If you just happen to be in the Dallas / Fort Worth area this weekend, you can join our man Shaq for a big New Year’s Eve party. Get your dancing shoes ready!
O’Neal will be ending the crazy year of 2023 in a place where he’s already got some business and personal roots. After all, Shaq has one of his several homes around the country in the northwest Dallas suburb of Carrollton. He’s been spotted at more than one Dallas Mavericks game, too.
So now for New Year’s, O’Neal will be on stage – as DJ Diesel, of course – at the Lights All Night festival, going on both Saturday and Sunday (this weekend, as of this blog post date) at Dallas Market Hall. Along with his own performance as dance music DJ, he’ll be joined on stage by another headliner, Skrillex.
The Dallas area has been home to a Lights All Night party for about 15 years now. The company that promoted it, called Disco Donnie Presents, has also been Shaq’s business partner in his very own Shaq’s Bass All-Stars Festival, which makes stops around the country.
Shaq is already well-known to the Dallas-area music scene. He put on his big Bass All-Stars Festival shows at Panther Island in Fort Worth earlier in the year. More than 15,000 of his close friends attended… never mind the 90-plus-degree heat.
The dance music scene is definitely one of O’Neal’s favorite side-hustles. On social media, he has called himself the “dubstep dad.” Star rapper Snoop Dogg even called him the “greatest NBA rapper of all time” in an Instagram post.
Shaq’s Texas roots go very deep. He tells the story of how – as a 14-year-old in his hometown of San Antonio – he would neighbors’ lawns, walk dogs and did other odd jobs to scrape together the cash needed to buy his first set of turntables at a local pawn shop.
Before the Panther Island show over the summer, Shaq told a local Dallas reporter that he gets a similar adrenaline boost in being on stage to what he felt in big basketball games. “When I get done with [DJing], I feel like I just played a Game Seven — energetic crowd going up and down, everybody having fun, kids just out there jamming.”
Along with the music festivals and home in Carrollton, Shaq also has plenty of business interests in the Dallas area. Plans are currently in the works to open upwards of 56 of his very own “Big Chicken” fast-casual restaurants across Texas. Look for new Big Chicken outlets in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin over the next few years. One – in Fort Worth – is set to open pretty soon.
Shaq also gives back to the communities that support him and his music. After the summer show at Panther Island, Shaq visited a local church, speaking at a banquet for a Youth Development program. He also visited a Dallas-area Boys & Girls Club, where he made donations to help renovate the club.
No matter how you spend your New Year’s Eve…stay safe out there! See you in 2024!