Bonnaroo 2024 Do's and Don'ts, Tips and Tricks (Part 1)

We are three weeks away.

If you are not already packing, if you are not already thinking about it, if you are

not already having the night sweats like I am, it's too late.

Because Bonnarooo is three weeks away and I am so excited.

I'm here to talk about it with my friends Brian and Lord Taco.

It's the What Podcast.

Here we go.

I'm here to talk about it with my friends Brian and Lord Taco.

Guys, are you kidding me?

It's time, right?

Are you?

Is the hair on the back?

It's really close to just about two weeks.

I know.

I was trying to figure out.

Two weeks.

You know, we got to work on a calendar sometimes on the day we're not actually on.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Two weeks.

When you hear this, it's going to be two weeks.

Yeah.

And if you're like me, if you're coming in on Tuesday, you've got even less time.

It's less than two weeks.

Yeah.

Russ lives in the universe.

We don't even know what Russ universe.

But point being, it's time.

You better have your stuff.

You better have your stuff packed.

You better have your groceries.

You know, it's Memorial Day weekend we just passed.

So I get, well, maybe that was the weekend.

Maybe that's what's on my mind.

Yeah.

You're not going to spend a lot of time on it there because you're probably busy.

But you know, that's done.

It's June and you know, a day and a half here.

So it's time.

It's go time.

It's go time.

We may be a little late in some of this as far as tips, but I don't foresee anybody unpacking

their van right based on what we tell them today.

No, no.

And if you're doing this right, you better have a touch of anxiety and you need to go

double check a couple of different.

Are you sure?

Are you sure?

Check again.

Are you sure?

Yeah.

Exactly.

That's what I'm saying.

And so because we are professionals and because we do this for a living, we're going to give

you a little mini tip because Russ, you just did this, right?

You just had a little mini-Roo with some, some Roo people who have done this many, many

times.

So we're going to go ahead and check on, first of all, let me just say this.

I'm Barry.

That's Brian.

That's Russ.

This is the What Podcast.

All we do is talk about Bonnarooo and music festivals in general.

We're kind of obsessed.

We're kind of stupid.

We're kind of crazy about this thing and we know you are too.

So that's why we're here.

So yeah, if you're listening to this, you're just as, you're just as wacky as we are.

But I feel like I need to say that.

So yeah, Russ, just for this past weekend, what were you doing?

So I literally just walked in the door and hit record with y'all.

But yeah, I was down at, uh, uh, Lindsay's, you know, uh, from Roo Fitness.

He's hosted us there before.

We've had a couple of mini-Roo's there and we just had a small gathering at his spot.

He's got about 12 acres of land out in Winchester, which is beautiful.

It's just an exit or two away from Manchester.

To Nashville side of Monteagle Mountain, for those of you who are familiar with the terrain

around here and there have been two mini-Roo's there.

We're going to call them.

More than that.

Two official ones just because of the two years they got canceled.

Maybe four?

I've been to one.

Barry's been to one.

Brian, I don't think you've made a doubt there.

It's gorgeous.

No, I haven't, but I have to ask you real quick, Russ.

You guys were drunk calling me on Friday night.

You got one too?

Excuse me.

You got one too?

Excuse me.

I prefer the term, uh, intoxicated telecommunication.

It was like 1130 at night.

I was like, even I'm not going to answer the call at 1130.

No, we were going through the phone book and we were like, let's call Brian.

Let's call Barry.

And nobody answered.

Brian, please tell me you woke up Saturday and got him back.

Cause I did.

I called back about 945.

Hey guys, what's going on?

No, no, in my nine drinking days, I don't answer the phone after 930 because that's

just my friends that are drunk.

I guess you did not wake up Saturday morning either.

Everyone else but Russ.

I was thinking you guys were having like a big idea session around a campfire.

That's what I'm getting.

They're like, Oh, we were, we had all kinds of ideas.

Yeah.

And this and this.

Yeah.

I was just like, we got to tell some, that's what I was envisioning.

I was like, I don't have the energy.

That's what we were doing.

I wish I knew what we talked about because it was a good idea.

Whatever it was.

Write it down, Russ, write it down.

Yeah.

So, um, yeah, no, this was a great preflight check, if you will, for Bonnarooo because I

got to get all my camp set up, you know, kind of do a dry run, a trial, if you will.

And just, you know, I've already made a list of some things that I need to add to my, to

my camping checklist.

But we had a great time.

We had a, we built a fire.

We sat in the creek, you know, we, uh, smoke some wings.

It was a good time.

You know, uh, Daniel was there from the Roo bus.

Brooklyn was there.

You got great weather, right?

From the Monkey bar.

They got rain.

You know, it's the great weather.

We, we, we got a storm, but it came in late at night.

Uh, you know, about six in the morning, it was storming pretty hard.

But by the time the sun came up, the rain was gone.

Everything dried out.

We had a beautiful Saturday, beautiful Friday, beautiful today, really.

I mean, we couldn't ask for better weather.

So when I called Saturday morning, that's funny you say that.

So I asked about the rain because it was bad.

And uh, so it was Daniel and Lindsay and uh, who else was there?

Lauren.

Lauren was there.

Lauren and uh, Daniel said, yeah, I rolled out of my tent, zipped it up and here comes

Zach walking out of the woods.

And I'm like, yeah, Zach's a ninja, man.

That guy was probably out buying a honey, you know, or whatever.

He's the, you know, Zach, right?

Brian.

I can't quite picture the face, but I've, I think you've met him.

He's from Chattanooga.

Yeah.

And everything we've ever done.

Then I do.

You met him.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Shout out to Zach.

Yeah.

I was funny.

It was like ninja dude.

That's funny.

So yeah, you guys had a good time.

Uh, so you got prepped, you know what you need to bring.

You need to know what you need to not bring.

And that's, we're going to get into that later.

Um, it's kind of important.

Um, we've done this Brian again, you've been to every Bonnarooo.

I've been to 18 of them.

Russ, you've been down to 18, you know, since 18 and, uh, what's funny is Russ is the veteran

camper.

Russ, yeah.

Yeah.

Like I barely know how to do it.

Brian brings the worst tent ever.

It's on my list over here.

But it, but it works.

It works for you.

And that's the point.

So we're going to share those tips.

Um, but y'all had a great time.

Uh, again, it's, I can't stress this enough.

Um, this whole Bonnarooo thing is connected us.

I mean, the fact that the three of us are on here is because of Bonnarooo.

There's no question about it.

And Russ, you're, you know, you, you spent the weekend with people you would not have

ever ever met.

Correct.

And we brought that up so many times.

That was the theme and you know, also just this running thing of, I think everyone that

we've talked to, everyone loves the lineup that we've talked to, but everyone's like,

that's really background noise.

I mean, the main thing that people want to go is they want to hang out with their friends

and they want to see everybody that we haven't seen in so long.

And this was just kind of part of that.

Everyone was just, you know, thrilled to get back to the farm and thrilled to hang out

and do exactly what we were doing this weekend, just hanging out and having a good time.

I didn't, I wasn't going to go there till you just said that, but I wanted to, it occurred

to me this weekend because we've talked about the festival universe has changed.

Maybe not in a good way.

We're kind of the festival universe, you know, they're not buying tickets.

Kids are not buying tickets.

I'm going to ask you guys, is it because, and Brian, you've talked about it a lot here

and even on your own personal show, the stone on air podcast, is it because it's become

so expensive or is it because it's become so expensive?

I only can do it once and then I don't want to do it a second time.

And that's a different thing.

Cause what I mean by that is everything we just said, you and I, we can't wait to go

back to Bonnarooo next year.

Is that changed?

Is it the kids or, you know, I say kids, is it people want to do it once and then they

can't, they don't want to do it again.

It's like, okay, I've done that.

It's in my pocket moving on.

That's a, that, that is a pretty good question because I think it can vary certainly who

you talk to, but I, there's a level of this is just something you got to do and people

do.

I mean, that's what I've always told people.

I mean, give it a, just give it a try.

If you're anywhere in the Southeast, give it a try once.

If you're anywhere near to that kind of thing and once might be all you need, but it does

feel like for a long time Bonnarooo and maybe it's just cause it was all the people around

us and, and, and the, and there's still the semi community that's, I mean, I don't say

it's still a community, but it's a little smaller for us than maybe it was 10, 12 years

ago.

Maybe because it always felt like, well, can't wait to see you next year.

Maybe we're outliers on that a little bit.

That's what I'm asking.

Maybe, maybe, but, but, um,

And hit me about Friday night.

I was, I don't, I, I think I was watching the beach boys thing, which we're going to

get into.

And it was like, uh, you know, I've done it once.

Do I need to do it again?

There are things that fall into that category and that doesn't make them any less more,

any less special just because you do it once.

Yeah, but there's this, I bet they struggle with that as far as trying to what demographics

are trying to sell to go ahead.

Yeah.

It depends on who you end up going with.

Cause uh, you know, Lauren, who was with us this weekend, she even said, you know, she

went her first one or two years, didn't have a great time for whatever reason, but then

she found this group of us.

And you know, it, she said it just changed everything.

And it's, you know, drew Hocum's got that song, you got to find your people.

It's like, you got to find your, your group.

And once you get into that, then that's what's going to make the difference.

That's what's going to keep you coming back.

That's a testament to her, uh, uh, determination to make that work.

If she had a year or two of Bonnaroo initially that didn't go well.

I mean, I don't know where I was just reading it or something.

You said Barry or I read you wrote or something that it could be the worst thing ever or the

best or the worst.

I mean, it could be the worst weekend of your life.

Luckily, I've only had a day or two where I thought maybe that was going to be the case

in 20 years, but it could be the worst decision you've ever made.

So, um, that's all interesting.

Just things to think about, but I just think there's a certain amount of people in this,

in this, uh, space of Bonnaroo that, that just get it more than anything else.

Well, clearly, clearly the three of us spend 52 weeks trying to get ready for the next

one.

Like we're going to do that and it happens here in, like you said, less than a couple

of weeks, depending on when you're hearing this.

But I also wanted to bring up, and this show is already going to be long, but I can't,

I can't move on without, uh, the, the beach boys documentary came out, uh, Friday.

I've watched it twice.

Disney plus, right?

Disney plus already.

My brother, Bob, God love him.

I have thought about this so many times.

My older brother, Bob has turned me on to so many bands that I didn't even realize.

Anyway, we won't go into that.

We all have our brother.

We all have that brother that had the record collection that, you know, whether you knew

it or not, like, Oh my God, my family, I was the brother with the record collection, but

everybody has that person, right?

Russ is passing it on to his nephew, which I totally respect.

My, uh, my grandchild who's two and a half in the car the other day, looked at his mother

and said, mama, please play mama tried.

I'm just going to tell y'all right now.

I I, I, I'm tearing up.

I had not shocked to hear about that.

I feel like I've my worth.

My work here on earth is done.

When you play mama tried when a two and a half year old is asking for Merle Haggard,

I've done something.

Right.

But anyway, so the beach boy thing, and we talked about it last week, didn't we?

And Brian, you said you're as big a fan or you're a fan.

I'm a very, very big fan of the story and the music, but the story may be even more

than the music of the beach boys.

So this thing, and I won't spend too much time on it, but we talked about the Beatle

documentary, the Peter Jackson when it came out and the beach boys thing is not as in

depth, uh, nearly.

And I have made more fun of Mike Love than any human being.

You really do.

I don't sometimes I'm like, man, take it easy on Mike Love.

And I need to back off.

He's an, he's an entrepreneur as the business people with the capitalistic people would

world would tell you.

So Mike, here's the thing.

And there's so much to unpack on this thing.

There is no Bonnarooo without the beach boys.

There is no real Beatles as we know it later without the beach boys.

The beach boys are huge.

And what's so funny to me is everybody has two images of the beach boys.

There's the Mike Love early sixties beach hits, which were the goofball stuff, the goofball.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And then there's the genius Brian Wilson stuff.

And what I thought this documentary did was merge the two in a way that I didn't really

consider.

Mike wrote some great lyrics for some pop hits and I love a pop hit.

I have no, I'm, I love the Archie's.

I have no problem admitting to being a pop hit fan.

Uh, and what this thing kind of did for me was Mike Love is he, he's not Mick Jagger.

He's not sexy.

There's nothing sexy about the beach boys.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Right.

There's something charming about the beach boys, but there's nothing sexy about them.

No.

Or, or scary.

Right.

And that's what early rock and roll was.

Those Rolling Stones, you know, the doors.

I mean, the doors carried the shit out of people.

Just, yeah.

Just to be, just to be so Jim Morrison with Mike Love.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Or Brian, uh, but man, that music is so good.

Um, I don't know.

I just think it's so great and I'm so glad I saw it.

Um, and so this is just a, sorry for, I just didn't, I don't know other than the few mentions

you made.

This is a, just a doc, a rock doc.

It's no, it's not a, it's not a biopic.

No, no, it's a documentary.

Good, good, good.

And I want to see it because I don't have Disney.

I probably never will.

The streaming services are killing me over here.

Yeah.

And it's killing me.

There's so many, you know, we've done, they did the, uh, and I don't remember the movie

that was on a couple of years ago that made Brian's dad look like such an asshole.

And he has.

That's why I don't like biopic.

So that's why I don't, I don't, I don't need the drama hesitation of it.

Well, just along those lines.

So Murray, the dad, um, you know, who abused Brian and, and Carl and all, and Dennis and

all that, but, uh, you know, he sold the publishing rights to Brian songs.

And I guess I knew that, but I didn't really consider.

He also sold the publishing rights to Mike's.

Mike never got any publishing rights to any of those songs.

Really?

So I have to give him, I don't blame him for being bitter.

He had made a penny off of all that stuff and he wrote all of those early hits.

He did the lyrics.

Spoiler alert.

So Mike love just, does he just own the rights to the beach boys property as a brand?

I don't even know what he owns, but he didn't get, he wrote the lyrics to all the early

stuff and Brian wrote the music.

Yeah.

And, uh, and Murray sold, sold it all out from under him for $700,000.

Man.

And then in the days of $400 million, a quarter catalog sell-offs by Neil Young and Bob

Dylan.

Like there's any of that music anybody really needs.

No, that's nothing for a body of work.

I need to back up a bit.

I can't blame him for being a little bit bitter.

Yeah.

No, no, absolutely.

And then the, you know, the stories just get so wild too.

They're crazy.

So wild.

And just to be, I've done nothing but listen to beach boys since Friday.

I mean, I, all my vile, everything.

I've just been obsessed ever since.

My favorite Christmas album of all time.

There's no better Christmas music in on the planet than the beach boys Christmas album.

I think one of the great moments is here in my club, say Carl had the voice of an angel

just to hear him say it.

Um, I real quick, and then we'll move on.

I got to interview Brian about four years ago and never, ever, ever, ever imagined that

would happen.

It was the most nervous I've ever been.

I knew this happened.

I remember it happened.

Was that on the phone?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was on the phone.

He came to the Tivoli, my brothers, my whole family.

I went to that show.

I went to that show.

Wasn't it beautiful?

Yeah.

Sound was so good.

My brothers are all fans.

I called all of them and because I knew, I knew if I had not reached out to them and

said, what do I ask?

I would hear about it after.

And they had nothing.

All three of them, all three of them said, ask him why my glove is such a dick.

I'm not kidding.

That was the question.

I believe you.

I, I assume you didn't ask that question.

I did not ask that.

I didn't ask much.

All I got was yes, no's, but I said, when did you know that pet sounds was going to

be, you know, what it is?

And he said, when I heard my brother sing, God only knows.

Yeah, I've heard you say that before.

I was like, that's, that's, that's all I need.

I don't care.

I'm good.

Cause that's such, I mean, man, oh man, that song makes me cry.

Well, I might have to borrow your Disney plus log in for a day.

You're welcome to it.

And it's so interesting because Jonah Janelle Monet is in this documentary and she mentioned

that I won't spoil it, but, uh, yeah, I want to see this too.

This is interesting.

Good.

All right.

That's a whole diversion.

So the point of this show is our do's and don'ts, which we've done, um, since 2018,

right?

Uh, so we're going to dive into, is there anything else before we, did I miss something?

Uh, well, real quick.

Yeah.

Just real, real quick mention of the heading to Vegas here.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Uh, yeah.

I mean, we could do this.

It's a month and a two weeks away.

I'm excited for you.

We have, uh, all our Chattanooga airport here in Tennessee.

Chattanooga Tennessee is not the most efficient airport in the country or even the region

or even maybe the side of the Mississippi, but, uh, it does make for excellent travel

if you do use it as far as simplicity, but we now have direct flights out to Vegas starting

last week.

And, uh, just super short story, a friend of mine who's married and she didn't want

to go and he just looking for somebody who wants to tag along.

He's going to pick up a sum of the tab, not all of it.

It's going to cost some cash.

It's not free, but a nice deal that I couldn't turn down to go see Vegas at the sphere.

The final three nights of this residency at the sphere.

It, I'm assuming you know what the sphere is with not enough time to explain it.

I don't mean you, you, you, I just mean anybody, but the amazing venue in Vegas and, um, I

got no business going to Vegas in July, none at all, but I'm going anyway.

And so, and so you get excited thinking it's the last three.

Okay.

It's the last three of the residency for the, for the two months.

Well the dead are turning into whatever the bad joke was of that will never suck kiss

or maybe you're one of the other, uh, farewell tour bands that just do this overnight.

Now it's just, it's total eye roll now.

Like, okay, this is the last one.

Sure.

But, um, it's less about that more about just experiencing that venue, which I guess,

you know, in 20 years might look like primitive technology.

Uh, but, uh, looking forward to it.

Not a big Vegas guy, not a, don't gamble, you know, all that trying to stay away from

the insanity that can be that kind of party.

But I'm excited.

I'm excited for you.

You remember I bought tickets, uh, with my brother and nephew to go see the King Crimson

thing in October.

Yeah, I want to go too.

I need to pick up a ticket and go.

We need to make that work.

Figure out how you can go with us.

That's going to be, we need to do that.

But, uh, I get it, man.

That's a lot of fun.

Yeah.

I mean, Zach, we're talking about that.

I think he's going to go see them in Atlanta.

Zach Zach.

He's such a, he'll be on stage.

He's that guy we're going to look up.

It'll be like, yeah, how did they get up here?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hey, isn't that Zach?

Good for people that good for anybody that works that system in that room.

And that line and that, uh, think it's funny that entrance point, whatever it might be.

All right.

So here we go.

Um, we're going to, we got a bank of phone calls.

We'll get to, and then we'll just, um, kind of bounce around and here and have a little

fun with this.

I guess I think that's how we're going to do it.

We're going to start out with the, uh, the thank you all, first of all, for calling,

uh, four two, three, six, six, seven, seven, eight, seven, seven, and keep those coming.

We're not wrapping this little thing up and we might have another round of, uh, just a

few more, uh, if you got questions or anything like that, uh, that we might do next week

as well.

Yeah.

We didn't even get to all the calls in this episode.

So yeah, we'll probably do this once more.

We're just dropping a few of them because we're not even close to all of them.

And let's just say this to the do's and don'ts.

Uh, we've done this now since, like I said, 2018.

So some of them are, are our own, you know, things we've learned some, or we just straight

up stolen from other people.

And then some are obvious, you know, some are obvious, but then even though every now

and again, you think something so obvious and it slips your mind, a generalized you

mind where it's like of everything I know and as smart as I think I am, I didn't think

of this.

Yep.

I still forget the simplest things.

I still do.

Let's do this.

Cause I just think it's funny.

Um, so when I first went, uh, 20, oh two, right.

Was the first year.

I was a very first year.

Yeah.

Uh, went into the paper, chatting, new times, free press.

And they said, Oh my God, there's traffic backed up to Nashville to here, get in the

car with a photographer and go find a story.

So I walk in on this, uh, thing.

They were so nice.

The we checked in at that holiday in, if you know, you know, you know where the holiday

in is.

We walked in, they were super nice.

They escorted us in me and Tim Barbara walked in and we were both immediately, uh, we were

both immediately, uh, this is cool.

This is, this is the real deal.

Fell in love.

I went home that night at the end after doing a story and told my wife, I want to go back.

So went back at Oh seven, but my bosses said, you need to start going.

Cause you're the, you know, you're on salary basically, literally.

We can't keep sending these hourly people you're on salary.

We can send you for the whole week.

Well, this is where salary really works out for you, Barry.

It did.

But my, so where I'm going with it is I was panicked for three months.

I mean, I was reading everything on Reddit.

I think it probably was at the time, uh, you know, how to camp, what to bring.

I mean, I can remember people telling you what type of shoes to bring.

Don't bring flip flops cause you're going to get stuck in the mud.

You know, I mean, it was, it was detailed.

And I was panicked.

And the next year my son went and then a couple of years after that, my daughter went with

her friends and they were even more obsessed.

And that's my point in it.

It was like weeks and weeks and weeks of making lists, right?

You'd bring this, you don't bring that.

Do you need two of these?

Do you need one of those?

Are you going to bring it?

My point is it was hours and hours of planning, right?

I mean, did you guys do that?

Brian, I mean, Nanya, you just kind of went and jumped up, excuse me, jumped over a fence.

Jumped a fence.

Yeah.

For a long time, it took me a long time to put any care or concern into any suggestions

I'd be given by anybody.

Cause we're close.

Yeah.

And because I didn't, you know, I was young and carefree about everything, but it didn't

take too long to start having to figure that out.

And then we have built over the last nearly 15 years, such an ecosystem of, we don't have

a lot to individually do.

And that's part of actually on a list of things that I would, I have as a suggestion.

And but yes, you can't stop.

You can't start early enough.

But you were, you were in charge of, if I remember, uh, vodka, right?

Less of alcohol.

Cause we had a, we had a Bloody Mary tan.

We had a bar.

Yeah.

Well, Nick, um, who did the graphic work for us and was there for three, three, four years

solid at least was the big, Nikki T was big on getting the, the Tito's vodka.

And, but he came in a glass bottle and it ruined presentation.

Remember when he took it out of the bottle and put it in a plastic volume.

So damn disappointed that the dis the presentation of the, of the Bloody Mary bar, when you

look as good.

Uh, but everything outside of the vodka.

Yeah.

I made sure it was there.

But it was, it was a list.

We all had something, right?

Yeah.

Everybody had ringed my hands.

Yeah.

And I, I approached this thing cause you know, I've been camping years before Bonnarooo.

So I was on the camping side.

I was set, but like, I was more used to camping out in the woods where you have to bring everything

and Bonnarooo isn't quite like that.

You're not going out in the woods with nothing.

There's you know, there's food.

There's you know, facilities you don't have to bring quite like you're going at, you know,

out on a wilderness trip.

So it's fair to say though, you want to be pretty close to that though, right?

As a camper, yeah.

Taco.

Yeah.

Those early years though, taco, that's what it felt like, man.

It felt like you were going to the moon.

You better fucking bring everything.

Lewis and Clark out here.

A little bit, a little bit.

Uh, they had the general stores out there in GA that, that were pretty effective, uh,

for, for, for toiletries a little bit.

And then a couple of vendors closer to towards Centauroo and the rest of it was a sea of

freaking cars and Port-a-Johns and maybe an ice truck.

Right.

That was it.

And now there's vendors at every corner and now there's, there's parties every, uh, at

every block of every, of every camp.

So yes, going on or I won't say unprepared, but going and maybe missing a few things and

forgetting you can still make it.

You can probably get what you need if you forgot something.

Yeah.

God forbid though, at that early on you forgot a toothbrush.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

That general store might've had a few toothbrushes, but they probably ain't going to last that

long.

I know, I know the lotion didn't for anybody who eventually needed some lubrication for,

you know, all the obvious reasons of walking so much.

Monkey butt was prime.

It was primo, right?

All right.

All right.

So yeah, uh, it's changed a little bit and, and you can leave and people can leave and

there's a Walmart down the street.

So it's changed a little bit in that line line, but there's, uh, there's still some

tips and there's still some stuff that we've learned.

And like I said, we've stolen from some of it.

So all right, Brian, you look like you're loaded up.

What's your first tip?

Yeah, I got a few.

I'll start with, uh, I'll go with dues.

We mentioned this a little bit at some point in the last couple of months, but, um, if

you've got medication that you're bringing that is important to you.

And even if it's, um, over the counter medication, maybe if it's just Benadryl, um, have those

in bags in plastic see-through like Ziploc style bags, easy to read, easy to get to.

And it really, it might be a good idea to just leave them out on top and simple to see

because that way if somebody sees that and they, they might not care.

You might run into somebody who who's checking, who doesn't even care about your, your bag

of what looks like medication that is completely prescribed to you and, or over the counter,

or you might have somebody who cares a lot and w and getting looking at that and realizing,

okay, I got that done in my head, my checklist.

They move along.

They're not thinking about that.

And you don't risk not having your blood pressure medication like I've run into, uh, before

or, or your anxiety medication, even if it's a low grade, something that's a mood stabilizer,

something that, I mean, Bonnar is a wonderful weekend, but it doesn't have to be, it can

be bad too.

And if you don't have regular things in your life that help you when things don't go well,

you're going to have a, you're going to have a bad time.

So if you keep that, that simple for people, that's going to be one thing you don't ever

have to think about.

If you try to get sneaky, even on accident, cause you're just like, I stuff this in here,

I stuff this in here, or maybe you have it in a mixed bottle or like I had in a Monday

through Sunday daily little plastic thing, they might toss that and they're not going

to care any because they're, they don't have time to care.

They have protocols and rules.

So I would say that's a big, yeah, you're talking about when you come into camp, you're

going to get searched, your car is going to get searched.

So this is a tip for that as far as arrival.

And I'll go ahead and cross over here with another one on that is also just don't assume

at any security point that you're going to be going through that it could be anything

like the ones you've done before.

Or like if you're going through the arch or the clock tower, which is now the disco bar

tower, disco ball tower entrance, just because you've had good experiences getting through

there with security, don't assume you will again, don't get loose with things you might

not, you know, I'm not trying to tell you to sneak things in, but whatever you're doing,

don't assume it's going to be simple just because your experiences that it is.

And don't assume it's going to be bad because someone tells you it is.

Yeah.

So let's, we're going to jump around here.

Go ahead, Russ.

You're you, I can tell you're loaded up with something to share here.

Yeah, I got quite a bit.

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, mine are you going to jump onto this one?

Because what I was going to say is I know we were, we talked about going one, one, one,

but now that I, Brian has shared that I'm, I also, I want to jump on what he is said.

So were you going to change it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

So along those lines, a basic rule is just don't be a dick.

It's a simple rule, but a very, very effective rule.

Let's start there.

Let's just start there.

So good one.

Along those lines, to Brian's point, you know, that guy who was going through your medicines

is just a kid who is a football player who volunteered the day before.

Yeah.

He's, he's not a hard trained, you know, he's not a ATF guy or an FBI guy.

And there's a lot of dysfunction and a lot, because it's such a huge organization with

so many volunteers, most are trying to do well.

Exactly.

And a lot, and a lot of times it depends on the time of day you might've got him at his,

he just started.

And so he's hypersensitive.

He or she wants to do a good job, you know, wants to do press.

Yeah.

Or he's at the end of a 12 hour shift and he doesn't care.

He's done with your bleed.

He's heard all of your stories, and so that's, that's why, and that's true anywhere on the

grounds.

Yeah.

Just the quickest, you know, thing with my, my little daily medicine thing that they took,

they dumped it out and gave me the thing back.

And I went, and I was, I was, my, my body language is awful.

My mouth was shut and I would just, as my car and I had the thing in my hand and I went,

don't throw that and I just threw it in the back seat of my car.

Yeah.

What are you talking about?

Yeah.

So it was, it was, that was like not my best moment.

Probably not hers either, but it was, but I, I know, I know I was, I was in a mood.

I know better though.

That is on me.

That what am I doing?

I'm 40 something years old.

What am I doing?

Of course you don't bring medicine.

That's not marked.

No.

Don't do that.

Don't.

Yeah.

That's stupid.

You're not mad at her.

You're mad at yourself.

At that time I was mad at them.

Well, that's why I wanted to go back to that.

And later, later, later I realized that was so on me.

I have the next day I left when I luckily I'm at home, but if you just came from Indiana,

are you driving to Indiana to get, to get your, you know, your blood pressure medication?

No, probably not.

And that's dangerous.

And that's kind of what I was telling her.

I was like, I know you think you're doing really good work here, but you're actually

making things dangerous for people.

Just, you just took my blood pressure medication.

And it was none of it.

Not just like, yeah, but she just 10 minutes earlier left the training session.

Doesn't matter.

Throw it away.

Or the car behind me has got some oxys mixed in with their Tylenol.

I mean, you know, I get it.

This is on me.

Put it in a plastic bag.

Make it easy for them to see.

They'll check it and they won't think about it again and you'll move right along.

That's what I'm trying to.

Yeah.

Good point.

I think you summed it up.

You know, that guy driving in from Indiana, he's been in a car forever.

Imagine how pissed he's going to be.

He doesn't want to hear anything about, but this is the point.

That's what we're trying to say.

Yeah.

So roll up, you know, there's two sides to the story.

So anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt your us, but I just wanted to put a point on that

one.

So, yeah, my tip, I'm going to start before you even get to Bonnarooo, even in the state,

if you're coming from out of town, I want to talk about your car and just get it making

sure that it is ship shape and ready both mechanically and legally so that you get,

you know, don't get any trouble on the way here.

You want to make sure that your taillights are working, that your turn signals, that

your tires are good, your brakes, tags.

Yes.

Everything, everything is in order as far as your registration, your insurance.

You want to have that ready.

Last year I was behind the rew bus and I noticed that they had no brake lights on it.

I was like, dude, you've got to get that fixed.

And he did.

Daniel.

But yeah, but take a minute, walk around your car.

If you're close to an oil change, go ahead and get it done.

And then the other thing is don't decorate your car.

Yeah, I was going to say.

Every state trooper, every sheriff in town, out of town knows when Bonnarooo is and they're

looking.

The state of Tennessee is out to get your violate road violation revenue.

Don't give them a reason.

Don't give them a reason.

Once you get the Bonnarooo, you'll be fine.

But you got a long way to go and they can get you on something petty.

You got to drive through a lot of counties.

Yes.

Don't take that soap bar and draw big mushrooms or marijuana leaves.

Also don't hang your camping pass from your rear view mirror.

I don't know if a lot of people know this, but in Tennessee, it's illegal to hang anything

from your rear view mirror while you're driving.

Don't hang stuff up there.

I'm not saying you're going to jail if you do it, but you don't want to give them a reason

to look and notice.

That is true.

It seems weird if you've never heard that before, but that it might obstruct the view

of the windshield.

That's the reason for the law.

But a lot of people don't realize it.

And you see people all the time with stuff hanging it and it's not a big deal.

But Bonnarooo weekend, if somebody takes a little interest in you, and then maybe if

you've got a tail light out too, if that's two or three reasons, they're going to pop

you.

So you want to be smart and legal.

And also, a couple of weeks ago, I was at Shakin' Ease.

I had a dead battery.

AAA saved me.

I would recommend AAA if you're headed out on a long trip.

It's very good backup insurance.

Also I've got one of these.

This is a battery booster.

They've gotten so small and affordable.

You can put this in your glove box and it'll keep your car.

Yeah, that thing doesn't look like it has enough power to do much with a car, but you

wouldn't be showing me.

It does.

Yeah, trust me.

Also, it's got USB ports.

You could charge your phone with this.

It's multi-use.

If you don't need it for an emergency, you've got a battery backup for charging your phone,

running lights, anything.

So I'm jumping on that one because I knew we would jump around, but that's a great thing.

Those are something similar.

You can also buy a $10, $15 USB fan that will plug into that for your camp.

It'll run your fan all weekend long.

It is going to be hot.

Yeah, it's warming up quickly down here.

Yeah, our friend Nate had one of those last year, right?

Little battery power booster.

You and I, Russ, have used them.

We use them too and Brian to do our recording.

It'll run the microphones and the recorders and everything, but it will also run a fan.

External power, portable external power has become quite effective, compact, and powerful

these days.

Yeah, and affordable.

I still have a bunch of them.

Yeah, and affordable too.

That's one of those things that's kind of going back to when I talked about 15, 20 years

ago, the difference.

Yeah, that didn't exist.

I mean, the idea of getting power was you would run your car battery down.

And along those lines, another tip, every now and then, maybe once a day, just start

your car.

Don't run it for long because it's probably running into the back of somebody's tent,

but just start it to get the battery, make sure it's still working.

Yeah, because every year people try to leave and they're like, got a dead battery.

Happened to me once.

It happened to me the second year and I happened to have one of those battery charger things

and it jumped me off.

I have a feeling we're going to get a summer heat this year.

It just feels like that down here in Tennessee, it's starting to warm up.

It's humid at night now.

Yeah, it is.

Sometimes it's a little later into June before humidity at night hits, it's hit here recently,

but something tells me there's going to be a lot of people sleeping in their SUVs with

it cranked up and AC blowing all throughout GA.

So do try to make sure that your exhaust is not pumped right next to somebody's tent.

Yes.

If it is.

It's not funny.

That's not funny at all.

Think about that.

Think about how you camp.

When you hear about people dying, it's usually one of two things.

It's either somebody passed out in their tent and it got four bazillion degrees and they

overheated.

Yeah, heat stroke and they're asleep basically.

Or the exhaust was pumped back into a tent or they overdosed.

So three things.

Good point.

Yeah.

And back to the battery thing.

If your battery is about four or five years old, it's probably time to go and replace

it.

That's the problem with mine.

It was about five years old and it sits for a couple of days and no juice.

So if you don't know when your battery was replaced, maybe check that.

Boy, those things are expensive now.

You can't get everybody your shop discount there, Russ.

Yeah, I haven't bought one in a while.

Couple hundred bucks.

They have gone up.

I mean, I hate that, but you know, and they're not any better.

I mean, that's the thing.

You know, you're paying more for basically lead acid battery.

That's right.

The US economy entered chat.

Exactly.

All right.

So let's just keep with that theme sort of.

We're going to, like I said, we're going to jump around and a lot of this is stuff people

have already talked about, but I still think it's a good idea along those lines to not

only just check your car, but also do maybe a prepack.

If you're going with a lot of people or if you're going by yourself, I every year, I

mean, I have a truck and again, I'm an hour away, but Russ and when Brad was going with

us, Brad, we all said, oh, hey, can you bring, you know, can I, can I put my chair in your

truck or can I put my easy up?

And I'm like, sure, there's tons of space.

And then at the end of the day, when I'm done packing, it's, it's over, it's full.

Used to laugh with Brad the year that I followed he and Hillary up.

He literally, she wanted to bring a hula hoop.

They didn't have room in their car for a hula hoop.

There was literally no room for a hula hoop.

And it was almost a fight.

It was funny.

That's why I even remember it.

She was like, I want to bring my hula hoop.

And he's like, there's no damn room for your hula hoop.

Yeah, and they, you know, they just had a hatchback GTI.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It wasn't a big, yeah.

That's my point.

And again, we're an hour away, but you know, you think you, you, you, you know, you want

to bring, you gotta bring, you need the hula hoop.

You need the whatever.

At some point you need to basically, you know, pare it down to the essentials.

Yeah.

If he'd gotten rid of that full length mirror, he probably could have fit the hula hoop in

there.

Fair.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He did.

That was the year he wrote that stand up walk around King size tent with mirror and full

blown queen size mattress.

Yeah.

That they had.

It's hilarious on Monday.

But when you're trying to pack it in, well, with hit with his very, what am I trying to

say handyman, uh, the skills that are very, very lacking.

Uh, there wasn't, he had difficulty getting all that stuff up.

So that was a opening close of the weekend disaster, which anybody can run into, which

is just a on the fly dos and don'ts.

Don't try to set up something that you're not completely sure.

Don't get, try to get too elaborate.

And this would be one that would be on many people's lists that is somewhere in the middle

of all this list of just, this is one we hear every single year.

That's worth repeating.

Set up your stuff at home first, go to your backyard, set it up, make sure you didn't

lose a pole since last year.

I live alone.

Don't have a bunch of kids in my garage screwing all my crap up.

And you know, and my little box is exactly how I left it last year.

I probably will break that rule and won't pop up my little pup, tiny ass tent.

But generally speaking, it's a good idea.

Even if you've done it before, because you get out there, that's a frustrating way to

start.

I like, I want to go do stuff.

Well, you're going to be pretty pissed off when you get back in five hours and you don't

have a tent put up yet.

Yeah.

So along those lines.

So when I come home and I put my stuff in a pile and you know, it has a roll of tape,

it has a hammer, it has a screwdriver, it has whatever.

And then at some point, maybe during the year, Oh, I know where there's a roll of tape and

I go get it.

And then now it's not there.

Now it's not there.

You don't put it back, right?

Exactly.

Exactly.

That kind of thing.

And then you get up to Manchester and yeah.

Yeah.

That's why this weekend was so good.

Cause I got to actually set everything up to camp and kind of go through it, go through

the, you know, my compartments and drawers and make sure everything is where it's supposed

to be, you know, so.

Right.

Yeah.

It's good.

And we're, and we're lucky.

We all, you know, we do this together and, and it used to be, and he doesn't, he hasn't

been in a while, but we had Denson, you know, Mr. Mr.

You know, I don't have, what, what do you want to call him?

Then Denson's that guy.

If somebody in camp says, Hey, I need a hammer.

He's like, do you need a 16 ounce ball peen hammer?

Do you need the claw?

You know, what are you, what are you roofing hammer?

I think he's at the, he's like the guy with the big key ring hanging off the side of his

belt.

Like, all right, what do we need over here?

Yeah.

He's got an ACE hardware in his back pocket.

He's got, he is the elder.

He's the elders.

Hey, he's elder.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I try to be that, but I'm not dense.

And I mean, he literally is like, yeah, I got the, you know, I got the roofing hammer.

I mean, we're making jokes to the, not really exaggerate that the guy had everything.

He had everything.

He's got the knife.

He's got the duct tape.

He's got the zip ties.

He's got the whatever.

And I, for that, I'll, I'll jump off of that Barry and say that, I mean, a planning meeting,

we usually use pre-show meetings and planning meeting meetings almost as jokishly like as

just reasons to get together and have some beers and yuck it up, which is what those

usually ended up being, but they're still a little bit good came out of those.

And, and any kind of, and especially these days, you can meet up anywhere through your

phones and everywhere else.

If nothing else, just a thread, have a good solid kind of designate things out.

Here's what you're doing.

Here's what you're doing.

Especially if you're with trustworthy people, which sometimes you've got, you know, if you

got a big enough group, there might be somebody might be wishy washy.

You don't know, but to have a good idea.

I never knew.

I always knew I didn't need to have a small hatchet.

I was never going to have to need to have a small hatchet in the history of my life

because I had to go get the small or the big or the Paul Bunyan style.

That's right.

You know, but some, you know, that if you don't have that guy to, to know through your

threads and through your gatherings of people to know that, okay, I know that they've got

that part covered.

I don't have to worry about that.

Yeah.

And we're due for a meeting, aren't we?

Yeah.

Yes.

Or, you know, a 20 foot tarp.

I mean, who'd bring in the tarp?

Who's bringing the zip ties?

You know, I, I years and years ago bought a gross of zip ties.

I have every size zip tie in the world.

I'm bringing, they're in my truck.

They are always in my truck.

Already.

Yep.

Right.

Bungee cords.

Yeah.

Bungee cords are big.

Bungee cords are huge.

Bungee cords are huge.

Tarps, multi, various sizes.

Extra tent stakes.

You're going to need more than you think.

Cause you really want to make sure, you know, a couple of years ago we had that big storm

come through with the wind.

Easy ups are flying.

You want to make sure your stake down really, really good before you do anything.

Yeah.

We'll get more into that in the phone calls too.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's go ahead and do that.

Yeah.

Let's get to go ahead and listen to some phone calls.

Actually, let's do that.

And yeah.

One more on my top of my don'ts I want to get real quick before we do that.

Okay.

Is that we always talk about don't go hard on Thursday.

And that is a, that has become a very trendy and a suggestion to have whether people actually

mean it or not.

Maybe it's in jest, but don't go hard on Thursday.

I would say don't go hard most of the days if you want the best of any of your days or

don't go hard period.

I'm trying to use old me and new me and mix them together here.

Right?

Like there was, that would be suggestion.

I would have been like next, you know, five, 10 years ago.

That is funny to hear you.

I know.

Right.

People saying, but this is, this comes from an honest place.

But I'm thinking, but I'm thinking here's a, here's a good place to kind of compromise

here.

Go hard one day.

Yeah.

Pick, pick that day.

Whatever go hard means for you, pick one day, whether it's your favorite day or maybe your

least favorite, that might be the best day to go hard.

And then you don't have to worry about membering anything.

If that happens to be a, you know, a consequence of that action, maybe Saturday, maybe Friday,

you know, whatever it might be rather than just kind of letting it happen.

Cause that's what happens when you get out there and have fun.

It just, it just happens.

But boy, the next day, I mean, even when my, in my, my heaviest of drinking and really

getting into it and I would still, you know, have countless, I'll never drink again moments

at Von Re the next day.

And then of course, what am I doing too much, two hours later?

And that's, that's, you know, Bloody Marys.

Bloody Marys.

Oh my God.

What a great way to start the day, which that's still a great way to start the day.

You can have, you don't have to go hard just cause you had a Bloody Mary.

I like, I like this take, especially given last week when, when, you know, I was, I was

so cautionary.

I like this idea cause everyone's going to go hard.

You need to go hard.

You should go hard.

It's the whole reason to be there.

Maybe you can do two days.

You're living in an environment that allows it, that makes it safe.

It'll let it be safe.

A hundred percent.

But you've, so why not let loose?

I know I'm not trying to be a, you know, let loose, let loose.

But, but by the time Saturday rolls around, if you, if you started Wednesday, Thursday,

you'll be like, oh, man, you're just not going to feel good.

And that's just a bad place to be.

So I would.

Yeah.

I like, I like this.

I like this approach a whole lot better.

You know, you're going to go hard.

Yeah.

Just, you know, whether, whether you plan it or not, as you're suggesting, you know,

you're gonna, but I guess the point is you're going to pay.

There's dues.

You pay the price.

There's a due.

There's, you know, dues coming.

So yeah, if you're, and I guess what we're saying is if, if your day is Saturday night,

if that's your go-to, you might not want to go hard on Thursday or Friday, you know, plan

for Saturday.

So I like that.

Yeah.

And when you do go hard, make sure you eat because Saturday it's shaky knees.

I went the whole day and then realize, you know, it's time to go.

I realized I didn't eat anything all day.

Make sure you plan out some time, the water, we're going to talk about hydration.

That will sneak up on you.

It'll sneak.

Yeah.

You can easily forget that.

All right.

So let's, let's listen to some of these wonderful and thank you everybody for calling.

It's so cool.

I love this phone call thing.

It's one of the best things we ever came up with.

And by the way, I loved, I wanted to give a shout out to you for editing as you do every

week, but I just thought it was so funny when you had the scene from, was it a wonderful

life?

It's a wonderful life.

Yeah.

Shattering the record.

Shatters that record.

Yeah.

Little things like that, man.

Those little things.

Is that where that image comes from?

Is that the original?

Is that where you're going to probably the record being smashing is wonderful life?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Isn't that awesome?

Yeah, I enjoy it.

Yeah.

Well, you do a great job and thank you.

Thanks.

You do.

We hear comments all the time.

People are like, Oh, let Russ talk more.

It's like, why?

I'm not really supposed to be.

I'm more of the producer.

It's not that you're not supposed to be.

I don't think, is it?

I don't know.

All right.

Bring these on.

And so from the...

Why we do this.

I'm gonna go pee.

So whatever.

Let's run them.

The official what, Bonerud Newsmaker phone line, this is not from that.

This is a quick 30 second going backwards the last two years.

And this is our old buddy Brad.

It's what he said two years ago and then one year ago in about 15 second each clip.

So it's run together.

Listen closely.

Brad Steiner on, well, his Once Upon a Time Show.

Here, hold on.

My number one do or don't for Lord Taco is the same every year.

And yet you break it every year.

You and Bryan Stone.

I do.

You and Bryan Stone don't follow my two biggest rules.

Don't hook up at Bonerud.

It's just so gross.

Break it every year.

Oh, I mean, look at that guy.

He can't help it.

I know.

One year later.

You guys know my other hard and fast rule.

What is it?

Taco.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Don't hook up.

Don't hook up.

Don't hook up.

Don't hook up.

Don't hook up.

Okay.

So my first commentary and then Russ, you can take it.

My first commentary is Brad for being one of the most, uh, a brain of, of intellect

beyond many.

I know a wit that's quicker than, than anybody I know can still get so narrow castedly blinded

and hard focused on something that it makes him look ridiculously dumb and he's not ridiculously

dumb.

So he has this perception of what hooking up at Bonerud is and we all have an understanding

what he thinks it exactly looks like.

And to him it's disgusting.

And I understand if we're just going to, you know, corner this little conversation over

here, hooking up at Bonerud doesn't have to mean whatever Brad thinks it is and thinks

that everybody should agree to.

Maybe just don't hook up with Brad.

The best times of my life have been meeting up with, I guess, I assume they were single

women from all over the country to spend an afternoon with.

And that might've been it.

That might've been, I might not have ever seen her again.

That was in a sense a hookup.

I mean, it was, she wasn't, it wasn't my buddy from college that I had a hot dog with.

I mean, we, we had a nice afternoon.

All right.

I'm going to stop you right here because I was there on those mornings when you came

crawling out of a tent.

I was starting in a different end of this.

I was there.

I watched you crawl out of the tent.

And then there are those too, but it doesn't mean they're all the same thing.

That was, that was my point there.

Russ, you can feel free to take a break.

Going with hooking up means Brian crawling out of a tent on a Sunday morning with a woman

he hooked up with the night before.

That was a disastrous day.

You and I are both, you and I are both kind of guilty of this, but, you know, I kind of

got a streak going year after year.

So I don't know if I'm going to break the streak.

My streak has ended.

I don't have a streak going anymore.

And it's not necessarily what I'm looking for like immediately, but sometimes it happens

quickly and out of nowhere.

This girl from Miami.

You brought this up.

I did not introduce this.

I know.

This girl from Miami I met, we went and saw Paramore in 2018.

You guys didn't see her as far as you know, I'm making her up.

Maybe I am.

Maybe I was in a dream for a day.

That was a great, that was the best day ever.

That was the greatest day of my life.

Okay.

All right.

I don't hook up.

Despite what Brad says.

All right.

So what's the point?

Are you putting the call out now?

Are you trying to like manifest this?

Yeah.

What is the point?

I'm with Brad.

I'm with Brad.

I ain't touching anybody.

I knew you were closer to Brad, but I had to pull that up when I saw him bring it up

two years in a row.

So that's all that was.

Hey guys, this episode of the What Podcast is going a little bit longer than we normally

do, but that's because we are having so much fun.

Right?

Oh yeah.

And we're busy.

The number one tip, start getting ready now.

So we'll have plenty of your tips coming up here too in the next episode as we get closer

and closer to Rue.

Yeah.

We still got plenty to talk about.

We're glad you're still with us.

Russ, we got all kinds of tips still coming up.

Right?

Yes.

We're going to be live so you don't miss next week's episode.

We're going to hear your calls first of all.

Thanks for all that.

And thanks for listening, especially if you've been here since the beginning.

Some of you have.

If it's your first time, welcome.

And you know, I don't have that number written down.

So we still want, we're still, the contest itself for the junk from Barry's basement

along with a couple of things I can spare out of my garage, that number and the phone

calls we'd still appreciate is the phone number guys?

423-667-7877.

That's the number we want you to call.

I was thinking, I hope they have it right in front of them when I say it.

Oh, I got it.

Call and leave us your favorite, your tips.

Call the number.

423-667-7877.

Call.

Thank you guys.

If you're still with us, we still have, we have a couple of surprises for next week's

episode and then before we know it, we will be on the farm with you guys and we have some

surprises from there as well.

Thanks again for hanging out.

This is a long episode.

We know it.

That's why we're breaking it up.

See you guys soon.