The Stagecoach County Music Festival attracts top talent in the music industry. But the first person some fans look for is Guy Fieri.
The celebrity chef has been a Stagecoach fixture since 2018. He has his own show for his own stage, called Guy Fieri’s Stagecoach Smokehouse. It’s a big production that requires a large cast of friends, relatives, assistants and guest stars, not to mention a lot of smoked meat.
When the gates opened on Day 1 of the festival at 1 p.m. Friday, April 25, ticketholders who hightailed it to the Smokehouse found Fieri overseeing a circular spit holding an entire cow split down the middle, more than 750 pounds of beef cooking for 26 hours over mesquite and cedar logs and slowly turning from brown to black.
Among the fans was Mike Harris of Yuma, Ariz., wearing a cap that read “U.S. Marine Corps Retired.” He waited for Fieri to sign another fan’s box for a Funko Pop Guy Fieri figurine.
When Harris got his minute with Fieri, he didn’t want an autograph. He wanted to give Fieri a challenge coin from Toys for Tots San Diego, one of his favorite causes. In return, Fieri gave him a challenge coin from the Guy Fieri Foundation, which honors veterans and first responders.
Fieri gives the love back to Stagecoach.
“I will say it’s my favorite event of the year,” he told audiences on Friday.
Fieri is best known for his Food Network shows such as Diners, Drive Ins & Dives. But he has several irons in the fire, including restaurants, cookbooks, merchandise, Flavortown sauces and Santo Tequila, a collaboration with Sammy Hagar.
Most of this stuff finds its way into his shows at Stagecoach. They are cooking demos that include Mane Stage headliners. He does two a day, about 45 minutes each, that begin with assistants tossing Guy Fieri beachballs into the audience and end with country stars giving food to people in the front of the crowd.
Saturday’s demo with Jelly Roll and Shaboozey drew one of the largest crowds, with people waiting at the rail for two hours for the chance to see the stars up close, or at least get a free spare rib.
After chatting with them about their favorite foods — Shaboozey is a lasagna fan and Jelly Roll likes all things breakfast-related — Fieri challenged them to a “loaded baked potato showdown.”
Jelly Roll chose a russet potato for his creation while Shaboozey chose a sweet potato.
They were assisted by Fieri’s oldest sons Hunter and Ryder, Jelly Roll’s wife Bunnie Xo, and several chefs while the wait staff took out trays of barbecue to the audience as well as margaritas for people wearing 21-plus wristbands.
Later, the staff tossed bottles of Flavortown sauce into the crowd.
The completed potatoes were sliced up and served to judges. Fieri recruited veterans in the audience, including one who said he served in Desert Storm.
“Thank you, my brother,” said Fieri. “Freedom ain’t free.”
Fieri said the judges weren’t unanimous, but in the end, he declared the winner, “for no cash or prizes but just street cred and a lot of smack talk,” was Jelly Roll.
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