In an interview that took place prior to Jelly Roll’s performance at the music festival, Jelly Roll stated that T-Pain “would be a perfect surprise guest for Stagecoach that nobody would see coming.” Jelly Roll used his 2024 Stagecoach act to pay tribute to the late Toby Keith, with a little assistance from T-Pain.
The singer of “Need a Favor,” who is 39 years old, gave a performance at the country music festival in Indio, California, on Friday. She sang a cover of Keith’s song “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” and included a surprise guest appearance from T-Pain. The performance was a memorial to Keith, who passed away in February at the age of 62 after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.
Earlier in his set, Jelly was joined by ERNEST and Maddie & Tae for duet renditions of “Son of a Sinner” and a brand-new song called “Liar,” respectively, before T-Pain took the stage. T-Pain was the next artist to perform. The duo started off with a rendition of DJ Khaled’s song “All I Do Is Win,” which features the 39-year-old rapper known as “Bartender.”
After that, they proceeded to perform their rendition of Keith’s smash from 1993.
Jelly and T-Pain published their rendition of “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” and made it available exclusively on Amazon Music before the song was performed live for the first time. The musician who sang “Save Me” stated in an interview with Variety that he was motivated to compose a new version of the song after he had performed it multiple times on tour as an homage to Keith.
PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter is a great way to stay up to speed on the best of what the publication has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to intriguing human interest stories. Sign up for the newsletter to ensure that you never miss a story of interest.
After spending several years as a rapper, Jelly claimed that Keith and songs such as “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” “The Next Thing on My List,” and “I Love This Bar” were the ones who motivated him to seek a career in country music over the years.
“He was a rare individual. He was unabashedly from the state of Oklahoma. In his statement to the site, he said, “There are a lot of things he did that enabled me to feel empowered and encouraged.” “He was very individualistic and carved his own path, and he did it completely on his own, from pillar to post,” the author writes. “I was a mentor to him, even though he was unaware of it. I was just observing him from a distance.”
Before, Jelly had received consent from Stelen, Keith’s son, for the cover. Stelen had given his seal of approval. When Toby’s son saw me at the CMTs, he got me aside and said, “Hey man, I want to let you know that I’ve seen a video of you covering this song, and I think it’s one of the best versions of it ever.” I responded by saying that I was impressed with the video. I believe that you show respect for my father. “And it simply meant a great deal to me,” he explained.
The idea of featuring a guest who “nobody would see coming” came to Jelly during the planning stages of Stagecoach. T-Pain, who has a personal connection to Keith, was the person that came to mind.
“He was telling me the story about how the only time he has ever done something significant in the country space was when he was presenting with Toby at the CMT Awards in 2009,” he said. And he was just talking about how wonderful Toby was just as a human being, and how Toby made him feel comfortable and was cracking him up before they went out,” Jelly said of the rapper. “And he was just talking about how awesome Toby was just as a human.”
Having been a fan of T-Pain‘s On Top of the Covers project, which featured a rendition of Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey,” Jelly was confident that he would be more than capable of singing “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.”
Additionally, they promised to make a contribution to the Toby Keith Foundation from the sales of the cover. In addition, the country musician who was nominated for a Grammy stated, “I just figured that we’re doing it for Toby, and the cool thing was, I called T-Pain with that, and he didn’t hesitate.”
In another part of his performance at Stagecoach, Jelly invited his daughter Bailee to join him and his wife Bunnie Xo in singing “Happy Birthday” in celebration of Bailee’s sixteenth birthday. “In, like, 10 days, she will be 16 years old,” he added with certainty. “But hey, I figured it would be a really cool dad way to embarrass her if I can do the old ‘Happy birthday to you.'”
Also Read: Deadpool kills six Avengers heroes in disturbing MCU artwork.2