Augustine.
After the headlining tour, Cheap Trick will hook up again with Styx in May for six performances in the Midwest. The band also has several concerts lined up in the summer and early fall. Among them are an August 5 show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and a September 27 performance at the Bourbon & Beyond festival in Louisville, Kentucky.
Founding Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson recently chatted with American Songwriter about the band’s new album and its busy tour plans for the year.
The group has been fairly prolific in recent years, with All Washed Up being the fifth studio album the band has released since early 2016.
“[Making albums is] just what we do. You know, it’s what we like to do. We like to record,” the 75-year-old musician explained. “That’s what lasts for eternity, hopefully, unlike live shows. … [I]t’s a body of work you look back at. … Yeah, there’s some duds probably or things people don’t like, but in general … I think it’s pretty damn good. That’s what counts, you know?”
More About ‘All Washed Up’
Unfortunately, All Washed Up and Cheap Trick’s other recent albums haven’t enjoyed much commercial success. But Petersson says that’s not important to him.
“That’s what we’re used to,” Tom maintained. “You know, a couple of times we got lucky, but in general, that’s just the way it is. You got to make the best music you can. We’re not experts or even have any idea what people really want to hear. We just know what we like, and what we grew up with and what sounds cool to us.”
All Washed Up is an 11-song collection. It was co-produced by Cheap Trick and the band’s longtime studio collaborator Julian Raymond.
All of the songs were co-written by Petersson, lead guitarist Rick Nielsen, and frontman Robin Zander. Zander’s son Robin Taylor Zander, who has become a touring member of Cheap Trick, helped co-write the album’s lead single, “Twelve Gates.”
“The track was my song,” Petersson explained. “And when we were doing it, [Robin Taylor] thought, ‘Oh, you know, it would be cool if there was a different set of chords here in the bridge section.’ So … he came up with this chord sequence, and I thought, ‘Oh yeah, that sounds cool.’ … So he wrote … that bridge.”
All Washed Up also includes a track titled “A Long Way To Worcester” that was co-written by Jerry Dale McFadden and Robert Reynolds of the country-rock band The Mavericks. It was one of a few songs McFadden and Reynolds co-wrote with Cheap Trick in the late 1990s.
Petersson noted that “A Long Way To Worcester” “didn’t strike anybody” at the time it was written, but Cheap Trick wound up revisiting it for All Washed Up.
“Yeah, that’s a cool song,” he said. “It’s different than a lot of the other stuff.”
More About Cheap Trick’s Touring Plans
So far, Cheap Trick has only played two songs from the new album in concert. Those would be “Twelve Gates” and “The Riff That Won’t Quit.” Petersson told American Songwriter that the band likely won’t add much more of the new material to their 2026 sets.
“We don’t have any illusions that all we’re gonna come out there and do is all these new songs and everybody’s just gonna love every minute of it,” Tom said matter-of-factly. “If some song gets into a soundtrack or for some reason people have heard it and want to hear it live, then we’ll learn it. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
He added with a laugh, “[S]o many of the things that we do just get overlooked, and … there’s no reason to do them. But we think all of our songs are hits. … Most of them are not … so we’re wrong most of the time.”
As previously reported, Cheap Trick has two special shows scheduled in Las Vegas, on April 17-18 at The Venetian Theatre. The concerts will feature the band playing all the songs from its classic 1978 live album, At Budokan.
Petersson said Cheap Trick found out they would be playing the full album at the gigs “after the fact.” That being said, the bassist noted that the concerts should be easy for the band to pull off. The group still regularly plays all of the songs featured on At Budokan live.
Meanwhile, with the 50th anniversary of Cheap Trick’s 1977 self-titled debut approaching, Petersson insisted the band has no plans to stop touring.
“[W]e’re ready to go,” he declared. “We’ve got gear, we’ve got a crew, we’ve got songs. … And we’ll just keep going until we drop.”
Check out all of the band’s tour dates at CheapTrick.com.
(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for BC)
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