Carrie Underwood was well into a set packed with her own country hits when a Saturday night in an Iowa cornfield took a sharp turn toward 1990s and 2000s rock.
The 43-year-old singer headlined Velocity Festival at the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville on Sept. 5. Alongside songs including “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” “Cowboy Casanova” and “Before He Cheats,” she worked through covers by Collective Soul, Papa Roach, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, according to Just Jared.
“Break Stuff” came with its own visual commitment. Underwood put on a backward red baseball cap in a nod to Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, then jumped around the stage while skipping some of the original song’s more explicit language.
The heavier detour had taken shape only a day earlier. Underwood flew into Iowa early enough to watch Shinedown headline Velocity on Friday and told followers afterward that the performance had left her “inspired to try some new stuff in our set tomorrow.”
Underwood Went From Collective Soul to Limp Bizkit
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The four-song run began with Collective Soul’s “Shine.” Underwood followed it with Papa Roach’s “Scars,” moved into Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer” and then finished the sequence with Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff.”
Fan footage captured Underwood headbanging during “One Step Closer,” but the biggest visual transformation came with the Limp Bizkit cover. PEOPLE reported that she jumped around the stage in a backward red cap honoring Durst while avoiding some of the song’s profanity.
The rock sequence was only one portion of an otherwise career-spanning performance. After “Break Stuff,” Underwood returned to her own catalog with “Smoke Break,” “Flat on the Floor,” “Something in the Water” and “Last Name.”
She then pulled out another longtime rock favorite, Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” before closing the night with “Before He Cheats.” Published setlists show 23 songs performed by Underwood, with Shinedown’s “Sound of Madness” also used as prerecorded walk-on music before the show began.
Watching Shinedown the Night Before Sparked the Experiment
Underwood had already been at the Field of Dreams site before her own headlining night. She said she flew in early specifically to watch Shinedown’s Friday performance and came away wanting to make an adjustment to the show she would play the following evening.
Velocity’s lineup made the stylistic crossover particularly natural. Underwood’s official website announced the three-day event with Shinedown headlining Sept. 4, Underwood on Sept. 5 and Creed closing the festival Sept. 6.
After her own performance, Underwood returned to Instagram to say she had the “BEST time” in Dyersville and thanked the audience for coming out to party, adding, “Y’all were crazy!”
Her Papa Roach and Guns N’ Roses History Runs Deeper
The sight of Underwood singing Limp Bizkit may have looked unusual beside songs such as “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” but her interest in hard rock has been part of her live career for years.
Axl Rose famously joined her Stagecoach headlining set in 2022 for “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and “Paradise City.” Underwood then joined Guns N’ Roses at two London concerts that summer, and Rose appeared with her again in Los Angeles in 2023 for “Welcome to the Jungle.”
Underwood recorded a new version of the band’s “Leave a Light On (Talk Away the Dark)” in 2024, with the artists donating royalties to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. They took the collaboration to the stage in Las Vegas in April 2025, performing “Leave a Light On” together before Underwood stayed for “Last Resort.” At Velocity, she chose a different Papa Roach hit, “Scars,” as the second song in her four-cover rock run.
Underwood has crossed into other corners of rock as well. She has repeatedly performed with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and contributed vocals to Aerosmith’s 2012 song “Can’t Stop Lovin’ You.” More recently, she joined Mötley Crüe for “Home Sweet Home” and “Kickstart My Heart” during the 2026 American Idol finale.
Underwood Has Never Ruled Out a Rock Album
The genre-hopping is consistent with what Underwood has said about her own listening habits. During a 2023 Audacy interview, she explained that she grew up listening to a wide range of music and has a particular affinity for rock and metal.
What attracts her most, she said, is the energy. Underwood described attending rock concerts as feeling “like freedom to me”. She was also asked directly whether that interest could eventually become a full rock album.
Underwood answered, “You never really know with me,” and said she does not like to rule things out. “I feel like certain influences work their way into different songs and different moments,” she added, “even if they’re not songs that I record.”