Grateful Dead Milestone Falls to George Strait

A musical milestone that stood for nearly five decades has just fallen: Country star George Strait drew 110,905 to a concert in Texas over the weekend, the largest ticketed show in US history, reports CNN. The previous record was held by the Grateful Dead, who played in front of 107,000 paying fans in New Jersey in 1977. Straight played at Kyle Field at Texas A&M in College Station.

"We got some Aggies out there? Oh yeah!" the 72-year-old Texas native told the crowd, per Billboard. The venue has never sold that many tickets even for a football game. NPR notes that bigger US crowds have attended concerts before—including a 1986 performance by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra that drew 800,000 to Central Park—but they were not ticketed shows. The biggest concert anywhere is thought to be a Rod Stewart show in 1994 at Brazil's Copacabana Beach, which drew an estimated 3.5 million people, per American Songwriter. (More country music stories.)