Josh Abbott of the Josh Abbott Band returned to Lubbock Friday for a meet-and-greet event with Dairy Queen.
Fans attended for a chance to meet Abbott, receive free merchandise and Dairy Queen’s Dilly Bar.
“I’m happy to come back to Lubbock anytime,” Abbott said. “With it being such a huge weekend, this is just awesome.”
Abbott is visiting Lubbock during the same week ESPN’s College GameDay is stopping in Lubbock for Texas Tech football’s game against Brigham Young University at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“The impact Texas Tech and my time here specifically made upon my music is monumental because when our band first started, we were just a bunch of fraternity guys playing some originals and some covers,” Abbott said.
Abbott graduated from Tech in 2005, the Josh Abbott Band was founded in 2006. The band released its first song, “Taste,” in 2007.
“We’d go to the Blue Light, and we’d sell it out every Tuesday night. … We had packed houses,” Abbott said. “That energy from that (fans), it starts to get people talking.”
Success at Tech and Blue Light led to the Josh Abbott Band selling out larger venues and gaining recognition in other college towns.
“That buzz grows, and you start selling out bigger venues, and then all of a sudden you start going to other college towns and people are like, ‘Yeah, my friends at Tech said you got to go watch this guy, he sells out the bars there,’ and that spreads,” he said.
Abbott mentioned how many of his earlier songs were solely inspired by his time as a Red Raider.
Josh Abbott, Texas Tech alumnus and country musician, interacts with fans at a meet-and-greet with the star at Dairy Queen on University Ave., Nov. 7, 2025.
Jacob Lujan
“There’s so many songs that I have from early in our career that were about my time at Texas Tech, like ‘Road Trip.’ It’s (‘Road Trip’) is a song about me and my friends taking road trips in college, whether it was to football games or whether it was to New Mexico to go on ski trips,” Abbott said.
Abbott also mentioned his songs ‘Victory Bells’ and ‘Live While You Got It’ and how it is a tribute to the university and what it means to him.
Santiago Terrazas, a Tech senior, business management major from Spearman, said his sister would show him songs from the Josh Abbott Band.
“I’ve always wanted to come and see him, and it was a good opportunity,” Terrazas said, after joking that the event was an opportunity for a free Dilly Bar.
Ken Geihsler, owner and president at Brady’s Dairy Queen Inc., highlighted Abbott’s connection to West Texas and his affiliation with Tech and Dairy Queen.
“He’s (Abbott) just so important to the Texas Dairy Queen brand, and we appreciate everything he’s done for us,” Geihsler said.
Abbott now sings the iconic Dairy Queen jingle, “That’s what I like about Texas.” Geihsler said he loves having Abbott sing the jingle, as Abbott has loved Dairy Queen since his childhood.
“I just loved the connection we have. He loves the brand, we love him, and you couldn’t ask for a better weekend to have him,” Geihsler said.