Jelly Roll rocks the stage during his Stagecoach debut and invites T-Pain to perform Should’ve Been A Cowboy on the same day their single dropped
Jelly Roll rocked the stage at the Stagecoach Festival on Friday evening.
The 39-year-old singer, who appeared in a charity TV commercial, took to the T-Mobile Main Stage in Indio, California, and wowed the crowd with his own spin on country music as he made his Stagecoach debut.
The hitmaker was joined by several guests during his set, including T-Pain, with whom he recorded a version of the late Toby Keith’s Should’ve Been A Cowboy, which was released on Amazon Music the same day.
Jelly Roll roamed the stage wearing a black short sleeve button-down over a black T-shirt with black pants and boots.
He placed a beak cap backwards over his dark hair, and he sported a neatly trimmed beard.
Jelly Roll, 39, rocked the stage Friday night at his Stagecoach Festival debut in Indio, California
T-Pain, 39, took the stage in a pink tracksuit with blue cutouts and a white T-shirt and sneakers.
His dark hair was styled in braids and he wore white sunglasses under the bright stage lights.
In an interview with VarietyJelly Roll said he was thrilled to honor Toby Keith, who died in February after a two-year battle with stomach cancer.
“Amazon just came to us and talked to us about collaborating on something cool for Stagecoach and as I was going through the ideas, I’d been doing Should’ve Been A Cowboy at most of my shows for about a year now, just kind of honoring Toby when he got sick before he passed away,” he explained.
“That’s when it really hit me, man, what better place to honor Toby than Stagecoach? Plus, Toby Keith was one of the artists who, even though he never knew it, encouraged me from afar to start making country music.”
The iHeart Radio Music Award winner said following Keith’s example has “encouraged me and given me strength.”
‘He was very individualistic and charted his own path, in his own way, from pillar to post. “He never knew it, but he was a mentor to me and just watching from a distance,” 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 like putting together odd pairs because I think I’m an odd pairing in my own right,” he explained self-deprecatingly.
The Bartender artist co-hosted with Keith at the 2009 CMT Awards and both men are donating proceeds from the new Should’ve Been a Cowboy single to the Toby Keith Foundation, which helps children with cancer.
“I just thought we were doing 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 set, including T-Pain, with whom he recorded a version 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 honors the late Toby Keith who died in February after a two-year battle with stomach cancer (photo Nashville in September 2023)
Both Jelly Roll and T-Pain donate proceeds from their version of Should’ve Been A Cowboy to the Toby Keith Foundation, which helps children with cancer
The CMT Award winner explained why he retired from social media. ‘It wasn’t just bullying (about his weight) that was the cause. It was not just the toxicity of social media, but also its addiction,” he said. “I was too busy to waste hours of my life scrolling,” he said.
The artist who has quit social media explained his decision following his wife Bunnie XO’s claim that it was due to being bullied because of his weight.
‘It wasn’t just bullying that did this. It was not just the toxicity of social media, but also its addiction,” he said. ‘I was too busy to waste hours of my life scrolling.
“I can honestly say that I have been off social media for a few months now and I have never felt better or healthier mentally – never been clearer in my mind,” he claimed.
“I’ve never had much of an idea of what was going on in the world either, but I tell you what, I’m definitely not coming back before the election,” quickly adding, “Bad joke.”