Post Malone’s presence on the lineup of the 2024 Stagecoach Country Music Festival — where he was billed as performing a set of country covers — may have seemed odd at first glance. But it’s actually a good fit for the Texas native and musical Renaissance man.
The rapper-singer-songwriter-producer is almost a Kevin Bacon-esque figure in modern music. He recently guested on Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” and Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” and he joined fellow Stagecoach 2024 performers Morgan Wallen and Hardy at the CMA Awards in November for a country medley.
And because Malone seems to know everyone, it made sense that his Stagecoach set had some star power on Saturday night.
Dwight Yoakam (and his amazing denim jacket with the flying white fringe that he wore during his own set Friday) was first up to join Malone for “Little Ways” early in the set. Two songs later, previous Stagecoach headliner Brad Paisley was on stage to duet on his hit “I’m Gonna Miss Her” and stayed on stage for the pair to cover Vince Gill’s “One More Last Chance.”
Later, Sara Evans joined Malone, her long brown hair whipping in the gusty Indio wind, for her hit “Suds in the Bucket.”
Paisley returned to play guitar on the final song of the set, a rollicking cover of the Alan Jackson classic “Chattahoochee.”
However, despite the rumors, and the plane flying the “Cowboy Carter” banner around the polo fields earlier in the evening, Beyoncé didn’t hop on stage.