- Jelly Roll performed before a crowd of 47,000 Sunday night at a sold-out Ford Field.
- He appeared with headliner Post Malone as part of the latter's Big Ass Stadium Tour.
Before he wrapped an hour-long set Sunday night at Ford Field, Jelly Roll had one last trick up his sleeve:
As he performed a cover of “Lose Yourself” — a song he has performed many times in Detroit — the country-rocker glanced to the stage wings. And sure enough, accompanied by a near-deafening roar inside the sold-out stadium, out strode Eminem.
The Detroit rapper picked up the second verse of his signature 2002 hit, joining Jelly Roll as the two eventually made their way down the runway for the song’s familiar chorus.
It was among the highlights in a festive Ford Field night, which found Post Malone headlining the eighth stop of his Big Ass Stadium Tour, a lengthy transatlantic outing set to run through September.
Eminem has done this kind of stuff before, perhaps most memorably at Ford Field in 2023, in a similar “Lose Yourself” cameo favor for Ed Sheeran. Jelly Roll has long been a loud, avowed Eminem stan, and the two met for the first time nearly a year ago at the concert celebrating the reopening of Detroit's Michigan Central station.
So perhaps the only real surprising aspect of Sunday’s showstopper guest spot is that it risked upstaging the night’s headliner. Given that Post Malone almost certainly signed off on the moment, itspeaks to the generosity of spirit on a tour that’s all about feel-good vibes.
In front of a crowd that appeared to number about 47,000 based on past Ford Field concert configurations, Post Malone capped the evening with a two-hour set mingling older hits with a heavy helping of material from “F-1 Trillion,” his chart-topping sojourn into country music. The show brought a high-energy, beer-chugging, Friday-night atmosphere to a Sunday evening affair.
He hit the stage to the throb of “Texas Tea,” his trademark red Solo cup in hand and cigarette dangling from his fingers. His Bob Dylan ‘78 tour T-shirt was tucked in — old-school redneck style — though the glint of his dental grillz, flashed during his frequent impish grins, wasa sign we were firmly in 2025.
The opening number culminated with a fury of pyro that set the tone for a night of fireworks-heavy production on Post Malone’s first-ever stadium tour, which included big video screens dotting the stadium and slick lighting along the runway where he spent most of the evening.
New stuff like “Wrong Ones” and “Finer Things” were twangy numbers with a big rock-show treatment, while the frisky stomp of “M-E-X-I-C-O" showed off his band’s chops. “Yours,” though sweetly dedicated to his toddler daughter, was among the night’s few weak spots, registering like turn-of-the-’80s, MOR country-pop.
Raised in the Dallas area, Post Malone played up his Texas roots, at one point asking, “Are there any Cowboys fans?” and being met by resounding boos (and Jared Goff chants) from those packed into the Detroit Lions’ house. He cheekily referenced the Lion’s 47-9 whipping of the Cowboys last season (“we did win that game fair and square”).
Dallas rapper BigXThaPlug was a surprise guest in the show’s homestretch, emerging for a quick performance of his viral hit “Texas,” while Jelly Roll stepped back out to duet with Post Malone on “Losers,” which features one of the catchiest hooks on the new album.
The tender melody of “Feeling Whitney” provided the show’s most gentle moment as Posty strapped on an acoustic guitar to deliver one of his most emotionally expressive hits.
The older, pre-country hits were sprinkled throughout the set — “Better Now,” “Go Flex,” “White Iverson” — with a pyro-packed “Rockstar,” “I Had Some Help” and bright “Sunflower” serving as a late climax.
While the Big Ass Stadium Tour has Post Malone’s name atop the marquee, it has a face-tattooed kindred spirit in Jelly Roll, another artist whose early rap-laced career ultimately ventured into country terrain.
As always, Jelly Roll’s set was part church revival, part rock show, part jamboree, his growly vocals as serviceable as ever, even if he occasionally struggled for the high notes.
Jelly Roll can probably lay claim to “busiest guy in showbiz” for a couple of years running; since 2023, he has made 12 appearances in Michigan alone. After a headlining set at last summer’s Faster Horses Festival, Ford Field was his biggest stage yet in Detroit, a city he called his “second hometown.”
Still, the amiable Tennessee native kept the mood just as approachable as past shows at more intimate spots such as the Fillmore Detroit, tossing up heart gestures, interacting with fans and preaching messages of salvation and second chances.
In what has become a Motor City custom, Jelly Roll paid tribute to the “absolute goat” of rock ‘n’ roll songwriting, his hero Bob Seger, before launching into a chugging cover of “Old Time Rock and Roll.” (Ironically, given that introduction, it’s the biggest Seger hit not actually written by the man himself.)
The “Lose Yourself” moment came at the end of a multigenre medley that featured some Skynyrd, Nickelback, DMX, Miley Cyrus and Wiz Khalifa. It’s a longtime feature of Jelly Roll shows, and its savvy, crowd-pleasing blend harks back to another Detroit staple: Kid Rock.
But it was Eminem who got to steal the show from everybody Sunday night, and nobody seemed more happy about it than Jelly Roll himself: Pumping his fists, shaking his head in a giddy disbelief, he told Ford Field it had just become “the greatest show” of his life.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
