Dallas Rock Legend Chris Holt Is Living Every Star's Dream

There’s living the dream, and then there’s Chris Holt’s life. The longtime Dallas singer/songwriter is a walking music documentary, splitting time as a solo artist and as a touring musician for some of his idols, including Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and, most recently, the Eagles.

Between touring and session gigs, he’s finally found the time to complete a new solo record, Across The Milky Way, due out May 9. In 2017, he first began work on a follow-up to his last record, 2016’s Stargazer. But after a good chunk was completed, he accidentally deleted all of his progress.

“It was just a blunder,” Holt says. “The whole drive got erased, I didn’t have a backup. I was so deflated that I just couldn’t bring myself to start over from scratch.”

For nearly a decade since, Holt’s time has been filled with touring and session work, especially with the Bastards of Soul and Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs.

“About this time last year, I had five weeks off between tour dates and recording,” he says. “I was like, ‘fuck it, I’m gonna use this time to make my own record.’ I picked a dozen songs that fit together.”

The resulting 12-song LP plays like the summation of all the music that’s kept Holt busy over these years. There’s an equal emphasis on melody and harmony.

The album’s first song, “Snap Out,” is a swelling ballad that compartmentalizes Holt’s sadness about the mounting loss of peers.

“I had a bunch of friends that passed away in a short period of time,” he says of the song. “There was a lot of melancholy there, and I did find myself kind of bogged down at one point.”

It’s followed by “Magic Feeling,” a song that Holt wrote in just five minutes.

“That really was the impetus for the record,” Holt says. “The whole idea was, 'how can I get back to this place of wanting to do my own thing again and feel inspired?'”

Holt tracked and recorded all the instruments himself at his home studio.

“It’s all real instruments,” he says. “It’s not drum loops, it’s me playing drums. I always do that on solo records. Anytime you’re doing a band record, there’s compromise involved. So whenever I do a solo record, I’m just going to do what I want.”

Within an echo chamber of sorts, Holt had to be conscious of not going too elaborate.

“I don’t want to say it’s overproduced, but I did indulge,” Holt says with a laugh. “There’s lots of harmony singing, there’s lots of layers. For all of the kitchen sink production, every part does have a purpose.”

Some of the drums were re-recorded at Salim Nourallah’s Pleasantry Lane studio, with John Dufilho engineering and mastering the final mixes. The songs will be played live for the first time on May 16 at the Kessler, in a one-night-only experience with an eight-piece band bringing his songs to life. Tickets are still available here.

“I get nervous anytime I have to be the focal point,” Holt says. “It’s not fun being the boss, everything falls on your shoulders. You have to be the one who deals with advertising, you’re the one who has to deal with the club, you’re the one who has to deal with all the money.”

“I’ve just settled into this career being a side man,” Holt continues. “It’s so much less stressful to just do your job, play guitar, play piano, play whatever I’m hired to do. And I like that, it eliminates a lot of stress, and you can just get back to enjoying it.”

Being a sideman in the Bastards of Soul is one thing, but sharing the stage with the Eagles is another.

He first connected with frontman Don Henley during the recording process for Henley’s 2015 solo record, Cass County. Holt contributed some guitar and eventually toured the album with Henley. The two remained working together for the next decade.

Last June, the Eagles announced a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Henley returned as the sole original member, alongside Timothy B. Schmit and Joe Walsh, both of whom joined the band in the ‘70s. They were flanked by longtime touring guitarist Steuart Smith, who joined the band in the early 2000s and has remained for each subsequent reunion.

In January, Smith announced his retirement from touring due to Parkinson’s disease, after completing a run of shows at the venue in fall 2024. When additional dates were added for early 2025, Holt replaced Smith for the additional dates.

It was the dream gig for Holt or anyone who’s grown up on classic rock. He stepped in for 16 dates this spring and is set for a final round of 16 dates later this fall.

“They flew me in to see the show and to understand what was going on in the room,” Holt says. “Once I had seen all the content from the audience's perspective, I knew that I needed to focus and not try to look around. There are times during the show where Joe is taking a long solo and I’m just playing chords where I can kind of look around the room and go, ‘wow.’”

“There’s this whole swirling thunderstorm going on over your head,” he continues. “I’ve played arenas and stuff before, so I’ve gotten acclimated to the idea of playing a big venue, but nothing prepares you for that. The Sphere is just insane. It’s impossible to describe what that sensation is like.”

Each night in Las Vegas, Holt kicks off the show with the opening notes of “Hotel California,” sending a new audience of thousands into a frenzy.

“Walking around the drum riser and to my guitar station, you got about 10 seconds to take a breath and then go,” he says. “I’m the one starting the whole show, every night. That’s a rush of adrenaline and anxiety. As soon as we finish the song, if I nail it, then I’m just as happy as can be, like thank God that’s over.”

Holt calls this opportunity the “top of the mountain” for him, as it would be for nearly anyone who’s ever picked up a guitar.

“When I was in my bedroom as a kid,” he says. “That’s the stuff I learned how to play guitar on. Getting to somehow meet those guys and then getting to play music with them is something I never dreamed would be possible.”