Oklahoma State to Host Concert at Boone Pickens Stadium to Benefit NIL

Boone Pickens Stadium will finally host more than just a football game.

For the first time since 2006 and a massive renovation, Oklahoma State’s football stadium will be a concert venue for “The Boys From Oklahoma” on April 12, Cross Canadian Ragweed announced Tuesday by sharing an exclusive with RollingStone. The “daylong concert” will be headlined by Cross Canadian Ragweed and Turnpike Troubadours. The Great Divide, Jason Boland & The Stragglers and Stoney LaRue are also scheduled to perform. All bands performing have roots in Stillwater.

OSU announced in a release that the concert will benefit the university’s Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) efforts.

“We are excited to bring the first-ever concert to Boone Pickens Stadium this spring and look forward to hosting this fantastic Oklahoma-based lineup in the home of the Cowboys,” OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg said in a release. “We are grateful to the team at DMG for helping make this happen. This show will benefit OSU’s NIL efforts but will also be a great event for our student-athletes, student body, alumni, fans and the community of Stillwater.”

For 1⃣ night only in BPS, the boys are back!

Register for Presale: https://t.co/Yyb6tsx3hk pic.twitter.com/uj8jludopT

— Oklahoma State Athletics (@OSUAthletics) October 1, 2024

After starting in Stillwater in 1994, Cross Canadian Ragweed broke up in 2010 but recently started teasing a comeback on social media. This concert would be their first together since that breakup 14 years ago and is currently the only concert they have scheduled. Fellow headliner Turnpike Troubadours originated in Tahlequah in 2005 but were known to play along The Strip at J.R. Murphy’s, The Copper Penny and Willie’s Saloon during their stardom. Turnpike Troubadours also dissolved in 2019 but reunited in 2021.

The Great Divide helped start the Red Dirt scene in Stillwater back in 1992 and made their Grand Ole Opry debut in July. Although originally from Texas, Stoney LaRue moved to Stillwater, where he became friends and roommates with Jason Boland and Cody Canada, the lead singer of Cross Canadian Ragweed. Boland attended OSU before his music career took off.

“Stillwater represents a beginning — for me, personally, and for the band,” Cross Canadian Ragweed co-founder and drummer Randy Ragsdale told RollingStone. “It’s like that for most people that go there. That’s where they start their life. It’s one of the first places we got going, and I think it’s also bigger than just our band. The whole damn movement got going there. I don’t want to sound cheesy, but it’s kind of like the motherland. I cannot think of a better place to get it going again, to bury the hatchet, to try to do this the right way, and just start over.”

Boone Pickens Stadium has a capacity of 52,305 for football games. The concert capacity will be 43,000, according to Pokes Report. Lewis Field hosted a handful of concerts between 1997 and 2003 before the stadium was renamed in 2003. Boone Pickens Stadium was officially re-dedicated in 2009, so this would be the first concert there in its present state.

A pre-sale is set for Monday, according to RollingStone, while public sales will start Oct. 11.