Cross Canadian Ragweed are adding a sixth comeback show to their ongoing reunion. The Oklahoma roots rockers will headline Colorado State University’s Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins on July 21, capping the first night of the Professional Bull Riders’ Last Cowboy Standing event.
Ragweed replaces Tim McGraw on the PBR bill. McGraw is recovering from back surgery, the latest in a series of issues with his back and knees that have plagued the three-time Grammy winner since early in his 2024 Standing Room Only tour.
“I heard there was actually an offer for this show right when we announced we were getting back together,” Ragweed frontman Cody Canada tells Rolling Stone. “But we were taking it easy and seeing what was gonna happen. When we heard Tim McGraw canceled, we just thought that PBR has been very good to us for a long time. In the old Ragweed days, they would throw us a bone every now and then and put us on some big gigs. It didn’t take us very long to say yes.”
McGraw’s team informed PBR officials of his cancellation earlier this month, and Sean Gleason, the CEO of the organization, placed Ragweed atop his wish list as a replacement. Gleason and other organizers of the two-day event, which will see Jon Pardi headline its second night, had inquired about Ragweed when they first put the event together. The band passed at the time. The second time around, though, Gleason treated it less as a business offer and more as if he were calling in a favor.
“We were a part of Endeavor once, and their booking agent is WME, so I called their agent,” Gleason says. “And said, ‘Hey, I just lost Tim. Is there any way that Cross Canadian would reconsider playing this stadium?’ They said, ‘You’re crazy.’ So I said, ‘Just ask. And remind the boys that we used to do a lot of work together back in the day.’ One thing led to another, and there was mutual interest, so we put it together.”
It marks a reunion-within-a-reunion of sorts for Ragweed. PBR co-founder and former world champion bull rider Tuff Hedeman was an early fan of the group, and his friendship with Universal South executive Tim DuBois in 2001 helped Ragweed land their deal with the label. “Since then, when Tuff comes calling, it’s a yes,” Canada says. Hedeman was also the PBR president until 2004 and made Ragweed the preferred band to play afterparties following PBR events on his watch.
To Gleason, that history alone would have made Ragweed a natural choice even if they were not in the midst of a comeback year.
“My first experience with Ragweed was at an afterparty in Bentonville, Arkansas,” Gleason tells Rolling Stone. “We had an event and booked an afterparty in a ballroom in a hotel. We signed this up-and-coming band named Cross Canadian Ragweed. And, when I got to this afterparty, the line was out the door, wrapping around the building and down the street. I thought, ‘Man. We have finally arrived if everyone wants to come to a PBR afterparty.’ What I didn’t realize was that a third of them were there for the afterparty, and two-thirds of them were there for Cross Canadian Ragweed.
“We booked them for several events after that. We got to know the band, and we’ve been huge fans from Day One.”
Ragweed notably ended a 15-year hiatus in April with four sold-out shows at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with co-headliners Turnpike Troubadours. The concerts, dubbed “The Boys From Oklahoma” sold out in the presale windows last year, and the two bands added a fifth concert, scheduled for August 23 at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas. That show will also feature Shane Smith and the Saints, Wade Bowen, and American Aquarium.
The choice of Fort Collins for a PBR event followed nearly 20 years of the group putting on a bull-riding showcase during the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Gleason tells Rolling Stone that Frontier Days organizers decided against hosting a PBR event this year, so his organization looked for a location nearby for this year’s Last Cowboy Standing event. They settled on Fort Collins — 45 miles south of Cheyenne and 60 miles north of Denver.
It’s a fit for Ragweed, far enough from Waco to prevent overlapping with most of the ticketholders for that show while tapping another part of the group’s longtime fan base. Fort Collins — and the city’s Aggie Theater, in particular — was a regular stop for both Ragweed and Cody Canada and the Departed.
Canada asks any fans who planned to see McGraw to stick around and give Ragweed a chance. McGraw once did the same thing for the band.
“I’m not the person I was back in my anti-Nashville days,” Canada says. “When I heard that Tim McGraw canceled, my mind went back to a night in Vegas where I sat with him at a blackjack table, and he was telling me that we were a breath of fresh air in the music business. I’ve never been, like, addicted to modern country music. It was always old stuff for me. But I was like, Tim McGraw is listening to us!’ Later, we got to do a show with him and Faith Hill, and their kids were wearing Ragweed gear.
“When I heard we were filling in for him, I got all nostalgic about that.”
Canada says that Ragweed has no other shows in the works for 2025, but that 2026 is a different story. Ragweed spent last week dropping hints about the Fort Collins show on their social media, and Canada says fans should expect that to continue.
“When we got back together, I couldn’t talk about a whole lot,” he says. “But we’re planning on more shows. We’re not planning a tour, but we’re gonna keep planning shows and having fun with it. We’re gonna do what we’ve been doing, and tease people. I think that’s fun.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose latest books, Never Say Never and Red Dirt Unplugged are available via Back Lounge Publishing.
