Fort Worth
Billy Bob’s Texas has a new sound and feel.
General manger Marty Travis announced at a Tuesday press conference that the “world’s largest honky-tonk” recently upgraded its sound and lighting systems. This is the club’s latest renovation to its showroom after removing poles to improve sight lines in 2022 and 2024.
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Billy’s Bob has doubled its speaker output around the venue and have hung new LED lights atop the main stage.
These upgrades will not only enhance the experience for concert-goers, but for the artists and bands performing at the club as well, Travis said. He also teased that Billy Bob’s will have more news to share on other new upgrades to the club soon.
“In my 31 years of being here, our sound and lights and quality of shows we’re putting in just keeps getting better and better,” Travis said. “We’re still a honky-tonk, we’re just turning into high-tech rednecks now.”
Billy Bob’s Texas general manager Marty Travis briefs media members on the new sound and lighting upgrades at the club on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. Brayden Garcia bgarcia@star-telegram.com Billy Bob’s upgrades lights and sounds
Billy Bob’s production manager John Zaskoda said it was a multi-month process for the upgrades.
It took around six months of planning, but only a few days for Zaskoda and his crew to execute those plans in late August. They came in on a Sunday, worked till that Thursday and had their first show using the system on that Friday when the club welcomed Charley Crockett to the stage on Aug. 28.
Zaskoda credits his team for their hard work and said they were inspired to get these changes made due to the venue’s iconic status.
“I think it caused everybody really to take it serious and know that this problem you’ve been facing for 45 years is finally being solved,” he said.
The new sound system at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. Brayden Garcia bgarcia@star-telegram.com
By adding more speakers, Zaskoda said it gave the production team a way to increase the sound coverage and not the volume.
Another thing they did is move the speakers sitting on the stage into a suspended position. When the speakers are flat on the stage like they were, Zaskoda said sound shoots out like laser beam in one direction. Now, the speakers are suspended in the air and each one is aimed in a way to beam sound all over the room.
As for the lighting, Zaskoda said they added three trusses with lighting fixtures.
Before, the club had been running what he calls “semi-pro stuff” that had been accumulated over the years. Now, the lighting in Billy Bob’s is like what someone would see at a larger concert venue like Dickies Arena.
From a technical standpoint, Zaskoda says Billy Bob’s is a completely new venue.
“Most people just think, ‘Oh, you just washed the car’,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Yes, from the outside it looks that way.’ But we really went under the hood pretty deep.”
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Brayden Garcia is the entertainment reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he mainly writes about how the film and TV industry impacts North Texas, from Taylor Sheridan shows to the Fort Worth Film Commission and everything in between.