RodeoHouston 2025

RodeoHouston taps Post Malone, Bun B, Reba McEntire, and more for 2025 concerts

RodeoHouston is back in the saddle again and is bringing major star power to the star-shaped stage for its 2025 lineup.

After drawing over 1.3 million people to concerts last year, officials revealed this year’s performers at a media event at NRG Center, next door to NRG Stadium. While the Beyoncé rumors didn't pan out, the acts playing from March 4-23 include a variety of genres, heavily focused on country, but also including pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, regional Mexican, and Christian music.

Tickets will go on sale at rodeohouston.com on Thursday, January 16, in two waves at 10 am and 2 pm.

Arguably the biggest standout is Post Malone, who makes his RodeoHouston debut on Tuesday, March 18 in what should be a massive draw. The hugely successful rap star is back in Houston after selling out two nights at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion last fall. His turn towards country music on his No. 1 album, F-1 Trillion, featuring the No. 1 single “I Had Some Help” with country bad boy Morgan Wallen, and songs with Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, was no doubt on the minds of RodeoHouston organizers.

One of the longest-running rodeo favorites, Reba McEntire will open the 2025 season on Tuesday, March 4. She holds one of the organization’s highest honors as the first woman inducted to RodeoHouston’s Star Trail of Fame in 2007. This will be her 20th performance on the rotating stage and her first time back in 11 years.

Other eyebrow-raising headliners include Bun B's Birthday Bonanza on Black Heritage Night (Friday, March 7). This is the fourth consecutive year that the chopped and screwed rap legend will bring his “International Players Anthem” to RodeoHouston, the 2024 edition being one of the most buzzed about shows of the year, with appearances by Drake, Nelly, Eve, Rick Ross, and others. As for who will turn up this year, let the speculation begin.

Also notable is fast-rising Americana honkytonk country artist, the San Benito, TX-raised Charley Crockett, making his debut on Monday, March 17. Anyone who has caught him on small club stages in Houston as he paid his dues will find this a reason to celebrate this huge step-up in audience size.

This year’s lineup is noticeably embracing a younger demographic, especially in the country ranks. Up-and-comers, Riley Green (March 5), Zach Top (March 11), and Kelly Clarkson’s favorite heartthrob Warren Zeiders (March 15) all make their debuts and are a glimpse at the future. The 24-year-old Bailey Zimmerman (March 8) achieved three consecutive No. 1 singles, including the album’s namesake, “Religiously,” deemed the biggest streaming country debut of all time upon its release.

Outside of the country genre, streaming stars and pop-rock trio AJR fill the pop-rock role that Jonas Brothers shattered records with last year, appearing on Thursday, March 6. Mexican singer-songwriter Carin León plays on Sunday, March 9, and two-time Grammy Award-winning contemporary Christian artist Lauren Daigle returns for her second stint on Wednesday, March 12.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Journey, follow-up their epic 2022 RodeoHouston performance on Friday, March 14, while Mexican-American band Grupo Frontera takes the mantle for the seat-filling Go Tejano Day on Sunday, March 16.

RodeoHouston loves their established country stars and plenty will return in 2025. The reliably great Brad Paisley plays First Responders Appreciation Day on March 10 for his 17th appearance; Jon Pardi makes his third appearance in a row on March 13; country band Old Dominion headlines for the second time on March 19; country rebel Cody Jinks is back after his 2023 debut on March 20; Conroe’s Parker McCollum makes it three times on March 21.

Country Hall of Famers, Brooks & Dunn, will tally their mind-blowing 22nd appearance on March 22. After nearly three weeks of performances, American Idol judge Luke Bryan will hip-swivel his way through his 12th show to close out the RodeoHouston calendar.

Always aware of the many different audiences that appreciate a day on the midway, organizers have another eclectic mix of youthful names and legacy acts, ensuring that many Houstonians will have a reason to head to NRG Stadium for at least one night of music this March. Giddy up!

Photo by Chinh Phan FotoWerk Group

Reba McEntire opens the 2025 RodeoHouston with her 20th appearance on Tuesday, March 4.

rodeohouston rodeo concerts

Movie Review

Offbeat drama Pillion features command performance by Alexander Skarsgård

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

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Pillion is now playing in theaters.

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