Brantley Gilbert brings his ‘The Devil Don’t Sleep’ tour to Tampa

Brantley Gilbert has a reputation for writing intensely personal songs. He writes about his high school sweetheart, who is now his wife, his Christian faith, about his sobriety and about his love of small-town life.

When his songwriting is at its most personal, he says, that’s when it connects with more people.

“Yeah, when I sit down and try to write a No. 1, it doesn’t happen,” Gilbert said. “To me songwriting is the purest from of expression, other than prayer. The best songs are the ones that are closest to the chest. I write songs about things I don’t even talk about.”

Gilbert was calling from Nashville, taking a break from his “The Devil Don’t Sleep” tour. The tour stops at Tampa’s MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre on Friday.

Even though he’s one of the biggest country stars in America right now, he doesn’t call Nashville home. He still lives in a tiny Georgia town called Maysville, about 8 miles from the house where he grew up, in nearby Jefferson, and even closer to his wife’s childhood home in Commerce.

“When we were in school those two schools had the most heated football rivalry in the country,” Brantley said. “It’s still that way, but not as much as it was back then when I was playing.”

Because of that rivalry, he said, he and his wife settled in a third town so they didn’t have to pick sides.

Gilbert was spending his limited vacation time in Nashville as a favor to his wife Amber.

“I brought her and her best friend here so they could see Trisha Yearwood’s cooking show,” he said. “That’s her favorite.”

The Gilberts are getting close to their second anniversary, and earlier this month they announced that they’re expecting their first child. But Amber has been Gilbert’s muse for years, inspiring such singles as “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” and “More Than Miles.” (Gilbert was engaged to country star/actor Jana Kramer in between the release of those songs and his engagement to his wife.)

The show he has planned for Tampa includes some of his older songs and some brand new stuff (he has a new single coming out soon, but he’s not supposed to divulge what it is) and maybe some surprises. Several of his songs have been hits for other singers — Jason Aldean charted with “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” and “More Than Miles” — so the Tampa crowd may hear songs it doesn’t even know are Gilbert’s.

“We do a little bit of everything,” he said. “We always decide before the tour starts what songs we’re going to do. We may sit down after a while and change things a little, but for right now it’s set in stone. It will be high energy. It’s mayhem and chaos, but in a controlled way.”

Opening for Gilbert on the upcoming leg of the tour are a couple of his buddies, Tyler Farr and Luke Combs. Farr has released two albums that made it to the No. 2 spot on the country charts, “Redneck Crazy” and “Suffer in Peace.” Combs is best known for his hit single “Hurricane.”

Details: 7 p.m. June 2, MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, 4802 U.S. 301, Tampa. $18.50-$43.50. 813-740-2446, livenation.com.

This story was originally published May 31, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Brantley Gilbert brings his ‘The Devil Don’t Sleep’ tour to Tampa."