Luke Bryan and Darius Rucker continued the Grand Ole Opry’s tradition of hosting its Saturday night shows, even without a live audience. The two singers performed the Opry’s 4937th consecutive show on August 15th, running through some of their biggest hits, as well as a few new tunes. Unlike most other Opry shows that have occurred over the last few months, both Luke and Darius were backed by Luke’s full band.

Luke kicked off the night with his most-recent No. 1 hit, “One Margarita,” followed by “Play It Again,” “Too Drunk to Drive,” “What Makes You Country,” and the title track of his latest album, Born Here, Live Here, Die Here.

“This is the first time I’ve gotten to speak to a lot of fans,” Luke said from stage. “We just miss you guys.”

“Really, man,” interjected Darius. “I miss being out there, playing shows, having people in your face, dancing and singing with their best friends and with their family. Man, I miss that.”

“Just being up here, being around your band, feeling music, I’m singing like this is my showcase for a record deal,” continued Luke. “It’s pretty amazing being up here. I had the privilege of putting my album out in the middle of all this craziness. We had an amazing week. We did a lot of Zoom calls, a lot of virtual stuff,” Luke added, before launching into “Born Here, Live Here, Die Here.”

Luke also admitted that, even without an audience, he was still a bit intimidated to be on the sacred stage.

“I am learning that the Opry stage just makes you nervous,” the Georgia native admitted. “Add people and that’s when you really start missing the words to songs and stuff. The magic of the circle … What an amazing situation to be in this room with no fans. It’s funny, I think somebody asked me, ‘What’s it going to be like playing to an empty room?’ and I’m like, ‘Well, we do, when we soundcheck out on the road in these big arenas. A lot of times the workers are setting up all of the chairs and stuff, so it’s not totally foreign to play for an empty room, but we certainly don’t like it.”

Darius sang “Alright,” “Wagon Wheel,” his new single “Beers and Sunshine, as well as a brand-new song. Together, the two covered Brooks & Dunn’s classic hit, “Neon Moon.”

Runaway June, Jon Pardi and Pam Tillis will perform at the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday, August 22. The Grand Ole Opry continues to modify their reopening plan, which has been closed since the middle of March because of the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the latest update, there will not be a live audience for any of the shows through at least September 5. All other shows with a live audience, besides the Saturday shows, have also been cancelled or postponed.