For Bonnaroovians like Brad and Barry, lineup day is like every holiday rolled into one. It officially dropped today and we got an early look. Actually, we all did, but more on that later.
Find out what our can't miss shows are, as well as what we think are this year's sleeper acts. Plus, we discuss some of the new upgrades to The Farm, including Jamtrak.
Topic: Bonnaroo
Hey, hey, hey, hey. How y'all feeling? Journey through the stories that define the artists playing by the rules. Who are they? What are they? What will you see? The what? Which bands? This year? That matter? With Brad Steiner and Barry Courter. Mdou Maktar. Mdou Maktar, my favorite new artist of 2021. I'm just a big fan. You know, I love the sounds that he brings, the, I don't know, the diversity that he brings. I don't know if you guys have heard of him, but I am in love. I just know the guy's connected. You think so? He knows things. In some form or fashion, this guy has got scoops. He knows stuff, for sure. We all know who he is now. Yeah, you know, and it is, I don't know who his PR company is, but they hit a home run this time because now everybody wants to see the Mdou Maktar show, which honestly enough, he sounds like a damn good guitar player. This might actually be a pretty fun show, turns out, Mdou Maktar. Yeah, if he's there. So, here we go. It's officially lineup day. The last time that we had a lineup day, me, Barry, and Taka were sharing a hotel room, you know, and we got to actually spend the night together at the Moxie and Chattanooga. Now, things a little bit different. That's right, drove all over town one night, waiting for the lineup to get to us. Going from Taco Bell to Taco Bell, picking up beers along the way. I guess we'll just keep drinking. Now we got it yesterday like everybody else. Yeah, it is kind of remarkable that in 2021, they're still sending the lineup to bands, thinking bands aren't going to share it with their friends. You know, I don't mean to be this kind of guy, but it just reeks of somebody at Live Nation who's not really attached to what they do every time. They send it to, whenever they have a festival, they send it to a band and they want the band to promote it the day of the announcement. I don't think ASC makes that mistake. Yeah, I don't know. You know, it didn't get leaked once before, right? Was it three, four years ago that leaked and it was right? And should we be saying that? And should say yesterday that the leak was correct. We got it officially this morning. Not necessarily a very smart eye, a sharp eye when it comes to poster nerding out. We'll notice a big change on the second line of Saturday. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry, you know, Friday, Jack Harlow on the teaser, on the little teaser thing, was on the third line, now second line. He's been upgraded. And by the way, the other thing that was different, well, it's not different, it's different than the original lineup. The only reason I noticed it frankly was because Nelly was originally on the lineup performing country grammar. Well, now he's, he hasn't even noted anymore. So the only reason I noted that Jack Harlow has moved up a line was because I was still looking for Nelly to perform country grammar and nothing. Now there he is on Friday, third line. Yeah. All right. So whatever. Well, it was an actual real official leak. Turns out it was actually true. So, you know, without going, you know, too far into the show, let's just dive into it and tell me your initial thoughts. Are you as excited and as giddy as you were this time last year when you saw the greatest festival lineup ever created? No, but no, but not like, I really wanted to see Miley Cyrus. The more I thought about that after that lineup came up last year, I don't know why exactly. I just think it would be an interesting show. She fascinates me. She had a great year last year with all the little online stuff that she did. But, you know, you swap that. But there you get my morning jacket. I get my morning jacket and the Foo Fighters. So, yeah, I'm going to call it even. But that lineup last year, if you were two years ago, year and a half, whatever it was, was pretty stellar. I mean, that was. The taco, you as excited as you were this time last year? For the most part, I think my biggest loss is Oyster Head. I was looking forward to that. But we get the Deftones, we get Incubus. And you might be the only person in America excited about Incubus. I will tell you, that was one of those that just every year, there's always one of those bands that were like, huh? Yeah, I'm not saying it makes up for what we lost, but, you know, I love that. I love that. We lose. We lose tool. But damn, and I got it. Yeah, I've never seen Foo Fighters. I am a huge Dave Grohl fan. I've said before on here, he's one of those guys that just gets it to me. Yeah, we'll go. We'll go through, you know, I've got a ton of Foo Fighters story, but let's go through some of this real quick. Just some top line impressions. The idea that first off for me, the idea that Tyler, the creator, is your Sunday end of festival headliner makes no sense to me. No sense. I don't. I almost want Brittany to close out the festival, to be honest with you. Having him as the guy that that shuts the doors down doesn't really fit with anything else that Bonnaroo has ever done. Sunday is really always been traditionally for those guys that have been camping all week. It's it's a nod and a wink to the to the the original Bonnaroo crowd, the all day fest campers, those those lifers, those jam band guys. Are they going to stick around for Tyler, the creator? I don't know. I don't know. You got Tyler, you got Lana Del Rey, dead now. Leon Bridges, stick around for Brittany. I know you'll be there for. But I know what you're asking. I mean, that's the how can I put this? I mean, that that was fish last year. You know, that was who am I thinking of? Why am I? Why am I blanking on some of the Sunday things? I mean, that was that was the night that, you know. No, but let me ask this. And maybe it's too early because well, there's so many questions. One, we we all felt like that this year's line up was going to be as close to last year's as they could get it. Right. On the one hand, but on the other hand, we've been through something like we've none of us have ever seen in our lives. So is it a reset type of moment? Or is it get what you get the best you can get? I mean, are you overthinking your question? I know it's a great point. It's a great point. But that is Tom Petty slot. You know, they might as well just rename the Sunday headline or the Tom Petty slot, because nobody encompassed what that final show is supposed to be to me like petty. Yeah. And so Tyler, the creator, just feels I feel I'm just going to say it feels a tad Coachella. I love Tyler, though. I mean, I'm not going to that show. I mean, it is for lack of a better term. It is a shit show. It is all over the place. It's fun. But I don't need to see that again. I just don't know if that's how I want to finish my festival. Let's but to back up for a second. There is another top line headline here, Barry, for the journalist in you for the first time ever. I think that there might be a female headliner on the first line of every day. Hmm. That's got to be that's got to be a first. Absolutely. It is. Because we know for a fact, for a festival has never had a female headliner. There's one on every single day. That's a great point. That's a great point. Yeah, that's a that's a great point. In fact, I think I ask you, you know, me, my favorite is my morning jacket. I know a lot of people love Tame Impala and there's Lizzo in front of them. But that I think you pointed out that get to the that's the way it was supposed to be a year and a half ago. And that's the way they were going to contracted to do it. I mean, that's that's a curious first two lines for me. Really? Yeah. I mean, it's a good it's a great first two lines. So so where we where we put it, we love where we love Friday last year, right? Where Friday was supposed to be the greatest day in the history of festival lineups, right? I think that Saturday this year, I think that if I go through Saturday, I feel almost as excited as I was about that Friday that was supposed to be twenty twenty for me. I count Lizzo, Tame, my morning jacket, Isbell, Phoebe Bridgers, great ad, by the way. King Gizzard, the super jam. I mean, I'll even go loop daddy. I'll do some loop daddy. I have no problem with that. Woolly is so fun. So what am I? Almost Monday is almost Monday is about to blow up on the alternative format. Tate McCray. So, I mean, that's I mean, I think seven already. We found Goose last year on our. Yeah, right. Yeah, no, it's right. Goose was the streaming band that we fell in love with during the Bonnaroo. They played in the virtual. Right, right, right. That's right. Yeah. So so Saturday to me hits it hits hard. Thursday. Is a little like for a festival that is going to get me there on Tuesday now. Thursday seems to me like just another Tuesday. We'll have to come back to the whole Tuesday thing. But yeah, Briston Moroney's on there and Larkin Po. Big something I like a lot. But you know how I feel about the Grand Ole Opry. I just don't care. I know. And the rest of them, to be honest, I'm not familiar with, which is fine by me because that's what. Thursday's. That's the point. That's the point of Thursday. And then, you know, lose. Do we lose the baby? You did not lose the baby. Oh, OK. Oh, wait, wait. You might have lost the baby, but we gained a little. We have little baby. OK, you're the expert of babies. Well, it's true. Bringing it up. I see little baby. I don't see the baby. You know what? If you know anything about Lord Taco, he's good at a few things, two in particular, one drinking PBR and two identifying babies. Nobody identifies babies better. Nobody identifies babies like Lord Taco. You need to know of it to baby Lord Tacos, your guy. So you're going to have to tell me if the baby and little baby are the same person. I'm putting you on this. Well, I can't compare them if they if they're both not there. It looks like we're just getting a little baby, not necessarily the baby. If you're a little baby, does that make you feel bad that you're not the baby? Because the baby when they want to be the baby, I want to be the baby. You don't want to just be a little baby. In fact, I might be the baby of this podcast. So who would be the little baby of this podcast? So the taco, are you the little baby to my baby? I might be a little baby. All right. So Sunday, I actually I actually think is is pretty phenomenal. And I know that Sunday has gotten a little bit of heat. But to me, I just think that Lana Del Rey is such a great show. You know how much I love Brittany Howard. I might only be seeing females on Sunday because the addition of Julian Baker makes my heart scream. I am obsessed with Julian Baker. I've missed every show that has come through Atlanta and Nashville to a great, great disappointment. I'm so upset that I haven't seen her. I am in love with Julian Baker. I know that I'm not, you know, going to be her type. But I think that there's a romance there. I think that there is a connection with me and Julian Baker because we're both sad, Daria girls. You better watch out for Brittany. She finds out your double time team in there. You better be careful. Jamila Woods is phenomenal. I just I really I love what they did on Sunday. I have no problem at all having the wrap up to my festival being Lana Del Rey. If Lana Del Rey on on the what? I just have a feeling like Lana and Brittany are going to be right there at the same time. I mean, the conflict between Lana and Brittany, I have a bet. I just had this feeling like Brittany is your final which stage act, don't you? Yeah, makes sense. And then so with all that being said, so let's take a tour through all the things that we said last time on the show. Just so that everybody's clear, I was off by two days, two days. And I'll tell you exactly why I was off by two days. And I can't believe I'm acknowledging this somebody in particular, somebody in particular, and I will keep their names silent, but somebody in particular made me aware. It was two weeks. It was supposed to be two weeks. I said 10 days and I'm not going to go through why I said 10 days, but I'll just say I think I looked at the calendar wrong. When we did the podcast, I thought we were doing it on a different day. And I was not willing to admit that because, oh God, whatever. But with all that being said, two days, I was off by two days. Secondly, the band that we were hinting at that we had had official confirmation on not only was Brittany, but also my morning jacket as being an ad. You could have figured that out if you had a little bit of a you could have figured that out if you were paying attention to the opening song. I think I tried to make that pretty clear. But Barry loves my morning jacket. He loves my morning jacket more than anything in this world. So Barry is going to be very happy about that. I heard probably three months ago that the Foo Fighters were in, but I just I didn't feel comfortable saying it out loud. These things felt so iffy and Foo Fighters have been one of those bands that have always seemed to make their way into the conversation. And I just wasn't totally sure even though I damn near heard it from one of their people. I just didn't feel right about saying it. And then finally, I do have a little bit of a update. My morning jacket. You can probably no, no, probably put it in ink. Put every dime you have at Vegas. They are playing which stage after Tame Impala. They're going to be your which stage closers that night. So more often than not, we seem to we seem to get it at least close enough. Like we got a little close enough because let's go ahead and not to pick on you. But I think it's important. I don't think you said it on the show, but you did tell me you thought Tame was out. And then what is it you think brought it back brought them back? I think they're living in LA now. I don't know for sure. I don't know for sure. But and and I will go to bat. I mean, look, I have no doubt in the world that three months ago they were out. No doubt three months ago. Yeah. But I think that they I don't know. I can ask I can ask but I absolutely know they were out and then things changed. Things changed. Which that my morning jacket, I agree I can see them on the witch. I could see it one of those starting what midnight ish and ending sometime when the sun starts coming up. Oh man, my guess was my guess was you have Lizzo at nine. You have. You have Tame and Paula at 11 and then you have my morning jacket starting around 115. Yeah, 130 and going till three done. Yeah, like they did the first time I saw on the four hour show there that yeah. Yeah, I don't know if Bonner has an appetite for four hour shows anymore. We talked about that before. I mean, the set links have gotten it felt like they've gotten shorter. We were corrected that they weren't but it does feel like there is there is not an appetite for those big long stretching sets anymore. Now that will be put to the test with Foo Fighters. Foo Fighters will go for as long as they humanly can and I hope to God they do. Now you can be a Foo Fighters hater all you want to but I've got a couple of things about this one outside of a Jack White. And I know Jack White is polarizing but there is not somebody better for rock music than Dave Grohl. He is the best ambassador that we have. He is he is so good for the for the genre and you know, he's the he's the he's the grand pooba of rock music at this point. He's like us. Is that earlier he gets it. I mean, he can hang with Paul McCartney. He can hang with Jack White. He can hang with you can have Brittany up on stage. Brittany anybody. He is the guy who's the glue. He's the glue that keeps the entire rock thing together and you may not like his music. And frankly, I run a radio station plays a lot of Foo Fighters. I don't like the Foo Fighters all that much. But let me tell you going to that show at the Metro in Chicago during Lollapaloo's The Weeknd. That was one of the greatest shows I've ever seen in my life. I'm not a big Bruce Springsteen fan, but I love that Bruce Springsteen show of Bonnaroo that Foo Fighters show at the Metro was four hours. They did nothing but an hour of Rolling Stone songs. And the drummer comes out and sings an hour worth of Rolling Stone songs while Dave Grohl plays drums. It's just so good. Yeah, it's great. So good. So you are speaking of the and thought about it till you just said it. But the idea that they're doing shorter shows we were told that was at the request of the artist in most case in addition to the fact that we were just wrong that it wasn't true. But I know we have seen far fewer of those sort of long lengthy jam shows at Bonnaroo. But these guys have been these guys have been beside this. Yeah, these guys have been, you know, in their houses for a year and a half to do. Do you think they come out ready to play play longer? If you're the Foo Fighters, you do. I mean, I think my jacket too. I think they're always ready. I think they're always ready. Excuse me. I mean, I I'm trying to look and see, you know, Lizzo and then Tame Impala is one big block, right from nine till, you know, I don't know, midnight. I can see the Foo Fighters pulling off two and a half hours easy from nine to eleven thirty on Friday night. I don't think anybody's going to come behind them on the which the wet stage. Megan, the stallion, something tells me and I don't have any information about this, but something tells me that is not a lead into the Foo Fighters. Something tells me that that is a which stage before the Foo Fighters. Right. So who would go in front of Foo Fighters? I don't know. But I'll tell you, I hope it is. I hope it's Janelle Monáe. That's where I get because I'm right at it. You guys are sleeping on Janelle Monáe. That was damn near one of my favorite Bonnaroo shows I've ever seen. If I'm not mistaken, it was I know is the afternoon, but it was really eating. It was one of my favorite son. And she absolutely wrecked to a pretty sparse audience. I just remember it not being very full and she didn't care. She exploded. That stage was on. I mean, there were like 40 people on stage. I dressed in white from head to toe. Remember the guy wield her out on the two-wheeler of the dolly. It was brilliant. It was so fun. And at that time, it was just like Janelle was one of these artists like, yeah, I know her. I sort of like her, but it was before, you know, the album that really hit two years, three years ago. I'm just so in love with her. You're going to hear me wax poetic about Janelle Monáe way too much over the next couple of months. I've been a huge fan for years now. And she's I mean her acting career. So the name should be a lot more familiar to more people. But if you haven't seen her show, it's I mean, when she was a prince prodigy at one point, right? She not. Yeah, that's right. That's so there's elements of everything is choreographed. Everything is very well thought out. Yeah, that's a music is great. That's the word. It's thought out. It's very, very well thought out. She's very particular about those kind of details. You know, I'm looking at this. I tell you, I know I bet you I know who the witch closer is on Friday. It's glass animals. Glass animals have had a massive year and they just seem to fit late night. Big production sort of that, you know, tame impala slot from a few years ago after LCD. I can see glass animals making a lot of sense at midnight on the witch stage. Yeah. Back to your original question. Am I as excited? I still think this is a really, really good lineup. I do. I'm still very excited. I just that when we saw that one last, excuse me, last January, it was such a mind blowing. That's right thing, you know, but I still think this is very good. And I agree totally with you. Saturday replaced Friday as far as the all day long better rest up, you know, be prepared. Well, you know, I mean, we're going to go through this, you know, line by line throughout the rest of the next few months. But, you know, we've got an undercard that is not just strong, but it's full of potential for us to find something really interesting. You know, we the whole reason why we started this podcast was to get into some of these get into the weeds of some of these bands that we've never heard of and just talk about them and figure out if we like them. But, you know, yeah, I think the undercard is really strong, but it's also got a ton of stuff that I've I've never heard of. And I really want to start playing with. Absolutely. That's to me. That's the fun part. And I can't believe we've gone this far. And it's, you know, Brad, a lap at Taco and I are thrilled. Turquoise is back. You know, we were losing that one. What makes you think you're going to lose that? What else do they have to do? Well, the Jerry Harrison and Adrian Ballou thing, who knows what their schedules are? Those guys are studio all the time. So, yes, there are there's an unbelievable combination. Foo Fighters is a for me. I've never seen them. So that's a, you know, a bucket list one, if you will. Lizzo. I mean, just go back and listen to what Brad had said about Lizzo before we don't. We will repeat it again later, but I'm looking forward to that show just as I was looking forward to Miley. So again, I keep going back to that. Is Bill, I love, you know, it is a great, I know I love I love Jason Isabel. But are you going to see a Jason Isabel show at this point? It'll be a walk by. We've seen a lot of Jason Isabel shows. Yeah, but he's so good. He's so good. I mean, that's the I have a feeling Jason Isabel is going to be a wet stage act at this point. I think, you know, he's got every afternoon like he's got every bit of Sturgill Simpson in him. It just feels like the same sort of Sturgill Simpson timeline. I want you to I want you to go see Phoebe Bridgers and I want you to go see Gillian Baker, mainly because they're both going to be on stage with each other at some point. And I've got I mean, Lucy Dachas lives in Nashville. So there is absolutely in my mind, zero percent chance you don't get those three on stage doing some of that album. Zero percent chance, zero percent chance that doesn't happen. Only because it's new. Is it worth who are the ones you who are the others that you're disappointed are off? Nineteen seventy five. You know, I don't know how much we want to dwell on what could have been. But I look, I had I sent a lovely care package to the to the Ham family full of nineteen seventy five merchandise, mainly because it's just not for me, not for you, just not for me. I'm glad that they the kids, the ham kids love it. But that is for them. That is for them. Taco, you've got the list of bands that the ones that we lost versus the ones that we gained. I haven't gone through the math. But, you know, when I was told that there's at least 60 percent carryover, I mean, that number seems right, doesn't it? It feels right. Yeah, at least if not more. We know we know that we lost tool. We know that we've lost Miley. Correct me if I'm wrong. Megan, the stallion was on the lineup, but she was three lines down, wasn't she? Oh, yeah. She was not top billing. Yeah. Except that she's had, you know, as big of a year as Lizzo had last year. Yeah. Yeah. OK. All right. So who are some of the other ones that we lost? We lost the OB, which really sucks. Yeah. Yeah, we knew that one was going to happen. Yeah. But Oysterhead, you mentioned. Yeah, we lost Oysterhead. That's to me. That's this. Yeah. Vampire Weekend. Yeah. And still woozy. We lost still woozy. I love still woozy. That's too bad. Oh, we lost YOLO. That's a that's that one hurts. But you lose YOLO, but you gain a Julian Baker. I love YOLO. I'm actually surprised that YOLO is not going to make it. Because for some reason, I've thought that she lived in Nashville. I might be wrong about that. Maybe it's because she her album was produced by Dan Arbok. But I thought that she lived in Nashville. I might be wrong. But that one hurts because I really loved YOLO. But again, you know, back to back to YOLO's moment was last year when she was nominated for best new artist. So, you know, when you lose that cycle and we've talked about this on the show, when you lose the appropriate cycle, maybe it's best and the bookers have said it. Maybe it's best to just take a step back, not use 2021 and repurpose and repackage for 2022. Well, that's a great point. I mean, it is March, almost April when this I mean of 2021. It's not 2020. So it's not like everybody just hit pause. You know, you can do probably more harm if it's not the right time than if it is. So I think that's a great point. You know, we talked about and with having John and Allie on the, you know, the booking agents. There is a timing. There is a plan and it's it's very much planned. I mean, it's not to be redundant, but they think about these sorts of things. There's a timing element. And if YOLO is going to be the kind of artist that we think that she's going to be, you know, just doing a Bonnaroo set and doesn't really fit in to an overall strategy to make her, you know, the artist that she wants to be, you know, the other one that we lost and rightfully so to rightfully so base nectar and Morgan Wallen base nectar boy, you know. Yeah, not to get into the weeds on this, but my God, have I heard just absolute horror stories about this dude? And forget all the, you know, the stuff that he's having to deal with and what's been accused of and all those things that he's, you know, just as a human being, he sounds like a rotten person. He just sounds like the anyway, I wasn't a big fan anyway. I know the Barry was was heartbroken that all that sort of, you know, fell apart for him. You're a big nectar fan. Well, I'm heartbroken that he would be that way. Period any human being would be but yes, I did like his music. Some of it. I like some of it a lot. I didn't like all of it. So yeah, there's really only a few things that I'd listen to. But yeah, that was the way but to the broader point, we lost a lot of Edm. Pierce though doesn't a ton of Edm. Yeah, we got as you should point out. We got the official announcement this morning. I'm pretty sure we were first not that it matters because what came out yesterday is what everybody wants to know the lineup. I mean, it does matter and I'm glad to have gotten it. But I'm saying there's not a not not a lot of really new information other than it confirms some of what yesterday is. I'm interested. It all reads and looks like what we've gotten in the past. So all the questions we've been having of, you know, how would this be different? Will it be different? At this point doesn't appear so other than the when you can the parking issue, which I guess we get to in a minute. But yeah, the Edm I'm curious to see still how the Edm will go and how they're going to handle crowd traffic. I'm wondering if they're not, you know, like on Saturday, especially they would sort of shut down everything else and pile everybody into one. I'm I'm wondering if they're not going to try to thin things out somewhat more by having shows all over. Well, let's not I'll get to that in a second. But I want to go back to the Edm thing just real quickly because one of the things that might have gotten lost in all of this announcement is is their plan for the other. Now, if you read really closely between the lines, Bonner is beloved home for electronic music will now see all night performances and DJ sets through sunrise each day, along with spectacular new lighting lasers and surprises galore. You know what that sounds like to me? Sounds like Caliope. I don't know what that is. Do you sound like what I don't know what that word I live in New Orleans. The word is street and that's a street in New Orleans. They move the hill and it's Caliope. OK, you mean the call I have to be stage. OK, oh, the call I have to be stage. Yeah, I think my my bet is, you know, they're just they've removed. The call I have to be and just made it the other at this point, and they think that the Edm person is going to not really care the difference. Am I am I try am I going too far with that? Maybe not. I'm sorry. I'm reading the other thing about jam track. Some of the other changes, but probably not. Probably not. But I think it's again part of. I mean, they're reconfiguring the whole back area camping area, right? So we knew that Calliope stage was going essentially away. Yeah, and or combining with maybe the other. So that's probably maybe that's what we're talking about. I wonder. I wonder if that it's a it's a change of convenience or is a change of necessity. Do they do they change this and make the other basically an all night DJ set because they lost all their EDM acts. And or did they do it because they just didn't need to write because Calliope and other were sort of redundant. Yeah, exactly. They needed they wanted that space for more VIP camping. Now, I will say that's probably the case. Well, the other thing, too, that also, you know, and again, I don't have any information about this. But if you look at all the other festivals that are happening in the fall, electronic music has completely taken over most every festival in the country. Damn near the world. The idea that you can just pluck whatever EDM artists that you want to and drop it on the Bonnaroo lineup is is fine and dandy in June. But when you have 30 other festivals vying for this type of artist, you know, the their choices become a lot slimmer Bonnaroo's right. So maybe the available artists were not just not there because of competition. I would love to know who they lost, not just because of covid, but who they lost based on competition. You know, if you start seeing insert artists here that was lost on the on the Bonnaroo lineup on somebody else's lineup, I wonder if that's the reason. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Did you have a chance to look at all these other changes? All right. So it's all over the place. It's fine. Let's start. Let's start with let's start with Jam track that was announced in the in the Domino week. I'll just call it the Domino week, the week where we all says I'm not giving us a lot of credit here. Let me make that clear. But it did feel like the podcast that we put out last. It felt like everything afterwards, not because of the podcast. Let me make that clear. But everything afterwards from then until now has felt at a just rapid fire pace. No question. I feel like every time I turn around, there's more Bonnaroo news from that Thursday on. Yeah, I agree. And I think yesterday was a great example. Man, when that thing dropped, what was it? Eleven, ten, thirty or so. I mean, it was everywhere. Yeah. People were excited about it. It's you know, obviously it's it's Christmas for for Bonnaroo fans, fans like us. But yes, the jam tracks, they announced the taxi service. It's a free free shuttle taxi service for and that's a big deal, especially because of their, you know, parking. You know, this issue of coming in on Tuesday and Wednesday. How I get it, it's like Amtrak. But my man, I love I love how I mean, how many times did somebody buy a twenty dollar ride to Centro because they just couldn't walk it anymore. How many times? Yeah, a bunch. Yeah, it's a long haul. Also knew it knew to me they've had they've had a shuttle from Nashville and now they're going to have shuttles from Chattanooga a couple of times a day. So the day the day campers. Very. I just got a great idea. I just got a great idea. What if on Thursday we take over one of the jam tracks and we are the taxi driver? Well, let us be one of the taxi drivers. That would be fun for a few hours. Talk to people. I love that. That's a great idea. I would love that. Yeah, that's fine. All right. That's fun. Plaza is obviously some changes to the plazas, just upgrades, restrooms, medical, Wi-Fi. Oh, yeah. And Haley Williams is back. OK. Haley Williams is back for the sanctuary self-love and the stage improvements we've hinted. I know Jeff Quay are hinted at that. He told us about the parking, getting people in and out, but also some of the stage improvement. So looking forward to seeing what they do there. Yeah, the biggest thing, though, that you're burying the lead here, Barry. You know what the lead is. The biggest change of 2021. Is no PBR. I was going to mention that. Is that some kind of sick joke that Corona is the beer sponsor and not PBR? I mean, it's brilliant for Corona. I mean, it's brilliant. But this is a sad day. This is a tough, tough loss for our old buddy, Lord Taco, who I'm going to have a talk with PBR about this. It's their 69th follow. You're essentially a board member. You're old sway. You're old sway. I have shares. I'm going to guess you'll have your cooler full. You'll be OK. PBR will still be there. I can promise you that. With your new hat. I got a new hat. All right. So, OK, I want to go back through the lineup. Those are the changes. Those are some of the things that they announced that were coming along with the festival. Also, let me mention and I'll have an update with it. They're still trying to figure it out. But it'll mean something to a lot of people. This was an NFT. Their art program, you know, the art program there at center to a lot of people is really cool. Posters. I know you get a poster every year, don't you, Brad? Or a couple of them. I get. Yeah. And I don't get a bomber poster, but I get, you know, artists, artists, posters. Yeah. So, you know, they've had the RFID with the wristbands and this year they're going to have the NFA NFT collection for the poster lineup. So so I do want to do a big deal. I'm working on this. I haven't told you guys this, but I want to talk to an NFT expert, somebody who knows what the hell these things are. Somebody who's in in it because I don't get it. And I have spent day I've spent so much time reading all of this nonsense and I still don't understand it. I don't quite either. In fact, when I got the press release this morning, I had to admit that I don't know what NFT is. That was a band. Well, I knew it was. I just never heard the initial. And, you know, well, this is huge. It's everywhere. And I said, I look, I have one dollar bill in my wallet. I don't I don't do a lot of cyber. So this all this all sort of became a thing when Kings of Leon put out their album and they were willing to sell the album and all the things that came along with it via NFTs. And, you know, you had the Rolling Stones of the world asking questions like, is this going to change the entire structure of how artists get paid? And, you know, I was reading an article one time who wrote it. But it was and again, you're talking to somebody who doesn't understand NFTs. But, you know, an artist can make a ton more of more money through these than they would a normal record deal. And it's got, you know, the record industry. I got to imagine they're paying close attention to it if they're not afraid of them, then they're probably at least paying attention to them because it's going to change. It has the possibility of changing how any artist. Becomes Billie Eilish anymore, right? Billie Eilish may not need a record label anymore because she can make as much money on her own through NFTs than she ever would a distribution model model. I don't know. So these are the kind of things that I just don't know. But I'm highly fascinated. It's a way of assigning ownership to someone of a digital asset. Like I could make a copy of something and give it to you. I don't have it, but there's only one way to track that it's owned by one person and I can sell it to you. And the chain of people it's been sold to, they all make money through that chain. So like if I sell it to you and I bought it from Barry, Barry makes money, a little bit of money off the sale to you. So it's just it's just bragging rights. It's a way to say that I'm already on this. I mean, you know what I hear when I hear you say that I hear Star Trek. I hear a resource based economy that we're basically just trading resources for. I just I don't get it. I hear what you just said, Taco. None of that made any sense to me. Yeah, I heard the last week, I guess. I didn't know it was called an NFT, but people were buying memes, which, you know, OK. Yeah. Why do you say same idea? I have ownership of a meme that everyone can see. I don't know. Wait a second. You said same idea. What do you mean? Who's buying memes? Well, I mean, it could be anything digital. It could be a picture. It could be a song. Anything that normally could just be copied. Now you can have ownership of it. But what do you need ownership of a meme for? So you can sue somebody if they post it on a website. Well, it's just like why do people own, you know, priceless art? You know, because it's it's there's the rarity. There's scarcity. People like to say they have a one of a kind thing or, you know, one of 200 or whatever. And, you know, they say you're telling me so you're telling me I can put down a few hundred dollars and own. Ain't nobody get time for that. If you have somebody claims it and says, you know, this is this is mine. I could I could draw something and put it up and sell it for a dollar, you know. But people like to buy them and hold on to them thinking that it's going to increase in value. So if you buy something that, you know, Miley Cyrus drew or whatever, maybe that will go up in value. Then you can sell it and double your money. And then everybody that owned it before, including Miley, would make money off that. So that's how people are excited about a new way to make money off this stuff is they can just put out NFTs. But that does or doesn't anything with the Bitcoin. It doesn't. It's the same idea. Like you own a certain amount of Bitcoin while they use the same method to track who owns which Bitcoin. Now they're just saying instead of a Bitcoin, it's a it's another digital piece of. And in this case, it'll be the Bonnaroo poster. So you can bid on it and own it. Maybe Bonnaroo releases 200 NFTs. And you want to be one of the only 200 people in the world essentially that quote unquote own the poster, even though anyone could download it, print it out, whatever. Man, I I'm having like a VCR moment. It's weird. Yeah. I mean, and I think that's part of what makes it exciting to a lot of people is it's just a new it's just a new way to to brag. You know, you would say that you hear you out front on it. They're first to have it. So I hear you. I just that's that's a lot of flying car stuff to me. It's good. OK, I want to go. I want to just really quick. Is there an artist on here that you can say that you absolutely will not miss? Is there an is there a your sleeper and you're absolutely not going to miss you have one yet? Well, yeah, you know who my won't miss is other than the obvious because mine's going to be Brittany. Yours to be my morning jacket. Was it eliminate those two for a second? Who's your who's your can't miss? Taco, you have an answer already. Def tones. Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to say why, but I will not miss that show. Yeah, that's not sleeper. Maybe John Baptiste, you know, he kind of he's is fun. Yeah, and I'm actually surprised that John Baptiste is not doing some sort of version of a super jam. Oh, I know that'd be great. He'd be perfect as a super jam host. I'm still sort of confused about the Sylvanas. So project is I know that there is a really good documentary about it. And I know the people that have experienced part of it really like it. It just sounds it. I just haven't really figured it out yet. But then again, I've never been the biggest super jam fan anyway. And it does kind of make me wonder if there I know the super jam is their thing. But I wonder if they're trying to get a little bit out of the super jam. Do you mean out of doing it? Yeah. Oh, maybe. I don't know. Because John Baptiste would be the perfect host. Yeah, that's what he does. Yeah, I'm going to go probably with the turquoise thing and Larkin Poe is my sleeper. And you really like them. I do. You're a lot. Look, I don't mean to be I don't mean to be too on the nose here, but just don't miss the Foo Fighters show. You know, just don't miss it. Those were obvious. You think so? I don't think so. I think I think they're going to get, you know, 20 percent of the the Banu population who just says Foo Fighters suck. I just don't think that you should miss it. It's just too much. It's too much of possibility of a moment. And, you know, Pearl Jam just didn't have those moments in the past where we thought there were going to be a moment. I feel like Foo Fighters of any band that's going to be on stage of the entire headliners. They're the ones that have the opportunity of having a moment. You know, Run the Jules might bring out Janelle Monae, Run the Jules might bring out Lizzo, but Foo Fighters have the possibility of having that moment or really like, wow, they're they could they literally could bring anybody. They could have anybody and everybody. Bruce Springsteen could stop by and say hi. There's it just it's too it's just too big of a possibility. And then my let me just this is a tougher question than I thought. Foo Fighters, Janelle, Lizzo. Those are all I'm not going to miss somehow some way. Yeah. This is a tougher question than I originally thought. I my my sleeper and I'm I'm going to hold off on saying like I think that you could I might change my mind. I might change my mind on this because week. Yeah. It's so true. I'm having a hard time with my sleeper because I don't feel like any of these are sleepers. But I really, really like Jamila Woods. And I think that Gillian Baker is just too on the nose. I won't be missing Gillian Baker. I don't really have a sleeper sleeper that you couldn't already figure out is the problem. You know, maybe it's going to be in do mocked or maybe it's going to be a new actor. So I can just say thank you for being such a pal. We might as well go to that show because that might be the last time he plays a monitor. He got unfortunately had to had to cancel. We couldn't get him in to answer the phone. Yeah. You know, the other one that nobody's I can't believe nobody's spoken of Young the Giant. Exactly. Yeah. That's exactly the reaction I had. Well, and you know, our friend Daniel over at Rubus just loves Tame Impala. And I mean, I like it like him, but not as much as he does. So it's there's quite a few that incubus. There's a lot of walk bys on here for me. Put it that way. There's a whole bunch. Yeah. I want to lay eyes on and see and check out. Yeah. Check it out. King Gizzard and Uncle acid. I mean, those two kind of grace. That's going to be a great late night show. Yeah. That's a good point. Goose in the Lennon Stella. Yeah. I mean, I'm excited about getting into these bottom lines, man. And I know that we've all got the Bonnaroo appetite. But to me, I don't know why, but it just feels like this was such an inevitability. I don't know if it's really hit me yet that it's going to happen. I just have always assumed that it was going to. So I never had this like broken up feeling. I never had this feeling like I just got broken up with by Bonnaroo. Because I just break. Yeah, I didn't. I never felt that. I just knew that it was going to happen deep down, I guess. So I just I feel I feel like this is just like a continuation of what we just did back in January of last year. You know, it doesn't feel like anything has really. I don't know. I don't know why I feel this way. I know the world has changed. But for me, I just don't know. And I think that was a little bit of what I was getting at that as we got the release this morning. There's not the huge, giant, bold disclaimer, you know, that one might expect. Oh, man, that's a great point. There is nothing in that release. And correct me if I'm wrong about capacity limits, about testing restrictions, about, you know, vaccine passports. What I mean, none of that. It's like this is on. Let's go see you guys in September. I don't think that they're going to be adding any of those kind of things. I just don't feel like there's going to be any of those stipulations. I could be wrong, but something about it just doesn't feel like, you know, they're going to walk in here and start, you know, demanding vaccine cards. I know there's a conversation, you know, I think we all know there's a there's a password vaccine passport conversation happening right now. But I just I for some reason, I just cannot envision come September. And I've said this on the show over and over and over. I just can't imagine come September. Any of us will be that worried about it. I don't know. Have you gotten your shot yet, Barry? Not yet. But it's this week or next thing for sure. Yeah, I got my stuff like this. To be honest, I got my first one last Friday. Georgia opened up Thursday and I got an appointment Friday. I got my first one two weeks ago. I liked it so much I got all three. I tried to go back for seconds. They wouldn't allow. No, but but yeah, I mean, Louisiana is apparently leading the country in vaccine rates. We're up to like 35 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. So and we're, you know, we're in March. Yeah. Yeah. Another another thing that's a little different about the announcement today is tickets go on sale today. No kidding. They're on sale today. Starting at one o'clock. How much of this do you think was driven by the leak? I asked that question specifically and got kind of a no comment. I'm going to guess just based on how yesterday went, that it probably pushed it up to a point where, you know, a time that they didn't hadn't planned on. Now, whether it's a day, a half a day, a week, I don't know. I know that originally the plan was to announce that they were going to announce, you know, and when so that people would get ready and be around their computers. So it clearly changed it. But I don't think it caught them completely, you know, unawares. This is not me giving you news. I just got some informed speculation. OK, my informed speculation is that Thursday was the lineup announcement date and yesterday was supposed to be the announcement of the announcement date. And that's and that's where our guy got confused. I think that's probably right. Our guy heard we're having we're making the announcement of the announcement on Tuesday. Can you please social media this? And he probably just got a tad confused. But I'll tell you, we're having him on the show. We better be reaching out to him and getting him on the show immediately. I mean, it doesn't change a whole, whole lot. You know, it obviously, you know, it. It sure made for interesting Internet viewing yesterday and texting and back and forth. But look, as a PR person, you got to imagine you got to love the fact that. Leaks happen like this. If a well orchestrated leak and a well placed leak hits at the right time, all you've done is build anticipation. And and started the conversation a little bit early for an announcement like this. So look, when when it comes to stuff like this, I always think things are orchestrated. I always think that there is a reason why certain things happen. Yeah. You know, if it's a big, big, big product, I very rarely think that things just happen by accident. You know, we all know the name M.D. Mark Taran now. We didn't two days ago. I can't wait. I there's a couple on here. I just want to. Lick is back. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Remember, Lick? I do remember. Yeah. Lick is back and and we got a new ad flow, Millie. Flow, Millie. We also got Troy Boy. That's a that's a new thing. That's my name on Grindr. Yeah. Can't wait to see. Yeah. So so yeah, I have to imagine that the lineup was announced is going to be announced on Thursday, but the league sort of changed all that. Anything else? I'm trying to think if there's any other news. No, stay tuned to us. We have big news coming out. What do you mean, Barry? What do you mean we have big news? We we have some partnerships in the works. Right. OK, there's the keys. I know it's bad to do that. It's such a good teaser. If you want to do something. Yeah. You want to leak. We have a well-placed leak. Yeah, we're excited. By the way, who do you think the special guest for Grand Ole Op are you going to be? I hadn't even thought about it because because what happens, the question will be, what will the ads be? What will the next few months? We'll get any ads as vaccines are getting distributed more as people start getting more comfortable. Will bands start throwing their name on the lineup if they can get on it? Should I go ahead and be first and say it's going to be Miley and her godmother? Miley and Ali. Highly doubtful. Highly doubtful. Yeah, I mean, if like normally typically somebody asked me this on Twitter. Normally, typically I would say that, you know, ads just don't expect them. You know, they're just they just usually never work out whenever you're holding out hope for an ad. Again, I'll go back to the biggest ad that's ever happened. Fun Fun was added at the last minute. Jimmy Buffett was another big one was added at the last minute just days before the festival. And when Fun played that that tent, they had a number one single at the time. It's the only time it's ever happened in the history of honor. Somebody played while they had a number one single. Megan Stallion might change that. But, you know, the the the leaning on artists getting added to enhance a lineup for you usually wouldn't happen. But if it's going to happen, I would bet that it happens this year. I was just thinking that, yeah, because of the craziness, people just want to play. And they're probably going to there'll probably be some people available that would not normally be available. It's true. So maybe. But then again, you know, we call it we talk talking to the guys that booked the festival. They don't have many slots available. It's not like they have these things are pretty set in stone when they get a contract and they get a deal done. They pretty much know with all, you know, 85 percent certainty where these bands are going to go and what time they're going to play. Yeah, agreed. But again, and not to, you know, I don't mean this negatively, but things can happen. People can get sick. People can change. Oh, man, that's a great point. Who's the backup? Who's the back? Yeah, there's somebody. I hope there's a handful of people in on a list. You know, who was the guy that Jack Johnson, Jack Johnson, remember, they said they got him because he answered his phone. Yeah. Everybody's going to answer that phone now. Yeah, look, you know, the you know, VCU is my favorite college basketball team because I'm from Richmond. They got pulled out of the NCAA tournament right before the game started because they had a couple of positive covid tests. Yeah, you know, what if something happens to one of these artists and they get they get pulled out and, you know, they got to have a backup again. Another great question for for the guys that booked the festival. You know, who can you call on at the last minute that can make this happen? That's I don't know. Not named Jack Johnson. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was a great feeling. It was the band that the drummer got sick, right? Mumford. Yeah. Yeah. But terrible situation. And Jack stepped in and it was great. But yeah, that was funny. They knew he could get him on the phone and he could be there. So that's that's the point you're making. And I'm making is they need to have somebody on that call list case something happens. I wonder if Miley's one of those backups to make a show to make a show to just be dropped in. No, it's just a backup would be somebody that can travel with guitar and hold an audience. Yeah. Not somebody takes a big stage show. You know, who would be a great backup to in particular live in Nashville. Jack White and Dan Arbok. Yeah. Black keys could be a very nice backup just in case. I mean, the keys live in Nashville. You know, 10 minutes away. All right. What else do we get to anything else on Line Up Day? It feels like a weird line up day, does it not? Yeah, it is. For sure. In some ways and in other ways, it feels very normal. OK. All right. Well, let's get Madhu Mokhtar on the phone. Can you work on that, Barry? I'm on it. Thanks, guys. All right. There you go. The What Podcast. Which bands this year that matter. That's Barry Courter. I'm Brad. We'll talk to you very soon. Thanks for listening. Love you. Bye. Bye. Hey, hey, hey, hey. How y'all feeling? Journey through the stories that define the artists playing Bungaroo. Who are they? What are they? What will you see? The What. Which bands this year that matter? With Brad Steiner and Barry Courter.