How Dustin Lynch’s Career Came Full Circle at Red Rocks (Exclusive)

• Dustin Lynch performed for the first time at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., on April 16, and he spoke with PEOPLE exclusively ahead of the show
• In addition to speaking on the significance of the show, the country star talked his Las Vegas residency, which inspired his upcoming new music and dance album
• Lynch also revealed his plans for his upcoming 40th birthday on May 14

Four hits into his show at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., on April 16, Dustin Lynch decided to switch up the pace with an Incubus cover.

Before launching into the band’s 1999 hit “Drive,” the country star, 39, introduced his former bandmates from his first-ever band and said, “We’re going to play a song by the band that inspired us to pick up instruments and write our own music to look cool in high school. It’s an honor to play this here.”

Backstage before the concert, Lynch told PEOPLE that he and his former bandmates would watch the recording of Incubus’ 2004 Red Rocks show, Alive at Red Rocks, all throughout college.

“We went our separate ways when we graduated high school, but when we’d get back together in college, we always watched that DVD,” he says. “Ever since we started the band, and ever since I’ve been on stage, I’ve wanted to play the Red Rocks Amphitheatre and today’s the day. It’s really special to get to share this trip and this night with the guys. It’s really our first big show of 2025, and I can’t think of a bigger, better way to start our year off.”

A percentage of ticket proceeds from the show also benefitted the Wildland Firefighter Foundation (WFF), further bringing things “full circle” for Lynch.

“As a young kid, I remember in grade school there was this book that I was obsessed with, and it was about [fire] hot spotters,” he says. “I don’t know exactly what it was called, but I remember going, ‘I want to be one of these guys that parachutes and fights fires.’ I remember we had a ton of big trees in our yard, and we’d get to burn leaves. I would go out in the yard and pretend like I was one of the firefighters. I’m just a little pyromaniac, is what it is.”

“To get to play a show for those guys and girls in this foundation this many years later at this iconic venue that I’ve always wanted to play is a crazy blessing,” he continues. “It’s those two worlds colliding. There’s going to be a lot of firefighters here tonight and their families, and I can’t wait to meet them.”

Also amongst the crowd were Lynch’s parents, to whom he dedicated a cover of Bill Withers‘ 1977 track “Lovely Day.” Earlier in the night, he shouted out his grandparents, whose love story served as inspiration for his 2012 debut song “Cowboys and Angels.”

“It’s one of our most listened to songs each year,” he says. “Just yesterday I had two different couples come up and tell me that it was going to be their wedding song. It started as a gift to my grandparents and their love story. They just celebrated 70 years of marriage this past Saturday, April 12. To hear that their song is going to be a part of someone else’s special day is wonderful.”

The Red Rocks performance was a long time coming for Lynch, who had to postpone the show from its original date in November due to snow.

“We hated to have to move it, but I’m glad we did,” he says. “Safety was the main thing. We ended up making the right call and there was a foot-and-a-half of snow on the ground, so it wouldn’t have happened anyways. But at the end of the year, I’m in tour shape. Being that this is my first show back and the altitude, it’s going to be a grind for me tonight to have the enough wind in my pipes, but I’ll give it all I got.”

In recent weeks, Lynch has mostly been singing in the studio, working on his new music.

“I’m having the most fun I’ve ever had creating music,” he says. “We’ve recorded a bunch of country songs, and we’re putting the final touches on what will be the next release for the country single. And then I’ve been writing and recording and working on a bunch of collabs for this new project that’s more geared towards our DJ-ing club set that we’ve been doing. It’s been really cool to dive into a completely new genre of music, but also bring in a lot of my collaborators from the country space and mesh it with the dance world. What we’re doing is probably a bit more lyric-heavy than what the dance world’s normally is, but we bring in that tempo and that beat.”

Lynch was largely inspired by his experiences in Las Vegas. In February, he became the first country artist to kick off a residency at the Wynn, bringing his Daytime Pool Situation to Encore Beach Club and a Club Set to XS Nightclub for dates running through August.

“What’s so fun about the shows is really just having the ability to switch it up on a dime, and get the room moving the way we want it,” he says. “I think we’re the guinea pig out there as far as these nightclubs having a country act, but it’s been an organic build for us.”

Lynch’s new music will follow his latest album, 2023’s Killed the Cowboy, which explored the in between of wanting to settle down but also wanting to continue pursuing new dreams. With the new music on the way, “there’s been a stall on settling down,” Lynch says with a laugh.

“There’s so much more to do now,” he says. “I’m so much more busy. I have a whole other brand of music that’s having its own shows and introducing me to new people. I’m happy with where I’m at and kind of just embracing what life has given me. You’ve got to pay attention to the universe and go, hey, it’s wanting you to do this.”

Though Lynch, who is single, has felt the pressure of “the clock ticking,” he knows “I’m doing the right thing.”

“Going through the journey of Killed the Cowboy, I recognized that I just got to pay attention to what I want, and that’s okay,” he says. “As long as I’m happy and continue to chase my dreams and I check myself and make sure that I’m enjoying the ride, I’m in a good spot. And I can live vicariously through my friends that are way ahead of me in the family building timeline. So I’m having fun being an uncle, being a godfather to a thousand kids, it feels like. It’s so funny to travel around and tour and all their kiddos get to come out and hang and I’m Uncle D to them, so I get a lot of fulfillment from them.”

For his upcoming 40th birthday on May 14, Lynch has plans to bring a close circle of friends to the Florida Keys to go fishing.

“I’ve just been really laser-focused on music for the past three months, since the new year, and when that week in May comes, I’m going to be ready for a breath,” he says. “It’ll be a nice little break before I’ve got to put some final touches on the dance record.”

As a new decade approaches, Lynch is keeping some goals in mind: “Keep having fun, keep getting better at loving life and making the most of all my days that I have left here.”

“That’s really it,” he says. “I think over the past 10 years I’ve definitely gotten better at that. Early on, it’s a grind and kind of a one-way street, just trying to climb the ladder, and I’m just comfortable with where I’m at now. Now I’m just embracing the fun and taking advantage of the opportunities I’m given.”