Stagecoach 2025: Hall of Fame Journalist, Bruce Fessier’s, Top 15 Performances

Stagecoach 2025 traversed the musical universe last weekend, with producer Stacy Vee at the Goldenvoice helm boldly taking the country music festival where it had never gone before.

Instead of encountering stars, the Stagecoach performers encountered different populations of people who knew not just their sounds, but the words to their eclectic songs.

Vee has made her course clear since taking the Stagecoach reins from Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett. Tollett introduced modern country fans to their country roots as the festival rolled out in the late 2000s, showcasing acts like George Jones and Earl Scruggs while also introducing them to evolutionary artists, like 2008 third-line vocalist Taylor Swift.

Vee is exploring country’s offshoots as Goldenvoice executive vice president of festival talent, showcasing classic rock, rap, alt rock, pop, EDM, and, yes, modern country.

All of those flavors show up in the following 15 best things we saw at Stagecoach 2025:

1. Jelly Roll, Saturday night, Mane Stage. This once drug-addicted, incarcerated roots country singer came to Stagecoach on the heels of winning the Pollstar Tour of the Year award. But he was following Sturgill Simpson, arguably the best musical bandleader at the festival. So Jelly brought his A-game and some trump cards. He proved worthy of his accolades on his second full song, the powerful “Liar.” Then he brought out a string of guests and topped them all with his own confessional, “I Am Not OK.” He is the ultimate redemption story, but he showed he can be true to his roots and a man of God when he introduced rapper Wiz Khalifa and took a hit of his weed while dueting on Khalifa’s “Young, Wild & Free” and “Black and Yellow.” He again transcended that moment with his own, raw “Need A Favor.” Then he brought out another duet partner, Christian vocalist Brandon Lake for Lake’s “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” before ending with his magnum opus, “Save Me,” with Lana Del Rey. It was truly worthy of the final fireworks.

2. Mumford & Sons, Friday evening, Palomino. This last-minute addition, billed as “Surprise” on the poster, was a pleasant surprise with its dynamic, no-frills performance. The English folk-rockers had the packed crowd in their palms from the opening number, but the energy elevated to “11” with their next hit song, “Little Lion Man.” The needle rarely wavered from that level after that and lead singer-guitarist Marcus Mumford revealed why while taking a turn on drums. He’s a percussive musician who propels other band members to drive their audience to a frenzy. Their finale, “I Will Wait,” about a man who kneels before a loved one, who’s possibly ailing, and promises, “I will wait, I will wait for you,” was exalting and tear-evoking.

3. Sturgill Simpson, Saturday night, Mane. Hands down the most musical perfect set of the weekend. Simpson, the first artist to play Coachella and Stagecoach in one year after the more symbolic appearance of Willie Nelson in 2007, showed he can write great lyrics on the second song of the night, singing “Turtles All the Way Down” about how “marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, DMT/They all changed the way I see.” But, with a tight traveling band featuring long-time second lead guitarist Laur Joamets, his material connected like one long jam with little or no excess. He didn’t play my favorite Simpson song, the horn-driven “Call to Arms.” But, like a good jazz or Grateful Dead show, you didn’t mind because the music was so rewarding. He ended with a ferocious “Best Clockmaker On Mars” from 2019 and I was fully satisfied.

4. Sammy Hagar, Sunday evening, Palomino. Hagar, 77 of Fontana with family ties to the Coachella Valley, assembled a super group for this last chapter of his performing life and earned the best return imaginable on his investment. His band includes Kenny Aronoff, named the best drummer of the past decade by Modern Drummer; Joe Satriani, one of a handful of guitarists who can match Eddie Van Halen’s skills, and his old Van Halen bassist and backing vocalist, Michael Anthony.  After the immense volume of the band was eclipsed by the crowd’s ear-shattering roar in the sound-trapped tent, Hagar exclaimed, “I’m so happy I’m going to fucking explode.”

Her played a handful of Van Halen songs, including “Panama,” which originally featured his vocal predecessor, David Lee Roth, and “Poundcake” from Van Halen’s only Grammy Award-winning album. But the historical videos accompanying the songs never showed Eddie or Alex Van Halen, obviously due to contractual restrictions. The evening’s best songs were Hagar’s “Mas Tequila” and “I Can’t Drive 55,” and “Why Can’t This Be Love,” a keyboard-driven song that Hagar helped write to launch the Van Hagar era. It was an amazing warmup for the band’s residency starting Wednesday at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas.

5. Luke Combs, Sunday night, Mane. Combs, a recurring Stagecoach headliner, rambled too much for my taste. I realize that’s part of being a modern country singer – connecting with the crowd by showing your vulnerability. But he connected with his crowd musically, getting them to sing along to his second song, the autobiographical “When It Rains It Pours.” He has some great original songs, most notably “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” but he convinced me of his interpretive talent when he brought up the brothers from Good Charlotte to join him on their pop-punk hit, “The Anthem.” Combs turned it into a heartfelt country song about not wanting to be like the cool kids in high school who made him feel uncomfortable. His finale made history by giving the tarnished king of modern country, Garth Brooks, a chance to do a final duet of “Friends In Low Places.” We all know Brooks has been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior with his hairstylist, which Brooks has denied. So this was an ideal spot for Brooks and Combs to sing, “Yeah, I’m not big on social graces/ Think I’ll slip on down to the oasis.”

6. Zach Bryan, Friday night, Mane. Zach is another brilliant songwriter who needs to tighten up his production to be a great live performer. His-30 song set was about 10 songs too long for my taste. His brilliant “Something in the Orange,” about a man who knows “you’re never coming home,” would have been ideal for an encore following his “American Nights” anthem. But give him props for making his huge crowd want more of the songs many knew by heart.

7. Nelly, Saturday evening, Palomino. This rap artist is celebrating the 25^th anniversary of his debut LP and title song, “Country Grammar (Hot Shit),” which has nothing to do with country. But Nelly drew the largest crowd of anyone I saw in the Palomino tent – with people backed up onto The Terrace, which is like people overflowing from Tomorrow to Adventure Land at Disneyland. And thousands of these fans knew all the words to Nelly’s songs, too. He spent much of his first 20 minutes asking to hear from people who had been with him “since day one.” Then he lit into “Ride Wit Me” from “Country Grammar” and suddenly everyone stopped talking and started chanting the chorus, “Hey, must be the money.” After that, it was a party. He performed “Die A Happy Man” by 2022 Stagecoach headliner Thomas Rhett and called it “one of my favorite records in any genre of music.” He brought out Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child for a duet of their “Dilemma” and drew a huge cheer. He brought out his “Country Grammar” producer, Jay E, for the title song, name-checking Donald Trump 16 years before anyone could have imagined he’d be president or that Nelly would one day be rapping at Stagecoach.

8. Goo Goo Dolls, Sunday evening Palomino. This is another band that doesn’t belong at a traditional country festival. They’re an alternative rock band. But, once again, they attracted an overflow crowd of mostly millennials singing along to their hits with barely a prompt from lead singer-guitarist John Rzeznik. The boisterous reaction to the second song, the poignant 1998 hit, “Slide,” astounded Rzeznik (it’s about a guy’s reaction to a woman who’s had an abortion). During “Name,” “our first quote-unquote hit,” Rzeznik toyed with the fans, teasing before the bridge, “This is where you crazy.” The highlight was the finale, “Iris.” Rzeznik milked it, reprising the chorus after the set was seemingly over. But the fans were happy to be manipulated.

9. Backstreet Boys, late night Sunday, Palomino. A boy band at Stagecoach? Well, in all fairness they’re all 45 or over now, so they’re really the Backstreet Midlife Boys. But they engaged a large crowd from their perfect opening number, “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and fed the enthusiasm with slick production designs and familiar, tight harmony hits — until their fifth song. Then they performed “God, Your Mama, and Me” without the country artists they recorded it with, Florida Georgia Line. They bounced back, but, when Luke Combs joined them for their penultimate number, “I Want It That Way,” I was trying to get out of the ADA parking lot.

10. Lana Del Rey, Friday night, Palomino. This 2024 Coachella headliner made no pretensions about being a Stagecoach artist. She didn’t even sing her dreamy hits, “West Coast” and “Pretty When You Cry.” But she built a cool set, right out of the Louisiana Bayou, and played several genre-bending new songs that could only be called “Lana Del Rey music.” I also loved her version of the Palm Springs drag anthem (and Tammy Wynette standard), “Stand By Your Man.” The personable California native thanked the audience for listening to her new songs before going into shortened versions of hits like “Ride,” “Norman Fucking Rockwell” and “Arcadia.” I was pleasantly surprised by her endearing arrangement of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” with harmony by the Secret Sisters and a second guest appearance by George Birge. It was a warm, appropriate way to end her set.

11. Tommy James & the Shondells. Saturday afternoon, Palomino. Stagecoach has featured a ’60s artist (from the Zombies to the Beach Boys) since Vee took over. This year, it was the influential Shondells. They started late and had to do an abbreviated set after not getting a sound check (as James told the crowd). But we got to see how the band influenced new wave music with their finale, “Mony Mony.” It was fun watching young people dance and somehow sing along to 50 to 60-year-old songs like “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Hanky Panky.” But, to be honest, if you know the line, “My baby does the hanky panky,” you know most of the latter song.

12. Crystal Gayle, Saturday afternoon, Palomino. Gayle, 74 is one of the legends of old country – the younger sister of fellow coal miner’s daughter, Loretta Lynn, and one of the forerunners of country pop with her 1977 crossover hit, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.” She performed a lovely version of that ballad as the penultimate song of her brief 30-minute set, but I was happy to get a taste of that old-timey country music with her finale, a popularized version of “Rocky Top,” the bluegrass classic by the Osborne Brothers (as opposed to the Brothers Osborne, who I didn’t get to see Friday night on the Mane Stage).

13. Bacon Brothers, Sunday afternoon, Palomino. I’ve followed this band featuring film star Kevin Bacon on vocals, guitar, harmonica and tambourine, and I’ve said they would have been rock stars if they had recorded and toured in 1974 (when Kevin would have been 16 and his music professor brother, Michael, would have been 25). They performed fun versions of songs like “Old Bronco” and “Tattoo” that sadly didn’t engage the decent-sized crowd – largely because their sound design didn’t have enough volume. But they finished with a flourish when Kevin sang the title song from his hit film, “Footloose,” and offered a little fancy footwork.

14. Ashley McBryde, Saturday evening, Mane Stage (by JTV Editor, Lisa Lynn Morgan) This may be Bruce’s No. 14 but it’s my No. 1, tied with the rain kissed “Save Me” duet between Jelly Roll and Lana Del Rey.

Ashley McBryde lit up the Mane Stage at Stagecoach 2025 like a match struck in a moonless desert. Simply donned in denim and dust, McBryde brought a storm of soul, swagger, and small-town storytelling to the largest crowd her band had ever faced. But you’d never know it. From the moment she opened with a haunting rendition of “Devil Woman,” it was clear: McBryde wasn’t here to impress—she was here to connect.

Raised in Saddle, Arkansas, in a household of Bibles and bluegrass, McBryde wrote her first song at 12, picked up the family guitar, and never looked back. After a detour through college marching bands and Memphis dive bars, she landed in Nashville, gigging in biker joints and open mics in between Guitar Center work shifts. Her breakthrough came with 2016’s Jalopies & Expensive Guitars—and a pivotal nod from Eric Church. That led to a major-label deal and the release of A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega, a sleeper hit that introduced the world to a woman unafraid to sing it messy and true.

At Stagecoach, she delivered fan favorites like “One Night Standards,” “Rattlesnake Preacher,” and “The Devil I Know” with a voice like a velvet freight train. She brought down the house—literally and figuratively—with the mischievous “Brenda Put Your Bra On,” sporting an oversized red bra like a badge of rebel honor. A tender cover of “The Boys of Summer” swept through the night like desert wind—nostalgic and raw, with a thousand background singers joining in.

A Grammy winner, Grand Ole Opry member (invited by Garth Brooks, no less), and master of the long road, Ashley McBryde proved at Stagecoach that authenticity isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a birthright.

15. Paris Hilton, Friday evening, Diplo’s Honkytonk. It was amazing how popular this air-conditioned dance club was throughout the weekend – even when the last thing you wanted was air-conditioning. On Saturday, it was a refuge from the wind that played havoc with the sound at Shaboozey’s evening set. But Hilton provided the kind of fun DJ set you’d expect from Paris. She started with an EDM version of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and set the theme of her program with Cyndi Lauper’s “Girl’s Just Wanna Have Fun.” It’s too bad so many people, including those with VIP passes, couldn’t get into the Honkytonk because of the long lines. But kudos to Goldenvoice for giving priority to people with ADA wristbands. It is exhausting trudging around the huge polo fields on crutches or a cane. But Goldenvoice, and so many of the nice festivalgoers, made us feel valued, and that was a humane gift at Stagecoach.

Bruce Fessier was the first inductee of the Coachella Valley Media Hall of Fame and is a journalist who has covered every Coachella. Contact him at jbfess@gmail.com and follow him at facebook.com/bruce.fessier and instagram.com/bfessier/