MINNEAPOLIS — Rumors of Willie Nelson’s retirement following last year’s Farm Aid concert in Minneapolis are proving to be false, and there’s a new Twin Cities date as evidence.

The Texas music icon, who will turn 93 on April 29, has announced an Aug. 19 gig at the new Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee as part of his annual Outlaw Music Festival tour. Joining him on the Wednesday lineup in Minnesota will be his son Lukas Nelson, the Avett Brothers, fast-rising roots-music picker Sierra Hull and veteran sideman/producer Don Was and his Pan-Detroit Ensemble.

Tickets for all 11 of the newly announced Outlaw Music Fest dates go on sale March 27 through ticketmaster.com. Prices have not yet been revealed. Each show includes various VIP packages with special seating and tour merchandise.

Some of the other dates in Willie’s Outlaw outing — a late-summer tour he has been helming since 2016 — include an Aug. 21 stop at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in southeastern Wisconsin and a Aug. 25 show at Chicago’s Tinley Park, each with nearly the same lineup as in Shakopee. None of this year’s dates will feature frequent tour mate Bob Dylan, who’s swinging through his native Midwest on his own this week with shows in Rochester (March 24), Iowa City (March 25) and La Crosse (March 27).

The Outlaw Music Fest is a good example of the kind of outdoors-only tours the Twin Cities missed in previous years without a permanent amphitheater the size of the new 19,000-person venue being built near Canterbury Park. Previous years on the tour either skipped the Twin Cities or, in the case of 2023 and 2024, tasked music fans with driving over to Somerset Amphitheater in western Wisconsin.

As usual, the Outlaw tour will follow Willie’s annual sweat-farming Fourth of July Picnic in Texas, scheduled this year at the Germania Insurance Amphitheater in Austin with a lineup that includes Billy Strings, Wilco, Sheryl Crow and Margo Price.

Talking to the Minnesota Star Tribune ahead of last September’s triumphant Farm Aid marathon concert at Huntington Bank Stadium — where he didn’t flinch at performing past midnight — Nelson smoked out the retirement rumors.

“I haven’t given any thoughts to that,” he said. “As long as I can do what I’m doing, I’ll do it. I take really one day at a time.”

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