Have you been to the Waffle House?

No, I haven't been to the Waffle House, no.

Okay, I figured that out.

I've been to the Walmart, the year I started in 22,

I was bit to the Walmart,

but I've never been to the Waffle House.

Again, I've no transport.

I mean, that year I started in Manchester,

like I had to get an Uber all the way across

to Copy County to collect the ticket chance.

So I think I saw the Waffle House the right time.

I've seen it, yeah.

I don't want to build up something too much,

but it is some pretty good Southern junk food.

It's pretty good.

Especially in the early mornings.

Hey, everybody.

Welcome back to the What Podcast.

I'm Barry, that's Russ, that's Brian.

We've got another special guest this week.

Guys, we've gone international.

We knew we were big.

We're international.

Yeah.

In the podcast, video cast, new media landscape,

you always know when you're talking to somebody

who's new in it, when they start looking at their,

you know, their limited metrics and they're like,

hey, look, I'm getting downloads in Singapore.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, you're not.

Those are Russian bots.

Always say we're big in South Korea or whatever.

It turns into a joke, but I mean,

seriously, there's bots all over the world

just jumping all over these kinds of feeds

for whatever reason, I guess,

to malware us to death or something.

But this is a real international viewer,

audience member that didn't listen or watch

because their friend told them to.

Right, right.

They just found it through the magic

of the Pacific Ocean that is the internet

while us little plankton are just, she found us.

How cool is that?

She found us.

And again, we've got to thank David Bruce

for mentioning that during the interview.

David introduced us to Geraldine.

She's our guest.

She lives in Dublin, Ireland.

She has attended Bonnaroo since 2019.

We talk about logistics of how that works.

Ha ha.

We joke.

It was a fun conversation.

I look forward to you guys hearing it.

It was neat.

I joke with Brian because he and I have said

since we've been doing this that he and I both stress,

have anxiety, not so much anymore

because we're pretty comfortable

with how things are working.

But until we pull in and open that car door

and pop that lid on the first cold drink, whatever it is,

it's shoulders up and tension

and waiting for the worst to happen.

I'm high strong on this kind of stuff on everything.

You generally aren't, but we are exactly the same.

Once we get to the farm, it's like we line up

and we're like, stress energy.

Now, you know, taco doesn't, he's sitting thinking,

these guys are nuts.

Yeah.

This is easy, man.

It's easy.

Just show up.

It's easy.

I've never seen Rush stressed about anything,

but I always think about, you know,

they don't have my name.

Oh, they're gonna.

They don't have my name right.

They're gonna ban me.

I'm gonna get there and I'm gonna find out I'm banned.

Exactly.

Everything is horrible.

We found out what you did in 2017, Brian.

Exactly.

And you can't park here.

You know, yeah.

You jumped the fence in 2002.

Trespassing.

Trespassing, yeah.

So imagine then traveling from Dublin, Ireland,

by yourself to a farm in Manchester, Tennessee.

Pretty cool.

You'll hear all about it here shortly.

We'll talk about that.

So we'll get into it.

But first, Brian, I stumbled across,

as I do when I can't sleep on YouTube,

a Mike Mills interview with Rick Biata,

talking about REM.

And of course I thought about you

because you attended a show here recently, right?

With some REM.

Connection.

Linkage.

Yeah.

I'm wondering if we saw that same clip.

I think I know what clip you're talking about.

Yeah, Peter Buck was in town for a show with Kevin Kenney,

Kevin Kenney of Driving and Crying.

That's a pretty strong lineup.

That I've, I mean, he plays in the South a lot

and Driving and Crying's apex,

the little they had was 38 years ago.

But Peter Buck and Kevin Kenney have always been good friends

and that started a lot between like 80s,

basically after the Green album in 1988

that had their most well-known was Be Stand

and they kind of got them out of that college radio only orbit.

They weren't international superstars yet.

And then out of time was 91.

That's when that happened.

So between those like three or four years,

Kevin and Peter Buck became real good friends.

He played on all his solo albums,

produced them and all that kind of thing.

But because of the difference in the popularity

of Driving and Crying and REM starting around 1991,

which from superstardom to none at all,

there was no connection between the bands for about 20 years

and it didn't make sense in a professional environment.

So seeing Kevin Kenney and Peter Buck play together,

it hadn't happened since like 1989 or something like that.

So they did four or five shows.

If you didn't know the music well,

if you're not a big Driving and Crying Kevin Kenney guy,

they didn't do anything that you were gonna wanna hear.

There was no REM music played.

Peter Buck didn't even have a microphone,

which I was a little slightly annoyed

because Kevin Kenney's a story telling type.

And so I thought, boy,

these two could probably banter really well.

I think they wanted to do music more or less,

television show storytelling,

but just to be able to be in a small room and see Peter Buck,

he's 68 now, 68 years old.

And he's the coolest guy in the band.

Maybe Mike Mills, there maybe, I don't know.

Everybody's cool compared to Mike's type.

Yeah, as far as like being a good guy

or an agreeable type anyway.

And so to be able to see him play for an hour and a half,

that was really, really neat in a real small room.

And I got a couple of pictures, but they're not very good.

What was the makeup, full band?

No, it was just the two of them.

It was acoustic, Buck played the dulcimer,

the mandolin, acoustic guitar, electric guitar,

but it was very relaxed and very sleepy.

It was just a couple of guys picking

like in your living room.

And that's what the stage,

which one of the pictures that we'll throw up,

we'll give you an idea what it looks like.

They got a great new video board at this local club we have.

So it had this really cool aesthetic.

It looked like they were hanging around

in your living room.

And played for an hour and a half

and to a very, very attentive audience

that you could tell as a bunch of old heads,

much REM, driving and crying, old drunks,

bunch of old friends.

It was really, really, really neat.

So to see a rock and roll Hall of Famer at any time is-

Yes, that's fun.

I noticed you didn't invite me though.

I didn't, I'm sorry.

It's a public place, Taco.

I don't have to invite you, you can just go.

You were probably in the van somewhere camping.

But I'll tell you, Joe Buck, Joe Buck.

Peter Buck, Joe Buck, sorry.

The baseball announcer, my bad.

My bad, Peter Buck.

Boy, that guy looks good.

Like that guy looks, he's tall,

cool as hell looking still, dresses like,

he's got the, man, he's got the look.

That guy, I hope I age like that.

That's all I'm gonna say.

I mean, obviously REM was a huge band in my youth.

I mean, they exploded.

Well, and I actually, I'm glad you said that

because I was thinking about that the other day.

I mean, that was right in your wheelhouse,

oh, your age at the time and college radio explosion.

That was really, I mean, I would have credited a lot

of that to REM, that whole genre becoming such a thing.

But boy, Michael Stipe, we've talked about

and joked on here.

Michael Stipe's a tough guy not to make fun of.

Yeah, that my older brother always calls it

losing my pretension.

My pretension.

Money in the corner, losing my pretension.

That's me in the corner.

That's great.

That's good.

Was that clip you were talking about,

Barry started to do this on the show and not before,

but were they talking about the Monster album by chance?

Well, it's a pretty lengthy, it's about an hour.

It was more than a clip.

So it's part of that, yes.

The clip, the only reason, and I'll just super fast,

is that because we have talked about Stipe

and the way he talks about things.

This was Mike Mills and they were talking

about the Monster record that came out in 1994,

which was a more rock album more than they'd ever done,

kind of fitting in with the times.

And they got a lot of feedback, bad feedback

from their old fans about that.

And Mike Mills said something like,

well, all they wanted was out of time

and automatic for the people 2.0.

And we weren't gonna give them that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was like, boy, Michael Stipe is just,

that was Mike Mills saying that.

I was like, Michael Stipe has bled right into you, man.

We weren't gonna give them what they wanted.

Well, the big thing when they came on, when they hit,

was you couldn't understand the lyrics.

And I don't know if you know this,

but Stipe was like, whatever you think you hear,

that's what you should hear.

It's like, it's art.

And then after a couple of albums, he came back and said,

you know what, I probably should enunciate the words

so people can understand.

Well, that was an era.

It was a big deal.

As everybody knows, my favorite band,

Pearl Jam, that was an era of mumbling,

was kind of the thing,

which it is, look back on it now, really.

That's what they, yeah, the album Murmur,

they basically called it mumble.

Yeah, there you go.

So that was really fun.

And outside of that, I am happy it's February

and we're finally getting closer to spring.

The online jokes everywhere were the,

January's been so long or, you know,

that was a long year this past January.

To me, it just disappeared like they all do,

but I'm happy to have February here.

Unfortunately, Phil saw his shadow,

so we're looking at six more weeks of winter.

Oh, is that what happened?

Whatever.

Didn't I see 140 days?

Are we less than 140 days till the farm?

Sounds about right.

I don't know.

I think that's right.

I think I saw a countdown number the other day too.

I think it was in the 130s.

Yeah, it'll be here before you know it.

All right, so we have, as I've teased before,

guys, we had a busy week.

I bet I've gotten half a dozen or just a few,

under a half a dozen emails from people

who are gonna come on the show here soon,

including Geraldine, who is our guest today.

We've been talking with her for quite a while

to make this happen and I'm really glad we did.

It was a great interview.

Live from Dublin, right?

Live from Dublin.

I hope you, she's five hours ahead.

So it was an early evening from her.

I think she was on the way to the pub, if I understand.

I'd get along with Geraldine just fine.

She's awesome.

I think so too.

Hope you guys enjoy this interview,

cause we sure did.

Here you go with Geraldine.

Yeah, and remember she requested not to be on camera,

so that's why you won't see her.

Correct.

Yeah, yeah, she didn't wanna be, so that's fine.

Glad to have talked to her.

So here we go.

Here we go.

Hey, Geraldine, how are you?

Hi Barry, Brian, Russ, how are you?

We're doing excellent.

Thank you so much for joining us

for such a far away distance.

Yeah, I'm in Dublin, Ireland.

Dublin, Ireland.

That's what I, we're, you know,

we love getting into the weeds.

We love the sausage making.

So my thoughts, what I wanna know

is how a girl from Dublin gets to Manchester, Tennessee.

Not just why, but how.

Oh, how, as in physical transports and-

I'm kind of curious about that.

Yeah, it's kind of torturous, all right.

I have two flights,

usually to maybe Chicago or Boston,

and then I change to Nashville.

Then I normally arrive on a Tuesday

and then stay in Nashville for Tuesday night

and Wednesday night,

and then head to Murfreesboro on the Thursday morning.

And then it's a shuttle.

So let me set this up.

I don't-

Yeah, let's back up a little bit

and what years were we talking about and all that?

Go Barry, this is your account.

You go ahead.

Yeah, let me set this up a little bit.

So a friend of the show and photographer to the stars,

David Bruce, sends Russ and I an email or a text,

what, at the Monday, wasn't it Russ, after Bonnaroo,

and said, I was on my way out

and I met the coolest girl from Dublin, Ireland.

And I don't know how you guys started talking,

but if I remember right, he said, she listens to the show.

She'd be a great guest.

And he sent me your contact information.

And I reached out and,

cause I, you know, I mean, what?

A girl from Dublin, Ireland is going to Bonnaroo

and not your first, right?

You've gone a couple of times.

Yeah, I started going in 2019.

And then, unfortunately, COVID happened

for the next two years,

but I had my tickets, but it rolled over

and then the storm,

but I wouldn't have been able to get in anyway

because of the, the barring order and the COVID.

So I was kind of, kind of glad when I choose to roll over.

So then I came back in 22 and 23 and 24.

So I've done four years

and hopefully 25 will be my fifth year.

Real quick, just so I, I'll forget this.

So when, for the 2021 that was,

that was canceled because of the weather,

at that point were travel restrictions

because of the pandemic still so tight

that you probably, you wouldn't have been able to travel.

Is that what you-

Exactly, yeah.

They were, they were still in place

in the 2021 one.

So it wasn't until the 2022

and I was traveling on a Tuesday.

And I could have traveled to write,

but I would have had to do the test.

So I'd have to do the test within like 24 hours

and that'd be landing like in say Chicago.

So I had to do it like right up the night before

and then get on the plane

and make sure it was in the 24 hours.

But that Friday, they announced the lifting

of the restrictions Friday before that weekend.

Huh, I mean, COVID feels like it was just-

I know.

It's actually been a little bit

and I forgot how long the travel restrictions were.

So that's-

Yeah, they went on right up to that weekend in June.

Well, I mean, you could still travel,

but you had to do the test.

And obviously if you were positive,

you wouldn't have been able to board the plane.

Yeah, so it was still even difficult two years later,

but okay.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

So obviously I didn't do the test

in case I was to put them

because they were lifted on Friday.

If we jump around, apologies,

but did I tell the story right?

You basically, it was Sunday late

when you ran into David, is that correct?

No, it was actually Saturday night.

We were both at the Idol Show.

Okay.

The late night Idol Show.

And I think I was on the rail.

Well, not quite in the master piece, but on the rail.

And just after the show, he asked me, did I enjoy it?

And we got talking.

And then he went to introduce himself.

And as soon as he spoke, I said, oh, I know who you are.

And he says, how do you know who I am?

And I said, oh, I listened to the podcast

or the podcast.

And he said, yeah.

And then I think he copped onto the accent as well,

but I wasn't from-

He's pretty sharp that day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This was probably about half one in the morning.

Yeah.

Isn't that something?

I mean, I think I didn't know about you guys in 2019.

It was when I came back that I found the podcast.

And then during those two years that we couldn't travel,

it kept me going and listening to listen to you guys.

Two years of a Bonnaroo podcast with no Bonnaroo.

With not one.

I wasn't around for those days.

Oh, yeah.

I knew you made the odd appearance.

Yeah, I'm popping every now and again.

It's like, please.

Your name would come up.

Your name would be mentioned.

The famous Ryan.

I forgot about that, Russ.

We did two years of a show about things that didn't happen.

That's right.

It might have been weekly.

I was thinking, was it monthly, you guys?

Or maybe-

It was random.

Random, yeah.

So we did the virtual podcast.

We did the virtual, Rue.

Yeah, that was a good one, actually.

That was good, actually.

Even though it was midnight, at four o'clock in the morning,

in my time.

Yeah, yeah.

So for people, again, listening, you're five hours.

So we're recording whenever you're listening to this,

whether it's morning or night, whatever.

But for us, it's a Sunday morning, about 11, 15.

So it's 4.15 where you are in Dublin.

Is that correct?

Correct, yeah, 4.15 on Sunday.

It's actually a bank holiday weekend here.

So we're off tomorrow.

Let's go back to 2018 or early 2019, whatever.

Why Bonnaroo?

Do you do a lot of festivals?

I mean, we're going to get into that.

Do you do Glastonbury and all of that?

But why Bonnaroo?

OK, I've never done Glastonbury, no.

Bonnaroo, I kind of discovered on YouTube.

I was around, I'd say it was 2013.

And I was into Alabama Shakes at the time,

seen them a couple of times in Dublin.

And I was just YouTube-ing randomly,

and I saw the performance of Bonnaroo.

And then I investigated.

I'd never heard of Bonnaroo.

And Bonnaroo is not well known over here at all.

I'm sure.

No, it's not.

People know Concello.

And they obviously, you're going to a festival.

You're going to my Burning Man.

It's not a music festival or such, you have to explain.

Probably, a lot of Ponsa is known as well.

But that's about it.

So I don't think, anytime I tell people I'm going to Bonnaroo,

they've never heard of it.

It's amazing.

Because obviously, I got into it then

and watched all the performances that I could find on YouTube.

Originally, I always, when I was younger,

I always wanted to go to Austin, Texas,

and to Southwest by Southwest.

And then I just kind of fell in love with Bonnaroo

with the look of it.

And I had been to Nashville before.

I had been to Nashville once before.

So I knew Nashville a long time ago.

And it was also maybe a chance to go back to Nashville

and to incorporate Nashville and then go on to Bonnaroo.

I hadn't a clue where I was going to stay.

Not a notion.

I knew the tickets were going on sale.

Yeah, well, and every year, well, then financially,

you had to kind of think about it.

So then one day, the tickets went on.

Used to go on sale on Black Friday.

So that Friday, I normally go for a couple of drinks.

And I was thinking about it all day.

And when I came back home that evening,

I just went and bought the tickets.

Yeah, to an impulse.

Yeah, a good shot of whiskey.

A little shot of a pint of Guinness.

Yeah, a couple of Guinness.

Sounds like you guys do Black Friday, just like we do in the States.

We had some drinks.

Start buying stuff.

Well, I mean, it's great.

Like, there's a layaway plan.

So I could investigate.

Like, I just had to put a deposit in and then see what I do after that.

Geraldine, really fast before I, you might have already said,

if you did, I'm so sorry.

I'm trying to follow along here.

Was there something from Bonnaroo that, was there one band

that you were a fan of that made you start looking that direction?

Or did you just stumble on a festival you were so enthralled with the way

the festival looked, or was there music you were looking for specifically

to make that decision to come to the States?

I think of his music, yeah.

And the number of bands.

Like, we do have festivals here in Ireland.

So just the quantity of it, you just...

It's the quantity, yeah.

And also, like a lot of the American bands, you know, we

make one or two headlining the festival, but not as many.

Yeah, I'm trying to imagine Alabama Shakes in Dublin.

I love that idea.

Especially at the time.

I mean, they were massive at that time, but they are so different, especially then.

Yeah, I remember that.

They played a bank holiday Monday in Dublin, or it was a bank holiday weekend.

I didn't have a ticket, actually, but I remember going outside and buying a ticket

from somebody that had a spare ticket.

And Brittany was standing outside the venue.

She was a lot younger then.

She did actually, I think she went to Kenny, it was a Roots Festival on that.

It used to be on the June bank holiday weekend.

She's talking about Brittany Howard.

Yeah, they played there as well.

And actually, a guy I knew then actually was doing sound down there.

And for some reason, he connected with them and he went on tour with them.

Oh, wow.

I think he lives in the States or in the UK now.

Are you a camper?

No, I don't come.

It's. I like you more and more as this goes along, Geraldine.

I know. I know.

I just got back from his 20th trip in the last year.

You're not technically.

Yeah, I just got done camping.

Well, I like I hear it'd be very I'm a solo traveler like I go on my own.

So, you know, the logistics of even having to organize to camper.

And there would be wouldn't.

I wouldn't have any transports anyway.

That was my next question.

Is it unusual for you to go out by yourself on a trip like this?

I mean, obviously, Dublin to Manchester, I'm guessing is not normal.

But is it unusual for you to strike out on your own and just go

to a weekend trip or something? Yeah.

No, it's not unusual. No, no.

I mean, I've been going to gigs since I was on my own since I was about 18.

You know, and I I've always loved music.

So even when I lived outside Ireland, like I'd go go to bands.

But during Covid, for example, we probably shut down longer than you guys.

So a lot of the venues were closed.

So if I could like go over to the UK was was not quite as restrictive.

So if I close in the morning, I go over to see a band over there.

And OK, so Brian struck out in 2002

up to Manchester on his own with I think you had a ticket or you didn't.

I did not have a ticket, did not have a ticket my first year.

I mean, I spent six months hyperventilating over what to pack

and what not to pack, and I'm 55 minutes away.

So what we're what's going through your head when you're thinking

I'm going to a 700 acre farm in the middle of Tennessee in June?

Was that three thousand miles away or five thousand miles away?

How far is that really? No, I won't say I wasn't stressed.

Yeah, I was stressed.

I'm not I'm not the best at airports and travel or timekeeping or catching a flight.

And then you're worried about you can connect the connection and

the first year to 19, it was made a little bit easier for me

because there was a shuttle service as part of your hotel package, which I discovered.

So there was you paid for your hotel in Murfreesboro and.

There was an organized

Bonnaroo sort of affiliate company

event logistics, I think they were called.

Who ran a bus every hour, say from 11 in the morning

till on a Friday and Saturday, coming back at five a.m. in the morning,

which was great.

And the other thing you get stressed about as well as when you get your ticket,

you know, your your wristband arrive.

So the first few years, they didn't actually post them.

They don't post the international ones.

So you had to collect it at Willco, which is in there.

No, no, I don't like that.

Oh, that's right.

And that's us.

That was a stress like.

But the first year to 19, the the the event organizer for that

shuttle service, he was in contact like for three or four weeks.

I think he had to change my hotel.

They were overbooked or something.

So I explained that I was stressed about the tickets.

So he collected it for me.

So when I arrived, they actually had a table at

Nashville Airport and.

They were directions where the shuttle was, yeah,

but I think I stayed overnight and then came back to the airport

the next day and got the shuttle.

And then when when you arrived in your hotel, they had the arm

pads ready for me, which is they were they were very good.

Second year, 22,

22 was it was not quite as sold out,

so I was actually lucky enough to get a hotel in Manchester itself.

But it was late, it was April, I think, before it looked just so again stress.

Where am I going to find a hotel?

Where am I going?

How am I going to get from Murphy's Boomer to to Manchester?

But I said in the in the holiday conference

in as you go just off to the Walmart there, Manchester.

We know well, you know, well, yeah.

So that was quite handy.

But it was.

But again, I remember getting the they were still.

But we were still running the buses, the shuttles from Nashville Airport.

So I went out to the airport, got the shuttle,

and I asked the guys to drop me off at the hotels.

And it was the guys first trip, I think.

So he said he had to go into the campsite first.

So we went into the campsite and

but the one of the organizers in the campsite said,

no, we can't drop you off for insurance purposes.

So there I am in the middle of the campsite,

just near production road there with the suitcase and the backpack

and my house and coach.

And I'm going, oh, my God, how am I going to get to?

And I didn't have a phone service either.

I wasn't very organized for two years with the phone.

Bring us your poor or bring us your tired.

We promise the tickets will be here.

We promise you'll have a place to say, oh, yeah, I still think you're brave.

Geraldine, you are brave.

So there I was standing in the middle,

like the guy wouldn't drop me back on the bus.

I was standing in the middle of production road and then kind of looking a bit lost.

And a guy in a jeep, a young guy in a jeep stopped

coming out of it.

That would be the the the workers car park there.

And so they're going to go.

So you can just say, no, put your case in the in the.

Oh, is it you guys call it?

We call it the trunk, the boot.

You call it the trunk.

OK, so I said I couldn't lift it.

It was too high.

So he wasn't too happy to get out of the car.

But as soon as I got in, he said, where are you from?

And I said, I'm from Dublin, Ireland.

And he said, I knew when you said trunk, you were not.

My grandfather is from Dublin, Ireland.

Oh, wow.

Yes. There you go.

So you drove me right.

The separation. Yeah.

Yeah. You drove me right up to the hotel.

I was in Dublin a year ago, my 21st.

I have to say, I'm proud of this is how much Bryan Stone has grown,

because this is the kind of story that would have put him in a fetal position

on the floor a couple of years ago.

That's not all right.

Maybe I'm exaggerating, but it would have stressed me out to that.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I mean, the very first year, it would have

in 2019, I missed the shuttle.

Yeah, I missed the shuttle coming back my first night.

And it was the Thursday night.

So the the the what stage wasn't open.

And when I arrived there,

there was three people got on the bus.

The shuttle used to like all those hotels and beside each other in Murfreesford,

for the the they'd stop, you know, at each one.

And three people came on the bus, husband and wife from Knoxville.

That's the Stacey and Jerry.

And they were talking to me and told, you know, like, again,

you've come all the way from Ireland.

And when I came in and when I was dropped, I was talking to them too.

And I never paid attention how I got in.

So that night, the bus was coming back at three in the morning

because it was Thursday night and I couldn't find the bus.

I just got to find because the what stage was all closed off.

It was all closed off.

And I'm walking around the whole of the hoarding.

We had we had come in.

In those days, the bus used to stop on Production Road

and you come in at the back of the between the bridge and the what stage.

Yeah. And but at night on the Thursday night, it was closed.

And I couldn't find it.

And of course, nobody knew what I was talking about.

And I was just walking around to, you know, like, oh, this is the campsites.

These are the campsites.

Yeah.

So in 2009, my wife, the one and only time came up for one night

and she brought bags full of stuff, food, whatever her sleeping

and had that same experience, except she couldn't catch a bus, a shuttle,

because they were transporting artists.

And they would transport artists one at a time.

And they wouldn't let a fan or, you know, a guest on just the artist.

So she sat there for an hour and then they dropped her off.

I know exactly where you're talking about with her bag.

She looked like, you know, she just moved to Los Angeles to become a movie star.

Plane, trains, automobiles.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I eventually.

Yeah, it's I eventually

they used to run the buses to Nashville.

So I tried out, can I get the bus to Nashville?

Or and drop me off on the highway, but of course,

they don't do that for insurance purposes either.

So when it was one of those, it was a year it rained so bad,

I couldn't get my car out to go get her because there was mud

back in the campsite where we were.

So, yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

No, you're grand.

So I think I got one of those.

Well, they're not the shuttle service is not just for the artists,

but for the workers on the site, maybe to their hotels.

So one of the nice women driving the shuttle.

So she let me on.

So she brought me to the nearest motel.

That's about four o'clock in the morning.

And I still didn't know how I was going to get back to my free spirit.

I was this young girl behind the desk in the in the in the motel.

And she actually she was probably mid 20s.

She actually had lived in Dublin.

She kept telling me all these horror stories about Bonnaroo.

You know, oh, my God, you know, her brothers wouldn't let her go there.

It was a dangerous place.

So then all of a sudden, yeah, unbelievable.

But anyway, eventually, I got a taxi.

Well, I believe everything here.

No, I certainly didn't.

It was just weird.

But I can the taxi or the cab arrived. Sorry.

It was a local Manchester cab company.

And the lady arrived and she brought her husband with her.

And I'm going to be kidnapped here

in the middle of Tennessee at five o'clock in the morning.

Rural America.

A small car would like the husband and wife.

And I was also on a budget because my wages weren't going to come true

to the next day or to that weekend.

Let me go. I can only spend so much.

But anyway, we got you.

I think after that day, I survived.

So the second day to the site

as soon as I walked into the stage, I knew

I really felt at home. Yeah.

It was all worth it.

It was all worth it. I was forgotten about.

Yeah. So I've managed.

I have missed the shuttle again over the years,

but I've managed to get back each time.

How many times Russ and Brian, have we heard people say,

you know, the horror stories?

I spent 14 hours in the parking.

Our contest winner last year. Yeah.

But I love it and I'm going back.

It never ends like it ever.

I mean, it's it's a hard weekend.

That's the first thing I preface. Anybody knows nothing about them.

Like, it's a really tough weekend.

You got to be ready for it.

And most people are if they know what they're getting themselves into

even a little bit, it's it's always a fun story.

And this and the in some answer to the question, whoever you're talking to is

it's all worth it. It's worth it.

I'm going back. I want to do it again.

Yeah. Never deters people.

What was that moment, Geraldine?

What was it when you were like, I love it.

I'm going back. Yeah, I'm here. This is my place.

It was the second day that I went into the festival.

It was the afternoon. I was still 19.

And the luminaries are somewhere playing.

And I just felt when I walked through.

I was heading to one of the tents, I think, but I really love this place.

Yeah, this is everything.

Yeah, I thought it would be.

And so how many how many years have you been, Geraldine?

I've done four years.

Four years. So 19, 22, 23, 24.

So four in a row then, right? Yeah, more or less.

You are very, very dedicated.

Do you still do this solo?

Have you created a network satellite network of sorts over the years?

I mean, or I mean, eventually you can't get lonely at Monterey

if you don't want to.

But have you created a community kind of on your own?

I suppose the first year.

Yeah, I remember

I met those people from Knoxville and they invited me to join them.

But I kind of just did my I didn't want to cramp their space.

And I actually really liked that.

That couple from Knoxville, they were they were with their friend

from California, and they was usually four of them went.

They said they've gone for five years.

I actually have never seen them since covid though.

And but the the the person that was missing Joan was her name.

You know, they had a totem with her face on.

So she could be there in spares.

Even that fascinates me, you know.

But yeah, I didn't keep it or hadn't got a contact for them.

And I've never seen them again there over the next three years.

And 23 that I met a girl from Atlanta.

Yeah, we keep in touch all the time.

And yeah, last year, I've met

person from Wisconsin and another girl with her daughters.

I'm Atlanta.

Are you like us that you talk about this all the time?

Do you do? I bore people. Yeah.

I'm going to ask, are your workmates tired of hearing about it?

Yeah, you know that festival that you've only kind of heard of.

Let me tell you all about it.

Even before I went to 219, like, you know,

and I just shown sort of the workmates, the the Bonnevue code.

They said, are you going to join a cult?

Yeah, we have a secret handshake and everything.

Maybe I will.

Oh, my God. Yeah.

No, I think I've bored people with.

And but I think was maybe a year ago

in the bar that I drink in.

I'm just Americans in one day and I can't remember what state they were from,

but I mentioned Bonnaroo and then the barman actually are

the barman from Dublin said I was there.

I was in Bonnaroo, so he was the first person I met in Dublin that had been to Bonnaroo.

He had lived in the States at the time and he was there to 2014, I think.

So I call him he's my one follow

Bonnaroo in Dublin.

So when you're when you're at your bar

and you start talking about Bonnaroo in maybe 2019 or any year,

what is it you tell people?

What is it you tell them why you love it so much?

Usually the music, yeah.

Oh, the weather, of course, the weather helps as well.

You know, I mean, really?

Yeah. Compared to Ireland said no one ever.

That's not what anybody says here.

I know I like it, actually.

All I do like hot, hot, hot weather, but it's generally not what people stop

or start. Oh, yeah.

Oh, well, I mean, like a few years, Glastonbury is to be washed out now.

But I mean, it's been good to the last.

It's been good, actually, in Busterburg.

Well, I mean, I only watch it on the TV.

But because they show it on the BBC here, they show it the whole weekend.

We do got to remember, guys, sorry, that the weather over the UK

and surrounding areas is in Ireland significantly.

And I'm sorry, I know you're not thinking, but it's

significantly different than it is here in the South and in the States.

So I could see the the it can be wet

with a difference.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So so it can be wet and mucky.

Yeah. Yeah.

To me, the other day, I actually loved the first year.

I love this and that tent.

Yeah, I love the tents. I love the atmosphere.

I looked at the crowd surfing everything.

Well, not that I was crowd surfing, but you know what I mean?

Yeah.

It the other thing that surprised me as well was there was no queues.

There was no queues at the bars.

Lines. Yeah. Yeah.

We call those lines. Yeah.

No lines. No lines. Sorry. Yeah.

There was real toilets.

You know, everything was very clean.

Yeah. Yeah. Very clean.

In 2019, those would have been pretty new at that point.

Yeah. Brand new. Yeah.

Compared to festivals that it was happening, it was a lot younger. Yeah.

And even like we would have daily, you know, we'd have I would go to

outdoor venues and during the summer for concerts here.

Yeah. No lines. No, no lines at the bars.

You mentioned before going that you mentioned the Bonnaroo Code.

Did you feel that? I did. Yeah.

Yeah, certainly.

You know, people just didn't throw things on the ground as or sorry.

I also I also loved the fact, you know, it was promoting inclusion, diversity and.

You know, and the different genres.

I mean, you still do that in some places around.

Yeah, we won't go into that now. Yeah.

And. Yeah.

And the whole ethos of looking after the farm and the community,

the community, you can see it.

I mean, like the last couple of years, I used the jam tracks, you know,

when the shuttles now drop off at the West Till Bridge.

So you still have to make your way from there into center route.

So even when you're on the jam tracks, you get talking to people.

Yeah, you can see the friendliness and the I've met people from every state.

I feel like I've met people from every state there. Yeah.

I'm asking the same question different ways because I'm fascinated.

So was it what you expected?

Was it better? Was it right at it?

I mean, because I can only imagine, you know, your whatever.

Like Brian said, eight million miles away and you find this thing on YouTube

and you think you want to go and you had to have some assumptions, perceptions.

Maybe some reservations.

So yeah, obviously, fears was it and you keep going back.

So I'm guessing it was fun. It is fun. But.

I suppose the fairies were there were how I was going to get there.

Yeah, I was going to get there each day.

And that was taken away from me in 2019, but then it still was back then in 22.

Music wise, it lived up to my expectations and beyond.

And what I wasn't expecting then was all the friendliness and the.

Okay.

How well it was wrong, the sound, everything.

Yeah.

So how have you done your accommodations from from 19 to 24?

You talked earlier about how you were doing the hotel kind of package and shuttles and stuff.

Have you stuck to that strategy or have you changed up how you've done the accommodate?

You can't more.

Do you do sat? Do you do both?

How do you do it more?

No, I still don't count because just just it's too hard.

Too hard for travel.

Yeah, it's too hard for travel.

Maybe for with people or we're traveling with people.

Yeah, but you can still find you a satellite camp.

You can pop in and have a drink or a part or a game of beer pong or whatever it is.

They'll always welcome you.

And so the second year, yeah, 222, I stayed in Manchester, so I Uber to every day to the

festival and there was no difficulty.

I don't tend to go.

Yeah, I don't tend to to go, you know, till four o'clock, half forward.

And I'm a night person, so I'll stay till.

I'll stay till the early morning of the of the hours of the morning.

The heat is not as warm then, obviously.

It was difficult getting out each night and back to the hotel.

It was difficult, you said it was.

Yeah, yeah.

So I get now that.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, when I hadn't got the phone, I hadn't got the phone that year.

It wasn't.

We kind of glossed over that.

You were you were there without a phone.

Yeah, I had a phone, but I mean, I had a phone that I could use in hotels and the

Wi-Fi, you know, but I haven't got the SIM cards for the.

Oh, my God.

I don't even think dummy me.

I mean, yeah.

International SIM card.

Yeah.

International SIM cards, which I did.

I could have organized, but I didn't.

Why would you?

Yeah, it's great.

It's the feeling of not getting contacted by work or anything.

Yeah, it's freedom.

But it was a hindrance.

It was a hindrance.

That second year, all right.

All right.

Third year, I've sorted it out.

So I do a deal.

I pay so much a day and I have full coverage.

Okay.

So along those lines, one of the things we love doing are the tips for people.

So if I'm traveling internationally, coming to Bonnaroo, what are your top five tips?

Like we've talked about, you know, how to pack your cooler and all.

You're obviously not doing that.

Those tips don't do anyone good for you.

Good.

Yeah.

What are your what if you had a friend coming or someone else from, you know, overseas?

What are your tips?

Well, I suppose it's different for me because I'm staying in a hotel.

So you don't really have to bring yourself and whatever you need.

I would recommend not flying straight in on a Thursday and going straight to Bonnaroo.

The night before, like the Wednesday is a better time to travel.

Or just give yourself that nice rest.

But I mean.

And what are you packing this year that you didn't pack in 2019 or vice versa?

Less.

Less.

Yeah.

Okay.

Less.

Less is more.

Less is more.

You don't need all the stuff.

Just keep it simple.

Yeah.

I mean, I think the first year you go to a festival, I bought some new stuff, but no,

you don't need this enough.

It does get a little,

I always find the first day after 12, it gets a little cooler.

Right.

The other thing I find strange when I go to the States is

when you do go to buy a drink or whatever, yeah, you have to show your identification.

We pretend to care about stuff like that.

It makes us feel good.

Oh my God.

So like there it was for the first four days.

It's a whole brass and other people.

Bringing my passports because I didn't have a driver's license.

So every time I went to buy any alcohol or whatever, I had to show my passports,

which is crazy.

Yeah.

Have you been to the Waffle House?

No, I haven't been to the Waffle House.

No.

Okay.

I figured that out.

No, I've been to the Walmart, the area I stayed in in 22, I was bit to the Walmart,

but I've never been to the Waffle House.

Again, I've no transport.

I mean, that year I said in Manchester, like I had to get an Uber all the way across to

Copy County to collect the ticket chance.

So I think I saw the Waffle House the right time.

I've seen it, yeah.

Yeah.

I don't want to build up something too much, but it is some pretty good southern junk food.

It's pretty good.

Especially in the early mornings.

What's the best show?

What are the shows that you have stood out?

And then of course, what are you looking forward to this year?

Oh, I'll just go back.

Sorry.

The last two years I've stood in Murphy's Fever and I use a private shuttle company.

Sorry, I didn't answer.

Yeah.

So they...

Figured out a little bit more.

See, these are the tips.

That's good.

Yeah.

So those guys are not affiliated to Bonnaroo, which is probably a little...

You know, if Bonnaroo are advertising the hotels, they don't have the corresponding shuttles.

There's just not many.

There's just so few.

So they have no trouble getting them sold.

So they don't make it flashy.

Come check this out.

You know, it is there, but there's just so few of them.

But yeah, so over the last...

Let's talk about for just a second, Jodyne, the last four years, all your trips,

some of your favorite shows, whether they be tiny or large from the last half decade.

Yeah.

I suppose my standout for 2019 was the two headliners, Childish Cabino and Post Malone.

I wasn't expecting...

I didn't really know.

I mean, I knew of Post Malone, but I didn't really...

They blew me away.

Childish, obviously, everybody loved that.

Yeah.

22, I sort of love music wise because it was more like the goose and...

Goose.

You were in early on Goose, Jodyne.

Look at that.

Well, I discovered Goose during the virtual room, actually.

Yeah, that's where I just go.

As we all did.

Now the lore of the show.

Jodyne discovered Goose.

Period.

Sentence is over.

And they came...

You discovered Goose, Jodyne?

They came on their first European tour in 23, the end of 23, but they didn't do Dublin.

So I went to see them in the UK.

I saw them on a boat in Bristol.

See, by that time they were starting to make their ascension, though.

You go back to...

What year did we just say?

Did you say 22?

Yeah.

They were just...

That was just starting.

Okay.

And it's amazing.

It's the same with Billy Strings.

When they come over to Europe, Billy Strings, I think has been here twice.

They have a huge American fan base that come with them.

Unbelievable.

Yeah.

That virtual Goose set was...

That was it.

Everybody talked about that one.

That was huge.

Warren Trotter, just for the last year as well.

Kinga Zutcher.

Yeah.

And any others from the last year or two?

From the last year to...

Last year, I got to...

Yeah.

My morning jacket, of course, the year before, yeah.

Was in the pit for the rich stage.

You could have been standing right next to Barry and didn't even know.

Probably were, yeah.

No, I think...

Probably were.

Sorry.

Last year, Idols were my standout gig last year.

Even though they were an English band and I had to go all the way to Bonnaroo to see them.

But I've seen them since.

I saw them there last October in Dublin again.

All right.

And did you buy your ticket for this year already?

And did you buy it before the lineup?

I did, yeah.

I still do it.

Like the following years, it was again, it was the Black Friday.

It's changed now.

It's not a bad lineup.

It's not about the lineup.

No, I mean, I do the layaway plan, so if anything changed between this and...

I won't stand to lose everything.

They got you.

I love it.

They got you.

Yeah.

So you just put...

I was actually like this year, I just have to put $25 down in November, yeah.

So it was in the first 1000.

So I got the PayPal, pay by PayPal to get your deposit back.

So I was quite chuffed with that.

It's been one of the first 1000 to buy the ticket.

Where's the fund?

Wow.

So who are you excited to see?

Yeah.

So what about this year's lineup?

What are you thinking?

What's standouts and what are you excited about?

I'm just thinking every minute.

Well, I'm very excited for a three-day residency of Gizzard, yeah.

Let's see what the conflicts are if we go to the whole three days.

And who's the plane?

Yeah.

You're gonna have to give me the lineup now.

Give me a minute.

Yeah.

Well, let me backtrack on that for just a second then.

You talked about how at least in...

I think it's gonna be depending on who you talk to

and what area of the world you're talking to people.

But you talk about in your circles, a lot of people didn't know

who what Bonnaroo even really was.

Maybe they heard about it, but they didn't really know what it was.

What about King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard?

Do you walk around Dublin and anybody?

Oh, yeah, that band.

Do they have international name recognition in your community where you live

or is that your little secret gem that nobody knows about?

They're not as well...

They certainly are well known in Europe, yes.

They certainly do the UK and Europe and they mostly do the festival scene.

So I think I've never seen them live in Dublin,

but I think they did one of our festivals.

I think they've done a picnic, which is electric picnic, which happens in September.

Yeah, they're making noise all over the world.

They're making the noise, yeah.

I'm not now huge into the headliners this year.

Yeah, I think that's a common theme with people, with much of us that are still

over the moon excited about the festival,

which is a testament to how well they do things.

I'm not a huge Hosea fan, so I won't tell.

So you're saying Olivia Rodrigo isn't going to be the biggest party tonight for you?

No, but I mean, I will have a walk by or whatever.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah, of course.

I mean, one of the big things I love about Bon Iruzari is the different genres of music.

Bon Iruzari opened me up to a lot of different music.

Yeah, and you're five years in now.

You've been on production road.

You've come in from every angle trying to travel around.

You know the land is anybody from the States here, so that's half the battle.

So that's so cool that you know the insides of the entire property now, too.

So you can just get there and it's turning into your playground.

Yeah, I mean, it certainly wasn't stressful the last two years thinking about it,

but the month before the first two years was stressful.

Yeah, especially the second year, 22.

Especially coming off a two-year hiatus.

And yeah, of course.

Yeah, it's wild.

Marcus Cake, I've seen before.

Yeah.

Well, along those lines, who were, and we're going to talk about it in a little bit,

Brian Russ and I, because I think it's going to be one of our contest questions, but

who is somebody that you maybe had no clue about before you came over to Bon Iruzari

and went home and now they're one of your favorites?

That's always my sort of thing, is discovery type of thing,

especially maybe a genre or something like that that you had no idea.

Who are your favorite discoveries from Bon Iruzari?

That's different.

I haven't got the lineups in front of me.

I mean, a lot of the bands I might have seen before, but I kind of knew who they were.

I am.

Put you on the show.

Again, we're going to cut out because I want to ask these guys later,

but like Courtney Barnett for me, you stole mine, damn it.

I know.

I was actually going to say Courtney Barnett, too.

Well, I thought I had the good one.

Courtney.

I got the one right here.

Bahamas for me, Warren Treedy, those are now on my regular rotation types.

Courtney Barnett, I love, I think that was the first full, no, it wasn't.

That Thursday in 2019, I arrived actually during the, when they used to have the Grand Ole Opry,

and then The Nude Party was playing next.

So that was my first full show, The Nude Party, but they had played,

usually you'll get one artist on Bonnaroo that will actually be in Dublin a month before that.

So I always kind of make a point to go, so if there is a clash, I would see them.

I remember talking to The Nude Party outside, I said to them,

outside the venue in Dublin, I said, I'll see you in Manchester.

And it took him a few minutes.

He thought I meant Manchester, the UK to cap on.

Yeah.

Yeah, and the next gig was Courtney Barnett.

It was in that tent, I think, wasn't it?

That blew me away.

Yeah, she was great too.

I thought she might be back this year, because it's a couple of years since she played.

Yeah, it's been a while.

Yeah, her touring schedule has slowed down the last few years, at least in the States.

I don't know what she's doing in Australia and all over the rest of the world, but.

Yeah, she hasn't played in Dublin.

She has done, I think, a festival, right?

Do you get out into the plazas at all, or you strictly go from hotel to stay in

Saint-Aurue and watch the shows?

Yeah, the first year, 2019, I went out to the plazas more, actually.

I went to wear in the woods twice, but it was near where the shuttle was as well.

I never seem to make it out, no, it's too much going on.

After a while, the luster wears off the walking miles around the G.O. Canyon.

It's a fascinating place to be.

Don't get me wrong.

Don't do not get me wrong.

Fascinating place to be.

But then in a while, it's like what stage?

500 acres.

I'll go to West End.

It was like, I guess, CVC there, the Welsh band, they were playing a couple years ago.

They were 23, really, or 22.

They were at the plaza as well.

They did a show there, and I'd intended to go there.

But you didn't do the beer exchange or?

Yeah.

Okay.

I'll have to come earlier to do the beer exchange.

Yeah.

Bring a few.

I get to see a lot of people.

All right.

What else, guys?

Boy, I mean, that covers a lot.

I appreciate it a lot, Geraldine.

I didn't know what to expect here at all, but we sometimes just kind of let the show run

and kind of create itself.

And thank you so much.

It's so cool to have such a different perspective.

And how well you know everything about it in such a short amount of time.

That is really wild to me, and I appreciated it.

But yeah, I've got about everything covered, everything I need to cover for my end, Barry,

and tacos.

Floor is yours.

Yeah, I guess, well, you're kind of at a natural advantage because of the time difference,

because it's later in the day for you.

So you actually are more awake during the late night stuff where we are.

That was an interesting thought.

Yeah.

Good point.

You kind of already mean when I arrive over there.

Yeah, or the jetliner.

I've always been a midnight person anyway, and late person.

So that is probably my favorite time in Bonnaroo.

From the time the headliner and the what stage then and whoever's playing on that half

eleven twelve o'clock slot.

That's my peak in Bonnaroo.

Yeah.

Well, and I'll say with you not having to wake up in those tents at six

fifteen in the morning, those late nights are going to go a lot harder and a lot more fun.

So you've got the recipe.

This is a book you can write here on how to do this.

I love it.

Yeah.

Late night sleep in, head home back in and spend the day.

Yeah.

The thing is, they're quite excited.

You don't actually sleep that much even in the hotel.

You know, you still tend to wake up.

You might get in and say, oh, no, you just have five in the morning and you wake up like

a couple of hours later and you're off again.

You just keep going.

I mean, the Monday Monday is tiring.

I never got much done in Nashville or, you know, none of us do.

It's just a weekend.

Go as hard as you can without anything, without ruining things.

We have whole episodes on this kind of stuff.

Right.

Right.

Real quick, because I meant to ask it to begin.

What's the travel time when you leave your house or whatever?

When do you land in Manchester?

Is it an all day?

Yeah, I tend to go.

Well, this is the time difference.

So I tend to go for the afternoon flight from Dublin, which could be around four o'clock

in the afternoon on a Tuesday.

Like morning in the States.

Which is late morning in the States.

And I would tend to get into Nashville at 11 o'clock.

So that night, would you have to put in the seven hours?

I think it's eight hours during the summer difference.

It changes with the clock going forward.

So I usually arrive in Nashville around the 11.

And the first thing that always strikes me is the heat.

Even then you have to find where you're staying in Nashville as well.

Yeah, this year we're lucky now.

We actually now have direct flights starting in April from Dublin to Nashville.

Oh, nice.

So that's going to take out that stress of having to change.

I will go back to work on the Friday.

I come back from Nashville on the Wednesday usually.

And I arrive in Dublin like nine o'clock Thursday morning.

And then go back to work on Friday.

Yeah.

You give yourself some time.

Okay.

Interesting.

All right, Geraldine, thank you so much.

Okay, guys.

Look forward to it.

Hopefully I'll meet you guys face to face.

We'll have a big reunion.

We'll get I am Bonnaroo.

We'll get whoever we need to.

We'll go pick out a show and go all go together.

I mean, I'm dead serious.

I'd love to do that.

I'd love to talk to you on the phone.

I'd love to meet you in person.

Yeah.

Yeah.

How much fun was that?

Okay.

Yeah, man.

I mean, I teased you, Brian, you know, see, I could picture you in a fetal position on

the floor with the anxiety of my trying to pretend like it wasn't the case.

But I think we all know, though, we all know that I would not be doing well with that.

Oh, yeah, I can't even imagine.

But she did it.

I only have a couple of stories of all these years of having super real stressful moments.

All the time I stress over things that aren't stressful at all.

And, boy, not having a phone for a few minutes, I mean, that'll work.

The phone's not working.

And yeah, didn't know how she was going to get back to the hotel.

The meltdown we would have to try to get to, you know, 30 miles away from our home without

our phones.

Right.

Yeah.

Just to go to a random place.

If you know us, I mean, if anything goes wrong at Bonnaroo, we just go home.

We just pack up and go home because we'll be there in an hour and be like,

I can be back in my bed.

It could be just a temper tantrum.

I'm mad.

I'm out of here.

Yeah.

You two years ago, when they took your meds, right?

You went back home and came back the next day.

I had terrible blood pressure for a few years and they took my blood pressure medication

and my anxiety medication, which if you know anything about how that works,

I thought I was going to have a stroke standing right there.

So I was like, turn the car around.

Yeah.

Came back the next day.

Part of the do's and don'ts.

We'll get back to that later on in the...

Yeah, there's a way to prevent that.

We'll get to that.

Very, very easy way to prevent that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

So good show.

We're continuing with our contest.

We're asking people to fax, phone, send video.

Email.

Email.

Voicemail.

We haven't discussed our added...

We have a couple extra prizes.

Oh, that's right.

We have some surprises.

Well, we found out about the year.

We talked yearbook last week.

We know about that, right?

Or no, we haven't talked about that.

We haven't really talked about what we're going to do, right?

So our contest, we have two tickets and a camping pass.

That's obviously the big prize, I guess.

The grand prize.

One would say.

But Caleb, our guest last week with the Bonnaroo yearbook,

has offered to provide one as a gift or a giveaway to somebody.

So we're going to add that.

And then...

The yearbook.

The yearbook.

And then the aforementioned, as I've said, friend of the show,

photographer to the stars, David Bruce, I am Bonnaroo,

has given us one of his prints to give away.

So we've sweetened the deal quite a bit.

I would be happy with any one of those three personally.

Yeah, so keep it coming.

We'll feature at some point a big collection on the show of a lot of these as well.

Yes.

So even if you've got tickets, even if you're not entering the contest to win tickets,

there's a lot of good prizes here that you could also win besides just the tickets.

So we still want to hear from you.

Yeah, nothing else.

Just send us your TikTok video.

Double it up as a contest entry as well.

Sure, that'll work.

And obviously, selfishly, we want feedback.

So we want you guys to participate.

Russ is going to play a couple of submissions from last week's question.

And what was that again?

I'm sorry.

Which was for DoOver.

What are your DoOver shows?

That was a great question.

Yeah, if you can...

A show that you maybe went to, and I'm going to include one that I missed

because I was such an idiot and it was still talked about.

But yeah, what was the show that you wish you could go back and see again

with maybe a better attitude or headspace or whatever?

And I'll go ahead and go first because I've got a couple

Beastie Boys is number one for me.

I knew them, I liked them, but I was not nearly the fan that I am now.

And I saw that show...

2009?

That's what I think it was the same as Springsteen.

Yeah, then that would be nice.

Another kind of...

When I saw it, I wanted hits.

If you remember, it was an election year.

And I wanted hits and he stuck with The Working Man.

The whole set was about songs about The Working Man.

I thought it was okay.

I wasn't until afterwards and I kind of thought that was pretty doggone good.

But that Beastie Boys when, man, it was their last show, you know?

Same with John Prine when he was there.

I did it in there.

I dug the John Prine when I was smart enough to know what I was seeing.

But the one that I missed because I was so pissed off that they even booked Lionel Richie.

I just thought that was the worst booking in the history of Bonnaroo.

And I sat in the campsite with my little fist balled up, you know, in some sort of protest.

I don't remember you said...

I don't remember that.

I was probably too drunk.

I mean, people still talk about that set.

How fun it was and how great...

No, I mean, I don't remember your...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're anger towards the booking.

I saw the Lionel Richie show from the production TV truck for some reason.

I ended up in there.

So I watched it from there.

That was an interesting point of view.

You saw it.

But I mean, I remember telling our friend Evan, you know, who works with AC.

I'm like, he's a wedding singer.

You know, I said, he's the world's best wedding singer, but he's a wedding singer.

Well, I guess you are wrong.

Whatever.

It was 90 minutes of sing-along hit after another.

I wish I'd seen it.

So dancing on the ceiling was hard to get out of my head after I saw it.

It was pretty neat.

I mean, even though I was watching it from a TV truck, but it was pretty cool.

Well, those are mine.

What was your do-overs?

Oh my God.

I wish I had done homework on this because I could give you some good ones

that I can't think of quickly.

If I could redo Neil Young 03, I would.

Um, I didn't miss it, but it was done very poorly.

Um, it was the second year.

It was the first day of the second year, but really the first weekend that I had been.

So like I jumped the fence the year before and 03 Friday night was Neil Young.

It took me all night from Thursday into Friday just to get in to the campground.

Depart my car.

Too long of a story for this now, but the quick answer would be right now,

Neil Young 03, because I think I'd been up for like 30 hours and just, I was, I was lost.

I mean, I was 23 years old, so you can get away with that kind of stuff,

but I wish I had a better grip on what I was doing at that time to catch what would have been

one of my favorite shows at wealth that, uh, of this entire century.

So that would be my quick first answer.

What about you, Tago?

I don't see.

I haven't been to as many as y'all have, so I can't really.

He doesn't miss a damn thing.

We do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This guy doesn't miss anything.

I might go just because 2018, I think Japanese breakfast.

I would want to redo that one just because that was the one they infamously.

I think they would want to redo that one.

Well, they couldn't get the something right.

So they ended up sound checking for like an hour.

Yeah.

By the time they got it all set up and ready to go, she only got to play for, you know,

a few seconds, 20 minutes maybe.

Yeah.

So I maybe would want to redo that.

Just to hear.

A long segment on this down the road someday, you know, maybe in the off season.

I could, I could really do my bad for not having done my homework on that one.

But what about, do we have some, uh, entries talking about this very thing?

Yeah.

So yes, we had to, it brings us right into our first submission.

I'm going to play.

This is, uh, Lena, who we had, I think last week, she submitted one to talk about a show

she wants to redo and I'll let you, uh, hear why.

So here we go.

Hello again, what podcast?

Um, I definitely had to answer this prompt for this week about what show I would redo

from Bonnaroo because unfortunately there's a very obvious answer for me.

It would be the Renee Rapp set from last year.

And I actually have quite the story from this set.

I'll attach some pictures later, but Renee Rapp is one of my favorite artists.

And I decided before Bonnaroo last year that I would try to paint a custom L word jacket,

which is her favorite TV show for her and get it to her in the pit because she is known

for her fan interaction.

So I would redo this show because I got there a little too late and I found some nice girls

that let me sit in the pit line with them so I could definitely get into the pit.

But I did not get there early enough to be front and center.

And I was on the side of the stage and I had a sign for her, but it was not quite as clear

as it should have been.

I don't think she realized I was trying to give her the jacket.

So moral of the story, it did not get to her.

I made some really great friends along the way, but didn't get to her.

Security would not let me give it to them at the end of her set.

So I went to Cage the Elephant, very sad after that, and decided that I had one final boost

of energy in me.

Went to someone at the gates by the, um, which stage in the back and begged for them to try

and give it to her.

They actually let me back into Artist Village, which was a crazy experience.

I walked back down there by myself with my jacket on a mission.

But about an hour and a half had passed by this time, so Renee had left the show.

And I gave it to someone, they took it from me.

I found out later that her team was already gone through social media.

Don't know where the jacket is now, worked very hard on it.

It's gone.

And it was not in the lost and found.

So if anyone has seen the jacket, let me know.

I'm still looking for it to this day.

As promised here, the pictures of the jacket that I painted, it kills me to know that it

could be in a landfill somewhere, but hopefully someone out there is enjoying it.

Wow, good job.

There you go.

Yeah.

Be on the lookout.

Some guy named Larry's wearing that jacket.

Yeah.

No, good job putting that together.

Yeah, that sucks there for a minute.

I thought that story.

I was like, this sounds like it's going to end well.

Like this is going to end.

She's going to meet her.

They're going to go on the, on the tour bus together.

It's like, dun, dun, da, da.

Not.

Yeah.

All right.

All right.

Well, I'll make you feel even better about yourself because two years ago we interviewed

Jim James.

They played, you know, my morning jacket is one of my all time favorite new newer bands

and late night, 1230 one o'clock.

I went back into media and he was being interviewed for that horrible girl.

That was whatever was doing their interviews.

Oh, for Hulu.

Yeah.

And he literally walked by me two feet and I didn't say anything.

What were you going to say?

Well, we had just talked.

Good work.

Yeah.

Hey, nice work.

Hey, you know, but we had just talked like 10 days before.

So I, you know, I felt like I could have said, Hey man, thanks for doing the show.

I mean, there was, I just, I just froze.

I completely froze.

That's the one.

That's my, that's my, we got anything else?

Yes, we got rice.

We got a few more if you want to listen some more.

Okay.

This one is Lily.

Hello, my name is Lily and my opinion is on if this year's ballerina lineup is better

than the 2020 lineup is honestly.

Yes, I do think that this year is better than 2020.

I didn't personally go in 2020, but just reading that lineup, like there's obviously some

really awesome people on there.

Lana Del Rey, the ones that I would be most excited for and so cool.

But honestly, like there's more people that I'm personally interested in on the 2025

lineup.

Like I just, I feel like there's more, I just feel like it's a better lineup overall.

There's more differentiation.

I like how much EDM there is.

You got Tipper on both of them.

Tipper is one of my favorites from EDM.

I'm saying Crown Pulse.

I feel like we have just as many big names on this lineup as we do on that one.

And yeah, that's what I think.

Cool.

You at bottom.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

Yeah, so there's somebody who agrees with me.

The question from a couple weeks ago about is this lineup better than the 2020 lineup,

which we are still getting just never ending comments about.

It's a fun conversation to have because it's a valid debate.

There's a lot of arguments both ways.

Yeah, for sure.

All right.

You got another one?

Sure.

If you want to.

Yeah, let's do one more.

Okay.

We'll get one more.

What's up, guys?

My name is Alejandro Castillo.

I went to Bonnaroo in 2012 to 2017.

Haven't had the chance to go back, but I would love to go back at some point.

So I'm hoping I can win the tickets.

My favorite set that I would love to revisit again

probably will be Bonnaroo 2012 Radiohead because that's got to be the best show I've ever seen in

my life.

Sorry, I'm booking some dinner in the meantime.

I really wouldn't like to revisit it in some way because I just love the way it just lives in my

head and the way to recreate it.

It's just kind of impossible.

McCartney will be a close second.

I would like to share a little story, my favorite story of Bonnaroo.

It's in 2012, our first year.

My friend Dub and I, we were going to go for the first time to a festival.

So, you know, we're 19 years old.

We're ready to rock, ready to party.

So because of the alcohol policy, no glass policy, we were obligated to pour some vodka

into water, empty water bottles that, you know, we were just 19 years old.

We didn't know any better.

I see where this is going.

We didn't know anything about Camel Bags.

But the plus side is, okay, we can bring the water bottles with vodka into the, into San

Aru.

So Friday, I believe it was Saturday, Saturday night when the Chili Peppers were headlining.

And right before the set, we were like the biggest Chili Peppers fans at the time, by

the way.

We were like rocking our hats, our shirts, wristbands of the Chili Peppers, everything,

any kind of merch you can think of.

We were like rocking that.

So in comes the time and right before the set, my buddy Doug decides to chug an entire

bottle of vodka right before the set.

And as the set begins, he keeps chugging that, he keeps chugging that.

Well, I had to bring him out of the set with my hand, carry him with my hand over his

shoulder out of the, out of the set.

And once he's done, basically we head over to the Super Jam because we heard something

about, oh no, let me backtrack.

We went to see Alice Cooper.

Now my buddy was very excited for Alice Cooper and I just wanted to get his mind occupied.

I'm like, yeah, bro, we're going to go see Alice Cooper.

So, okay.

So keep in mind, I'm like dragging him across to the, the witch stage, or I believe it was

the other tent at the time.

He wasn't EDM yet.

So he's out of his mind, blaster, drunk.

I have to leave him down kind of by up on the hill by the picnic tables, just like laying

down while I'm looking at Alice Cooper from far away.

And I'll tell it to some other guy at the picnic table.

Well, the set is over.

Everybody is going to the Super Jam and I heard about the Super Jam.

So I'm like, Hey, let me go check the Super Jam.

I carry my buddy.

He's standing over my shoulder, literally had to carry him across to the other side

of the festival.

And when we get there, I see a guy on stage playing the piano.

I wasn't really sure who it was.

Turns out it was the Angelo, like his first performance in like 12 years with Questlove

and then Harper.

So then shows over.

Everybody's going to go see Skrillex.

Is everybody's going to see Skrillex.

My buddy wakes up and he's just looking around at everything going on.

And he's like, bro, what happened to Alice Cooper?

And I just look at him dead in the eye and I go, bro, we just saw him.

It was great.

And you're worshiped to plaster to remember anything.

So anyway, that's my long story.

My favorite story of one room.

I hope I can be back there this year, especially with free tickets.

So thank you.

Hey, thanks, man.

A couple of things on that one.

Yeah, go ahead, Brian.

Tell us about that night.

Yeah, I wrote it down.

You don't have to.

That's it.

I like it.

It kind of feels like when you say revisit, it means it was bad.

You don't have to.

You can revisit something because it was great.

Right?

Like I was I'm trying to think of what did I mess up?

What did I mess up?

Well, it doesn't have to be that.

So good one on that.

The other one is Alice Cooper in 2012.

That was the first time I think we spent any much amount of time together, Barry,

if I remember right.

And I don't remember.

I remember being told later.

I think I introduced myself or said hello or I love your column.

Yeah, yeah.

You were very complimentary of the stuff that my wife and I, the cooking stuff.

The cooking section in the Wednesday paper Times Free Press here locally.

And I was bombed out of my freaking mind and I was excited for Alice Cooper, too.

And then I it was one of those like I thought it went away that it didn't really go.

Like I wake up the next day and that was pretty fun night.

I think it was pretty good.

And then it's like, maybe it wasn't.

No, I think you had a good time.

I don't remember.

I know I had a good time, but I didn't I didn't remember it the way that it actually happened.

Yeah, yeah.

That was the Red Hot Chili Peppers night.

Oh, that was the fake story of me singing.

The real story.

Singing to the microphone, singing into your beer bottle by the speaker.

Enough about me.

That was a great entry.

That was good.

That was a good story.

All right.

So this week's question, I was thinking I teased it while we were talking to Geraldine,

but I thought what was what is a act that you had no idea about beforehand,

but came away from Bonnaroo with a new favorite act?

Um, I will do the homework on this into next week and give you better answers,

but we already talked about it before.

What my initial answer was, is for sure.

Courtney, everyone's answer was Courtney Barnett, Courtney.

And and and Geraldine was talking about Courtney Barnett in 2019.

She played about an hour before Childish Gambino.

Yeah, mine goes to 2015 when Courtney Barnett played on Thursday night Thursday night.

And Brad Steiner, our Brad, I hate to give him credit ever,

but he was the guy who pretty much told me he knew I would like it.

So he was giving me to me on that one a lot, but he was getting to everybody on it.

And we all took the bait and we all went we're like, all right,

Courtney Barnett, Jesus, you know, she is awesome.

And she's one of my favorite acts of if I had to give you 20 of my favorite acts of the last 25 years,

she's certainly on that list.

She could be top 10.

So that's my quick answer.

For sure.

My other one and I'll go ahead and tease it is Bahamas stumbled up on that one because

and we've got stories regarding Brad and that one too.

I've never seen someone.

Well, we'll save it for later.

But I came up and that Bahamas became my Sunday morning go to music.

I mean, it's a great way to start the day.

Just Mella.

I'm like, who is this?

So, yeah, that's what about you, Taco?

You got one that was not at all.

And then now love probably pond 2018, I think just stumbled on them.

And it turned out they're basically Kevin Parker's backup band for Tame Impala

just without Kevin Parker.

So it was not what I was expecting at all.

And yeah, I've since seen them, I think, at Jakey knees and, you know, kind of came away

with a big love for that and kind of introduced me into Tame Impala as well.

Yeah, I'll have to there's going to be some caveats to my list as I think back because

there's a lot that like Ryan Bingham jumps in my head like that I didn't know before,

but I still don't hardly care about now.

So like that list is long.

But as far as what I like the question to be better that you never knew you went to

Bonnaroo and then now it's a part of your life.

It's like the trend on TikTok.

What now is the regular occurrence in your life?

You got to know what I'm talking about.

Sorry. My bad.

All right, Ross, what else?

I always always cut it off before you and you always have something else.

Well, go to the What Podcast dot com on how you can enter these questions.

Yeah. Call to action.

Send them in.

We've got email or opened up fax lines, voicemail.

You can record a video, send it in or like Brian said, make a TikTok and just send us the link.

We'll watch it.

Yeah, that's easy.

You're already making the TikTok, right?

Oh, I meant in response to that last entry, that Radiohead show.

That was one of my favorites.

I'll send you a picture, Russ, that I got to be in the photo pit.

And I swear to you, Tom York is looking right at me.

And it's pretty intense.

Yeah.

It was all about it was a very special moment with Tom York and Barry Courter.

Yeah, he did.

He said he loved your column.

He loved your with his eyes.

I did.

Yeah, with his eyes.

He absolutely did.

I was at that radio headshot.

I was pretty great.

All right, guys.

Thanks so much.

It's been a lot of fun.