Anything that they recommended that would have been an improvement to a park, not only specifically

for South Star, but for just events in general down there, we accelerated very fast. And so it

was just really, really fun to be on like the perspective from the city and being able to deliver

on promises and timelines like that, like things that would normally take over a year to kind of

get through and start. Like with the staff of the figure, we were moving a lot of things out there.

And so, um, Ah that hurrican though, oh man.

Hello, welcome back to the what podcast I'm Barry. That's Russ. We are, um, I don't even know how

we're going to describe this. Russ, we're in October. This is when we typically think the music

festival season sort of takes a quiet time and you know, what are we going to talk about every week?

And it turns out it's probably as busy, if not busier than the middle of the summer.

Busy. Yeah. Who would have thought? Yeah. We thought we'd be on a break by now.

Yeah. We're like, what are we going to talk about? Whatever would we talk about? Um, we're going to

talk today. Uh, so this is going to be the final, I think I say final, not final. We're going to

kind of move on a little bit. We're going to wrap up Southstar because we have a special guest.

Southstar again, and this, for those of you who don't know, excuse me, for those of you who don't

know, this is a podcast where we kind of like to focus on festivals, Bonnaroo being the primary,

but we also like to go to other festivals and, uh, Southstar happened in Huntsville,

what, three, what's it been? Three weeks? Coming up on three weeks now. Yeah.

And it got rained out. And so why does that matter? You know, you think you move on,

but what we have found is we like that sort of sausage making. How do you deal with that?

How do you deal with that? Uh, we talked in the past couple of weeks, uh, with folks who were there

had a blast for the one day that it happened. We talked about the mud. We talked about why it was

canceled, but today we have a special guest. Uh, Matt, he's the dude. He is the director of music

operations for the city of Huntsville. So he was right there. Right. I mean, he was helping make

these decisions not only to get it ready, but to make that call on Sunday morning, go no go. Right.

Yeah. You were there. Did you agree? Did he make the right call? Absolutely. 100% everyone,

you know, when that call came out, that was about nine local time that said, uh, you know,

we're not having the rest of the day. It was a moment of disbelief, like, oh man. And then,

well, no, you know, that does kind of make sense. I could see that. And then just kind of relief.

Uh, cause you know, leaving there Saturday, it was getting really muddy. Uh, but yeah, this is

interesting because it's what, so what goes into that decision to, to say cancel, pull the plug.

And this, this really gets into it, you know, and, and the things that they tried to do,

to try to prevent a cancellation, because that is the last thing anybody wants, including us,

including the artists, including the city. Um, but you know, when it's the right call,

that's the way it's gotta go. Yeah. That's what's fun about this. And, uh, you, and, and

Rush, you'll agree, Matt, and so many of the people that we have on this show and, and it's

interesting to me. I don't know why, maybe I'm just old and cynical, but I keep thinking about,

you know, some suit somewhere is making a decision that, you know, he doesn't care.

He's just looking at a spreadsheet. We haven't had that. Have we, we haven't found that guy yet.

Have we? Not in this industry. I mean, that certainly exists for a lot of things out in the

world, I'm sure. And, you know, there's plenty to complain about because that does happen, but

in this industry, in this case, uh, it's people like you and me that are, that are putting this

thing on. It's another dude who just wants to go see Gwen Stefani or blink 182, right?

Cause his kid wants to see go, go see blink 182. And now he's got to, he's got to tell them it

didn't happen because it's muddy. Yeah. I also think this is a good response to, I'm sure you've

seen them. There's some comments that people have made up on social media, you know, criticizing them

for canceling and say, Oh, the city will never have them back. This is the last year. They'll,

I can't believe they'll, they'll never have this festival again. Well, no, that's not the case.

And that's kind of what sets us apart is when we have those questions, we find out who to ask

and go ask them. Right? That's exactly right. So we, we called Matt. We actually reached out to the

city. I wanted the mayor. Cause I know he was such a big deal in all of this. And they said, no,

the person you need is Matt. And Matt was great. He's great. Yeah. His title, I believe is a chief

music officer. Is that right? Yeah. And he's the only one we look, we tried to get him to answer

that. Right. Only one in the country. How many cities have a chief music officer? Yeah. We talk

about that. And, you know, let's don't just pass by that because a lot of cities have a person in

their chamber or something that, you know, entertainment movies, whatever, and music is

in the title somewhere and not a lot gets done. And he talks about that. They are committed.

And that's why I think this is so interesting. They are so committed that they are willing to,

you know, put on this event. And this was, I didn't know this until you ask, I think you ask,

because you had heard about the contract. The contract is for three years. Well, it wasn't

supposed to start till next year. Right. I mean, right? Yeah. That's fascinating. Cause they,

you know, they started this journey thinking that 2025 and beyond is what they were looking at.

Yeah. Realistic goal. We can do this next year. Right. Yeah. And as late as April of this year,

they were still thinking, okay, it's going to be 2025. Right. And then what happened? What Blink

said, Hey, we want to headline something. What have you got? And they pulled, yeah, managed to

pull off a festival in a shockingly short amount of time when you consider everything that goes

into, you know, cause this is a, it's a park, you know, so it's basically got nothing and how much

they built and contracted and pulled in and set up just in those few months. Yeah. So,

while we were off air, I was trying to think about who is the listener for this show.

If you're that person who bought a ticket cause you wanted to see whatever band that was on the

lineup and now you're mad because it got rained out. I'm sorry. I get it. I a hundred percent get it.

You're going to be mad. But if you're that person who's been there, you know, maybe to a different,

you know, more than one or two, like Ross, like me, if you're ankle deep in mud, it's fun for a

minute. It might be fun for that afternoon. It might be fun for three or four bands, but at some

point you start thinking about your own wellbeing and your comfort. And then as I said, I think I

said, you know, you wake up that next morning and you got to put those same wet shoes on.

Yeah. If you didn't pack for two days of mud, then it's not as much fun. Also, you know,

the needle kind of moves a little bit from just an inconvenience to being uncomfortable,

to being dangerous. I mean, yeah. And that's what I think they want is somebody to slip and fall

and get trampled or, you know, some other security can't get to you because they can't get to you.

Yeah. They said the golf cart paths were muddied up. You know, if they can't get

critical services in and out, it's just not going to happen. And the band can't get there and the

band standing in mud and they're going to get electrocuted. Yeah. It's, it's a lot of safety to

it. It's a lot more than you want to think about. And, and that's kind of what we talk about, but

also we talk about, and this is really, and we're going to have to have him back on.

Oh, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. We're going to have to have Matt back on because

Huntsville is committed to becoming a music city and a music destination. And there's way more

involved in that and just saying, that's what we want to do. I mean, I don't know how else to put

it, you know, because that's what it sounds like a lot of cities do. You know, it's, it's, it's

what we want to do. Yeah. We want to have music. Well, okay. Yeah. What does that mean? Huntsville.

Yeah. Huntsville has actually got a plan and, and this music festival is only one part of it. I

thought that was fascinating when he was talking about some of the other, um, benefits and packages

that they're looking at trying to offer to encourage more artists to play Huntsville and to tour.

And you know, what, what can they do to help enable that pretty neat. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty,

it's detailed, but not as much. I want to get into it. Cause we, we ended up getting into the

South star way more than I thought we would. Cause I wanted to talk about the other stuff

because Chattanooga where we live is, you know, we pretend like we're committed to this too.

But I mean, they're talking about giving stipends, basically grants, uh, if you will,

two bands who were touring and doing five shows a year. Uh, I mean, it's, it's crazy. Um, right.

It's not just, Hey, we need to have a venue, you know, it's, it's much more than that. And, um,

yeah, I, I, yeah, they're thinking much, much more long-term than you and I realized.

Yeah, exactly. All right, here we go. It's a long interview. Uh, this was a long setup. Uh,

that's cause you wouldn't stop talking. I can never get you to stop talking. Yeah. Every time.

All right guys, here's Matt and, uh, man, he was great. And I can't wait to have him on again.

Oh, by the way, that's an awesome t-shirt. Thank you. This is from a cave fest, which I just got

back from this past weekend in Pelham, Tennessee, not far from Bonnaroo, not far from Manchester.

And wanted to get into that this week, but I think we've got so much more that, you know,

we might have to just put that off a little bit. Cause we've got Matt here to deal with.

Yeah, we're going to do that soon. I can't wait to hear it. And we'll have,

I hope some special guests to talk about that too. Yeah. I wish I had got you to buy me one of those

t-shirts and you'd talk about that. All right. You'll just have to go next year. Yeah. All right.

So here we go with Matt and, uh, thanks Matt for your time and, uh, thanks for having me.

And, uh, I, I, we'll, we'll just see where this goes.

Oh, there he is. Hey, Matt, this Matt from Huntsville. Thank you so much for, uh, joining us.

Uh, I'm pretty excited about this. This is, we're going to try to cover as much as we can. Cause you,

you, I'll be honest with you, you have, I think one of the jobs that I would probably like to have,

and I bet Brian feels pretty similar. Yeah. Yeah. It wouldn't bother me. None at all. Yeah.

The, the little I know about it, which that's what we're here to find a little bit more out about.

So let's just jump right in first. Uh, it's been a couple of weeks. Um, and I know you've probably

had your, uh, follow-up meetings with your staff and probably even with the organizers C3 and some

of that. So what's the, uh, two week, uh, recap of Southstar from your, your office?

Um, I mean, it's a little bit of, uh, you know, it's, it's a little bit, it's, it's mostly highs,

a little bit of lows. Honestly, the, um, uh, to those that aren't aware, like we got in one of the

two days and then the, uh, the weather just was not, uh, did not hold up with the grounds where

we had to cancel Sunday. But, um, and I overall, I would feel like it's a huge success, like getting,

uh, getting a day of the festival for the community to see the vision, um, is very exciting and how

the C3 team executed it and everything like that. And now the, uh, now the pressure is on the fans

asking when it's going to come back, if it's going to come back. So that's a, uh, a huge, uh, a huge

upside. And then, uh, you know, and also I thought it was a positive to where the, uh, you know, any

time you cancel, it's obviously not great for fans, but, um, but you also have to look at it where,

like, most of the fans are upset because they had the time of their life on Saturday and then

they couldn't come back on Sunday and have the party. So they were willing to work, uh, willing

to do our risk, uh, safe conditions even though I kept the party out there. So we're just thrilled

with everything. Seeing all the guests that came in from out of town, the community response,

Southstar was a huge success in the office. Let me go back one and then I, I know Brian's got

questions. I can see him ready, but I want to ask sort of time leap. So that was the recap

going into Southstar again, from your point of view, from your office as a music officer for

the city of Huntsville, what were the goals? What was the, the stated mission for this? And, and I'm

thinking obviously, you know, you want to have a good concert and see good bands. That's, that's the

obvious one, but you know, you, you've got an official role. Um, we've talked to you on this

show that Huntsville has gone after, uh, music and things like this for the city. So I kind of want

to, what's the, you know, what was your elevator pitch when you were talking about this? Sure. You

know, it kind of has a, a, a three tier of success approach where, um, a little bit of backstory

before, um, I started the, uh, my role here, we, uh, I started the hustle music office in, um,

middle of 2022. Um, Huntsville had a festival for about 15 years that ended about a decade earlier

called big spring jam. Um, the number one thing our community and any kind of stakeholder surveys

or any kind of feedback literally since the day I started the office, um, the community was asking

like, is big spring jam going to come back? We want a big festival again. Can we make that happen?

So there was a lot of pressure from the community and a lot of enthusiasm to try bringing a festival

back. Now, as y'all know, there's only so many, um, companies in the world that really can execute,

uh, a large world-class festival on the scale that, um, you know, like, like our partner,

C3 presents can, so, uh, took about 18 months to get from the first conversation to the city council

agreement for them to, uh, come into it. But the, uh, one aspect was, um, of course, that community

quality of life, uh, initiative. Um, another one of course is the, um, tourism and the economic

development side of it. These festivals bring in a lot of visitors. Um, it's so, uh, obviously like

that was a big, uh, aspect of it. And then something we're doing with music that's really,

really fun and unique is that, um, uh, re utilizing as a talent attraction, um, uh,

piece with like our, uh, economic development model in that hustle has a very, very rare,

um, very, very rare challenge in that we have, um, among the lowest unemployment in the country,

but we have several thousand and very high paying jobs that need to be built. Um, and so we're

utilizing, uh, music as a way to help build those jobs with like the other industries within the,

uh, within the area. So you kind of see the festival as a learn about hustle through the

festival, visit hustle for the first time through this festival, and then, um, maybe move here or

think about relocated here, um, when you have a family or et cetera. And so that's how the piece

we use with like the Orion Amphitheater and all the views where, uh, you know, more, more music

and community makes it a better place to live. So you have that quality of life initiative. And

then of course, what it does with economic development and then that, uh, talent attraction

are kind of the big three, uh, pillars that we, uh, we kind of focus on in terms of the music

offices, uh, work in this festival, obviously a huge piece with that. Well, Matt, there's a handful

of directions that I want to go here that we have very limited time to, to get to, to stick with

where we're at with the festival itself. You used some words just a second ago that made me think,

and I don't want to quote you exactly or a little paraphrase, something about people locally were

wondering about, you know, will it come back after the year that you had? And maybe you can help us

with a, what I believe is a rumor. I never saw anything that I could source it to find out whether

it was accurate or not, but there was a three year contract between C3 and the city of Huntsville,

your, your offices, your initiatives between something governmentally. Can you speak to that?

Is that information that you're privy to give out? Is there a long term, even if it's a short,

long term commitment with the C3 and Southstar? Absolutely. Yeah, correct. There is a, uh, there

is a three year contract. Um, yeah, contract actually starts in 2025, um, but there was enough

enthusiasm, momentum for the, uh, for the team to, uh, they felt like they could pull off as

successfully. I want to go back. I want to go back there, but go ahead to kind of push that, right?

Yeah. I want to go back there, but continue. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. And so we, um, yeah. So

we're actually in, um, so we actually kind of have like a, uh, a bonus year, um, or kind of like

accelerated it up. But yeah, we have a, uh, we're, we're planning to, at the very least, uh, have

three of these with C3 presents. And obviously like we want, we want more, you know, we want to

get a good decade run out of this and really, really build it, um, into something special. And

so, yeah, absolutely. Uh, do not look at this as a one and done. And so, uh, yeah, we're going to

be jumping in and figuring out what, uh, what year two looks like here soon. The third, the third leg

of the mission that you mentioned is one of the things, um, and the reason I asked that question,

because of the people that I spoke to that went, um, Huntsville was a, as much a part of the

festival and the, um, the good feeling of it as the music it's itself from everybody that I talked

to. And that's fans who went to staff that worked it. I mean, I, I, I won't name names because,

you know, it was a private conversation, but this person's like, I'm from New York and I can't wait

to go back to Huntsville as a visitor. Um, the Sunday and Russ can speak to, to this, um,

you know, when you got, everybody got word that it wasn't going to happen on Sunday, they just kind

of said, all right, how do we, you know, let's go have some fun. Let's go to the restaurants,

let's go to the bar, even Saturday night. Um, that, that has to, that has to have, uh, played

well in your office Monday morning, a week ago. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's like we said, it's like,

it's not like all these people are coming in town, staying in their hotel rooms, uh, screaming at

the walls. Okay. They have an opportunity to come out to Huntsville and experience the, uh, the

restaurants and the culture. We had a really, really solid day with, um, our other attractions,

the, uh, US space and rocket centers here in Huntsville. That's the largest tourist attraction

in the state of Alabama. And so they, uh, they saw a nice big influx of, uh, visitors. There was a

Sunday night at the Braun Center. There's a wrestling and WWE event. And, uh, we heard that

they had a huge influx of like last minute ticket sales actually with, uh, with my quarter daughter

and her first wrestling back. And it was, uh, very fun. But yeah, just the, uh, the energy around

downtown on Sunday. Um, Sunday is usually kind of like sleeping quiet downtown, but there is a

significant energy downtown. So some of the popular kind of like block parties from local musicians

playing outside that have like a much more bigger crowds than they normally do. And you just saw

like just more people, um, around that you usually see on a Sunday. I gotta ask how, how bad were the

grounds? You know, they, uh, we were actually just out there yesterday and they don't like,

they don't look, you wouldn't be able to tell there was a music festival out there. The team did a

really, really good job of cleaning up everything. We just, um, you know, that side of the park, just,

um, I'd say about 50% of the park is what you probably saw in the picture of where it was just

like really, really muddy and unsafe and, you know, potentially some infrastructure having

liabilities, some emergency services, not being able to respond to the time. Um, and that's mostly

because the, um, we just had put some fresh sod down and so had done some work to the grounds to

kind of, um, to accelerate and kind of get everything ready for that 2024 instead of 2025.

If, um, you know, as you might know, like once you get a hurricane level rainstorm on first side,

that just ended up not holding like we wanted to. And we're going to make, um, you know, that's

something our landscape team is very confident they can adjust going into next year. Just seeing

that the grass was too new, but park looks great right now. That's just the John Hunt parks, 450

acres and super scale that's a hundred acres bigger than a grant park in Chicago where Lala is.

And so this kind of like 30, 35 acre parcel where you're one of South star is about half of it was

just too grass that just like didn't hold up well, but, um, you, if you went out there right now,

you wouldn't be able to tell there was a festival other than that. That that red slough is now kind

of like a mix of like green and brown and we're going to start looking at that soon and making a

adjustments as well. That, uh, that, that takes me right back to where I wanted to go back to,

um, because that, that adds a little bit to the question. I was looking at a Huntsville magazine

from April of this year that had a write-up on, I think it's primarily you, but there was some other

things within the city infrastructure music wise, and the information was attributed to you. I

don't have a printer at the house, so everything's handwritten here. So I'm sorry, uh, if I stumbled

through some of it, but I, from April of 2024, the information was attributed to you that the initial

agreement for the South star festival was for 25, as you just said, 25 and I guess would be 26, 27.

That was an April of this year and you were saying it's going to be in 25, which would have been

set, I'm guessing September. That is a rapid acceleration to September, you know, to three weeks

ago. And we know blink went into it a lot to do with that because we've already talked about that

here slightly, but we didn't know a whole lot of details. Tell me that real quick. How did that

pivot so fast and did you panic and, and, and it was, I guess that led to also maybe let's throw

some sod down. Let's make sure we're good to go on the, on the, on the, on the site itself. If you'd

speak to that fast transition, because that's just not something you see every day. Yeah. It's like,

I guess we're hosting Christmas tomorrow. Get ready. Everybody's coming.

You know, it definitely wasn't panic. I would say it was a lot more enthusiasm. You know,

we heard that we were going to like move up a year. It was almost like a bounce. So I, yeah,

I wouldn't say panic at all. It just kind of got us in a high gear. The way that hustles government

works a lot different than other governments. And we take a lot of pride in how efficiently we can

do things in that. And the leadership I have at the city is so supportive of this music initiative

and everything we're doing. And we're seeing it now that like we've been into it two years,

we're really, really seeing the results. I mean, we have C3 C3 presents coming into a market with

240,000 people in here to like build a signature festival. That's absolutely amazing. So it was

initially enthusiasm, but then it was like, oh, wow. Like we already just added a lot more work

for ourselves. Well, that's what I meant by the panic part. I tend to honestly panic, just high

level anxiety, but, um, well then, and then quickly also to kind of piggyback off of that

with the added variable of this, this weather situation, you just talked about the grounds.

You were looking at them in the last 24 hours. They look good. You've, I mean, it's grass, it's

ground. I mean, we are, it's going to be fine. We all know that long-term, but can you really

evaluate what did and didn't work? Can you really put in an accurate evaluation to what happened?

And I think the quick answer is no, not really, but, but how are you working with making your,

your checklist when a hurricane came in and destroyed everything you were trying to do?

Like it makes it very difficult. Can the grounds hold that many people next year?

Were lines for bathrooms, waters, all the stuff we talk about on the show about every single

festival that is from a user experience standpoint, how do you evaluate that now?

Maybe the answer is you can't accurately. What, what do you say to that?

Oh no, I'd say we're already evaluating it. And then, you know, that, that one patch where the

main stage was, you know, if it was the other half of the park, which had already been,

you know, that had been laser graded and like the side had been there for years. That's where like

a lot of like the youth soccer and football teams practice. Like that side held up great. If the,

if all of that stuff was on like the entire park, like I think that we're looking at a successful

Sunday. The reality is, is when we did a walk through at four o'clock on Friday, we started

getting very nervous. It was just getting really slippery out there. And it was one of those where

it's like, Oh, it says the rain's going to stop, but the rain's not stopping. Every time you look

on your phone, like from Friday to Saturday, it's saying like rain stopping at 15 minutes,

but it just never stopped. Traveling from Chattanooga there. I did the same thing. I was

like, I think it looks like it's going to be good. No, no, it doesn't. No, it does. No, it doesn't.

And that's hurricane weather. I mean, that's what we deal with in the South. You know, you can't,

the meteorologists get so much bleep about being, Oh, there's always wrong and they ain't miracle

workers. It's a hurricane. Yeah. And they, yeah. And, and, and, and, you know, and in hindsight,

it's like, wow, like, I mean, it was more than just a hurricane. We look at like all the challenges

that are happening in like communities, like infrastructure. Yeah. Yeah. We're lucky that we

lost today at the music festival and not significantly more like, you know, like, like our heart goes out

to like the Asthma more Carolina areas and everybody that's affected, which is a problem.

Steve, that, um, I will say like what, what made me like very, very proud as I've, I've been involved

with like a lot of festivals, like over the kind of 20 years of my music career, some good, some bad.

And you know, there's, there's always like in any kind of situation, you can kind of come out with

like a, a lot of camaraderie and a lot of pride. I've never been more proud of an effort of being

involved with this aspect with both the C3 and the city, um, uh, team to where, you know, we, we,

we did a thorough walkthrough at four o'clock on Friday with like the head of our, uh, our, our, our,

city, our city administrator, John Hamilton, and the head of our landscape team, uh, Tony Ivy.

Uh, I think it's safe to say those guys are music industry, music festival industry legends now in

terms of what they pulled off. Cause, um, but the fact that we got in Saturday was amazing in that,

you know, Tony had about 200 of his landscape team out there the full day Friday, trying to patch

everything up. And then Saturday, six in the morning, he had a convoy of every dump truck that

the city had with every, like all the mulch you could find like within the region. Um, the, uh,

the, the stuff they put on the warning track, they call it warning track, uh, material at baseball

games to soak up the stuff. So diamond drive, put in and just seeing that line of dump trucks and

200 people waiting there at six in the morning and going up until, you know, we had to push the

gates back to two 30, which was also a big, uh, thank you to the local restaurants for, uh,

the local restaurants for very appreciative of like the gates moving from, uh, from one to two

30 because they were crushing it. Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, the, uh, the C three team even put a slide up

like on the stages on their ad mags in between bands, like doing a big thank you to Tony because

I mean, they just, they, they say they're going to save the day. Um, but that just like constant

rain, constant book traffic on that one side of the park just made it where it was undoable on

Sunday. But we're just, we're, we're so lucky that we got in that Saturday. And then also for the

community aspect, like now the locals in Huntsville have seen the scale of like what this event is.

And most of the people that were locals here that went to that had never been to, uh, a, uh,

a secret presents festival. And so it was all like, I mean, they're very world-class update that, uh,

their, their infrastructure, like definitely makes a statement. And so that's, that's one of those

you have to see to believe it. And now that our community has seen it, they are just like, so

excited to, uh, to get it back in, or, you know, we need, uh, there's some pent up demand for Blink

182 and back now in our market too. And so, uh, even if it doesn't work with the South star aspect,

like hopefully we'll figure out like how to get like the access and make it that Sunday.

You got the venues sitting there right there waiting on them. Yeah.

A couple of things. And then I know I want to get into the city part of it, but wrap up the,

the festival, but a couple of things, and I know numbers are always squirrely, but what would have

been a sellout and can you give us some idea of what the crowd was on Saturday? I've heard

somewhere between 20, 25, you know, and that's just friends of mine in the industry guessing. So,

uh, I'd be curious to know. Yeah, I think that we don't have the exact numbers, but I think it's

safe to say it came in around 20 on that Saturday. Um, we, uh, we're projecting to do a, uh, a couple

of thousand more on Sunday, just look like the lineup and everything. And I think not having a

big slate of college football, like lens for more people to, uh, to, to, to know what they're going

to do on a Sunday's person Saturday is down south. Um, you know, sell, uh, sell out here one, we

didn't really have a sellout number just cause the size of that spark. Um, you can fit 50,000

people in that footprint very, very easily. Um, but you know, our target was somewhere around that

25,000 in year one. We thought that would be a really, really, uh, good benchmark for success.

And I think that all things given, like y'all see the images and like to the people that were out

there, like it felt crowded. It felt, it felt really, really good and packed, but not too packed

out there. Um, and so, yeah, I'd say that we, uh, we definitely hit our goal of, uh, getting the,

uh, the amount of people out there. And I know we even had a few thousand people not, uh, actually

like scan in on that Saturday too, just cause they couldn't travel in because there was a hurricane

and sure. Yeah. I would say 20 is a good number then given everything. The other thing,

that would put us as the, um, that would put us as the highest attended regional music festival,

uh, in terms of a daily attendance of all the ones that are like kind of already established

in our markets. So, you know, the fact that near one, we had, uh, with all those conditions

and a hurricane, 20,000 people, um, through the door, I think was tremendous. And I think also

shows that just like the, uh, the kind of thirst that our community has for music.

You mentioned two things. The year, a lot of the Huntsville people and some of our friends

that are down there were saying the same thing going in that, uh, you know, a lot of this,

that a lot of the folks that have never been have no idea what to expect. And, and one of the things

that you mentioned, and that's one of the things that C3 is so good about. And another thing that

we love talking about on their show, cause we love the sausage making is like we're big Bonnaroo

people. That's how we, that's why we started this. And one of the things that they do that kind of

goes unnoticed until you notice it is things like laser grading the land. They, they walk around with

notepads and pencil and say, that's where the rain's going. We need to fix that. We need to level

that. We need to raise that. We need to put this there, you know, trees here, those kinds of things

make a huge difference over time. So I was curious to hear you say that, that, you know, had you done

that on the other side, which I'm assuming you will do in the next three and a half months,

you know, it improves everything. So the next time around, if it rains, it's not as bad in the case

of Bonnaroo, if it, if it doesn't rain, then you've got a dust bowl. So, you know, those kinds of

things. Yeah. And, and the, and that notice, I mean, like it was, I was mind blown in that, you

know, like I did not work in city government before this round, while I was in the private sector.

So I'm a new city government guy, but, and you know, through, through efforts have had to work

through city governments and it has not always been pleasant. But just, you know, like, like the,

like Ted and his team, Corey and Oscar were very vocal that they had never worked with a city

government in the capacity, like Tutsville did in that, like just how productive we were for them.

But, so, you know, with that sod too, like, I mean, if it was 2025, like, oh, those roots would have

been in place, it would have had like a year of winter kill, it would have looked great. That sod

was like an example of like a city improvement to those grounds to get things ready for 2024. And,

you know, that's just one example, like for, for a couple other things for that, you know,

they would communicate some aspects of like, Hey, there's one part of this park that doesn't meet

like ADA standards. We're going to have to, so heads up, we're going to have to bring in

some really expensive temporary flooring to make kind of like an ADA path and to fit within our

guidelines. And we said, well, Hey, what if we just, you know, help do that for you? And so we

put in a lot of, so there were a lot of like, kind of like sidewalks built into the, built into the

park that accommodated that as well. Cause we looked at it as like, Hey, this is something that

we need to do on a permanent basis if we can accelerate that. And, you know, and they were

like, yeah, this would be, there were a lot of things where they were like, yeah, this would be

great for 2025. And we're like, no, we're talking about 2024. And so, you know, two months leading up to that festival,

I mean, there were sidewalks going from, you know, the airport road, like along that backside,

like where all the businesses like, like the back 40 brewery and all those kinds of like,

so are your parking lots where those, you know, those sidewalks were all brand new being worked

on up until the festival. And so, and that came about where like, it was like, Hey, you know,

we're going to have to probably close the lane of this street during certain times to allow for like

pedestrian traffic. And we'd love to have a sidewalk in place next year. And that's where like the city,

especially like the, our leadership with John Hamilton, the city administrator would be like,

well, now we're going to go ahead and activate our public works team and get a sidewalk in place for

this year. And so anything that they recommended that would have been an improvement to a park,

not only specifically for Southstar, but for just events in general down there, we, we, we accelerated

very fast. And so it was just really, really fun to be out like the perspective from the city and

being able to deliver on promises and timelines like that, like things that would normally take

over a year to kind of get through and start like with the snap of a finger, we were,

we were moving a lot of things out there. And so, um, off that hurricane, no man's

we're really fast before we, I know we want to talk some governmental stuff here that we would

like to correlate some with, uh, with what we're familiar with and we're from, but before we do that,

just the, if you would as quickly as you can, or as much as you want to stretch out on it,

uh, from you, you talked about Friday being there and kind of being like,

Ooh, not sure. Um, and when the weather keeps changing the forecast as that was being monitored,

let's say Thursday, Friday into Saturday, how much do you know or how much were you involved? Um,

to, to be making the decision for Sunday and, and when roughly do you think that that decision was

made halfway through Saturday, you realize that Sunday is not going to work. Was it the middle

of the night call, you know, frantic 5 a.m., you know, that kind of thing. Uh, and I promise you

somebody was panicking around on your team. Cause there's too much going on here for there not to

be panic, but, uh, but just, yeah, that process from middle of the week to when you decide we can't

continue because of safety and whether, how did that go and how many people were on that go,

no go team? Uh, it was a, it was a very, very tight circle. It was, um, you know, the, the,

the kind of executive level side of like their team and then only like myself and maybe like

three or four more people at the city that were, uh, um, directly involved in the conversation.

Of course, like everybody was aware, um, you know, the, um, I would say that the walkthrough on

Friday is when, uh, it first kind of came up like, Oh wow. Like, you know, this might be tough.

Yeah. But then, uh, yeah, but then like kind of a six AM scene, it's kind of like that,

that toggle line of like all the gravel and everything. Just like, okay, like we're gonna,

we're going to make this happen. Um, and then, um, you know, we started doing a third of a walkthrough

of the grounds, um, about halfway through the headliner sets on Saturday, starting to assess

things and having the conversations, uh, just kind of observing and everything. And that's,

that's when the conversation accelerated and picked up. But, um, you know, it, it, it sucks.

It was, uh, not a, uh, not the most awesome decision that like conversation had to happen.

But at the end of the day, it was a, um, uh, there was no doubt 110% that it was the right decision.

And so that's where, um, Amy, kind of like the pain got alleviated. Like when you know,

you're doing the right decision and like you're, you give it your best effort and, uh,

and you're proud of what you're doing. I mean, mother nature is going to be mother nature. And so

you, I'd say by, uh, but starting at the middle of the headliners on Saturday is when we really

started paying attention and watching people like, leave, uh, you know, like, like seeing people

holding their kids, struggling through the mud and slipping and falling as they're walking out

of the show, really kind of put things in perspective. Um, and then you start thinking,

wow, that's like the last thing you would want is somebody to get hurt. Like some of this

infrastructure. Um, and also to it, like if there was a medical event in the EMS,

get the people on time. And so it just, um, it was absolutely like the right decision.

Didn't help that we had a really, really solid day of weather the next day for kind of people

to be like, oh, we should have had this. But I think that's why it seems like it happens

that way every time. Yeah. But then I'm glad you asked this question, Brian,

cause I want to dig a little like thinking about it from that first time festival goer who doesn't

know who doesn't listen to this show, if such a thing can even happen. But like that person who

just says, it wasn't raining that hard. And I wanted to see my favorite band. Um, why did they

cancel? You know, they don't think about, and that's what I'm asking you. What are the sort of

checklist things, right? There's safety, there's band safety, there's crowd safety, there's,

you know, can you get people in and out and, and there is this, you know, the infrastructure,

are we destroying what we have? And, you know, so what are the, what was the checklist kind of

thing? Uh, safe safety. Number one, for sure. Um, can we execute like in, can 25,000 people come

out on Sunday and it'd be a safe experience. Um, and, and, and that, that answer is just absolutely

not like the combination of the grounds. I mean, you're, you're, you're talking, you know, like

medical things, like in terms of twisted ankles and things like that, like, you know, like we were

going to like anticipate bringing in more EMS, more police, everything like that to accommodate

Sunday, just because we were seeing some people, um, you know, starting to slip and need to kind

of like come to the medical team and get some band-aids and stuff like that. And so that seemed

to kind of like, uh, elevate things. And then just with the, um, you know, like, like any, like the

putting on any of those large tents, like even though they were like heavily staked in the ground,

and like, like in place, like it just, uh, you just never know when like water weights going to

like, like mess up with things. There's just too much heavy equipment being like moved around,

uh, golf cart paths were starting to get like compromised, everything like that. And so it just,

um, it just was not going to be, if it, if it was like a couple dozen folks coming out there that

could like deal with the mud, like great, but you're talking 25,000 plus people that could be

really, really challenging. And then, and then also with the first year festival, I think that I, um,

it's safe to say that the experience aspect probably played into it too. Like it just,

you know, like there were, there've been people that chucked it out and like would have dove in

the mud and kind of done like, we got a lot of nods to like, I think it was Woodstock 94

and some of the comments and everything like that. And it's like easily set. It's more set than done

in terms of like, you know, wanting to like brave the mud in those conditions for a whole day. And

I know festival goers are kind of used to that, but the other day, like we, you know, we want to

deliver their team, want to deliver a world-class experience. And that, you know, that the safety

was one thing for both the artists and the spectators, but also the, um, you know, just,

just being able to deliver an event we were proud of. Um, you know, I just don't see how that would

have been possible on Sunday. I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have a great time because I'd like

swim around in the mud and be, it'd be fine and everything. So I think that, um,

you know, we've not had a great time if, uh, if I would have liked squished him an ankle or, uh,

or, or, or something like that. Even Russ was ready to tap out on Sunday.

But I mean, it just, it was a, um, yeah, but once the decision was made, it was like, it was such a,

I mean, I don't want to say relief because that like, you know, cause it was definitely like,

you know, like we were definitely bummed out about it. I get what you mean.

The last people didn't want to cancel the event. I promise people throwing the event,

right? Um, for both just like financial and it was like, I mean, you know, it's not just like

we started working on this week, a week before the charity, you know, but I mean, it was, uh,

there, there was no anxiety around it was like knowing you were going to have to let the fans

know there's no anxiety at any point on it. Like we were not, we were making the right or wrong

decision for 110% knew that after just seeing the ground, especially after Mr. Pony and the lights

came up and you saw it, it was like, Oh wow. Like Tony has seen work a miracle on Saturday,

but I mean, they're just, there was not enough holes I think in the Southeast that they could

have helped those grounds. Yeah. Russ, what did you, what do you got for Matt before we,

and we're going to have to get into the government thing pretty quick. Yeah. Russ is only one that

actually made it on the grounds. I actually made it and I wasn't supposed to be there, but because

of the hurricane, my flight to Florida got canceled. So I ended up in Huntsville and then,

Oh wow. Of course. Yeah. So, uh, but yeah, I think from a fan's perspective,

it was pretty much the same reaction on Sunday when the news came out. It was kind of a,

Oh man. Cause you know, Sunday, especially for me, uh, musically Sunday was more stacked than

Saturday. If I had to pick one day, I would have picked Sunday, but you know, we all kind of quickly

realized, well, no, actually that makes sense. And I think that everybody agreed that's the

right call. Do we really want to do this again? Yeah. And then it was like, okay, well, we just

get a free day in Huntsville to, you know, do whatever we want. So, you know, there really was,

there was a little bit of disappointment at first, but then we all sort of came around to,

okay, well yeah, this, this is a good thing for, you know, that's the right call.

We all know there's, there's nothing worse than putting on wet shoes. I mean, like nobody likes

going that next day with, you know, putting your wet golf shoes back on. Right. And my 20 year old

festival boots actually did not make it through South star deal. The souls of the idea of the

design. I had a, my boots for gap tape or a gap taped up and everything. It's a shelf life on

everything. Yeah. Cause I was kind of walking through too, like kind of like stepping in every

huddle and huddle I could find just to see how deep they were and everything like that. And so,

it's, it's the, I'm not a big, I'm not a big fish fan, but it's the lyric that always sticks with

me. Whatever you do, take care of your shoes. Whatever you do. All right. So real quick and

Matt, I'm, we might have to do this again, if you're willing. I definitely, but I'm, I'm curious,

you are, I saw one of the articles that said you might be the only music officer. I wrote,

I wrote that down too. That was, that was written very, uh, non-officially and somewhat flippantly,

but is there, is there truth to it? Or is this a position that at least from the initial point,

you're the only one that has that in governmental city government? Correct. I was the, uh, well,

there are a couple other state offices now starting to pop up. And what's really cool is that like,

you know, we're kind of, and so there are other music officers. I believe the, uh, the, uh, I

believe Jimmy Wheeler at Tennessee music office is now referring stuff as a music officer. Uh,

Louisiana has a music officer now. Um, and so, uh, some have had them not to, sorry to interrupt,

but some have, it's been under another umbrella. It's like arts, entertainment, movies, and music

down here at the bottom. But, but Huntsville is fully committed, right? 100% like my office is in

city hall, like one floor away from the mayor. I report to, uh, uh, report to the mayor and then

our report to Shane Davis and John Hamilton who are economic development and like city administrators.

So we have the mayor, John Shane, and then, you know, like, so basically it's like, I'm one call

away from like the top grass city. And in terms of, uh, you know, like, like in terms of like a

mayoral initiative that like we're putting a lot of that, we put a lot of thought and resources

into executing. Uh, we're, we're taking early our music environment very, very seriously from the

city. Um, and, uh, it's, it's the way that we can get things done and having a city music office at

city hall in terms of just cutting through the red tape. I mean, if there was just a private sector

or the chamber that needed to get the sidewalk, uh, in place in John Hubb Park, I'm up before a

festival. I mean, that just would not be possible. But, um, the fact that like, you know, we have a

direct line with our leadership and we're going to call away with like from any department is, is

huge. And there's other music offices. Like you said, like a lot of them are like CDBs or their

chambers. Some cities have them, but the, uh, the way that Huntsville was approaching music is unlike

any other city in North America that's ever done in terms of, um, putting our foot in the ground and

saying, like being intentional and data driven about like, Hey, we want to be a premier music

destination in North America. And, and that's why I think that we kind of describe it as, you know,

we don't want to be the same as Austin or Nashville, but we just want to be in the conversation

when people are talking about like the great U S music clubs and have like something that's

unique to us and special that, uh, ties in with like our kind of like community values and our

arts and culture scene. Cause it is, uh, it is, uh, it is thriving here. It's really, really exciting.

And, um, and that music being an aspect of getting people to check out hostile, you know,

we like to say that it's very hard to sell Huntsville on a gross shore. Um, people just

see it as like, Oh, it's a city in Alabama where NASA did. Yeah. Space city. It's a bill. Yeah.

And, um, we like to say, man, when you get better, better, better work for me through like the, uh,

the job interview process of this, it's like, wait a second, you can get somebody in Huntsville for,

for 72 hours. And, uh, they start thinking about never leaving. And so, um, you know, that's a

catalyst that like music's doing, you know, whether it's the shows at the Orion, the Bonobron Center

or these festivals, like people, we love seeing license plates that are from out of state, like

in the park and lots of our menus. And they love the feedback. We're getting them. Wow.

We had no idea. Huntsville was so cool. Um, and so I think that, uh, I heard that said a lot. Yeah.

But yeah, yeah. That's the government aspect of music is really fun. Um, just the things we're

doing for the first city to, uh, for the first city to execute a tour grants from a municipality,

uh, from a municipality perspective to where the, uh, if you're a local musician who, uh, uh,

has at least five dates on a tour, you're entitled to a $750 to $1,500 grant with a $4,500 annual

maximum, uh, for your touring efforts. And what's cool is the, uh, the, uh, Tulsa has actually

replicated that program now to see if Tulsa, they have a Tulsa on tour program where if you look at

their website, it's pretty much a copy paste version of ours. Um, and so it's really cool to see like

other cities take note of that and kind of follow the lead. And we have a, uh, we have kind of a,

there's, there's not a lot of people in the, uh, in the city government, state government,

professional realm of music and in America, but the, uh, but the ones that are like, we're in a

pretty tight, different tour name. We talk often. And what's really nice is the, uh, in the private

sector, that might be something seen as like competitive or like something you might want to

send out, like a cease and desist about, but since it's like civic and government,

you know, like we would like, it's almost like we want like any time a city or state like replicates

one of our programs or, or we do or vice versa. That it's like, we're, we're very proud of that.

And so it's just cool to see the effort. The community has been very, very open and supportive

of like the role and especially like local business owners. Cause you know, we're seeing young and

we're seeing a young workforce start to like move into the city and fill these jobs.

Let me ask you real quick, uh, Matt, uh, on that, cause I wrote it down on my list here that you

were just talking about the export programs. That's what you were just referring to. Correct. Yes.

I saw that that might have come from what is make export Memphis or music export Memphis.

And I know you're, yeah, one of your, your last gigs or your prior gig to this was, uh,

creative marketing music director of Graceland, by the way, you know, we didn't even got to that.

Um, in, in Memphis, which is just sounds like a cool gig. I don't know that it is,

but it certainly sounds like one. But, but I wanted to speak to that specifically since,

especially since you brought it up now where it's a scholarship could be a word that could be used

for young people. Uh, grant is a word you use. Uh, basically it's government subsidized money for

bands from Huntsville. We're talking about now where you're, where you're at now to be compensated

for, for hitting the road and, and, and, and being a touring band. When I first read, when I read

that, I thought that's ambitious, man. Like who qualifies, what kind of money we talking about.

And then I was curious if this was something that you were working on in Memphis. First,

when I saw this music, uh, music export Memphis, can you explain, expand on that a little bit?

Is that where it came from and how that came together? And if we want to do something like

that here in Chattanooga or somebody wanted to do that in Lexington or wherever it might be,

what are the expectations that the, the, the local musicians, which can vary in, in every aspect,

from talent to just overall, uh, projections, what could they expect from something like that?

And how does that work from a, from, from the person who might want to take advantage of a

government program like that? Sure. And so, uh, well like, yeah, so I was in Memphis for three

years and I had heard, I had seen like the music export Memphis logo on a lot of things, um, but

was not really familiar with it. I actually came across Elizabeth, um, at a, at a convention in

Tulsa, like she moderated the panel I was on and we just got to talking and she was talking about

this, uh, this, uh, music ambassador, like tour grant program that she had executed and, um, how

it had been like in place for about five years. And that's, you know, how it was a, you know,

because musicians are not grant writers. And so, um, you know, basically she kind of laid it out

where it's like, you know, there's a quick, easy form that like musicians can fill out. It takes

about five minutes. There's a defined set of criteria, um, that, uh, that makes you eligible.

And then there's a point system that determines like where you get between that, like,

uh, base level to like the high levels. And it was a, frankly, I was like, this is, there's gotta

be a catch. This is way too good to be true. It was trying to like, you know, like, yeah,

and I was trying to like, kind of like find holes in it and just couldn't. And so, um, you know,

we, we, we got to where we could bring in, uh, her and the music export Memphis team as a

consultants, um, to help us develop the program and kind of make it a little more of a two hospital.

And so that was the, the, uh, the end result of like that effort. But yeah, she, she was amazing

to work with. And yeah, that the, uh, the response and that program, I think we've funded 30 tours so

far. Um, and the, uh, you know, and, and, you know, being conscious that like, you know,

musicians aligning with a government is not always the coolest thing for musicians to do.

No, no, no. And they're not going to trust you at all, actually.

Oh yeah, exactly. And there are people that like,

you know, no matter how good of work we do, it's all just like never trust us, you know,

it's like what comes with like government and all those rock and roll.

But, but, but, you know, so that's why we're very conscious of like, you know, like this has to be

like very like laid out and easy to digest and easy to apply for and like, you know, what you're

getting. So we hope that like, with the website, um, when you go, if you go to

hustlemusic.com slash map for music investor program, because we're putting hustle on the map,

you can kind of see the criteria, but it lays it out to where if you're a, uh, basically you need

to have like five tour dates on the book and then they have to be like, like they have to be like

public facing shows. They can't be like private events and weddings. They have to be, um, like,

like concerts or festival plays or things like that.

But only five. That's a good, I mean, that's a starting point that just about any working band

can meet the criteria of if they, if they try hard enough. So that's pretty cool.

100%. And that's what we're really trying to push in our community. And so we're seeing established

artists that are, that are with agents that are, that are kind of a big deal already, like taking

advantage of it. But it's, it's, it's a way to encourage and, and show the like artists in our

community that like, you know, to help like encourage them to take the step and take the risk of

like go out and tour. But like $750 to $1,500 is not like to be like, you know, like, you know,

it's not like to fund all the expenses of a tour. But like every little bit.

This is, this is kind of really exciting. And the only, the only aspect we, uh, we ask for the

artists is simply, um, to a college that they participate in the program. Like they have to

make one social media post that basically is like a, Hey, like, you know, doesn't have to say thank

you or anything. It's just like, Hey, we need you to just like, like, cause you have to get something

for a grant. Right. And so, um, you know, so they just have to make a social media post and basically

not as they're participating in the program. And then, you know, it's been really awesome to see

how the, um, you know, a lot of them are like very like long form and very like heartfelt, like this,

like these dollars mean a lot to like these artists and, you know, like, and to see them like keep

applying more and more, you can get up to $4,500 annually. Um, so we have a couple like that are

for their getting like, for like, who's going to be the first one to get the annual cap. And so, um,

yeah, just to help these artists sustain their careers. And what's really, really amazing is

that we're actually seeing like already established, like, like there's a band called the Bernie

sisters, uh, that actually relocated here. It's a 17 and a 14 year old, but then if like they're a

full time tour, man, dad is the, uh, dad's the sound guy, mom's the tour manager. They have a

Winnebago. They've worked with the Avid brothers. Like they actually relocated their family here

being part of that list. Doesn't like the tour grant program because you know, the cost of living

here is a lot cheaper than other like nature, say music markets, um, and just worried enough,

but then a three hour radius of like so many cities. So you can actually live in Huntsville

and play Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham, um, Chattanooga, and without even leaving a hotel.

If you just like want to drive like, like that three hours. And so, uh, getting people that are

actually like, like, like serious artists, like relocated here is like, because the grants, like

a piece of that. And then even more importantly, like Huntsville has been, uh, the story of Huntsville

has been a, um, wow. Like once the artists starts getting to a certain level, like they move to

Atlanta, Nashville, somewhere like that. And so same kind of thing here. Yeah. Yeah. So this program

is a way to keep that talent here. Um, and stuff like that. Cause again, it's not a program that's

designed to like fund the whole tour. It's like, yeah, like it's, it's fine. It's non biased towards

like any genre. If you meet these qualifications, uh, you do this. And what was great with Elizabeth

and music us work, Memphis's expertise is that they'd have five years to kind of, uh, uh, figure

out their kind of like variables and stuff and make the tweaks. And so we have our program like

varied, like with five years of kind of experience of dialing into things like that to where, uh,

it's, it's just been really, really outstanding. We're very proud of it. And the, uh, the artists

that are participating in it are like very proud of it too, which, uh, which, which really means

a lot. Like when you see a cool band, when you see a cool band talking about how proud they are to

live in Huntsville and like how proud they are, like the city is like supporting their efforts.

Like that is just, man, like coming from the private sector, that's just mind blowing. You

just don't see that. How much of that is your job versus, I mean, when we first started talking,

you know, the idea is to, to make people aware of Memphis, uh, Memphis, make people aware of

Huntsville. And the thought is the touring acts, but that's not all what you just were talking

about. It's making musicians want to be, live there. But you mentioned, uh, in that article

we alluded to earlier that you need more of the infrastructure type, the music industry people,

the PR people, the producers, the engineer, same conversations we're having in Chattanooga. And

it's, it's the, how to support that and who can support it. You know, we have lots of people

move here from Nashville. They don't want the big city. They like the, the smaller and they can do

things here more, but we're having those same struggles, you know, those same conversations of,

you know, we need more venues for these people to play. We need more money. We need more fans.

I mean, all of those things. So how much of that is your job? I mean, it's, um, a lot. Um, yeah,

I mean, it's, it's, yeah, the music office role expands to where it's the, um, I mean, it is,

it's, I would say like, so you have the Iranian, the air and the C3 presents festival was kind of

like the, uh, like big hand of like the big projects, like big kind of like pieces that can

attract like the global interest from like the music community and like music bands to looking at,

you know, like you have fish playing at a venue. You have people from outside the United States

that are like going to see your venue, at least on a website, you know? Um, so there's that,

but then there's also, I mean, it's even like elementary education, like working with like the

school programs to ensure that they have the resources they need to make sure their programs

are as dynamic and innovative as possible. Uh, and also like the, uh, the community nonprofits that,

that focus on music. And so we, we, we have the big picture, like big commercial, uh, sexy pieces

with like the big name, uh, fans that everybody knows, but, um, I would say that it's, it's, it's

even more of a focus to develop that, like, kind of like local environment and, you know,

the more dynamic, professional, sustainable musicians you have in a community. Um, I mean,

just, just the better your community is going to be. Um, you know, cause a lot of these bands,

when they're not on tour, they might have side projects and be playing at like local venues,

like local Mars, and they're kind of like working with, uh, just kind of like playing with like

other locals, like help rising tide, lips on boats, uh, the better players you have in your city,

whether it's for one night or permanently, it just is naturally going to elevate, uh,

their, their whole culture. Similar to how, you know, there, there was some anxiety that the

other stakeholders in the city had about the Orion amphitheater. Well, when Orion had a show like,

will anything else in the city be able to happen? Um, which, you know, we, we proved that like

right away with like opening nights where we actually had with opening night, the Orion,

we had a sold out show on that same night. We had a sold out show with, I think it was Brooks and

Dunn and our 8,000 capacity, like Brooks Center Arena. And so we've had nights that have been

really cool where we've had like a big show at the Brooks Arena, a sold out minor league hockey,

or a sold out minor league baseball game, a sold out soccer game, and a sold out Orion show

all on the same night. And just seeing like how the, uh, the, the calendars of the other venues

and towns, um, uh, calendars have looked with just like the number of shows and the quality of shows

since the Orion has been built, I think has been, uh, has been really, really awesome and

spectacular and proves that kind of rising tides approach to where, you know, you do things like

South Star and the Orion, it just puts the industry and the agents and the management's intentions

just on your market to where, you know, like, like my morning jackets manager, agent, like,

like put my morning jacket in the Orion. And as y'all know, like these like agents have like a ton

of developing acts. And so now they're looking at, and just like hustle is a place they need to play,

instead of us like having to go out. And so it's been really good seeing all shapes and sizes. I

mean, yeah, George, yeah, George Straiton Hustle, uh, on Wednesday night, which was,

that's still my life that George Straiton came here. Well, we, we could do this for a while. We

don't have, we don't have a while. Um, no, we need to let you go. Thank you for your time, but go

ahead. Yeah. All of it does fascinate me though, cause there's so many parallels to what we, what

we dream of here in the city of Chattanooga. All of us here are essentially lifelong and

we probably found the, but ah, there we go. Uh, all of us here are essentially lifelong Chattanoogans.

So we, you know, we dream as much as we follow the local governments and, and there's a lot of

change over there too. You might not be in this position in five years, you know, Matt, I mean,

I'm not trying to sell you short, but you might not be. And what you just discussed in the,

in the schools, well, that's generational change, right? You can get some stuff done here in a few

years. You take the, as you take the job, as you've moved around from the private to public sector,

you've been in some really cool cities, you kicked around the Carolinas to Austin, Memphis,

you know, but generational change that that's bold, you know, that's a bold thing to talk about. Um,

trying to bring a few extra bands to town. Certainly got a boldness to it too, but certainly, um,

really think it's very cool what the city's doing and the way that you have embraced it and just

your energy here today, it's, it's pretty clear. And the commitment, that's what I'm impressed with

is the commitment from the city. Yeah, it's nice to see it. It really is super fast thing. I know

you played music early on and it sounds like the way that it read, it was the same way as me, um,

or at least similar. You realize at least the way it read, you weren't, that was not where your best

talents were. You weren't going to be, I think you said the next day, Matthews or maybe Bob Dylan,

whatever it was. Um, how hard was that for you? Cause for me at first, I struggled with it 15, 20

years ago. I want to be a rock star. Well, buddy, you're not going to do so. You better figure out

something else. I'll tell you what, I mean, my, my ego was a place where like I was, I was there. Uh,

it took me one week living in Austin, Texas and doing just the like open mic, open jam scene and

bobbing chops and small venues to realize like, like, cause I pulled around and like, you know,

I actually started playing music in college because I busted up on you playing basketball. It was kind

of like, you know, needed something to do. So I bought a guitar, picked up like learn how to play

five chords and play five chords. You can play like bars, you know, 20 years ago, that's all you needed.

Yeah. You can do a three hour GCD rendition of everything. And so, you know, if I was like, yeah,

this is, this is the difference of people who can really play. Um, and then, but you know, it, uh,

I got really lucky. I, uh, I was in a softball league with, uh, with a guy named Brad Speas,

who I would say was my first industry meds for, and he was the, uh, the head of special projects

at South by Southwest kind of told my situation. Um, and, and, and he created like a kind of

seasonal position for me too. And where it's like, Hey, he's like, I know you're green, but you know,

you're, you're older than most of like the 22 year olds that are taking these positions. And I,

and I had done like some work, like in day jobs, I had a pretty solid resume to pull back on it,

but the music thing didn't pan out. But, you know, I just, I jumped in and fell like, man,

that that, that guy is, was a big reason or just, I got excited showing up and working with him

every day about all the stuff that South by Southwest was doing. And so, uh, it was, uh,

it was about a week of like, what the heck am I going to do now? I realized that's my challenge

is just never going to be there, but it, uh, yeah, it, it, it got there quickly. And I mean,

you know, just, it's just committed to it. And then from there, just like new opportunities,

kept creating themselves for it. Cause I mean, I've just, I've never been the smartest person in the

room, but I always work hard at what I'm doing. And I've been, I'm good at kind of surrounding

myself with people who are smart and dynamic. And so I think as long as we're doing that in

hustle, bringing in the smart people who can really, really like move the needle and elevating

the, uh, the culture here and the dynamic talent. And I think that, you know, like, like being a

cheerleader is like a very fun part of the job. I always loved hearing the stories about the people

who moved to Nashville and, you know, they get a job waiting tables and figure out that the guy

washing dishes is a better guitar player than they are. You hear those stories all the time, but, uh,

Matt, man, thank you so much for your time. We will definitely do this again, if you are willing,

because anytime and, and, and, and we're actually have had like conversations with like some people

in Chattanooga. Um, we're, we're, we're very, we would love to develop a, um, uh, like they call

these, these export programs. We're actually like launching, uh, um, one soon. Like we've kind of

started gently going into one with some partners we have in Nashville, uh, kind of a development

basis with some people down that Berry Hill campus. That's really exciting. And that's,

see, that's the thing. It's like, you know, starting something with Chattanooga, you know,

we just seem to find the right partner. Cause it's pretty easy given the like radio story,

you know, it's, it's as easy as like doing a showcase in Chattanooga with a handful of

hustle artists and then like the next month or next quarter, doing a showcase with Chattanooga

artists here. And that's an easy way to kind of break it. And I really think that, you know,

if we can spur more like city government and civic like roles to kind of take what we're doing in

a hospital, then that would be, uh, I think that if every city had a music office, regardless of

how like efficient or effective it is, I mean, I think that that would be, uh, I mean, what a win

for everybody. We're close. We're close. We definitely have a mayor who's committed. He

loves music as much as we do, but, uh, we, there's so many other things for them to focus on that,

dedicating an office like that. I don't think we're there yet, but, uh,

anyway, we got to get, um, thank you again for your time. Um, you know, seriously, we could do

this for the rest of the day. I could anyway. So I love it again. I mean, any, anytime you'll love

to, I mean, this is, this is great. Actually, I have a four year old who's huge into aquariums.

And so we, uh, how much I'll know what next summer coming about to like, see you all in person.

It ain't as cool as everybody says it is. I'll just let you know. Don't listen to him. He hates

everything. It's great. All right. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate it. Thanks guys.

All right. But there you go. I mean, so again, I keep going back to who's listening to the show,

you know, are they industry people? I think so. I hope so. I think they are, but also am I that

person who just bought a ticket because I'm going to my first festival and I want to see Gwen Stefani

and it wasn't raining that hard, you know, why'd you got to cancel? I get it. And I'm not making

fun. I'm really not because I would have been that person, but there's a whole lot more.

There is a whole lot more that's involved in these kinds of decisions. And, um, that's one.

The other thing is I'm so impressed with how long-term they're thinking.

Oh, I know. Yeah. They've really committed to this thing. They really want to transform Huntsville

into a, not another Nashville, but you know, it's a music destination that when people think music,

they want people to associate that with Huntsville. That's a big goal. When you just said that,

I don't know if you've ever seen the documentary about what, you know, country music, I'm sure,

yeah, it was the country music. Why East Tennessee versus Nashville? And why did Nashville become the

country music center? It was the paper because that's where the lawyers live. Yeah. That's where

the contracts are made. So yeah, Huntsville is just like Chattanooga. It's never going to be Nashville

because that's where the contracts. That's funny. I hadn't thought about that till you just said that.

All right. So guys, we have so much more to talk about. Russ's t-shirt. I can't wait to hear about

K-Fest. You went with some good friends of ours, our new camp buddies from Bonnaroo.

Yeah. I'll just shout out Jerry and Mike and Brad, Nashville Brad and Beth, who we've had on the show

before. And we've, you know, you've probably heard about all these people that we kind of merged our

camps together. And this was neat because it was like South Star. It was kind of a, you know,

instead of a once a year thing when we get to see everybody, it's turned into twice a year, even more

maybe. If you had dialed up the weather, I don't think you could have got better. Oh my God. Yeah.

Coming after South Star and then the extreme heat of Bonnaroo, this was just perfect. Textbook,

perfect weather, warm and sunny during the day, a little cool at night. You put on your,

put on your jacket, put on your flannel and we just had a great time. Weather was absolutely

perfect. Yeah. I can't wait. We're going to talk about that. We're going to eventually revisit,

because we missed an anniversary exit 111. Yeah. It's hard to believe that was five years ago.

And so we all have stories about that, that we're going to revisit in the coming weeks.

And then we have some very special guests that we're trying to line up. So again, as I said,

at the beginning, we think this is the kind of quiet time, but there's a lot happening.

We keep finding more and more conversations. Okay. So there you go. Another good show.

And Matt, thank you so much, man. I hope you'll come back because this was awesome. We learned a lot.