Gavin Rossdale brought his band Bush to Stagecoach on Saturday — one of several groups at the festival this weekend with indelible rock hits from the 1990s. The 60-year-old, who recently premiered a television cooking show, also put in an appearance alongside Billy Bob Thornton, Wynonna Judd and Gavin Adcock at the fever dream that is Guy Fieri’s Smokehouse. I caught up with him between the two engagements.
This has gotta be your first Stagecoach. It is. I was waiting till I got an invite. I didn’t want to just get a ticket — I wanted to be invited.
You just did a cooking demonstration with Guy Fieri. How’d that go? Fantastic — really good fun. We had four people doing different dishes. He’s a great, great man — I love him.
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You’ve become a TV chef yourself. What’s the TV-chef-meets-TV-chef vibe? I felt a kinship. I only had to tell him — we were talking about making the food — I said to him we could cook some secreto pork. That’s the secret, perfect part of the pork that people don’t know enough about. He was so impressed after that he left me alone to just do what I want.
Guy Fieri didn’t know about it, and neither did I. Oh no, he did.
Clarification: I didn’t know about it.You were there with Gavin Adcock, which means that there were two Gavins. It was a first for me.
I know that Paramount is here at Stagecoach. Are you interested in pitching an odd-couple comedy with you and Gavin Adcock? He’s a country guy, you’re a rock guy — I think we can make this happen. He made a big steak sandwich, and I made a sort of a deep-fried chicken with rice and Japanese things. So I feel that we’re opposing sides and we could combine and make a really great balanced meal.
We’ll pitch this later tonight. How did Bush end up on a country music festival? That is such a good question — you should’ve led with that. And I don’t have any answer for it. It’s like one of those things where I’m just excited to be here and I don’t want to screw it up.
What would screwing it up look like? Choosing the wrong song.
The deepest cut. A D-side. Nobody wants it. But it’s so hard to know what everyone knows. I was trying to do the set list, but I was like, Who is everyone here? Is it real cowboys? Is it Palm Springs cowboys? Is it California cowboys? What is it?
Gavin Rossdale and drummer Nik Hughes perform with Bush on Saturday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Bush is not the only rock band at Stagecoach. The Wallflowers are here, Third Eye Blind is here. You have any beef with these other rock bands? Not on the culinary stage, because it was all chicken. But no, no — I don’t have beef with anyone. Life is too long for beefs.
If you were to play a country song, what would it be? Zach Bryan’s catalog is sensational. They’re beautiful songs, and I feel that if I spent a good amount of time, I could do a faithful version à la Bush.
So Stagecoach 2029: Gavin Rossdale sings the Zach Bryan catalog. Well, not the whole thing.
We went back for a second day of Stagecoach and spent most of the day holding on to our hats. Before strong winds resulted in the short-lived nighttime postponement and evacuation of the festival, Day 2 had plenty of gusto that carried us through the afternoon and evening, including sets from Bush and Teddy Swims along with some high-octane cooking with Guy Fieri. When crowds were called back after the wind-related fiasco that pushed everything back for headliner Lainey Wilson and caused Journey and Riley Green to cancel their performances, fans who returned still got to witness Wilson triumph over the elements and get down and dirty with Pitbull at Diplo’s Honky Tonk. Luckily the unexpected havoc didn’t blow away all the good vibes. Here are the best, worst and windiest from Day 2.
Guy Fieri features his latest smokehouse dish during the Stagecoach Country Music Festival.
(Evan Schaben / For The Times)
Food lessons from the Guy Fieri fever dream
Stagecoach is known for strange bedfellows (see: Emo Nite with Ashlee Simpson Friday) but Guy Fieri with Wynonna Judd, Billy Bob Thornton, Gavin Rossdale and Gavin Adcock is so odd it seems like an AI hallucination. I promise you it happened Saturday afternoon.
“Everybody loves food. That’s the common denominator,” Fieri told the crowd, which included a woman who impressively dressed up as Fieri, fake mustache/goatee and a flame-covered bowling shirt.
“Flavortownnnnn!” Judd said as she walked onto the demonstration stage at Guy’s Stagecoach Smokehouse.
“Just so you know, we could do our own cooking show,” Fieri said as he introduced her.
Each of the stars was paired with a chef, which included Eric Greenspan, Mark Murphy, Aaron May and Hunter Fieri.
Thornton made salmon and fried okra with spicy hummus with Hunter Fieri. The “Landman” star said the key for good fried okra is to use cornmeal. He also shared his favorite chili, which isn’t hot for the sake of being hot.
“Calabrian chili has a flavor,” Thornton said.
He also told the crowd of a new delicacy he discovered: white grapes dipped in spicy Dijon mustard.
“It blew my mind,” Thornton said.
Adcock, meanwhile made a giant prime rib sandwich and beer-battered onion rings.
“I’m a big beef guy,” Adcock said.
Meanwhile, Bush frontman Rossdale was doing what Fieri said was a first for Stagecoach — he made an Asian dish of smoked chicken dredged and flash-fried and shared with two sauces: one a Japanese rice wine and the other a sweet sauce.
Speaking of strange things, here’s my pitch for an “Odd Couple” reboot: Rossdale and Adcock with Fieri as the wacky neighbor. Someone point me to the Paramount+ tent so I can pitch it. (Vanessa Franko)
Teddy Swims performs Saturday on the Mane Stage during the second day of Stagecoach in Indio.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Does Teddy Swims just live here now?
Has anyone checked on Teddy Swims’ house in whatever city he lives in besides Indio? The tattooed soul-rock singer played Stagecoach on Saturday night after doing both weekends of Coachella, and once again he brought out David Lee Roth to sing Van Halen’s “Jump” — an indelible ‘80s staple these guys are double-handedly willing into a Gen Z anthem. (Mikael Wood)
Diplo introduces Sydney Sweeney, who gave out her Syrn lingerie to the crowd at Diplo’s Honkey Tonk on the second day of Stagecoach.
(Evan Schaben / For The Times)
Theo Von crowd surfs, Sydney Sweeney tosses out lingerie and Shaboozey parties in Diplo’s Honky Tonk
If the first Stagecoach fever dream of Saturday was the unlikely cast of Billy Bob Thornton, Wynonna Judd, Gavin Rossdale and Gavin Adcock cooking and chopping it up with Guy Fieri at the Stagecoach Smokehouse, a close second was Diplo’s early evening set in the Honky Tonk.
Already billed as Diplo with podcaster-comedian-Ella Langley duet partner Theo Von and Barstool Sports media personality Caleb Pressley, it also attracted some special guests. Actor Sydney Sweeney showed up to toss panties from her Syrn lingerie brand into the crowd. (She has a pop-up Syrn saloon on the festival grounds).
The “Euphoria” star wasn’t the only surprise during the set — “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” hitmaker Shaboozey also made an appearance. Even though they played some of his songs, he didn’t perform. Like Sweeney, Shaboozey also has a pop-up saloon at the festival, his promoting upcoming record “The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales.”
And when you think things couldn’t get any weirder, Von went crowd-surfing. Stay weird, Stagecoach. (VF)
Singer and guitarist Gavin Rossdale and drummer Nik Hughes of Bush perform on the Mustang Stage at sunset as extreme weather begins to move in during the second day of Stagecoach.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Catching up with Bush’s blustery Saturday evening set
Just before we were told to evacuate Friday night, I was about to write about Bush’s Stagecoach debut on the Mustang Stage.
Even as the weather turned colder and the winds turned gnarlier, Gavin Rossdale seemed to be having a great time as the band ripped through a 50-minute set packed with hits including opener “Machinehead,” “Everything Zen,” “Swallowed,” “Glycerine” and set-closing sing-along “Comedown.”
Stagecoach festivalgoers evacuate the Mane Stage after announcements were broadcasted to evacuate the area due to extreme high wind gusts during the second day of Stagecoach.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The wind advisory and short-lived postponement nearly blew the fest away
Due to high winds, Stagecoach promoter Goldenvoice postponed the festival Saturday night until further notice and crowds were evacuated. An “emergency evacuation” message showed up on screens on the festival’s Mane Stage saying “the festival has been postponed until further notice. Please move quickly and calmly to the nearest exit.”
At 8:42 p.m., the festival advised via its mobile app that Stagecoach would resume momentarily. “We are working to open doors and prep the site for your safety,” the alert said. Just before 9 p.m. the gates were reopened. Stagecoach updated its schedule for Saturday night after a temporary evacuation due to high winds. Journey, which had been scheduled to play the Mustang Stage, did not perform; Riley Green, set to play the Mane Stage, also didn’t perform. Lainey Wilson, who was set to headline the Mane Stage, played an hour later than originally scheduled at 10:30 p.m. (VF/MW)
Lainey Wilson performs on the Mane Stage during the second day of Stagecoach.
(Evan Schaben / For The Times)
Lainey Wilson takes the stage after the wind After an hourlong delay due to high winds, Lainey Wilson kicked off her headlining set at Stagecoach on Saturday night with a one-two punch of “Can’t Sit Still” and “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” — each a solid example of the riff-heavy country-rock that’s made Wilson one of the biggest stars to come out of Nashville in the last 10 years.
“Y’all ready to sing it loud tonight?” she asked the crowd, which was maybe a bit thinner than it might’ve been thanks to fans who left before the festival announced it was reopening. Those who stuck around seemed plenty willing to bellow along. (MW)
The one item on Pitbull’s Stagecoach agenda
Pitbull hit the Mustang Stage an hour later than expected Saturday night after gusty winds forced Stagecoach to evacuate attendees for more than an hour, but Mr. Worldwide didn’t let a delay stop the fun.
“We came here to do one thing and one thing only,” he said from the stage early in the set.
The one thing? Party.
After an intro featuring his DJ and full band that included Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!),” Mr. Worldwide appeared, flanked by a half dozen dancers in revealing costumes, to open the raucous set with “Don’t Stop the Party.”
After the song he thanked everyone at Stagecoach for staying and also name-checked some Goldenvoice employees, including Stagecoach booker Stacy Vee, as well as Lainey Wilson, who had just wrapped her headlining set on the Mane Stage.
He followed up the moment of gratitude with “Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor)” and “Hotel Room Service.”
Later on in the set, Lil Jon joined Pitbull for “Jumpin” before being showered with more gratitude from Pitbull and the crowd. Then the pair performed “Damn I Love Miami.”
I’d like to start a petition for Stagecoach to book Pitbull every year — and bring him to Coachella too! (VF)
