Carrie Underwood Brings Her Rock Side to the Velocity Festival with Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park Covers
By Website Content Manager
The country superstar has never hidden her passion for rock music. Along with covering songs by Collective Soul and Papa Roach, she has previously shared the stage with major rock acts including Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe.
Carrie Underwood proved that her musical tastes extend well beyond country at the Velocity Festival in Dyersville, Iowa.
The 43-year-old singer took the stage on Saturday, Sept. 5, and surprised the crowd with a series of rock and nu-metal covers from artists including Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Papa Roach and Collective Soul.
Underwood still included some of her biggest country songs in the performance, such as “Before He Cheats” and “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” However, she switched things up by adding several unexpected rock selections to the set.
Among them were Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff,” Papa Roach’s “Scars,” Collective Soul’s “Shine” and Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer.”
During “Break Stuff,” Underwood leaned into the song’s aggressive energy, moving energetically around the stage while leaving out some of its explicit language. She also appeared to pay tribute to Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst by wearing a red baseball cap backward.
Fan-recorded footage also showed the singer headbanging as she tackled Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer.”
Following the show, Underwood took to social media to reflect on the experience, describing her night in Dyersville as an incredible time and thanking everyone who attended.
Before the festival, Underwood had revealed that she arrived in Iowa early enough to watch Shinedown perform. The band’s set apparently motivated her to experiment with some different material during her own performance the following day.
Her appearance at Velocity was hardly the first time Underwood has demonstrated her appreciation for rock music. Throughout her career, she has shared stages with some of the genre’s biggest names, including Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe.
Her connection with Guns N’ Roses became particularly memorable in 2022, when Axl Rose unexpectedly joined her during her Stagecoach performance. Underwood subsequently performed with the band on several occasions.
She also included Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine” in her Velocity Festival set.
More recently, Underwood teamed up with Mötley Crüe on American Idol in May, performing the band’s classics “Home Sweet Home” and “Kickstart My Heart.”
Her history with Papa Roach goes back to 2025, when she joined the band during its Las Vegas tour stop. Together, they performed “Leave a Light On (Talk Away the Dark).”
With her latest festival performance, Underwood once again demonstrated that although country remains at the heart of her career, she is more than comfortable turning up the volume and embracing her rock influences.