Jelly Roll rocked the stage on Friday night at the Stagecoach Festival.
The singer, 39, who appeared in a TV commercial for a good cause, took to the T-Mobile main stage in Indio, California, and wowed the crowd with his own spin on country music while making his Stagecoach debut .
The hitmaker was joined by several guests during his performance, including T-Pain, with whom he recorded a cover of the late Toby Keith’s Should’ve Been A Cowboy, which was released on Amazon Music the same day.
Jelly Roll wandered around the stage wearing a black short-sleeved button-down shirt over a black T-shirt with black pants and boots.
He pulled a peaked cap back over his dark hair and sported a neatly trimmed beard.
Jelly Roll, 39, took the stage in his debut at the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California, on Friday night.
T-Pain, 39, took the stage wearing a pink tracksuit with blue cutouts and a white T-shirt and sneakers.
Her dark hair was styled in braids and she wore white sunglasses under the bright stage lights.
In an interview with VarietyJelly Roll said it was delighted to honor Toby Keith, who died in February after a two-year battle with stomach cancer.
“Amazon came to us and talked to us about partnering on something interesting for Stagecoach and while I was brainstorming ideas I had been covering I Should Have Been a Cowboy for about a year on most of my shows, just nice.” to honor Toby since he was getting sick before he passed away,” he explained.
‘Then I really started to think, man, what better place to honor Toby than Stagecoach? Also, Toby Keith was one of the artists who from afar, although I would never have known it, encouraged me to make country music.’
The iHeart Radio Music Award winner said following Keith’s example “encouraged me and strengthened me.”
‘He was very individualistic and he carved his own path and did it his way, from pillar to post. “He never knew it, but he was a mentor to me, he just watched from afar,” he said.
As for adding T-Pain to the mix, the artist explained, “I love T-Pain and I love his work and I was thinking about who would be a perfect surprise guest for Stagecoach that no one would see coming.”
“I love forming odd couples, because I think I’m an odd couple myself,” he explained self-deprecatingly.
The Bartender artist had co-hosted with Keith at the 2009 CMT Awards and both men will donate proceeds from new single “I Shoulda Been a Cowboy” to the Toby Keith Foundation, which helps children with cancer.
“I just thought we’d do it for Toby and the cool thing was I called T-Pain with it and he didn’t hesitate.”
The hitmaker was joined by several guests during his performance, including T-Pain, with whom he recorded a cover of the late Toby Keith’s Should’ve Been A Cowboy, which was released on Amazon Music the same day.
“I love T-Pain and I love his work,” Jelly Roll told Variety, “and I was thinking about who would be a perfect surprise guest for Stagecoach that no one would see coming.”
The new song pays tribute to the late Toby Keith, who died in February after a two-year battle with stomach cancer (pictured in Nashville in September 2023).
Both Jelly Roll and T-Pain will donate proceeds from their cover of I Should Have Been a Cowboy to the Toby Keith Foundation, which helps children with cancer.
The CMT award winner explained why he has stepped away from social media. ‘It wasn’t just the harassment (because of his weight) that caused it. “It wasn’t just the toxicity of social media, but the addiction of it,” he said. “I was getting too busy to waste hours of my life scrolling,” he said.
The artist, who distanced himself from social media, explained his decision after his wife Bunnie XO claimed it was because he had been bullied for his weight.
“It wasn’t just harassment that caused it. “It wasn’t just the toxicity of social media, but its addiction,” she said. ‘I was getting too busy to waste hours of my life scrolling.
“I can honestly say that I have been away from social media for a few months now and I have never felt better or healthier mentally, I have never felt more clear-headed,” he said.
“I’ve never had less of an idea of what’s going on in the world, but I assure you I won’t be back before the election,” he quickly added: “It’s a bad joke.”
