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Stagecoach 2026: Guy Fieri puts on a cook-off with country stars

By Fielding Buck, The Press-Enterprise The Tribune Content Agency

Updated April 26, 2026 6:36 PM

Chef Hunter Fieri, left, and Billy Bob Thornton, center, reacts as country aritst Wynonna Judd samples Thornton’s salmon dish during a celebrity cooking demonstration at the Guy Fieri Smokehouse during the second day of the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 25, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) Will Lester TNS

Guy Fieri’s Stagecoach Smokehouse has been part of the Stagecoach country music festival since 2018, long enough to have groupies.

The celebrity chef has his own stage, where a huge crew of pitmasters smokes meat all weekend. Fieri puts on two shows a day, doing cooking demonstrations with country stars after his son, Hunter, and nephew, Jules, as well as pitmasters toss beach balls, T-shirts, bottles of hot sauce and other swag into the crowd.

People at the front rail might also get a food sample.

Debbie Martin claimed a center spot as soon as the gates opened on the first day, Friday, April 24. She drove from Greater Nashville to Indio to be there with her daughter. Or as she put it she drove three days in three 12-hour shifts with stops at two motels.

“I only drove 3½ hours,” said daughter Kristin Adams, who came in from Arizona.

Martin was not disappointed.

“I loved the mac and cheese,” she said Saturday, when she was back for the weekend’s highlight, a cook-off between four country stars.

“I’ve got an army of superstars backstage,” said Fieri when he made his entrance. “I was fan-boying like you wouldn’t believe.”

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They were Billy Bob Thornton, star of “Landman,” Gavin Rossdale of Bush, Gavin Adcock and Wynonna Judd, who got the loudest cheers. In the middle of the session, she walked away from the pile of tri-tip burritos she was working on to go out and greet fans.

Thornton made what Fieri called the Smokehouse’s first Asian-inspired dish, smoked salmon topped with fried okra.

All the musicians were paired off with chefs except for Rossdale, who not only grilled chicken but cleaned his own flat top griddle.

In the end, judges picked from the pitmaster crew declared Adcock the winner with his prime rib sandwiches.

The 45-minute session began about an hour after a wind advisory from the National Weather Service went into effect that would briefly shut down the festival a few hours later, but at the time there was nothing in the air but the aroma of smoked meat.

This story was originally published April 26, 2026 at 12:44 PM.

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