Longtime fans of Americana outfit the Drive-By Truckers got the surprise of their lives when Jason Isbell joined his former bandmates onstage in Nashville on Thursday night (Jan. 26). Isbell went back to his roots when he took to the Ryman Auditorium stage with DBT for a one-time performance of "Heathens," a song off the band's 2003 album Decoration Day.

Isbell has become an immensely successful solo artist since he released his first solo album, Sirens of the Ditch, in 2007. The artist has released five records, won six Americana Music Awards and taken home two Grammys during his solo career -- but before that, Isbell was a member of the alt-country group the Drive-By Truckers. Isbell served as the band's guitar player from 2001 to 2007, and on Thursday night, the artist played his old role perfectly, providing stellar backup vocals and guitar riffs for DBT's frontman, Patterson Hood.

Throughout the performance, both Isbell and Hood can be seen grinning with mutual admiration for one another, and while Isbell stuck to stage right, making sure Hood kept the spotlight, the lead singer left his own microphone to stand by Isbell many times throughout the song. At the song's end, and amidst raucous applause from the audience, Isbell hugged every member of his former band before gracefully exiting the stage.

The Drive-By Truckers' Nashville show kicked off their Darkened Flags Winter Tour, in support of their 2016 album, American Band. Released just a few weeks before the 2016 presidential election, DBT's 11th studio album came at American politics head on with fiery songs, such as the album's first single, "Surrender Under Protest."

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