Shaquille O’Neal compares DJing to a basketball game
Shaquille O’Neal has admitted the thrill of playing to huge concert crowds as his alter-ego DJ Diesel is right up there with a high-stakes basketball game.
Bang Showbiz
- Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal will perform as DJ Diesel at the Neon Cactus in West Lafayette.
- The performance is scheduled for Sept. 26, after the Purdue versus Notre Dame football game.
- A limited number of tickets for the 21-and-over event will be available for purchase.
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — Former basketball star Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal will step into a DJ booth — under his stage name, DJ Diesel — on Sept. 26 at West Lafayette’s Neon Cactus.
O’Neal will play at the nightclub after the Purdue-versus-Notre Dame home football game.
In 2015, three years after retiring from the NBA, O’Neal performed under the name DJ Diesel for the first time at the electronic music festival Tomorrowland. He has continued to play at spontaneous gigs, including at the Miami Grand Prix on May 2.
“We have been trying to get top-tier DJs to come to the Cactus,” Cactus owner Ethan Brown said Monday. “We saw that he (O’Neal) had come to Chicago a few times and that he did extremely well up there, so we wanted to try to bring this experience to people in West Lafayette as well.”
In 2025, the bar hosted DJ Pauly D, also known as Paul Michael DelVecchio from “Jersey Shore.”
A press release created by O’Neal’s team and distributed Monday afternoon by the nightclub announced that 300 presale tickets will be released to the public at 10 a.m. Thursday on the Neon Cactus website and EZticketz.
This 21-and-over event will offer two types of tickets, Brown said: a regular viewing area and a pit section close to the main stage. Tickets will be $40 for general admission and $80 for pit tickets.
The Neon Cactus doors will open at 8 p.m., and the show begins at 9 with a few regularly appearing DJs.
“We just want to give the people of West Lafayette the best experience they could possibly imagine,” Brown said, “and hopefully we can do that at the Cactus.”
