Bonnaroo 2025 News and Speculation

But I think you're absolutely right, Taco.

It is time for a wowzer on the top line,

whether that's Dolly Parton,

which I don't care about as much as you and Barry

and Brad do and others, but that's a name that works.

Like there's something needs to get the whole country going.

Holy gee, do you see what they just did over there?

Even if it's one name only,

I think they need to get back to that

because that hasn't happened since it would have been 2020.

And before that, it might go all the way back

to Paul McCartney year when they had that year,

which was 2013, my God, 11 years ago.

Hey everybody, welcome back to The What Podcast.

Here we are, I'm Barry, that's Russ, Lord Taco to you guys

and Bryan, how are you guys doing?

Doing well.

Doing well.

All right.

This is gonna be a fun show as they always are.

We don't have any breaking news.

We don't have any special guests.

We're just gonna kind of catch up,

I guess for lack of a better.

Yeah, the festival lull has hit.

There's no doubt.

I mean, it's still summer left.

Let's not run off and throw the summer out just yet.

No, no, exactly.

And speaking of, I do have some news.

I'll go ahead and tell you

because I've been texting back and forth

with some folks over at C3 and just got confirmation.

This is big.

Boot Scootin' Boogie Nights will again perform at Bonnarooo 2025.

You can put that rumor to bed.

Yeah, finally.

Just got it.

This is rumor time.

Yep, so I've got the first.

The first.

Actually, that's the truth.

We have breaking news.

The first confirmed act at Bonnarooo 2025,

Boot Scootin' Boogie Nights.

All right.

All right.

You heard it here first.

You can go to that Reddit thread and you can lock it.

Lock that thing down.

I don't wanna hear another word

of egregious, terrible information over there.

And this is from, this isn't from Corey Smith.

This is from somebody even higher up.

So exclusive Tennessee performance

of Boot Scootin' Boogie Nights.

I saw they were playing,

I wish I had it and could pull it up quickly, but I can't.

They got another pretty big show in Nashville, I think.

Soon, they are filling up rooms.

We talked to Corey about it last week.

I mean, very briefly,

but they really are putting a lot of people in rooms

to see this stuff.

Yeah, 700,000 seats.

You mentioned that.

I wanna thank Corey again for coming on last week.

I thought that was great.

I mean, one of the things we always try to do

is sort of that sausage making inside baseball.

That's what we love, right?

And to have him on, Corey again, for those just joining in.

Corey Smith is a marketing manager for C3 Presents.

He's the guy that has to promote Bonnarooo and South Star

and some of these other festivals, Railbirds.

Railbird, yeah.

Yeah, he's kinda got the southeastern regional district,

if you would, if you're thinking of another kind of

business infrastructure where you have regional people

that kinda cover certain areas as their footprint.

C3s is way bigger than I realized until I knew it was big,

but it's bigger than I thought.

But yeah, he's over a lot of the southeast

and then the food scooting boogie nights, man.

I meant to ask him, I thought about it too late,

that was this a classic case for him of,

I wanna be a rock star, but it didn't work.

So I got into radio or music production and presentation.

I bet there's a little bit of truth to that.

He might not have come to grips with that completely.

That was me, that was my life.

I wanted to be a rock and roll star and then realized,

that ain't gonna work, what can I do that's closer?

Makes sense, how can I still be in this realm

even if I can't make it on stage?

I did pull up their schedule here

for Boot Scootin' Boogie Nights, yeah.

Friday, August 30th, they're gonna be in Nashville.

Saturday, the 31st, they're in Louisville, Kentucky.

And then next month on September 20th, they're in Atlanta.

And September 21st, they're in Macon, Georgia.

So they are touring, if you're in one of those cities,

go see them.

Well, there's a reason why there's not a lot

of festival news.

All their employees are off playing in their bands.

Yeah, that's what we should say.

Corey dude, get to work.

We can't do a show if you're off playing music every day, dude.

That's right.

He was great last week.

You guys, we've had a couple of days now to think about it.

I thought it was really informative.

It's so much fun to me to get like, you know,

the people literally on the ground that are doing this.

And the thing that always stands out to me is,

and we mentioned it last week on the show, they're fans.

They love it just like we do.

And so you hear that, right?

I think sometimes we think there's, I don't know,

I don't know what we think, you know,

how these things happen.

There's some corporate suit somewhere,

but it's people who love music and they want to put on

an event and then they know what they're doing.

Well, there's a healthy mix of corporate suits.

There's no doubt, but there,

it does appear within this ecosystem.

That's a lot of fans.

We, you know, we've more and more that we've talked to

and met over the years and some that we'll have on here

in the near future before the end of the year.

But I guess you got to have a little bit of both.

You got to have the suits that got all the, you know,

the bankroll, the capital, the financial lines of credit

and all those things.

Those type of guys aren't generally all that big of fans

or kind of money people.

And hey, you got to have money people

to pull this kind of stuff off.

So, but yeah, it was fun talking to Corey for sure.

Big business.

And we, you know, we joked a second ago about it being rumor

season and I am serious.

I'm pretty sure we just broke news that the first band

booked, but I also reached out as part of this conversation

and just sort of ask how much of the Bonnarooo lineup

is currently booked at this point.

And the answer I got was about 20%.

That's a pretty strong number 10 months out.

Yeah.

You know, there's no telling what level of artists

we're talking about here,

but that point was made to me very clear.

Yeah.

That could be headliner, that could be who's stage.

And of course that's a joke and I get it, but.

And we'll dive into all the madness of social media

and the rumor mills and the mock lineups.

I do enjoy some of that stuff.

It's just way too early right now for me,

but it's always too early.

So it's like the sports commentary world of the mock drafts.

That's what the mock lineup is.

And every time someone, well, not every time,

but many times the ones that know

they shouldn't be doing this are like, make a little sound

or they're ridiculously too stupid mock draft.

Like, you know, that's kind of what we're doing here

eventually anyway, but.

But along those lines, and because we've done it now

and refer back to and Russ, if you'll link that first

interview that you and Brad Steiner and I did up in

Knoxville with Bryan and Steven,

the guys that actually book, you know, in large part

this event, they work year round.

And so they kind of, they build, you know,

they figure out who a headliner is going to be.

And then they try to build a lane around that

to make sure that fans are entertained

throughout the whole day.

And Corey mentioned that with Southstar, you know,

with they were going to wait till next year, right?

And then bling 182 comes in and said,

hey, we'll do this festival.

Well, that created a whole bunch of stuff.

So it can happen, you know, where you think the guys

who are booking it go after who they think will be

the hot act in a year, or it can come around, you know.

Sometimes it's the other way around.

Yeah, you've got an opportunity to get, you know,

whoever and then you build around that.

So. Yeah.

I'm glad you mentioned that interview we did in Knoxville

with Stephen and Bryan, right?

Yeah. And Ted from us.

Yeah, Ted Heine, Bryan Benson and Stephen.

You know, it stings a little bit to go back and listen to

because that was 2020 and we were still hyped

about that 2020 lineup.

We had no idea what was coming.

But just the process that they talked about,

how they booked this thing, you know, that's every year.

So you can definitely learn a lot from that year,

even though that particular lineup didn't happen.

It's still fascinating looking to how they managed to pull it.

Yeah, still the best lineup I've ever seen that I'll know

that we never saw. We never saw exactly the greatest lineup

that never happened.

Never could have buried the festival, too.

So it's it, you know, it's been a nice turn around here

five years later.

But I remember sitting at the Moxie Hotel here in downtown

Chattanooga, getting the lineup, the you know, an hour,

not an hour, half day in advance that night in the middle

of the night kind of thing.

And we didn't even know we were all like 11.

Yeah. Yeah. Holy God.

You're right. Yeah. Miley Cyrus.

What? I know we got it early.

You're right. I forgot about that one.

I forgot where we were. Yeah.

The Moxie.

Let me ask this.

We're not going to do rumors.

It's too early, but I will ask you this.

And I probably I wish I'd asked Corey because we came out of

Bonnaroo 24 as it's the it's a Renaissance Rue.

It's it's back.

It's you know, it all three of us sat there on your bus

talking about this was, you know, I'm back in.

Not that we were out, but yeah, kind of.

But it's back. Reaffirmed.

Right. So what does that mean?

What do you guys think this 25 has to look like?

Have you even given that any thought?

You want to start, Russ, you want me?

I just think and you know,

this year, headliner wise, it's got to be close to that 20-20 lineup.

I mean, this 24 was good,

but I think they really got to knock it out of the park with a killer lineup.

Twenty twenty five. That's my thought.

Yeah. I'll echo that and add a little to it.

I once it was over, I really and this happens every single one of them.

Go look at Bonnaroo twenty nine twenty twenty two.

Look at twenty twenty two.

And then you can do this every year.

Twenty seventeen is like, oh, my God.

Can you believe it was on this lineup, whether you maybe didn't realize it or not?

You can do that every year. Yeah.

But twenty four's lineup was a lot better than I thought going in.

And the Chapel Rowan hysteria helped and some other things helped.

But the headliners were still a little meh.

I mean, EDM is still so niche to give it to close out the festival.

I know this is an old guy talking, but I still didn't love the idea.

The Chili Peppers, I mean, none of it.

We're all done with that band. And Post Malone was a surprising,

awesome Friday night, but still wasn't wasn't really

getting the excitement levels too high.

The overall festival just went off so well.

The undercard was so good.

Most of us did agree that the undercard was really good.

And it just it was a throwback year.

Everything just went other than the heat picking up.

But we deal with that every year, too.

It just was a the overall vibe was just so great.

Yeah, the vibe for sure.

It was amazingly how well it came together.

And that was a common theme, not just with a few of us

that had maybe better situations than others got that everywhere we went.

But I think you're absolutely right, Taco.

It is time for a wiles are on the top line, whether that's Dolly Parton,

which I don't care about as much as you and Barry and Brad do and others.

But that's that's a name that works like there's something

needs to get the whole country going.

Holy gee, do you see what they just did over there?

Right, even if it's one can't miss one name only.

I think they need to get back to that because that hasn't happened

since it would have been 2020.

And before that, it might go all the way back to Paul McCartney year

when they had that year, which was 2013.

My God. Eleven years ago. Yeah.

Where everybody in the music in the entertainment world stops.

Tonight show with Fowlin, somebody stops and says, makes a comment.

Yeah. You believe this?

I feel like I feel like it's time for that, because since coming out

of the pandemic, we haven't had that at all.

I think we've and I think it's time for that.

No. And you know what we we have said, and because the industry,

people in the industry said this last year, you know, not just Bonnarooo,

but festivals around the country, the bands came out of the pandemic,

you know, super ready to go and all available and all available.

And then needed a break last year.

So theoretically, you know, we may not even know who that

ginormous person or act.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't have examples for you.

I'm not sure who it's supposed to be.

You know, I don't know that yet.

Give me till the end of the year and I can start to maybe

come up with my own guesses.

I mean, I guess it could be Chapel.

Maybe she comes back.

But I mean, she's already have she's having the summer of, you know,

she's having a career. So will she still be?

I hope she takes some time off for her own well-being.

That thing's been so extraordinary.

But yeah, I don't also might be too big.

I don't know. Yeah, I don't know.

But yeah, I'm not here to give you some thoughts on that other than

it just feels like it's time for that for their overall brand.

You've answered that need to come strong with

the the the big can you believe they got a headliner to maybe it's a single

because the undercard is always great.

I mean, that's the one thing you'll never get on a headliner at Bonnaroo.

You know, excuse me, you'll never get a headline of Bonnaroo

who's great second tier poster this year.

Can't wait to talk about like that's not going to make the news that makes

that brings people in certainly.

And yeah, I think the excitement will flow into next year.

I think ticket sales will move no matter what.

That would be my first guess.

But something to make to kind of solidify how great of a year we had.

It felt it feels like they've kind of got the the actual logistics

of it down pretty good.

The camping, the all of that.

That was that was part of why I think the vibe was so good.

Everything feels, you know, pretty good.

Well, I think you're referring to kind of like where they've slowly change things

with different camping options and all that, where they they haven't

drastically changed the footprint.

They haven't made it look and feel drastically different.

But in some ways, it really was from the tier pricing to the way you can

right camp in nine three one, which I never thought I don't you guys ever see

how they have the nine three one set up because it's very walk through there.

No, it brings to them.

Well, it's it is I wondered how in the world they would pull that off.

It's its own little colony over there.

It has nothing to do with anything else that's going on.

It's got its own dedicated entrances.

And so it works out well.

People I talked to people were nine three one and they loved it.

Interesting. That seems to be what I guess interesting.

You put it that way.

That seems to be no matter where you are, wherever you are seems to have its own thing.

Oh, yeah.

You got the bear in the woods.

You got nine three one.

You got the the VIP, you know, everything seems to have something going on.

And that's what makes the whole weekend work.

I guess the idea is you want to you want to unique as you can experience in whatever.

Right.

Destination you choose, whether it be the glamping, you just show up in your your tents there.

I've never talked to anybody who's done that, by the way, this we get there and then we bring our stuff.

And then our our awesome tent is that, you know, I don't remember what they call this stuff.

But I've seen pictures of it.

I've never talked to anybody who's done that.

But we need to work on that.

I mean, there are things that that we'll talk about as we get closer to next year.

Like, they've got to figure out that VIP, the platinum one is the one that I was the most annoyed with.

I know that long that I love empty space between the crowd and the stage.

They got to fix that.

Yes, you love it because you're all by yourself.

They got a big figure.

My guess is they will, because as far as the platinum goes, just because that was so glaringly an issue.

And they're they're quick to come around to the obvious.

I think I saw maybe on Reddit or something where somebody was not just complaining about it because it,

you know, it's a wasted space.

But it's like, you know, if we're in there and there's four of us and we're dancing, it feels like it's like eyeballs are just glaring a hole.

Everybody's looking at you.

Back of our head.

I didn't even think about it. Yeah, I didn't even think about it either.

But think about how uncomfortable that would be.

Yeah. Yeah.

You got nobody around. They might as you might as well be on stage.

They might as well be there to see you because you're right in front of them.

Exactly. Yeah.

So yeah, that's got to that's got to get well.

And we'll get into those kinds of things.

So yeah, the only other thing I can think of maybe to address is that we're in the woods situation on Sunday.

You know, it did get a little crowded at capacity and a little bit, you know.

I hate to be a buzzkill, but I just want to shut the festival down like they used to do for 18 years.

I agree. At midnight, this place is donezo.

Y'all can go out there and do whatever you want until as long as you want.

But this festival is over at midnight.

You want to if you want to limit liabilities, that's how you do it.

Yeah, we we kind of handed around it.

But I mean, a lot of those volunteers, you think they haven't checked out?

They're done. They're done.

Their weekend is over. They're done.

So, yeah, I got to I have to believe they know that.

Yeah, I mean, it's a it's a fun idea.

I mean, these EDM types, they don't ever want to quit.

I was seeing some threads speaking, going back to when we're talking about maybe what more of and what will we see in twenty twenty five?

The EDM craze is is he's still here and they'll be they'll be picking up on that for another year, at least, if not another couple.

I wouldn't be surprised to see an EDM headliner again.

The Thursday night thing, is that here to stay?

Got to feel like it is feels like it should be.

Will that be the EDM night?

You know, lots of those kinds of questions, but it does appear and I can't remember who it was.

I think it's probably the festival or somebody somebody who was, you know, within that conversation on Twitter or Reddit was saying,

showing the numbers and it's just like there's no escaping this, the EDM popularity.

And and it was actually I think one of the measurements was up against the jam band explosion of 20 years ago.

And the jam band chart is doing this and the EDM chart is doing this.

And so any wishes for a big name?

I guess Fish's stupid name would come back up.

But I don't know why they'd want to waste their time with that, because I mean, Fish is in its own got its own little galaxy.

But I would if you're looking for a lot of jam band, I wouldn't look for it.

Along those lines, back to what I asked, what what you guys think 25 needs to look like,

I do wonder about that, the demographic, because there we talk about legacy acts, we talk about EDM.

They're not the same market, right? So the I guess what I'm trying to say is,

is that has the market diversified too much or so much or not even too much?

That's a quantify type of thing. But can you so far?

I mean, you and I don't go to the EDM shows, but a large number of people do.

And they make it work at Bonnarooo. Is it too spread out?

You know what I mean? Yeah, I know. I think I know where you're getting that.

I wouldn't say it is.

And I don't know that depending on what the legacy act is and what is trending on TikTok,

because a legacy act can become top of mind to a twenty something really quick.

Yeah, Alain O'Ritchie. Yeah, well, I don't.

That just was not sure if that one hits as much as like not now.

I'm just saying like a Stevie. Yeah.

I'm just saying those acts that everybody seems to like.

Sure. I think I think it would be in their best interest to always have

some kind of legacy act. And unfortunately, those legacy acts are the music of my youth.

So well, Southstar, you know, this 90s anthem thing. So yeah, it's a it's a referenced.

I mean, that's all Southstar is, is a bunch of legacy acts.

If you want to start using the definition the way we use it in the industry now.

So it works, but it not for mass sales. So I would say lots and lots of EDM.

And hey, there's enough room on that farm for all of it for me.

Yeah, I like it. I just say you've already I think to me and someone's going to

scream in the comments and I'm wrong here, but Bonnarooz kind of already showcased the best of the

best from medium. They've already hit the big names. I'm sure there's 15 others I haven't

heard of that are just knocking on the door or just kicked the door down yesterday,

but pretty right. Pretty light Skrillex. I mean, they were having EDM 10, 12 years ago.

They didn't just start doing this. So I think they've done it really well.

And there's always going to be some rich guy who's never been to Bonaru who wants to go see

who am I? They've already used all of them. I say Elton John. Well, Elton's already been there.

Yeah. I think those kind of acts still still hold a lot of value.

All right. Just because it's on my mind, a little bit of business. We'll probably take next week

off and I don't know about the following and then we'll come back pretty strong and get ready for

South Star and then it'll be the end of September and before we know it, we'll be back to heavy

rumor and then they'll have Christmas ticket sales. So we've got shows coming, but just want to

let everybody know we're taking next week off. But this is not to say we're wrapping up because I

know there's some other news, Bryan, you want to talk about in particular, but anything else?

Anything else Bonaru right now that we can, that you could think of?

I was bouncing around online. I mean, other than people just, it's irresistible to talk about

rumors. You know, I mean, gossip is the most powerful thing in America, maybe all of the world,

but outside of that, yeah. I mean, speculation is fun. Don't get me wrong guys. I'm not being a

hater. I like to sit around and, and you know, and use educated guesses. It's just at this point,

it's pretty hard to have an educated guess, but to know that we are, yeah, there's no educated

guess for sure. Yeah. Other than if you know, for sure they're in, you know, Australian June. Okay.

Well they're out. Yeah. Yeah. You can, yeah. You can rule out some places. Yeah, exactly.

But if we did a show for everybody who wasn't going to be a Bonaru, we'd be here for the rest

of our lives, boring the entire internet. But, well, you know, the big name, you know, not to

get into the rumors, but everybody keeps throwing out as a, as a headliner. What do y'all

think about that? I mean, is that feasible? Is that the right, I didn't know what the importance

was of Childish Gambino six years ago. And, and I, and I'm being, I'm flipping, I was told, I just

didn't understand it a hundred percent. And then I thought, again, I thought the whole gimmick was, was.

Yeah. No, he's, he's Glover, right? Glover is it Danny Glover? Yeah. Yeah. Like Donald Glover,

Danny Glover. Danny Glover, the actor. Speaking of legacy,

Danny Glover, Daniel Glover, whatever his name is. But I mean, they can do whatever they want. And

I'm sure it'll work out, work out just fine. Oh, he's a great, I mean, it seems like everything he does

is, is, is. Yeah. That was one of the best shows ever. Russ and I were talking off air, waiting for

you to come on. And that, that show to, for one person to command 80,000 people and that ginormous

stage like he did was incredible. So, yeah, it was one of my favorites of 2019. I was at Courtney

Barnett at one of the tents, either waiting for her to start or she just ended. And I remember our

buddy Brad was giving me all the bleep in the world for not going to this Gambino thing. And

I was like, well, you deserve it. Well, I know that's fine. And I was like, listen, well, Courtney

Barnett's one of my favorites. So I was, so I was like, listen, Brad, I can go to something that I

might like that you tell me that I should do. And then I might enjoy, or I can go to something

I know I guaranteed 100% will love. And I won't have to hang out with you for a couple of hours.

I get it. And, uh, I mean, I got lucky. I, I wandered up and got on the rail, uh, for,

for that. And it was incredible. Yeah. So, I mean, everything about it was amazing. Um,

but to, for him to come next year, I don't know, man, I, what would he do? Um, you know,

and again, that's, it's so early to be speculating. But if you told me last year,

post Malone, I would have said kind of the same thing. What's he going to do? Well,

and the answer would have been, well, let me give you a list of the things he might do.

Right. Right. And turns out that that post Malone show was one of the, one of the cooler shows I've

seen there in a while. Now that's not a very good comp to, to Childish Game, but you know, coming

back, but again, it's too early. I'm not ready to have these conversations. So we'll definitely

go there when we need to. Um, the only thing I was looking at here in the last week or so that, uh,

grabbed my attention, a few of them for a couple of different reasons is these, these, um, I just

call them destination, uh, events, uh, cruise events, uh, uh, all inclusive resort events.

Um, and some that are not all inclusive. And I've never been to any of these, you guys haven't

either, right? Nope. I've always been curious by them. Um, like the cruise, the whole cruise

thing. I mean, that's bad jokes of people, you know, recycled over and over again about the cruise,

but every time I look up, it seems like there's a boat capsizing or, or something's wrong with the,

you know, the internal plumbing or something, one of these things. And I'm like, ah,

yeah, I don't know if I'm ever going to get on a boat and go out in the middle of nowhere, but

many of these others are like Mexico city, Cancun, uh, widespread panic's done it for a while.

Playa in La Playa or panic in La Playa, excuse me. And three that were announced this week, first of

all, start, it's your band, Barry, my morning jacket. They're one big holiday. They've been

doing that in, in Mexico, maybe 10 years. I did a quick Google search last night to try to find a

list of how, and I couldn't find it, but I know just from memory, it's been at least a half decade

to a full decade. And they're going to Miramar, Florida, which for those that don't know is right

around. It's a nicer area of the three I'm about to mention, but Destin and Panama city, Florida.

And the, and the first reaction was, excuse me, my morning jacket, what are you doing?

You're going to Florida after these years of all-inclusive exotic, you know, at the foot of the

Cheeching, it's a, you know, Mayan ruins. What are you doing? And so I wonder, you know, I don't

have any strong thoughts on it, but their fans certainly do.

Well, you know, we had Jeff Cuellar, you remember Jeff, Jeff was, he was kind of the Corey

Smith, Brad Parker, Bonnarooo.

He was the one I remember mostly from my memory of explaining to us in front of the squarch.

Yes.

So he was the guy that here's the squarch guys. He's the guy that had to polish that.

Like you're the one that's got to go tell them about this. But anyway,

And he was great at it. Yeah. Yeah. But he, he left, he was with AC and then I guess he was

with live nation for a little bit, right after the transition. And then he left and now he does these

cruises. And so he, and we had him on the show and he talked about the experience, you know,

you get to hang out with typically it's multiple bands.

Yeah. Most of these are like literally middle, many festivals, like

many festivals and it's contained. And so you get not only the show, but you can literally,

you know, hang out theoretically.

You can hang out with the band half the time. Yeah.

Exactly. And so to me, to me, that either is going to be great or awkward as hell.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's a risky business idea, but it's all been going for so long. Now it's

working for a lot of these and you, you know, you pull I have good friends of mine that are

here locally, the Hemp House owners that do a bunch of media stuff here in town. They go to the

panic one every year. Um, because they're in their forties now and it's like, we weed out all the

riff raff. Right. You know, all the idiots that just are trying to get a free ticket and a free

bag of weed can't, can't afford to hang out. And they, and these guys are those people. They're

just older and don't want to do. And so that that's kind of what this is. That's right. And that,

I don't think that in somebody could argue that could ruin the experience. I don't think so. I

think they can only make it better, but, uh, quickly here, a couple that were announced this

week, Isbell, Jason Isbell is doing this in Mexico city, uh, called super Ocho, which I think that's

a huge risk. I don't know what, you know, how many people, these are some high ticket prices

for this and, uh, dead ahead, which has been going for the last few years in Riviera, Cancun

in January that was announced by Bob Weir or from Bob Weir's official page, Bob Weir from the Grateful

Dead. So, uh, there won't be a dead band, dead in company there probably, but all the offshoots and

that kind of thing, what they've done the last few years. So those are coming up at the beginning of

the, of next year. And I guess part of the reason for mentioning it was they were just announced.

And the other is, do you guys find this is something that you would have interest in doing

even at like a discount price or something or some kind of ideal situation? Yeah. You know, it's,

it's an extension of, if you remember when Moon River came to town and again, Jeff Cuellar was on

our show and it was the boutique experience. It's that next level of people want not just to see the

band, they want what they consider a unique experience. And that's the way he described it.

And it made perfect sense. They want to feel like, um, I went to Mexico city, which would be a unique

experience. Yeah. A little bit more than Miramar beach, Florida. Yeah. Right. Or, or I stood in

front of a stage, it, you know, XYZ and watched a band that I like. I got also the camp, the, uh,

the tourist part of it. Yeah. And then you add in, I got to, you know, have a, you know,

go through the buffet line with Bob Weir or whatever, which is a very realistic possibility

of, of those kinds of, all those are realistic things. But yeah, I, I get that. And I do too,

the difference though, here on a couple of these is they're not all inclusive and they're not the

same. And they're taking major, I, what I believe are, are, are budget cuts on these like this

Miramar one in Florida. This is, this is a ticketed event. I can buy a ticket, drive to Florida,

go to the show the same way the guy or gal who's staying at this resort is going to the show.

So it's a little bit different. This, uh, this one in Mexico city with Jason Isbell is also not

all inclusive. It includes a lot, but it's not all inclusive. I started doing some math quickly

in my head. The average person that's going to cost seven, $8,000 minimum to get there and back

for four days for Isbell for four days. Okay. I love Isbell. Don't come at me. Love, love, love him.

And then the debt ahead, if you're dead right now, you can sell anything. You can sell a pile of

rocks and say, grateful debt written in Sharpie on them right now. So the debt will be fine.

I mean, I, to your question, I guess it depends on the person. I'm, I'm not that, I'm not that guy

that wants to necessarily sit at a table with an artist that I enjoy. Um, well, you'd also have to

be a pretty big super fan. Um, even though there's other artists, this is still revolved around the

host artists. So you'd have to be a pretty big fan, which I, I know you're the my morning jacket guy

of the, uh, of the show. Right. But I mean, I, I liked the band and I want to see it, but I don't,

I'm not that type that would pay a lot of money so that I could, you know, stand at a buffet line,

stand at a buffet line with Jim J. Um, that's just not me, you know, um, on one hand, but on the

other, I haven't done it. So I shouldn't, I can't say I wouldn't enjoy it. I mean, if,

if he's hanging out, having a good time, then that would be awesome. Can't, can't hurt the experience.

That's for sure. Correct. And that would be, that would be, well, this is kind of my response in

that way you put it would be like why I've never been to hangout at golf shores is because I,

I understand at least I don't necessarily love it, but I like it enough going to the beach,

going to a condo, going with friends, spending the week at the beach. And then I understand going to

music and concerts and all those things, the blending of the two, I have always have trouble

with thinking, boy, that sounds like a really good idea. And the hangout has been around for

going on a decade and a half. I remember 2011 had, that hangout had Foo Fighters back when I was

still very much into them. And, uh, oh my God, Paul Simon, you want to talk about a name that gets

people talking Paul Simon. And those are just the two, I was like, if this, if I don't go this year,

I'll never go. And so I've never been to that because of that reason. I think that there's a

lot of that for me is do I really need an all, if I want all all inclusive to go hang out with my

buddies at a, at an exotic beach, that's good enough. It's kind of good enough. I'm going to,

I'm going to mix worlds here, but to me, I keep thinking about like, uh, travel sports with my

kids. We always signed up for these baseball or soccer tournaments in Disney or Louisville,

and they always sold it as you can, you know, do all this other stuff you're going to do. And no,

we go to Applebee's or Chili's and we play ball because there's not time to do the other stuff.

You know, it's fun to talk about all these cool things you can do. Yeah. That's you're at the

ball field or you're at the hotel or you're at one of those chain restaurants or taking a damn nap

or taking a nap. Yeah. Or washing uniform or whatever, but that's not the disparage. I'd

like to try one. Um, it would have to be the right one. Yeah. Somebody comps that I'm in there all

day long. Um, but, uh, yeah, those are all in the next year and there'll be more of those, but

that's all that's new going on out there right now. Let me, let me go back. I mean, I can see

if I was into all five of the bands or whatever, however many are on one of these cruises,

it would be pretty cool. You know, you get to see shows that no one else is going to see. I hope,

I hope they're doing. I think they usually live up. I've very rarely read anybody talking about how

boy, that sucked. Maybe boy, that was expensive. Um, but usually it was, boy, this was pretty,

pretty unique. Well, and you keep to, for you and me, the cost is an issue, but there are a lot of

people as we've discovered that have money and that's what they want to do. So I, I, I don't want,

I think we're making it sound like a negative thing and I don't mean it to be, it's just not,

it's just not my universe right now. Speaking of people who have means and money real quick, uh,

the Burning Man is, uh, Fest is going on, I guess as we speak or within the next few days or in this

early, late part of August anyway. And, uh, Daniel and Sharla are headed there as we speak,

they're traveling. I saw that. That is a hell of a track. Holy geez. All the way to Nevada.

I don't, didn't know much about Burning Man. Still don't really, but you want to talk about

a festival that you got to have some means and, and, and, and it's, it's worded that way. Like

that's how it reads. Bring you what you, if you don't have, you don't have any money, you can't

come here. And they're running into a, a, that as a ticket sales problem for the first time in this,

in the festivals history word, it may be over. And I, I don't, it's hard to read the headlines

and figure out whether it's run its course or that rain from last year really hurt it or both.

It feels like to me both. Yeah. Probably a little both. I mean, I know, you know, out west out there

getting close to the coast, if it rains, you know, watch out like our, our month is ruined,

but really I find it would find it hard that just that would be enough to, to negatively affect a,

a festival like that. If, if it weren't also some other factors like cost and just after a while,

things aren't what they used to be. I still don't barely understand what the thing is. I hate to be

that ignorant dummy on a show that's supposed to know about all these things. Certainly looks neat.

Well, I don't think you would show up in that little mini tent.

Out in the desert without a tree. No, I don't think so. Have a good time.

A little crappy hikers. No, it looks, I mean, it's visually like aesthetically it's,

it's amazing. I've always known that, but I didn't, I still don't really know what the day looks like

there. You know, like what, what is morning, afternoon, night, you know, all that stuff. But

yeah, no, I, I've, I listened to Daniel and Charlotte. They've been before. And so I,

I got, yeah, they've been loved it. Okay. You know, it has, it has this perception of being

a music festival, but that's not what it is. As I say, it doesn't feel like gathering of art minded,

you know, people who just want to hang out and they create all these things and Daniel and Charlotte,

if you're listening, I need you to just, just be quiet for just a second. I'm not, I'm not coming

at you guys. Does this not, does that not sound like the most pretentious thing in the history

of the world? A bunch of arts people just sit around burning stuff and that's it. Yeah. I'm

sorry. That's all. That's it. I'm not trying to be a jerk about it. I love y'all. Clearly y'all love

it. If you went back again, it's a wild, it's a wild idea. And then I was talking to somebody who

went to this fear after me actually, who's a long time to a Bonnarooo goer and we got together to

swap notes about this fear. And she does, there's these little offshoots of burning, burning man

all over the country in Florida, in Texas, in like this, these little, I was just like, really? How

did I not know anything about this? So people love it. I mean, there's no doubt people love it.

I don't know. All right. What else? I guess for the most part, that's it. I'm part of the

reason on Labor Day we won't be around is I'll be with our buddy Brad. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In New

York for, for Pearl Jam, which is a, a dream show. I should be, so as a time of this download time,

it'll be the, about a week from right now that the show is. And I should be more excited about this.

I should. You had a good summer, man. Oh my God. It's been incredible. You had a good summer. It's

been so much fun. And it's almost like, wow, I'll go see Pearl Jam. Oh yeah.

Yeah. That album came out in April. I'm tired of it.

But they just started their leg three of a, of the tour. And as, as always, their tours are very

sporadic or they're just, they're, they're all over the place. They're not like on a normal,

they don't use lanes like Bonnarooo organizers do. One day they're in Philadelphia, the next

they're in Seattle. And that's what it makes it difficult to find them. So looking forward to that.

And then, I don't know after that, you know, when you get back, we'll talk about that on the show.

And then, like I said, we'll be looking forward to South star in Huntsville. That's going to be,

Russ, you've got a wedding to go to and, and won't make it, but Bryan and I are going and it's going

to be a reunion. It sounds like a Bonnarooo people. And, oh, I'm getting more excited. Honestly,

I'm almost a little more excited about that weekend than being in New York. That's ridiculous.

I'll, I'll that my, that'll all change, but, um, Huntsville, Alabama versus New York city.

Yeah. No, how stupid do I sound right now? But I think that weekends I've decided I'm going to do

both days, at least, at least portions of a Sunday. I don't know that I'll be there all night, but, um,

that's going to be a big weekend. So we'll, we'll get to that more sooner, soon enough, but

I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. That's what's given me the most FOMO is, uh, not only is it a,

a new festival, but it sounds like a Bonnarooo reunion. I mean, you guys are going, obviously

Daniel, Daniel and Charlotte and everybody in Huntsville is going to be there. Evan Bonnarooo

is going, uh, Skyler, uh, I think Chloe is coming from Iowa. Oh yeah. I just hope the,

a huge gathering of, I hope the tickets get to see our friend Sue Marcus. She's going to hook

us up again. Shout out to Sue. Um, she's going to line up some interviews with us, which we love

doing. So, yeah, I just, I hope the tickets sell well and I hope it's a good showing. It feels like

it should be. Um, and I guess a little bit for me, this is kind of a, my moon river here locally

replacement. A hundred percent. Because for six years, we got used to hitting up one last quick

weekend before we shut it down for the winter. And, uh, this is for me, this is kind of taken as

a place. Very comfortable, fun, um, easy to get to easy to navigate, uh, good lineup, uh, good people

get to see. Yeah. Um, I'm looking forward to it. I'm like you, Bryan. I'm more closer it gets,

the more excited I am. So, all right guys, uh, well, we will see you in a couple of weeks. Uh,

Russ, you got camping coming up? I know you guys. Hey Russ, you'll find something.

I'll find something to do. Yeah. And Bryan, enjoy, uh, tell Eddie and the guys, Goober says,

Hey, tell Brad, Hey, have a good time. It's going to be, it's going to be a big time. I'm looking

forward to it a lot. All right. See you guys. See you guys.