Patreon Bill joins Brad and Barry to share his tales of driving 17 hours to Manchester and then waiting in line another 11 to get in. And, he still fell in love with Bonnaroo. Plus, we share some scary news about the future.
Topic: Bonnaroo
Guest: Bill
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Oh man. The What podcast?
The podcast for Bonnarooians, by Bonnarooians, Bonnarooian Barry, Bonnarooian Brad.
I know Lord Taco today, but in his place talking to a Patreon that
may be our furthest traveling Patreon of the What podcast, Bill.
And it's just Bill, by the way.
Just Bill.
Just Bill.
I like it.
It's just Bill.
He's one of our Patreons and what a great conversation we had with Bill.
17 hour drive, man.
We talk about it at the end of this, but
Brad, I can remember sitting in the parking lot at the holiday inn and watching you lose your mind
because you were having to wait for 20 minutes before we could get our credentials.
This guy sat in his car for 11 hours.
I don't think I lost my mind.
I don't think I lost my mind.
There might have been some whining going on. You'll admit that.
It was ridiculous.
What they were making us do was absurd.
And I just didn't agree with it.
And I usually am right in these situations.
I'm not going to argue.
I'm just saying multiply that times 11 hours after a 17 hour drive.
We'll talk to Bill here in a second.
But first, if you are a Patreon, we've got some things that are going to be coming to your way very, very soon.
Hopefully this week, one being the What podcast sticker.
They the sticker. Look at that guy.
Beautiful. And then you get the koozie, right?
You got a koozie.
I can't see that on your third is there's the What podcast koozie.
And then the grand finale, aside from your mixtape, which, of course, my mixtape is the best.
We'll talk about the mixtapes here in a second because I've got something to say about them now that they've been properly dispersed amongst the patrons.
But then the final, the grand finale, the What podcast t-shirts, if you can see it on your screen, never not great.
If you remember, to kick off our Bonnaroo last year, we had Ken Weinstein at camp and he said maybe the greatest quote about Bonnaroo that we have ever heard.
It's never not great.
No matter what happens, Bonnaroo is never not great.
So we thought that was that had to be on our shirts.
It's some in some form or fashion we had to make sure that we were saying never not great all the time because it's exactly right.
Yeah, it came up after we asked him about 2016, right?
The the supposed disaster year when sales were so down and he said, yeah, what do you remember about that year?
It was still great. Yeah, it's never not great.
And so what we decided was, I think you said that's one of your favorite years, right?
Yeah, it was one of my favorite years of all time.
Mainly because I love LCD and the team show was so unbelievably great.
But the the thing that when we heard him say it's never not great, it made me think about all the other things about Bonnaroo that are never not great.
There are so many things that you could just stumble into.
And no matter how bad the show is, it's still great.
At the end of the day, a slice of spicy pie, never not great, because it could be cold.
It could be on the ground. It's still great.
And that's why we decided to join the never not great saying with the pizza slices.
I think Apropos Apropos of a spicy pie pizza and Bonnaroo, never not great.
You could sit in your car for 11 hours waiting to get in. Sure. And it's still great.
So great. So we got that coming your way.
If you are a patron, if you're not a patron, I'm sure you can join.
I'm sure there's still some stuff that you can you can join in to or you can maybe even purchase one of these fine, beautiful shirts and koozies and things on their website.
What podcast dot com will leave that to Lord Taco to figure out because that ain't my department.
We're going to figure it out. We did buy extras. So all the patrons, I promise you, not sure when you will be seeing this.
It'll be this week. And I promise that the stuff will get in the mail to you by Monday morning.
So just in time for Bonnaroo, just in time. Yeah.
So what is this? This is what is today? The 19th. Yeah.
So by the 27th, it will be in the mail to you. You'll have it.
You'll have it next week. And we got it. I mean, we got to thank these guys.
Unbelievable. I mean, to do what you've done to sign on, first of all, and then to stick with us any year when there wasn't even a show.
Right. A festival is pretty incredible. No kidding.
It's not like we're that interesting. Well, you know, I'd like to think. No, I'm not.
OK. All right. So we'll read off the patrons here in a second.
But first, after the bill conversation, we talked to him.
We're going to circle back to some of the things that we've heard about the industry, about next year, et cetera.
So we will be talking much, much in depth, much more in depth about some stuff that at least is flying by our radar.
So stick through with that. In the meantime, here's Bill from the Hudson Valley fellow patron and Bonaroo Vian Bill.
Hey, Bill, Bill is sort of like Beyonce. You just need one name.
Just one name. Oh, I get Bill. Where are you? Where are you right now in your safe confines and quarantine?
Yes, I'm on my porch in Beacon, New York. Oh, and that's valid.
So that's that's where you travel from every time you go to Bonaroo.
Do you got I hope you drive or do you fly? I drove.
So 2019 was my first Bonaroo and I drove. It was about 17 hours.
So you've done one and one only Bonaroo and it was last year.
Yep. So I'm a huge fish fan.
Up to 32 shows now.
And when curveball got canceled in 2018, the next year when it was announced that Fish was going to play Bonaroo, I was like, well, this is my replacement curveball.
So I went to to honor last year and I had such a blast that I immediately went Black Friday, rolled around, bought my ticket for this year.
Yeah. And it was just you that went from Hudson Valley.
Do you have people you met up? Yeah, just me.
So that is a brave, brave man. No kidding. No kidding.
So just got in the car and I mean, you are a fish fan then you just drove by yourself.
Seventeen hours. Wow.
Barry, what's what's the longest you've gone in your in your day?
I'm a big jam band fan. I've been to a lot of festivals.
Honestly, I generally go to festivals solo. So really.
So here's here's the weirdest thing. I did the same thing years ago when I was 19 with the band called Hootie and the Blowfish.
It's just so strange when you travel so long and so far for bands when I was 19, I literally traveled the world.
Well, the world I traveled the country chasing after Hootie and the Blowfish.
I went to like 10 different cities over the course of a summer trying to find everything about Hootie and the Blowfish.
And it was like one of the most exhilarating things in my life.
And, you know, it doesn't really matter what the band is.
I feel like you've got to have one of those things and one of those moments of your life sometime.
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, going solo is great because honestly, if you're a big fan of a band or a big fan of going to music in general, like you're not alone.
You go to the festival and you just randomly meet people.
I've randomly just I got when I went to to Magnum Ball, my second fish festival, I went by myself and I basically was adopted by this this group of like like 10, like 30 year olds who had went or 35 year olds who had went to fish when they were in Buffalo in college.
And they were all like group come back together.
It's like a reunion thing for them. Yeah. And they just like adopted me as their their like kid in the.
Yeah. Barry, did you ever have one of those? Did you ever have a group that you followed around anywhere?
No, not like that. No, I had local ones that I would, you know, but never, never travel.
I never I never that was never me. But I mean, that's a we sort of talked around that bill a little bit.
The idea of meeting people and meeting new people and returning and meeting people.
That's a huge part of it, isn't it? I mean, you're sitting here saying you went alone, but you knew you were going to run into people you'd probably met at one of your 31 other fish shows.
Right. Yep. Or just meet new people who just had similar interests and just instantly pick things up on Sunday of a boner.
This year, I just sat in the pit line for fish after after Courtney Bonnaroo went up and just sat in the pit line and just immediately it was it was as if we had met all these people.
Ten years ago, we were just having just a great conversation. You know, you're the guy that we needed to talk to last year because I'll be totally honest.
And I've said on this show before, I don't I don't get fish. And even going to the show, I gave it a shot. I'll you know, we can we can do the rewind.
I gave it a shot. I was there for an hour. I heard two songs and I'm I still don't get it.
Still don't get it. But the whole time I kept saying it's like this EDM thing. It surely is something. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's definitely I just don't know what it is. And I can't really wrap my head around it. But when you go to a fish show and then you go from like whatever festival you see him at and then you go to see him at Bonnaroo.
What what is the difference for you? What are you listening for after 31 shows?
I mean, it's obviously you're looking for the big jam vehicles. You're looking for just like super long jams. You're looking for new new stuff. You're looking for the sort of rarity tracks that they play very rarely.
There's it's it fish following fish is kind of like I've seen it compared to being like a baseball fan where you're keeping track of the stats and the numbers.
You're keeping score. You're in the you're in the score. It is a lot like that. It's a lot like going out to a game and saying, well, this could be a great game.
This could be sort of just an OK game. But no matter what, it's everybody's going out. And ultimately, you're just having a good time.
OK, well, in the in the in the hierarchy of the shows you've seen, where did the Bonnaroo one rank for the Bollinger?
Well, they were fantastic. I mean, part of it, part of it's unfair because it was the first time I'd ever been in pit for a fish show.
Normally the pit is the pit is sort of famous. They're these really awful people who just like will camp out like days in advance for pit at fish shows.
And they'll bring tarps and just cover the entire like first 30 feet in front of the stage.
Sure. Like, oh, it's awful. Which is worse. Which is worse. Those guys that camp out for three days of the Brad Steiner's of the world who show up
and get right in. Yeah. At first, that was me. That was me. I was expecting I was never getting close to the show.
And then like after Gambino on Friday night, like I was swimming upstream as the massive swarm left the field.
And I just I look at it like, wait, I can literally walk up to the rail. So I just walked right up to the rail and was right on the right in front of the show.
It was incredible. All right. So so I want to go back to this. Brad's really hit on something here.
So 17 hours and I got several questions, but you got 17 hours. Are you like our friend Bryan Stone?
You're listening to 17 hours of every fish cassette tape that you have or are you listening to Beyonce or something completely different?
So the show is is new. Honestly, I'm probably listening to podcasts.
I'm listening to to obviously the what podcast. So wonderful.
Maybe I didn't have to even fish for that. But also like that, like giant bombcasts like Ted cast. I'm a nerd. So I'm I'm listening to all sorts of different podcasts usually.
All right. And then do you have did you make a do you when you go to these 31 shows, do you like a baseball?
That's a great analogy. Are you in your mind predicting a set list? Are you are you making your own sort of hopeful set list?
What's that type of thing? That's always kind of like the conversation, the small talk with the people around you like, oh, I'm feeling I'm feeling a tweezer, a big tweezer today or or man, I'd love to see.
I'd love to get a divided sky right about now. It's it's definitely like this. These are the things I'd love to see.
These are the things like you can kind of call call your shot like, oh, they're going to open.
That's going to be a simple opener today or something like that. Like you can you can definitely make calls and then then the long shot when you get it right, you feel like a genius.
All right. So, OK, that's great. You you guys in the fish fan is going to take a lot.
You're going to put a lot of effort into this and you're going to think about it a lot and you're going to try and really nail it.
Do you think the fish guys put this much effort into it? Oh, God, no.
This is basically just roll out of the bed and just say, we're just going to play music today.
And that's basically how they are these days. Like they're they're 50 plus years old.
Like this is just them having fun. And they happen to have massive sold out crowds and massive amounts of money.
So I guess the only thing that's close to it is probably where we are today, probably Springsteen.
Do you think with the same sort of following the same sort of diehard, the same sort of like what's the setlist going to be like?
Talk about the 35 shows that I went to see. I'm trying to think of another artist that that can warrant this sort of I mean, there's a conversation.
I'm free. Yeah.
That and co some of that. But I'm free. Some of that widespread.
But then I don't they're not they don't tour as much. But it's I'm sitting here remembering and I know, Brad, I've told this story.
I think it was my first. And Bill, you may know whether Trey Anastasia was there in 07 or 08.
Seven was my first. And I woke up Sunday morning to leave. Right.
Son up. No one else is up except this guy. By the way, Barry used to always leave on Sunday morning.
He hated sticking around for Sunday. I had decent reasons.
But anyway, I get up and this guy is walking down the road and a girl is awake in her camp.
And somehow they just started talking and he said, I've got acid. And she said, I've got pot.
And they sat literally across the road for me while I was packing.
And he kept saying things like Trey and I have such a cosmic mind meld that I know what Trey is going to play next.
It's just really weird. And I mean, I had to stop at one point.
He said something like I knew what the next song was going to be.
And Trey looked me in the eye and started playing the song. He was Trey.
This I mean, it was all I could do from just sitting down and just listening to these two.
It was it's still one of my favorite Bonnaroo moments. And it was one of my first.
Yeah, the girlfriend was saying, who do you like better right now? Trey or me?
It's going to be a very tight race.
It was it was six in the morning, six thirty.
You know, they'd both been up all night long. Trey this and Trey that.
Well, back to back to the original question, where did the Bonnaroo shows rank in those 32 that you've seen?
They were fantastic, especially the Sunday night show was spectacular.
Again, part of part of that's color because it's the first time I'd ever been that close or I could literally see Trey.
In fact, on Sunday night, about three songs in Trey leaves center stage
and tried and climbed out towards the front on top of one of the speakers.
And he was literally five feet in front of me. It was mind blowing.
I think I was on the video recording that they did of it and I could see me in the audience just losing my mind.
And so when you when you got to Bonnaroo, you make the track.
What were your impressions? What were your thoughts as you made the drive down before getting there?
Well, so I drove. So I didn't want to do 17 hours straight. So I did two nights.
I did 12 hours the first night, stayed overnight and like Roanoke and then drove the rest of the way down.
And I pull up on on Hillsborough Road, also known as Hellsborough,
where I proceed to spend from six p.m. Wednesday night until five a.m. Thursday morning in line before I got camped.
Yeah. With sleep. Yeah. I've been on the road for six hours already that day.
Nobody to take over the wheel for me.
I fortunately I had thought to bring some granola bars, but that was the only food I had in my car.
So it was rough. Yeah. You can't really fall asleep because you got to move forward every every few minutes.
Yeah. Yep. Wow. Naps.
I have to go to the bathroom. I had to just put my car in park, hope the blind didn't move and just sprint out into the woods for a little while.
But you had never been to Bonnaroo. So what were you thinking you were about to drive into?
So I had never been. Obviously, I've been to a lot of festivals. I had never been in an 11 hour long line.
I think the longest I'd ever waited was like two hours. So that was a different experience.
Once I got in and once once I got parked and set up, I was really impressed with the way the organization, the way everything was laid out.
Like the fact that they had like stall bathrooms in the in the plazas. That was mind blowing.
Like every I was totally expecting just garbage porta potties that were miserable.
The fact they had flushing toilets in the plaza was a game changer.
Talk to me about that 11 hours at which one of those hours did you think I could maybe turn around and be back in New York in two days, maybe quicker than I'm going to get in?
I didn't think that it always around to go home, but I did think if I just pull over and park and sleep and then wait for the line to pass me by, I'd probably get in like get up at like 11 a.m. tomorrow.
And I'd probably get it at like two. So it was a serious you actually true about that.
OK, so all right. So we talk about a lot of times, especially the first year of the show, we talk about how there's a moment when you get to Bonnaroo or some moment maybe in the first couple of days where it just hits.
Oh my God. Yeah, I got the I got the chill from top to bottom hours every year is getting to the top of Montaigle Mountain and coming down and seeing sort of the valley below.
That's when I know it's happening. That's what I know. I'm there. Did you as a as a rookie as your first year, did you have one of those moments where it just sort of took you over?
I think it was in fact that that that same mountain I was coasting down the hill. I have an electric car. So coasting down the hill, picking up charge and just looking out over an electric car from Hudson Valley to Tennessee.
It's a bolt. It's a hybrid. So I was driving on the highway on gas, but I was specifically saving the battery. So I'd have it at the camp. Wow. Yeah. OK.
Which was great because then I could run my air conditioner during the day when it was super hot, but it wasn't burning gas. It was just burning the battery.
That is not what I was expecting to hear. OK. All right. So and then and then you get into the grounds versus all the other festivals that you've been to.
What made Bonnaroo different for you? So like I said, just the organization, the planning.
Like it was clear that this was like a professional operation and like everything was laid out really well.
Just like I was worried about lines when we're talking about just a massive festival of 80,000 people.
I thought I'd be waiting in line constantly. And I really didn't like I like getting into the fest into center each day was really quick.
Most I spent was like 10, 15 minutes in line tops any time just getting in and out really quick. Things moving along. Never really had a long wait for bathrooms or food or anything.
Like that was the big thing that really stood out to me is like they've got the organization and the planning perfected on this thing compared to a lot of the smaller festivals I've been to where it could be a total crap shoot on if the facilities are even fully put together.
When you get there. Yeah, what was the I mean, so the fish was your reason for going.
What were some of the other shows? Well, I was I was really excited to see Gambino and Gamp.
She's just challenge Gambino put on an incredible show that night. Excited to see a lot of the smaller acts like I'm a huge J. Red Joe Russo's fan was excited.
And honestly, I was just excited to sort of roam around and see bands. I wasn't really didn't really know.
Like I'd seen I'd never seen the national like I liked some national songs, but I wasn't a huge national fan. But it was really an opportunity to see them just a whole variety of different stuff there.
And that's that's the biggest thing. Like fish is a huge part of my musical identity, but I really love just everything.
And you love you love the thing so much that you decided to immediately buy a ticket again. Sands fish.
Just the experience was just incredible. Yeah. But regardless of fish was on the lineup or not. Like at that time back Friday, we think it was pretty well known that tool Lizzo and and and everybody was going to be there.
But we didn't know the rest of the lineup and just tools. One of my favorite bands of all time. And I really like Lizzo.
So I was just like, well, I'm just going to roll the dice on this. And it turned out the lineup was so incredible and perfect for me that it was just a home run.
Well, it's so interesting, Barry. We've talked about this a lot. We credit and I think that, you know, this some people do not.
But I think that we credit a lot of the sellout from last year to to fish and just added 30,000 fish fans that travel.
And there wasn't a lot of fish shows happening, especially in this region.
That's why I'm going to see right going to be the last one in Tennessee. Right. So so I wonder how many bills there are that came to Bonnaroo just for fish and then turned around and said, man, maybe I'll come back next year.
I don't care who the lineup is. I think I think it's not so much maybe just for fish, but fish was their primary motivator.
And then they looked at the rest of the line and said, this all lines up perfectly with my musical taste. So they just go right.
Which, by the way, that's by design. You know, in hearing in hearing, you know, Brian and Steve talk about that in one of the very first episodes talking about how they build a lineup.
That's where they that's how they do it. You know, they find they find those headliners and then they try to, you know, plotters so many artists after artists along the line with you.
And Bill, Bill's got to be a great example. Right. I mean, you I guess you love fish enough that if let's just say the rest of the lineup last year was not good.
You're probably still a big enough fan you're going to go right. But not everybody is that way. So I mean, may have I mean, driving 17 hours is something where I mean, so two weeks later, I went and saw them up at SPAC, which is three hours away from me.
So I mean, if obviously I love fish, I'm not the quite the like go on a two month vacation and follow them on tour the entire way.
I'm still a fan there. I know those people. They're not really committed. You're just kind of committed.
But so what's the part that you've actually driven.
So first I've ever driven is Bonnaroo, but I could fly out to Denver for Dix back in 2017. Right. And that was that was the first I've gone for show.
OK. All right. And when you looked at the lineup this year, other than Tool and Lizzo, what were you seeing? What were you going to do? Let's cry. Let's cry a little bit.
Yeah. Let me let me let me pull up my notes. I'm the type of person who takes notes on the lineup. So I know exactly what I'm looking for here.
So tame this big turquoise. So I know you I was telling Barry, I know Barry's got the best taste because he's the one that's excited for turquoise with with the talking.
Well, let's be honest. He also he also looks credible show. He also listens to base nectar. So let's not overdo it.
I knew that was coming up. I'm going to have to rethink that whole thing. Yeah. Cancel culture.
But yeah, turquoise pigeons like this year, like the jam was actually really solid turquoise pigeons, oyster head, king gizzard, king gizzard is incredible.
The Sylvan Esso, like the with show that looked that sounded really, really cool.
EOB Billy strings, some great jam grass, just a just a really stacked lineup this year. That's a good lineup. That's a good pick.
Yeah. I want to ask only because you do a lot of festivals and you traveled so far.
I mean, what sort of things were there? What were the lessons sort of camping wise? Did you bring enough? Did you bring the right stuff?
Were there learning curves or what were their mistakes? What were the good things you did?
First, the last I learned was bring more food for the park.
Snacks are an important thing. I don't think that you need to bring a fish to fillet outside the car, but snacks are pretty vital.
I'm not really bringing cooking to the campsite. Just bring it for snacks in the car.
That's right. Lots of hummus, man. A lot of hummus.
It's probably a good business opportunity, Brad. We could have walked up and down that road and sold some stuff.
Man, that's a great point.
I was surprised there weren't like lemonade stands or something set up by the residents there.
It would have been a great business opportunity there. But yeah, they were going to fix that this year.
So we'll see. But yeah, just I brought my canopy.
I'm very glad I brought my canopy because I would have been roasting like I've got one of those tents that has like the reflective sides.
So that helped keep it relatively cool inside. But it's still it was still by like 10 o'clock.
I just could not be in that tent anymore. So did you meet? I mean, I know you met people.
Did you meet people that you're still in contact with that are new that are like new friends?
I met a few people from like the the fish subreddit.
So I talked to them and and obviously since then haven't really had a chance to meet with them.
But I'll occasionally talk to them on this on the reddit there.
Other than the lineup. And because this is another thing that Brad and I have sort of talked about.
And it's it's funny because we both danced around it.
We've done it enough times that we don't think of it as being as huge as it is.
Sometimes, you know, we forget. So other than the acts that you wanted to see this year,
what were some of the things that were on your list that you didn't get to last year that you were looking forward to maybe visiting or revisiting?
I definitely want I definitely wanted to see more of this stuff out in the in the the camping area.
I wanted to see more of the plazas like I I poked my head over it.
What what in the woods I like stopped by some of the barns during the day.
But I never really got a chance to get out there at night when they have all the special events and things like that.
I did. I did say the Grove was like on Sunday afternoon, the Grove, when I just needed a place to relax and hang in a hammock.
That was that was a real real lifesaver.
I was kind of dragging and just hanging out for a couple of hours in the Grove, taking a nap and relaxing was perfect.
But yeah, stuff out in the plaza was huge that I definitely wanted to see more of this year.
There is there is this thing, Barry, and we say this every year.
I I'm dying to go to the road party. I'm still dying to go to Snake and Jake's.
There's so many things that I mean, we barely get to Christmas barn, the pajama thing.
Yeah, I mean, we barely get to the to the outside outside the campsite.
So much less like we're so packed full of so many bands and artists and sets that we don't get to anything else.
And it's like one of those things where I wish that there was a day where we could just there was no music playing and we could just do the extracurricular activities.
You know what I mean? Well, I was supposed to be Wednesday for me last year.
I thought, oh, I'll be here at six. I'll roll in and maybe 10 or 11. That'll be fine.
I can already all night. Yeah, quite work out that way.
It's the it's the bathrobe thing, not the pajamas. But no, you're you're exactly right, Brad.
We just we we never do. And we talk about it and plan on it.
And I think the point is for for people who've never been who think, you know, there's a there's a handful of bands I want to see or whatever.
But there's so much more to do beyond just the bands.
And then to hear you immediately say the pods, you know, again, we we keep stressing that that was not even on the radar two years ago.
So that's something they really worked very hard at. Where did you camp? What part were you in?
I was all the way out in Pod 10. I had a mile and a half. Wow. Oh, my God.
And you still wanted to come back. Yeah, you might as well driven from New York every day.
I strongly consider getting VIP tickets just so I get a closer campsite.
But they claimed they claimed they were going to prove that this year. So yeah, I would I would not have I would not have taken that to be true.
There's just there's just it's not that it would not be true or not.
It's that there's there's there's certain level creature comforts that I demand and I'm not even going to play with.
So you might be able to nibble around the edges and make this experience a little bit better for me in Pod 10.
But I don't care. I'm not going to risk it. I need I need my my diva experience to be totally without even.
Yeah. Without any sort of question. I don't even want to worry about it.
You should have bought the VIP VIP would have been a coffee.
But I saw it. So I started working out that I had lost 40 pounds over the course of a year preparing for Montero to be able to walk all that distance.
So it's not it is not something that you need to.
It's something that needs to be said. You need to work out beforehand.
I got roasted. The wife made so much fun of me for so long.
It's like, man, I got to get in shape. I got to, you know, I got to get a couple of months.
I got to start working out. You know, Joe, you do start start work.
I close the rings every day. I walk five to seven miles every single day just to keep the rings closed.
So that's my that's my conditioning for Montero.
Did you have any sort of preparation for the heat?
I bring a lot of water bottles and just prepare. I mean, honestly, it gets hot there. It gets hot here.
It's like 90 degrees out today, every day during the summer.
So I knew it was going to be hot. Honestly, it wasn't as bad.
Last year was a pretty nice year.
That's the thing that we've been saying for like five years in a row.
We got really blessed with weather this year. Every year we think, oh, our time is coming.
We're going to get the ball again. Last year was amazing. This year would have been epic.
Unbelievable. And honestly, Barry, can you remember?
Can you remember a year? I think I think the last really terrible weather year was the Dust Bowl, the year of the massive dusting.
Ever since then, the weather has not been terribly difficult to manage.
Oh, it's I don't know what the credit to that to or blame or whatever.
But yeah, that dust bowl and leading up to me, we didn't have rain for what, six weeks?
Yeah, it was horrible. And then ever since, it's been OK comparatively.
So so what they should do, I they probably spray like they spray for the bugs.
They probably spray everything down for the day.
Hey, who's that? Sorry. Sorry. My my grandmother's nurse is heading out for the day.
Hi, grandma. Hi. How are you?
Good to see his grandma want to come to Bonnaroo.
No, she's very well.
Awesome. I mean, we've got we've got Grandpa Barry.
I mean, why not? Yeah, she come hang with me and do her.
Yeah, no kidding.
So when you when you look forward to, you know, 2021, are you already in?
Are you 100 percent in for next year? If it happens?
That's the question. I haven't I haven't pulled the trigger on the refund yet.
I figure I've got tier one. I got the lowest possible cost ticket.
Do I want to return that and chance not getting it if the lineup turns out to work out again next year
and end up paying more or do I just want to roll the dice and stick with it?
I'm still trying to consider that. I've got a couple more weeks to consider.
So I'm trying to figure that out. But I'm pretty sure I'm just going to keep it.
All right. So tell me what the process is. If you were to get a refund,
that means you got to go back in and buy another ticket for 2021 when they come available,
depending on when whatever tier that you get. Right.
So you might end up spending more money for next year.
But if you were to keep it and roll it over to next year, you get to keep it the same price.
Is that is that? Well, it's already paid for. Yeah, it's it's already paid for.
I paid it out right. So it's do I I've already the money's already down and I still have a job.
I work from home so I can get by for now. So do I just let it roll and pay its dividends later or do I do I cash out?
I'm still trying to make that that calculus right now.
What are the things going through your mind? And I'm thinking not just I mean, it's money.
You could I'm sure use the money. I'm sure you don't know what the lineup is.
You don't know maybe what your July or June rather, excuse me, is going to look like next year.
Are you at all concerned? Virus vaccine. Eighty thousand people.
Is that way in or that's the biggest concern is based on how things are going right now.
Are we actually even going to be in a place where we can do this a year from now?
I'm still not convinced based on everything that's going on.
It's it's not going to be. Oh, we've we've stopped the curve down.
And if everybody wears a mask, that'll be fine. I honestly we need a vaccine out and we needs to be pretty heavily deployed before I feel comfortable going back out there.
Yeah, I think that's I think Brian and I are going to talk about that some more in a little bit.
I think that's the question, right? I mean, what is it? What does that look like?
And we're we're no closer today. We're we're in fact, I would say we're less closer today than we were.
Yeah, two months ago, even three months ago. So it's funny because up here.
So up here in New York, we were there was looked real bad back in March and April.
But we nowadays it's actually gotten to the point where it's pretty, pretty good.
I mean, I we I go out to dinner occasionally, I eat outside, I wear a mask when I'm at the table.
We've mostly gotten things under control here.
But I looked out to you guys in the south and out in the West and it's a mess out there.
It would appear you have people in charge who are actual grownups.
So maybe that is helping. Yes, I'm not the biggest fan of Cuomo, but he's done a decent job here so far.
Functional brain. That is a who knew that was important.
It's like a baffling. We need a functioning brain.
We're in reality. Maybe reality TV stars aren't the best best people to run the conference.
I don't know. I'm pretty excited about Tyra Banks in twenty twenty four.
I'm pretty excited, pretty excited.
Bill, we can't thank you enough for being not only a patron, but a fellow Bonnarooian.
So, you know, we it is weird that this show took a turn out of necessity because I moved and it became a video thing.
And then it became a necessity because of coronavirus.
And then on top of it, we got to meet so many of people like you and actually engage about something that we actually we didn't get to do this year.
So it's been it's been very it's been very rewarding to talk to all of you and see all of you and and be able to shoot the shit about something that we love so much that, God, we hope it actually happens next year.
But I think what we want to do and Taco and I have talked about it.
I mean, Bill, now it's just stunned me when we look at the spreadsheet of where all of our patrons are, especially are from.
I think you now you're the pushpin in the other in the corner.
I mean, it's amazing. We're all over the country.
We've got damn near 35 states.
It's it's incredible.
And and everyone seems to have a very, very similar story, you know, a vibe about it.
So that's what's cool. And obviously, that's why it's connecting.
So, man, I appreciate it.
Yeah, it is. I mean, like the feeling that you had when you first got to Bonnaroo is exactly.
So refreshing and awesome at the same time that you had the same feeling that literally everyone else who's ever loved Bonnaroo has had.
It's nuts. It's it's nuts that we're all connected in the same way with that same sort of feeling down our spine and that amazing sort of a wash that we get when we are on that place.
I don't know how in the hell it happened. I don't get it. But it's well, I mean, it's how great it has to be to erase a 17 hour drive
and an 11 hour. Yeah, pretty stiff handicap to work through.
But yeah, you're getting out of a pretty big hole. Yeah.
And how long did it take before you forgot all about that drive?
Probably about five hours. Yeah, I got my camp site set up.
I managed to squeeze in like two or three hour nap before it got too hot to be in the tent.
And then I just started roaming around center as soon as it opened.
And like that, it was transported to another planet. Yeah, that's right.
That's exactly right. Bill, thank you so much.
And for being a patron, for being a Bonaroovian.
And hopefully we see you in the flesh very soon, buddy.
Hopefully. Stay safe. Yeah.
Well, keep grandma healthy. We will. All right, buddy. See you soon. See you.
Barry, do you want to do a thing? You can do a. Yep.
OK, I'm going to get water right back. All right.
All right. I'm going to disconnect. You guys have a great day.
Thanks, Bill. Have a great day. Bill, amongst many patrons in our patron family.
Want to read some of them off there? BC.
You're going to be good. Just a couple of categories or you're going to be all.
Whatever you think. Whatever you think. Big daddy.
I'll see how I'm feeling. Aaron Carlson, Bill, David Grimes, Frank Swanson,
Liesl Kondor, Phil Hanley, Timothy Proctor, Chloe Hannon, Dan Sweeney,
Dusted Garrick, Haley, Mary T. Melanie and Jesse Feldman.
I actually spoke with Jesse just this past week. Did you really?
You know, that's that's the the record store people.
Rusty Wax. Yeah, Rusty Wax in Florida. And they hooked me up.
I've been meaning to write them because they sent me one of my favorite records
that I've bought in the last three years.
It is Earl Thomas and The Pain, which, by the way, the band name,
The Pain is so unbelievably great.
But this year, Earl Thomas album is phenomenal.
And now that I'm thinking about it, in fact, we'll start the show with it.
Now that I'm talking about it, I love this album so much is because of his suggestion.
He's the one that told me that based on things I like, he had to love their old Thomas.
I called him. I needed a quote for a story I was writing for the paper.
And so, you know, the what podcast works out in all kinds of ways.
So let me just Mitchell Stafford, musical antlers, Parker Reed, Hey, Parker, Schuyler and Tory.
And then we'll do some more in a little bit.
How's how's that? Did he ever give you a hams?
Did you ever have a hams at all? He didn't send me one, no, but I had hams.
Have you? Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. I've had hams and blats and those are just girlfriends of yours.
Yeah. That's what actually is a really good name.
That's a great name. Remember when I dated hams boy.
Yeah, you remember flats. She was so much fun.
What was the worst beer you ever drank? About the 10th one.
Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. Kroger cost cutter.
There was a beer that when I was when we were cheap kids, we got rip roaring on beer 30.
It came it came in a 30 pack and it was ten dollars.
So that's about Kroger cross cutters yellow and had the scissors on it.
And it was about two dollars a case. OK.
Yeah. Beer 30. It was at that at that point.
It's just a vehicle. You know, it's just getting you from point A to point B.
It's not there for you to enjoy. It's there for you to play beer pong with.
Well, and then that's the problem, because then you find out the next day
why you shouldn't drink an entire 12 pack of Kroger cross cutter.
So when you when you reflect on the last couple of weeks,
what we've been through in the country and anything that is going on in the industry.
Have you heard anything strange or interesting that should be shared with the class?
Well, besides our conversation, are we going to are we going to talk about our conversation?
Yeah, but I was going to let you set the table for us.
I'll set the table. So here in Chattanooga, we had a Christian festival
that was adamant that it was going to happen right. Jayfest going to happen in August.
August one, the day that it canceled, I got word that another series,
concert series was going to happen at the exact same location.
And in fact, did happen at least last week.
They had to cancel this path this weekend because we had a massive storm
pop up and it blew everything away.
So juxtaposed, you had this one cancel because they didn't feel like they could do it safely.
And another one happened. And they're different sizes.
One was about going to be ten thousand people. One was ended up being a couple of hundred people.
There's there's nobody in the country pulling off a ten thousand person event right now.
And that's important to note. And so this week, to answer your question,
I had conversations with the people who did the smaller one that some of the other people
around the industry around the southeast were watching to see how it how it had come off.
And so while I'm having that conversation, I literally reach out to Jesse Feldman
with Rustin Wax for a story and he asked me, have I heard that the folks who run Lollapalooza
have said nothing is happening now until twenty twenty two.
That's C3 and the people that run Lollapalooza C3.
So while I'm having that conversation with Jesse, you called me.
I hang up the phone and you sounded like I really I honestly thought someone had died.
I had some bad news to share and said I have horrible news to share.
And you're you know, you're I don't I you're you don't tend to lean toward hyperbole.
You know what? Unless you don't think I do hyperbole.
There's well there's about a five second and then the joke.
You don't you don't milk it. Put it that way.
OK, so this is the hearing your voice that you weren't kidding.
Yeah, it's so OK. And I and I know that I've been sort of like the Grim Reaper with all of this
in the last six months. Well, maybe not six or four months, but I didn't get some very good news.
The other day I got a call from somebody who is very, very, very important in the festival world.
Let's put it that way.
They might be the head of festivals for a certain company,
something like that, you know, or maybe like the head of all of touring for a certain big company,
somebody like that to give you the the words specifically were said like this.
There will be no shows in the spring of twenty twenty one.
There will be no shows in the summer of twenty twenty one.
And it's more likely than not no shows for all of twenty twenty one.
And if that changes, it would be maybe the fall.
So when you have somebody like somebody, when you have an entity like Coachella
saying that, you know, a few months ago when they made their announcement,
they were canceling this year and next year was seriously in doubt.
I think that we all collectively rolled our eyes like, oh, come on, that's not going to happen.
That's going to be it's going to be fine. You know, it's going to be fine by next spring.
Give me a break. No, no, they're not kidding.
It is for real. And it's not at all likely that it's that it's happening now.
I was told straight up not happening.
But the the the editorialization in my head would say, I still find that hard to believe.
Sure. I'm still struggling to think that at some point
the dam breaks with either we all don't care and we're going to do it anyway.
We are going to have a vaccine by then, perhaps.
Or somehow some way the the the will of the country changes and we just get our shit together.
I don't know. It's something that feels like it's too too far away to just toss away this easily.
Well, it's not just too far away. It's how does that even work?
I mean, who who can afford to not work and get paid for a year and a half or two years?
And well, he was sort of the conversation that you and I had.
Well, before you before you get into that, let me let me make it.
Let me put it this way. Live Nation.
I don't know if you've been following their stock price.
Live Nation went from sixty five dollars, which is their high, to 19 bucks last week.
Yeah. And then they got an influx of money from a outside investor and it went right back up to forty five dollars.
They've got a billion dollars cash on hand, a billion.
Well, what I'm hearing from friends who do this kind of thing, believe it or not, I know one who's in that world
where the banks, the traditional money lender types are out because they don't have anything.
But you've got all these like sort of tech people, these dot com people.
There are people in the world with money and they're now stepping in to to take advantage of an opportunity.
Somebody's going to lose and somebody's going to win out of all this.
Right. I mean, it's not that's a conversation I've been having with other people is it, you know, you said don't want to sound like doom and gloom.
That's I mean, that's that's what it sounds like.
And in probably certain worlds, that's what it is.
But somebody is going to come out of this ahead.
And the problem is, it's a Saudi billionaire is not coming to rescue the exodus.
You know, maybe not. Maybe not.
This is the this is the crux of it. At what point do do we have we have the big entities probably surviving.
But mom and pop places are shutting their doors across every entity.
We've got one of the most legendary restaurants in all of the quarter just shut their doors after 55 years.
You know, it's people like that that are going to get squeezed and squeezed hard. And there is no end in sight.
And there is no. But I and I ask you this the other day when we talked Thursday, I guess it was somebody will somebody will figure out.
And I think what we'll I think this is just completely me.
I think we will see a return to very small, very grassroots, very localized.
You know, you might not just see your usual next door neighbor who has a garage band play.
You might see, depending on who lives in your town, you know, it might be a huge star suddenly doing house shows, pop up shows, small shows.
Yeah, I think what we're really saying here is the large tours, festivals, things like that aren't happening.
But I mean, it's hard to imagine artists and musicians just giving up, you know, shutting down.
We may what we see. I don't know. Maybe it's more recordings. Maybe bands will start putting out.
Well, Barry, are you going to be the artist that that are you going to be Chase Rice, who was absolutely annihilated after he did what he did?
Chase Rice puts does a show in Nashville and they get three, four thousand people show up.
And the next day, first off, I've never heard of Chase Rice in my life. I don't know who that is.
Now I do. And now I know him for all the wrong reasons. And he was eviscerated after that thing.
Yeah, I think what's interesting is if I understand correctly, that was an eleven thousand or so seat venue.
And he had a very few people there where he messed up, was inviting him up to the front because he was feeling his oats or whatever.
And then the pictures got taken. Point being is to not diminish what he did so much is to say it's a lesson.
It's a the the event here. We'll see what happens.
Part of let me say this, and I mean this sincerely, part of the reason that I think it may not happen until 2022 is because of what you said earlier, is people just are over it.
They think it's not a big deal. They're doing all these stupid things like opening up and like the governors in Florida and Georgia acting like it's not a real thing.
And that's just going to prolong it. So I think. And the other thing is, and I mean this sincerely, I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet.
I think the real bad things are in front of us. And that's going to happen in the next several months.
And so there's then going to be this buffer and that's going to push spring and summer of 2021 out.
To just say I don't think it's going to happen. It's hard. It's hard to wrap your head around it.
But if you look at it from that way, you know, where the numbers are continuing to spike and they're going to continue to spike and then tell people take it seriously.
For example, right now, think about it this way. And this is going to sound like a conspiracy alarmist. But right now we're arguing over masks.
What happens when they start taking people's homes and their trucks, you know, and their toys?
And then we're going to start seeing the real bad stuff. And that's why I think the idea that it really could be 2022 doesn't seem as unrealistic as it might at first.
And to one of the points that you made, we've been saying, and I hope that if you've been listening for the past couple of weeks, you have a, because I know that I do,
a better understanding of what it goes, what goes into putting something like a show together and not just a show, a string of shows.
Maybe you see in 2021 just a pop up show here and there. That might maybe, I don't know.
But the large scale tour is not not going to happen because because when do you get the vaccine?
We don't know. But I can promise you that the second that you have the vaccine, I bet there's not a tour ready to go because who wants to take that first?
Right. And not only that, just just technically, you're going to have a tour ready to go on the magical day.
The vaccine just happened to be ready. You don't know if it's going to be ready by March.
You don't know. And so when it does become available, then you can start planning something.
And so how long does it after everything that we've learned, how long does it take to get the legal involved?
And then how long does it take to get the tour manager and infrastructure in place?
Then you've got to find the venues. Then you've got to find venues that could even or even open anymore.
Then you got to find the money that pays for all of this.
And you've got to put together 20 to 30 dates to make it profitable.
OK, so so if that's the case, if you best case scenario, you get a vaccine by March. How long does it take you to put all that together for for a tour?
It's going to be at the minimum three months to put that together.
So now you're in the fall now, you're in fall and and everything that we know, you don't tours don't really exist in the winter.
So I think our conversation with the calendar, the calendar shrinks really quickly.
There are conversations with Jim Burris. The last one was really enlightening along those lines is it's.
It's not like an artist, you know, writes a bunch of songs and then records them and puts them out because it's ready.
There's a there's a plan. You know, is this the right time? Is it finished?
Does it fit with their other catalog? Just what you were just saying, there's and just what Jim was telling us.
I mean. You know, and you've said this many times.
And Brian and Steve said this, you know, is 2020 the right time for this artist to play Bonnaroo?
Maybe not, you know, it's not just as the available or she available on Saturday, June 12th.
It's does it make sense? And I'm very curious to see.
I mean, we I kind of ask about this, but you know, this is such a.
Seminal time, I guess, in our history, what if everybody comes out with their album and it's there, every one of them are called quarantine?
You know what I mean? Or I was literally about to say, plus there is this thing called competition competition.
You know, there there is there is only so much marketplace for Justin Bieber album and a Harry Styles album.
You know, I hate to be so simplistic about it, but, you know, these artists are in competition with each other.
There's only so many years and so many dollars that can go around.
You know, maybe not from at the top, but definitely in the middle where bands like and we're going to go see them this weekend.
They're revivalists. How do they how do they compete in that marketplace?
It's going to be damn near impossible. Well, and you know better than I do about timing.
And I mean, like I was just watching an interview with Graham Nash earlier today, as a matter of fact, total sidebar.
But it kind of is related. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young had just released.
I don't remember the song, but it was climbing the charts. It was at 19.
The Kent State shooting happened. Neil Young went out into the woods and wrote Ohio in an hour.
David Crosby called Graham said, get the band together in the studio.
Now they recorded the song in an hour and put it out and it knocked their other single off the charts, which is my reason for telling it.
So there's this, you know, it cost the money in some ways.
But there's those kinds of considerations is my point for bringing that up.
Yeah, that that happens. That happens a lot less frequent than you would ever think.
I no doubt. I mean, so I'm going to go out in the woods and write a song.
But my point is, is so so, you know, pick an artist, whoever tool is going to was going to tour in 2020, 2020.
Maybe they had no intention of touring in 21 or 22, and they're not going to do it just for a one off, which is your point for earlier.
So, well, it's very complicated.
What I'm going to do this weekend and there's C3 has put together three weekend shows.
The first one is Tank and the Bang as the second one was this past Friday with Galactic and then this weekend with Revivalist in which it's all a drive in show.
Now, I've talked about how dumb that I think these drive in shows are.
Everything that's come out of them and anybody I've talked to, they've they've really enjoyed themselves.
Now, I think that they're enjoying themselves in a vacuum, frankly, but be that as it may, they liked it.
And so far, it's gone on without a hitch without a hitch.
It's, you know, a little weird, frankly, but it's something.
It's enjoyment in a vacuum. It'll work. It'll work for now.
I'm interested to see how repli how much this can be replicated across the country and if it actually can.
I don't know the financials of this C3 endeavor.
I don't know if they're making any money. I don't know if it's if it's what it's for, to be honest with you.
I don't know if it's it's even turning a dime of profit.
Well, I can answer that. The ones that I know of, the two here anyway, the examples that I can think of,
they're making enough money so that a few people, bartenders, whatever, are getting paid, which they weren't before.
Number one and number two, it's it's a huge feeling of doing something rather than doing nothing.
And that is I mean, you know, that's it. That's not to be diminished. That's a big, big, big deal.
And I think we're going to see more of that.
And I and I tend to think, you know, a little bit cynically about this.
I always imagine that people do these things not just to do them, but because they need to make sponsors happy.
It's not the goodness of their art. They're doing it because they need to keep a dollar from AT&T.
I don't disagree. That's part of it. That's that's the third third leg. I would totally agree in some instances.
Yeah. So but I'll let you I'll let you know how it goes this weekend because the revivalists are this weekend.
I'm going to go out there and hang out with Dave and the guys and see see how it goes.
And maybe I'll be wrong about how ridiculous this is, but it's everything about it sounds so silly.
It sounds ridiculous and odd. And, you know, I well, I don't disagree with you.
But at least in the back of your head, have that idea that they're doing something.
And I mean, I think I think for a lot of people, they're very sincere about that.
They have to do something rather than do nothing. Yeah.
And luckily, we are in a city where we've got, you know, really good talent.
You know, you can you can call three really, really great bands and do this over the course of a month.
You can't do that everywhere. You know, I don't.
Chattanooga is not happening. Nashville, you could probably do it.
But again, you've got people like Chase Rice who don't want to, you know, give a damn.
But anything but his Instagram picture that he can post out afterwards.
Anything else that you want to get to before we wrap up?
I need to do the rest of these patreons. Let's do it.
Chelsea Davis, Evan Brown, Gordon Silver, Jason Hazelbaker, Joshua Herndon, Lauren Edholm, Linda Doles, Lucy Young, Nick Yeatman,
Ross McNamara, Ryan Mathewson, Sean McCarthy, Tyrone Basket, William Richards, Clay Wilhoyt, Andrew McBride,
Catherine Riccio, David Solano, Jacob Marty, Justin Nigro, Meredith Ritman, Brooke Tussie, Daniel and Sharla Horton with the Roobus,
David Henson, Ella, Phil Nye, Sean McCain, Benjamin Wells, Karen Sheets, Stephanie Romero and DK.
Isn't it amazing where we said we weren't going to be doing any more shows and then we ended up doing more shows?
Yeah. And I bet we'll do another one.
Yeah, I know we're going to do another one because next month, if we, you know, once a month seems about right.
But next month, I will have something to share with the class.
I just got up. I got a phone call before the show from a let's just say we're going to have a leak.
It's going to be a leak that I'm going to be able to bring to you Barry Courter.
And the what podcast listener is going to be very exciting. Very, very good. It's going to be a world premiere.
We're literally going to be able to world premiere leak something on this show that nobody else in the world will have heard.
I love it. I know. I'm very excited. I'm very excited.
Oh, and don't forget, it's coming, guys. Promise. We promise. I'm sorry it's taking so long.
Never not great. Oh, that's what I wanted to bring up. The mixtape.
Here, let me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need to talk about your mixtape for a second. OK.
Awesome. Very awesome. God love you. So we did the mixtape for Patreons and the patrons could choose the mixtape that they wanted between Barry, Lord Taka or myself.
Now, I'm not going to pressure you to choose mine, even though mine is the best.
I will let you make the choice for yourself. It's fine by me. But two things about a mixtape.
One, you never give the track list. I don't think it's it's right to give you the track list to a mixtape.
The whole point is to be wowed and hit a piece of discovery when you listen to a mixtape.
That's the way I've always taken it. Right. One, two.
Barry's mixtape is nothing but hits. It's hit after hit after hit after hit.
I like mixtapes where I'm wowed and like there's something that I'm discovering and you're showing something to me for the first time.
Barry went with hit after hit after hit. This is why I think mine is superior.
First of all, because I'm old, I was around when the mixtape was invented.
OK. And it was what did old Honest Dave think about your mixtape?
Old Honest Dave, we did him. You know, this was a way to impress a girl, basically to impress upon her how deep you were, how insightful you were and how much you understood whatever.
So I never no one ever told me you never put the track listing on there because I wanted them to know who it was.
So whatever. Interesting. I'll give you that. OK. I'm not saying these are the rules.
I'm just saying in my world, that's what I've always in my world. That's why you did it.
And the secondary reason you made a mixtape was in my case, I had hundreds of albums and I wanted something to play in the car.
So I put together a tape of songs that were my favorites.
I'll tell you what I went how I first started making mixtapes, not for girls, but so that I could play radio guy.
I would find the songs I like the most from the radio, record them onto my tape.
And then I put together the perfect mix of what the radio station should be playing.
It's what I would play in the car. It's I didn't. Yeah, I wanted to hear the and so I know I went round and round.
I thought of doing I thought of doing music snob mix that I could go deep and I could find and I thought of putting together a list that, you know, people would say, wow, that Barry, he's he he really went deep and thought about that.
And I thought, no, I'm going to put together a list of the stuff that I listen to over and over and over when I sit down in front of my Apple TV, whatever my music list.
And I don't really know what I want to hear. I always end up with these.
I think that's probably a pretty fair assessment of what I what I made.
I feel like it's I feel like it's a really good reflection of me and what I'm normally listening to on a regular basis.
I just think that, you know, I think Barry's is very on the nose.
I'll just put it that way. It's on. I look there are probably only two or three songs that I think might surprise somebody.
The first one couple more. And I'll also say I really, really, really wanted Frank Zappa.
But the songs that I wanted is a 20 minute mashup. The whole side. I wasn't going to give up 20 minutes.
Mine's mine's one song short because in the editing process, you guys made me kick out one of the songs that I had on there.
It was still a good call. No, it's not. OK, so I run a of the of the stations that I run, one of which is a classic hits.
And guess what is played all the time on this classic hits station?
I don't know why, man. It just struck me as odd. OK, the song in question is Michael Jackson, PYT.
Now, I think it's Michael Jackson's best song. It fits the like the sound thing that I was going for in my mixtape.
It fit perfectly where in between where I needed texturally just made so much sense.
And you guys yelled at me and said, you cannot put that on the mixtape. And I just don't understand why.
Well, I do understand why. Let me make that clear. I do understand why. But didn't you know, I think all I said was, are you sure?
And you got confirmation from your wife and everyone from literally everyone.
But then when I come down here and I see the stations playing Michael Jackson 30 times a week, I know optics, optics.
I don't know, man. I don't know. I know. I look, I thought I knew I'd get blasted.
But I'll do this. I had to make 15 copies of that thing.
So I've listened to it many, many times. And it's still the tape that I would play in my car.
OK, well, that's it. It's all it matters. I'm just I'm just pointing out differences. That's all I'm doing.
I knew we'd have this conversation and I knew I knew exactly how it would play out.
And I knew I could go music snob and you think I wouldn't music snob is what you're saying.
You think that I went I purposefully tried to be snobby about it. Yeah, I think you I think.
Well, I put it this way. I think you gave more consideration to how it would look to someone else than I did,
because I just put together the list that I wanted to put together.
I'm trying to OK, let me unpack that. I feel as though that I I put together for someone who wanted to choose
Brad because he might fit their musical sensibilities. I was going to serve that.
Yeah, I couldn't get my head around who that person was. So I just said I'm not going to try.
So I'm going to please me. Well, Barry, you're very, very pleasing in every way.
Well, I mean, you know, think about the Bonnaroo playlist. Yeah.
You know, you don't have a fish song on your tape, do you? Did not include fish.
Now, there is only one song on there that I regret. And I'm not going to say which one it is.
But if I were to do it over again, there's one song in particular I would have replaced with something much better.
But it is what it is. What's exciting about this is that we love doing it.
We love doing it so much that we want to do it again.
And so we're hoping to make this a regular thing and hopefully, you know, give them to you guys, you know,
you know, that are Patreons and, you know, in the future when we put together the new levels and try to, you know,
think about new stuff to give and share, the mixtape is going to be one of them.
And I hope that, you know, it can be a recurring thing because putting them together is so much fun. It's so, so.
It was a blast.
And so what I'm thinking is that next round, you know, the next round we'll have everybody will choose me.
That's probably what's going to happen.
How about next round? Brad has to do a mixtape for Barry and Barry has to do one for you.
Interesting. Oh, man. If I did it for you, it would just be, you know, two sides of nonstop base nectar.
And the Bee Gees.
A lot of yacht rock.
Barry likes yacht rock.
Yeah. All right. There you go.
I don't know what mine is, but OK.
There's for Lord Taco, it's Barry Courter. I'm Brad Steiner. We'll talk to you next time on the What Podcast. Love you. Bye.
