UGLY KID JOE Announces Summer 2026 U.S. Tour

UGLY KID JOE will embark on a U.S. tour this summer. Support on the trek will come from WHEATUS and PLATINUM MOON on select dates.

Tickets will go on sale this Friday, April 3.

UGLY KID JOE summer 2026 tour dates:

Aug. 20 - Bensalem, PA - Broken Goblet ^
Aug. 21 - New York, NY - Rocks Off Concert Cruise*
Aug. 22 - Derry, NH - Tupelo Music Hall*
Aug. 23 - Carteret, NJ - Carteret Performing Arts Center*
Aug. 25 - Pittsburgh, PA - Jergels*
Aug. 26 - Lakewood, OH - Mercury*
Aug. 27 - Flint, MI - Machine Shop*
Aug. 28 - Cadillac, MI - Venue Event Center*
Aug. 29 - Joliet, IL - The Forge*
Aug. 30 - Green Bay, WI - Epic Event Center*
Sep. 01 - Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line ^
Sep. 02 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown^
Sep. 03 - Des Moines, IA - Wooly's^
Sep. 05 - Dallas, TX - Am/Fm^
Sep. 06 - Pryor, OK - Rocklahoma (Festival - Ukj Only)
Sep. 08 - Nashville, TN - Basement East^
Sep. 10 - Leesburg, VA - Tally Ho Theater*
Sep. 11 - Waynesboro, VA - The Foundry*
Sep. 12 - Harrisburg, PA - Capitol City Music Hall*

* With WHEATUS and PLATINUM MOON
^ With PLATINUM MOON

UGLY KID JOE has spent the last few months, on and off, recording the follow-up to the "Rad Wings Of Destiny" album, which came out in October 2022. The upcoming LP will reportedly include a guest appearance by former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing.

In an October 2025 interview with Neil Jones of TotalRock, UGLY KID JOE guitarist Klaus Eichstadt stated about the band's next album: "I think it's pretty rad. It's some of our best stuff. It's definitely got some all-out heavy metal songs on it and everything in between — rock or mellow, everything. But it's definitely a more heavy metal record than 'Rad Wings'. And so that's exciting, obviously. I like to consider us a heavy metal band above anything else. I mean, we're rock band, but if you're gonna lump us into a genre, I'd say heavy metal. I always have to tell people, 'Hard rock, heavy metal,' and I'm, like, 'Ah. it's heavy metal. We do dive bombs with the guitar. We're heavy metal, dammit.'"

Asked if making an album "piecemeal" between tours allows for "more complexity or more variety" on the record or if it's always better to "bash it out from start to finish" over the course of several weeks, if possible, Klaus said: "Obviously we've done it both ways. Back in the old days, we would really, for however many months, just write and then go right in the studio, and I think it's great except… Both ways work great. What I do like about doing it in bits and pieces is you can step away from everything, let's say for a couple months, go on tour, and all of a sudden you're, like, 'Oh, yeah. That part is weird. This part's better. I'm gonna…' You can rewrite stuff, you have more of that kind of thing, and also you have maybe songs coming from different places instead of the same place. What I mean by that is, like, I would think that if you have this one month to write and you're in a certain environment, whether it be a secluded castle somewhere, like maybe LED ZEPPELIN would have done, or like us, like, 'Oh, Whit's [UGLY KID JOE vocalist Whitfield Crane] in Australia at some thing,' you have that vibe of that place. And I think if you have like four or five places during the creation of the record, you might have four or five different, I guess you could say elements, that are — I guess you could say that the antennas are in different places, so you're picking up different frequencies, which might create a different vibe for each song instead of all being the same. And again, there's nothing wrong with having an album that's like a concept album, like the whole thing's kind of one big thing — nothing wrong with that — but there's also kind of the beauty of having all songs come from different places. And with us, it's even different writers. I like writing alone, so I'll just be in my shed for however long working on, let's say, a song, and I get in my own little world, and it's nice not having any distractions, not even having anybody coming in and be, like, 'Oh, what about this part?' And then, when I'm finally done with it, now I can throw it to the guys and then they can tweak it. So sometimes when you're all in a room with too many cooks in the kitchen, and then next thing you know, you're, like, 'What happened to that song? It's not at all what I imagined. Now it sucks.'"

Asked if UGLY KID JOE works "as a democracy" during the songwriting process where it's "a case of the best ideas are the ones that make it on the record", Klaus said: "Oh, yeah. It's always the best ideas, and everybody throws in their songs. Let's just say Whit, myself and Dave [Fortman, UGLY KID JOE guitarist and producer], who are the main writers, we all each wrote about three songs, and if one of 'em doesn't make it, it doesn't make it. And if someone else has four and another guy has one, that's how it is. And for the most part, we don't care because we know that if it's a good song, it's great for the band. It doesn't matter who wrote it. [UGLY KID JOE's hit cover of Harry Chapin's] 'Cats In The Cradle', nobody wrote that — none of us — but it's great for the band. I love playing songs that other guys wrote. I'd rather learn a Dave Fortman riff than a — I don't know —a BEATLES riff. I mean, I'd rather be, like, 'Oh, it's one of ours.'"

"Rad Wings Of Destiny" saw UGLY KID JOE re-teaming producer Mark Dodson who was behind the desk for the band's debut album, "America's Least Wanted", which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2022.

UGLY KID JOE supported LIFE OF AGONY on the European leg of the "30 Years Of Ugly" tour in November 2025.

In the spring of 2023, UGLY KID JOE completed its first U.S. tour in 27 years.

After a 15-year hiatus, UGLY KID JOE reformed in 2012 and has toured extensively throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

The band released the EP "Stairway To Hell" in 2012 and the full-length "Uglier Than They Used Ta Be" in 2015.