On This Day in 2006, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Wrapped Their Joint Soul2Soul II Tour in Las Vegas

On this day in 2006, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill wrapped their record-breaking Soul2Soul II Tour after a three-day run at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Raking in nearly $100 million, it became the highest-grossing country tour in history and one of the biggest tours in the world.

McGraw and Hill launched their first joint tour, the Soul2Soul Tour, in 2000. It featured a set by each artist followed by a handful of duets. The tour showcased the couple’s happy marriage as well as their differing musical styles. All told ticket sales netted them almost $50 million. Six years later, they launched the Soul2Soul II Tour which saw them changing the format and raking in even more money.

[RELATED: 5 Passionate Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Duets]

During the sequel tour, Hill performed first followed by McGraw. This time around, though, they didn’t wait until the end of the show to deliver duets. They spread their joint performances throughout the concerts. The tour capitalized on their popularity as country music’s new power couple as well as their individual popularity as performers.

When the tour started, Hill was riding the success of three major hit albums. Breathe (1999), Cry (2002), and Fireflies (2005) topped both the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart and the publication’s Top Country Albums chart. McGraw was also on a hot streak. He was coming off the success of Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors which was No. 2 on both charts. His 2004 album Live Like You Were Dying, topped both charts. It was also the beginning of a string of No. 1 country albums.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Discuss the Soul2Soul II Tour

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill appeared on Larry King Live to discuss the Soul2Soul II Tour in 2006. During the conversation, they discussed performing together and why they waited so long between joint tours.

“It has been six years, six years since Faith has been on the road at all,” McGraw said. “You know, it’s been a long process. We’ve thought about it and we wanted to do it just right. We wanted to have the right staging. We wanted to really plan out exactly what we wanted to do,” he added. However, planning wasn’t the only reason they waited so long to get back on the road together.

“We had kids in the meantime, too, growing up and starting school. So, it was just a matter of everything coming together and getting the right ideas the way we want,” he explained.

While talking about performing together, Hill pointed out that they were reaching a milestone. It had been six years since their last joint tour, sure. It was also ten years since they’d first performed together during McGraw’s 1996 Spontaneous Combustion tour.

“It’s always been magic from the first time that we performed together on stage, which was Spontaneous Combustion,” she said. “1996, a long time ago,” noted McGraw.

Hill added that the tour was “appropriately named,” saying, “We fell in love on that tour and sang together night after night and it was just beautiful.”

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