The Texxas Jam was Texas’s big annual stadium rock festival. It ran every summer from 1978 to 1988, almost always at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas’s Fair Park. It opened with Aerosmith and Ted Nugent in front of about 100,000 people. Its last date was July 3, 1988, a Monsters of Rock tour stop with Metallica fourth on a five-band bill.
In between, the bills track the decade’s turn from arena rock to heavy metal: Ozzy Osbourne in 1984, Dio in 1986, a thrash band in 1988. Here is every Texxas Jam, year by year.
The Short Version
- Official name: the Texxas World Music Festival, created by Louis Messina of Houston’s Pace Concerts and manager David Krebs.
- Years: 1978 to 1988, mostly at the Cotton Bowl, with Houston dates from 1981 to 1984.
- Tickets: $12.50 in 1978, per Pollstar. Wikipedia lists $20.25 general admission in 1987 and $25 for the 1988 finale.
- The thrash moment: Metallica on the Monsters of Rock bill, Cotton Bowl, July 3, 1988.
What Was the Texxas Jam?
The festival started with a phone call. David Krebs, who managed Aerosmith and Ted Nugent, wanted to repeat California Jam II in Texas. He called Louis Messina of Pace Concerts in Houston, who told Pollstar that Krebs first asked whether Texas had a speedway, “because the Cal Jam was at a speedway.”
Messina wanted a stadium instead of an open field. Pollstar’s Debbie Speer reports that a Lone Star Beer commercial set at the State Fair of Texas gave him the idea of using Fair Park. Buddy Magazine dates that first Texxas World Music Festival to June 30 through July 4, 1978.
Stadium rock had been on ice since 1974, when ZZ Top drew 80,000 fans to UT’s Memorial Stadium and left the field in poor shape, Ultimate Classic Rock’s Eduardo Rivadavia writes. Nolan Dalla, who was in the 1979 crowd, calls the ban “a prohibition that lasted all of four years.”
Cotton Bowl Stadium Open
The Art Deco stadium, opened in 1930, hosted most of the Texxas Jams from the middle of the State Fair grounds. Today it mostly hosts football and soccer, including Dallas Trinity FC.
Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Texxas Jam 1978: The First Cotton Bowl Show
The first Texxas Jam ran on July 1, 1978, at the Cotton Bowl. Aerosmith and Ted Nugent headlined. Below them were Journey, Heart, Eddie Money, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Head East and Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush. Best Classic Bands puts the crowd at 100,000; Pollstar puts the ticket at $12.50.
The day opened with Blackstone, which had won a statewide battle of the bands for the slot. Cheech & Chong did comedy between sets. Wikipedia adds that Nugent came out to join Aerosmith on stage.
Van Halen played early, right after Walter Egan. Best Classic Bands describes them as “near the bottom of the bill.” Heart’s Nancy Wilson told Buddy Magazine in 2026: “Van Halen were insanely amazing to watch.”
Best Classic Bands calls the day “reportedly the hottest day in a decade,” at 104 degrees, with up to 120 degrees on the stadium field. Fire hoses were turned on the crowd to head off heat stroke, Rivadavia writes.
“The first one was particularly mind-blowing for a baby band like Heart,” Wilson told Buddy’s Ian Saint. She described relay tower after relay tower stretching past the crowd:
“The sea of faces went to the horizon.”
A second show followed on July 23, 1978, with Fleetwood Mac and the Steve Miller Band at the top. Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Welch and Australia’s Little River Band opened.
Aerosmith
Boston. Headlined the first Jam in 1978 and shared the top of the 1987 bill. Start with Toys in the Attic (1975).
Ted Nugent
Detroit. Co-headlined in 1978 and came back for the 1983 and 1985 bills. Start with Ted Nugent (1975).
Texxas Jam Lineups, 1979 to 1983
1979
On Saturday, June 9, 1979, Boston and Heart topped the bill, with Van Halen now billed third. The ticket in the photo at the top of this page reads $15.00 advance general admission, showtime 1:00 p.m. Sammy Hagar, Nazareth and Blue Öyster Cult also played. Seattle’s TKO, which shared management with Heart, opened the day; Dalla calls it “a heavy metal band from Seattle.” He counted “nearly 100,000” fans, and “giant firehoses” between sets.
On August 26, a second show billed as “A Farewell to a Texas Summer” put Rush and Foghat at the top. Below them were Pat Travers, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Billy Thorpe, Little River Band and Irving’s own Point Blank.
Boston
Boston. Headlined the June 1979 Jam and topped the 1987 bill with Aerosmith and Whitesnake. Start with Boston (1976).
1980
The June 21, 1980, Cotton Bowl bill was the softest of the run: the Eagles, Foreigner, Cheap Trick, April Wine, Sammy Hagar and Christopher Cross.
1981
For 1981 the festival went indoors, to the Houston Astrodome, on July 18. REO Speedwagon, Heart, Blue Öyster Cult and Foghat played, with Detroit’s The Rockets opening. Wikipedia says the summer heat drove the move, and that the festival split between Dallas and Houston through 1984.
Houston Astrodome Closed 2009
The Jam’s only all-Houston year, 1981, happened under this roof, as did the June 8, 1984, date. Closed to the public since 2009, it joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2014 and is used for storage.
Photo: EricEnfermero, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (January 2014)
1982 and 1983
In 1982 and 1983 the Jam played Dallas and Houston on back-to-back days. Wikipedia doesn’t say whether Houston used the Astrodome or Rice Stadium those years. In 1982 (June 12 in Dallas, June 13 in Houston) it was Journey, Santana, Hagar, Joan Jett and Point Blank.
An August 1982 Cotton Bowl show billed as the “Super Bowl of Rock N Roll” gets lumped in, but Wikipedia notes it was “not truly considered a Texxas Jam.” Ozzy Osbourne, Foreigner and Loverboy played, with Louisiana’s LeRoux warming up the crowd. The 1983 bill (June 18 and 19) had Styx, Hagar, Triumph, Nugent and Uriah Heep.
How the Bill Got Heavier, 1984 to 1987
1984
The 1984 Jam played the Astrodome on June 8 and the Cotton Bowl on June 10. Rush headlined, with .38 Special also playing, but the real news was Ozzy Osbourne on an official Texxas Jam bill. Bryan Adams and Gary Moore filled out the day.
Ozzy Osbourne
Birmingham, England. On the 1982 Super Bowl of Rock bill, then an official Texxas Jam act in 1984. Start with Blizzard of Ozz (1980).
1985
On August 24, 1985, the Cotton Bowl got its first bill that reads like a metal festival. Deep Purple and the Scorpions co-headlined, over Night Ranger, Nugent and a young Bon Jovi. Near the bottom sat England’s Grim Reaper and Germany’s Victory.
1986
Van Halen, now fronted by Sammy Hagar, and Krokus headlined the July 19, 1986, bill, with Dio, Loverboy, Keel and Bachman-Turner Overdrive below. Van Halen News Desk places it at the Cotton Bowl and says the stadium announcer gave the crowd as 72,000.
1987
Texxas Jam 1987 ran on June 20 at the Cotton Bowl. Boston, Aerosmith and Whitesnake topped the bill, with Poison, Tesla and Charlie Farren’s band Farrenheit below. Wikipedia reports about 104 degrees again, with fans passing out in the crowd and hoses on the field.
Texxas Jam 1988: Metallica at the Monsters of Rock
The last Texxas Jam, on July 3, 1988, was the Dallas stop of the Monsters of Rock tour. The bill was Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica and Kingdom Come.
The Los Angeles Coliseum’s history page says the tour visited 23 cities from May to July, and that 1988 “was the only year” Monsters of Rock toured the United States. In Dallas, Metallica sat second from the bottom of the bill. Wikipedia lists general admission at $25.
Metallica’s slot was short. Steffan Chirazi, in a 2006 Classic Rock feature that Louder republished in 2023, says Metallica played a 60-minute set on the tour, which annoyed fans, and that crowds arrived earlier and earlier to catch it. The fan-compiled setlist.fm entry for Dallas has them opening with “Creeping Death” after the “Ecstasy of Gold” tape and ending on “Battery.”
That list includes “Harvester of Sorrow,” from ...And Justice for All, which Metallica’s website dates to September 7, 1988, two months after Dallas. The headliner had a harder day. Hagar told Ultimate Classic Rock he was “standing out in front of 60,000 people at the Cotton Bowl, and I couldn’t sing.” He promised Dallas a free Van Halen show, and the band kept that promise on December 4, 1991, at the West End Marketplace.
Why Did the Texxas Jam End?
Messina’s answer is business. Over about ten years, he told Pollstar, the ticket climbed from $12.50 until “we actually got up to a $20 ticket,” and the economics shifted. “We can make more money playing an amphitheater than we could in the stadium. So that’s how it came and went,” he said.
Pace then built its own room in the same park. Buddy notes that Pace built the Starplex Amphitheater in Fair Park, now called Dos Equis Pavilion. Starplex is where Dallas got the next big thrash package, the Clash of the Titans, in 1991 (our Clash of the Titans piece tells that story).
For where Texas metal festivals stand now, see our guide to Hell’s Heroes and the Texas metal festivals.
Texxas Jam and the Texas Thrash Scene
The last four Jams happened in the summers when Texas thrash was being built in clubs nearby. Rotting Corpse played its first show at Rascals in Arlington on December 6, 1985, three and a half months after Deep Purple and Grim Reaper played the Cotton Bowl. Between 1985 and 1989 its rooms included Rascals, the Tombstone Factory and Joe’s Garage in Fort Worth, all on the venues page.
The stadium booked one thrash band, once; the local bands worked the clubs. Our pieces on the 1980s DFW metal scene and our history of Rascals cover that world, and the band’s own history and timeline tell what Rotting Corpse was doing in those years.
Van Halen
Pasadena, California. On the 1978, 1979, 1986 and 1988 bills. Start with Van Halen (1978).
Heart
Seattle. Played the 1978, 1979 and 1981 Jams. Start with Dreamboat Annie (1976).
Scorpions
Hanover, Germany. Played the 1985 and 1988 Jams. Start with Blackout (1982).
Dokken
Los Angeles. Third on the 1988 Monsters of Rock bill. Start with Under Lock and Key (1985).
Metallica
Los Angeles, 1981. The only thrash band on any Texxas Jam bill. Start with ...And Justice for All (1988), out two months after the Dallas show.
Where to Hear It Live
A Texxas Jam tribute night with tribute bands played House of Blues Dallas on July 5, 2025, Buddy reported. As of October 2026 no new date is announced, so watch Buddy’s events page. Meanwhile, these heavy shows are on DFW calendars as of October 2026:
- Saturday, November 14, 2026: Rotting Corpse with Iron Jaw at the Haltom Theater, Haltom City. Details on our shows page.
- Wednesday, November 18, 2026: Forbidden with Heathen at Trees in Deep Ellum (show page).
- Sunday, March 21, 2027: Metal Church and Armored Saint at the Granada Theater (tickets).
- Wednesday, April 28, 2027: Iron Maiden at Dos Equis Pavilion in Fair Park, the old Starplex, a short walk from the Cotton Bowl (calendar).
Our guide to Dallas metal venues has the rest of the season.
Start with “The Price of God” (1987)
Cut at Pantego Sound Studio in summer 1987 with Vinnie Paul engineering, it’s what Metroplex thrash sounded like while the stadium booked arena rock.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Texxas Jam
- Pollstar: Louis Messina on Texxas Jam: “I’d Love to Bring It Back With Foo Fighters!” (Debbie Speer, Nov 7, 2022)
- Best Classic Bands: July 1, 1978: Texxas Jam Debuts
- Ultimate Classic Rock: Texxas Jam ‘78 (Eduardo Rivadavia, Jul 1, 2013)
- Nolan Dalla: Deep in the Heart of Texxas Jam (Feb 7, 2021)
- Buddy Magazine: Nancy Wilson reflects on Texxas Jam (Ian Saint, Feb 26, 2026)
- Buddy Magazine: Texas Jam Revival at HOB Dallas (Apr 11, 2025)
- Los Angeles Coliseum: Monsters of Rock Tour, 1988
- Wikipedia: ...And Justice for All (album)
- Wikipedia: Astrodome
- Van Halen News Desk: Van Halen at Texxas Jam 1986
- Louder: How Monsters of Rock 1988 Was the Making of Metallica (Steffan Chirazi, Aug 25, 2023; originally Classic Rock, 2006)
- setlist.fm: Metallica at the Cotton Bowl, July 3, 1988
- Ultimate Classic Rock: How a Free 1991 Van Halen Concert Nearly Broke Up the Band (Bryan Rolli, May 23, 2024)
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the Texxas Jam?
The Texxas Jam was an annual stadium rock festival, officially the Texxas World Music Festival, created by Houston promoter Louis Messina of Pace Concerts and manager David Krebs. It ran from 1978 to 1988, mostly at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, with Houston dates from 1981 to 1984.
Who played the first Texxas Jam in 1978?
The first Texxas Jam, on July 1, 1978, at the Cotton Bowl, was headlined by Aerosmith and Ted Nugent. Journey, Heart, Eddie Money, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Head East, Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, Walter Egan, an early-slot Van Halen and the battle-of-the-bands winner Blackstone were also on the bill, with Cheech and Chong doing comedy between acts. About 100,000 people attended.
Who played Texxas Jam 1987?
Texxas Jam 1987, on June 20 at the Cotton Bowl, was topped by Boston, Aerosmith and Whitesnake, with Poison, Tesla and the opener Farrenheit.
Who played Texxas Jam 1988?
The last Texxas Jam, on July 3, 1988, at the Cotton Bowl, was the Dallas date of the Monsters of Rock tour: Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica and Kingdom Come.
Why did the Texxas Jam end?
Promoter Louis Messina told Pollstar in 2022 that Pace moved its big summer shows to amphitheaters: “We can make more money playing an amphitheater than we could in the stadium.” Pace later built the Starplex Amphitheater in Fair Park, now Dos Equis Pavilion.
