Richard "Wookie" Whitley Connects to Fans on Cody Johnson's 2026 Tour with CHAUVET Professional

	"Being able to 'bend light' is really catching on with the tour and the crowd," says Whitley.

There is one fixture that Richard "Wookie" Whitley wished he had on his rig, but didn't, for CMA Male Vocalist of the Year, Cody Johnson's 25-city arena tour, which jump started in early February at the Legacy Arena. "If they made a PXL Curve 6, I could have put them in a lot of various places!" Whitley exclaims.

There is no PXL Curve 6, but Whitley did make use of the 20 CHAUVET Professional PXL Curve 12 battens that are in his actual Bandit Lites supplied tour rig. He's calling on them to lend more dynamic movement to his show and enhance the strong crowd connection his client thrives on.

"Really, it's been a lot of fun having them on our show," he says of the motorized pixel mappable fixtures, each with 12 independent heads. "They are located on the downstage edge and on our custom thrust edge from the downstage right corner to the downstage left corner. They've really helped create some depth and cool moments and they give me the option to use them as a footlight as well.

"Being able to 'bend light' is really catching on with the tour and the crowd," continues Whitley. "I have also noticed that from the perspectives of fans at various seats in the arena, they kind of give you a whole different view of the show. If they made a PXL Curve 6, I would have used them too!"

Joining the COLORado PXL fixtures on Whitley's rig were 80 STRIKE Array 2 units, which flanked the massive center-stage video screen and ran along the 31' by 50' wide upstage trim. "On this year's tour we went a bit lower than usual with the trim so we could cut a row off the video wall and have a true 16:9 ratio," explains Whitley. "Also, our torms vary in length from 9' high and 20' long to 14' high and 15' long, to 19' and 10' long.

"Adding the STRIKE Array 2 to this year's rig helped in quite a few ways," he continues. "I used the fixtures to create some nice patterns and effects, and to light the audience seated on the hard stage left or right side. We're committed to maintaining a strong visual connection to all fans in the crowd. Having 80 STRIKE Array fixtures allowed us to do this job perfectly."

Whitley worked closely with his team (crew chief Eli Ahlers; techs Dan Morgan, Jessie Hochinyavong, and Jacob Cottrell; account rep Allen Deneau; head project manager Andrew Ellis; and head rigger Devin Halsey), to keep the visuals on stage fresh and vibrant from the opening number to the encore. or example, at times he turned off the STRIKE Array 2 fixtures, while at others he blasted away with strobes. He also varied color palettes.

Another change in the tour this year was the modification in Cody Johnson's well-known geometric logo. "After a few meetings last year, we decided we really wanted to try and replicate the logo but without any crazy rigging, automation, or custom truss," says Whitley. "We also changed up our riser setup and thrust, both end with a center point just like the logo. So, it only made sense to invert the aerial rig that we had last year, connect everything with no gaps between truss runs, and then added the torms on the side of the video wall to come down to a point. The Strike Array 2 and PXL Curves really helped line it out."