It's Bonnaroo Day...or at least, it should be. We reflect on what would have been our arrival on The Farm today, and also speculate about Bonnaroo's apparent silence on social media lately. What could it mean? Brad and Barry take a look at some other festival cancellations and how they could affect a September Bonnaroo. Stay positive and remember that we will be reunited back in Manchester soon.
Topic: Bonnaroo
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Hey guys, it's Barry. It is June 11th and sadly I'm recording this in my kitchen.
I'm sad because it's June 11th and right now it's 10 till 2, so typically in about 10 minutes
I would be actually on the farm getting ready to do the media tour of the happiest place on earth.
Wait, isn't that something else?
Yeah, typically I would be in Manchester on the farm with several of the Camp Nut Butter folks.
But as you know, we're not there and so we did this podcast today kind of talking about the fact that we're not there.
We hope you enjoy it. I hope you enjoyed it.
But as always and you know, if that's the unfortunate thing that I'm here in my kitchen, the fortunate thing is that we have 48 of you people, Patreons.
Amazing, amazing that you guys have stuck with us.
Amazing that you signed on. I don't need to tell you what this week means.
That's why we're here, right? Bonnaroo, we love it, all of us.
So wanted to say thank you as we want to do every time we do an episode by reading out the names.
And if you guys, if I just have your first name or initials, that's the way it came.
If you want to share your full name, please do.
We love to shout out and talk to you guys and I just, we can't thank you enough.
So we really do appreciate it. So here we go.
Thanks to Aaron Carlson, Bill, David Grimes, Frank Swanson, Liesl Condor, Phil Hanley, Timothy Proctor, Chloe Hannon, Dan Sweeney, Dustin Gehrig, Haley, Mary T, Melody and Jesse Feldman.
Hope you guys are doing well. Selling lots of records.
Mitchell Stafford, Musical Antlers, one of my favorite names. Parker Reed.
Hey Parker, good talking to you.
Skyler, Tori, Chelsea Davis, Evan Brown, Gordon Silver, Jason Hazelbaker, Joshua Herndon, Lauren Edholm, Linda Doles, Lucy Young, Nick Yeatman, Ross McNamara, Ryan Mathewson, Sean McCarthy, Tyrone Basket, William Richards, Clay Wilhoit, Andrew McBride, Catherine Riccio, David Solano, Jacob Marty, Justin Nigro, Meredith Ritman, Brooke Tussie, Daniel and Sharla Horton.
Guys got a big weekend plan down there at the Roobus. Love those guys.
Then David Henson. I'm going to do that every week. I'm sure.
And then we have Phil Nye, Sean McCain and some new Patreons, Benjamin Wells, Karen Sheets, Stephanie Romero and DK.
As I said, thank you guys so much. Wish we were all down there high fiving and just having a great time, but it'll happen soon enough and we'll be back together.
But thank you for your support. Thanks for listening to the What Podcast on behalf of Taco and Brad and myself.
So have a great weekend. We'll have another episode this weekend featuring Amy Sunshine and a project that she was involved with.
So we've got some cool stuff planned and can't wait to, I don't know, get back to normal if such a thing can even happen.
Thanks guys. Strange, strange, strange times indeed.
A lot to get to, a lot to talk about right off the top.
This is a time for guys like these three white guys to shut up and listen and to hear what's on the mind of so many and that are angry, broken, fighting back and want some sort of action.
And I think it's time right now for especially big brands with big voices to speak up and not be silent because silence is deadly right now.
Barry Courter, Brad Steiner on the What Podcast with Lord Taco alongside.
This is about the time that we will be driving to Manchester and setting up camp.
So whatcha doing? When you say about the time, I mean you're like within two minutes of about the time. So it's right on it.
Noon Eastern is about when we would be caravanning up I-24 towards Manchester or the two o'clock
press conference up there.
So this is the thing that bums me out is, you know, Bonnaroo is great and I love it
and the weekend is terrific, but this is my favorite day of Bonnaroo.
It is the day that we leave and the drive is literally the best hour and a half of my
year is getting to the top of Mont Eagle and then driving down the back roads and seeing
sort of, you know, the view on the top of Mont Eagle as you come down into, you know,
the valley there, which you roll up into Manchester and that, for some reason, that's when my
life let's go.
Right.
That's when worries, stress, everything disappear.
It's Alice in Wonderland going from black and white to color.
It's the weirdest.
You might be confused.
What did I say?
Alice?
Oh my gosh.
Boy.
Wizard of Oz.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Yeah.
It is the most extraordinary.
Yeah, because there's that hurry and especially we've talked about Bryan Stones in our group.
Brian's worse than me.
I'm not relaxed until we're parked, you know, because I always am anticipating.
Yeah, I'm always anticipating some hassle and we've never had.
I mean, if we do, it gets fixed in two minutes.
It's never a big deal, but it's just my nature.
But it's not something we've ever really had to worry about.
You just worry about it because you feel guilty about what you're doing.
Well, that and it's just my nature that some paperwork didn't get handled, you know, whatever.
But that drive when you when we top the mountain and then head down that windy road and suddenly
you're in all that beautiful farmland in middle Tennessee, you can pick up the Bonnaroo radio
station if you don't have satellite.
You start here.
It's just you're there.
You roll the windows down and you can feel it in the air.
And we've talked about this.
It might have been one of the very first shows we ever did.
What is that moment where you finally let go?
Where is the where is that magical moment when you get to Bonnaroo where you know that
you're there and you feel it and it's in your like it makes your skin sort of like perk
up and you get the chills.
And I get it every time we hit the top of Montaigle every year.
It never fails.
You know, and it's it's more than just that, Brad, because it's what we talk about.
And to me, it's again the difference between this type of festival and some others.
Once for me, once we're parked in our campground, wherever it's going to be, there's nowhere
else to go.
You know, I'm there until we leave on Monday.
I know you hate that.
It's my favorite very corner is whenever we talk about Bonnaroo, it's always ends up with
you're there.
You're there.
You have nowhere else to be.
But for me, I mean, there's work to be done.
There's tents to put up, whatever.
But it's just it's being the sunlight really is the biggest sort of stress is once you
get parked is being the sunlight to put up camp in the way that you feel comfortable
and then you just get attacked by a skunk.
You know, that's the fun part.
So before we get into, you know, a fun Bonnaroo weekend this weekend, we start off the show
with Lisell Johnson because I'm black now because, you know, there's there's a lot of
shit going on.
And Bonnaroo has been eerily silent.
Yep.
They're not alone.
If everyone has really.
There's a story in today's was an NPR about independent venues and the plight they're
looking at.
I understand.
I know what you're I know you're going.
I understand the dollars and cents of it.
But this is like I've been saying a moment that the brands that matter, the voices that
matter need to not be silent.
You know, if there's one thing that I count on Bonnaroo to be and what I count on them
to be are there are there values?
Are there brand values?
And boy, you know, it's not as if I really need them to speak up and say something, but
I think that they're perfect for the moment, especially being Bonnaroo weekend.
This would be a really good time.
Just given some free PR, not that they need it, but a little free PR.
This would be a really, really good time to hear from an entity that preaches positivity
inclusiveness at all.
You know, this is the moment.
And I'm surprised of all of the major festivals, at least Bonnaroo has said nothing because
they're the ones that I sort of anticipated leading.
Who has said anything?
Who has said anything other than Coachella is now trying to distance themselves from
their wealthy owner.
That old story that came out.
Tell me about that.
I don't think I've heard that.
You haven't seen that?
Yeah.
So there's the last two days.
I guess he's getting all kinds of flack for basically saying, who is it you think owns
all these big festivals?
It's wealthy billionaire Republicans.
They're all Trump supporters, but don't mix the Coachella brand with his politics.
So they're trying to distance themselves from that, trying to argue people.
Yeah, even though you're supporting him, you're still supporting, you know, whatever the Coachella
brand lifestyle is.
Point in bringing that up particularly is, and this is just me, this is me, but just
like you, I mean, this is what we have talked about now for three months because we're so
invested in this festival and live music in particular, and because we know some of the
people involved, they're just not talking, Brad.
And it's partly, I think I can say this without giving anything away, but C3 basically, I
mean, Live Nation rather, is to don't talk.
Everything's got to go through them.
So we're not going to hear anything out of Knoxville.
I understand.
I see what you're saying.
Don't talk about the business.
Anything.
Makes sense.
Anything.
And my point is, I don't know if I have, I don't have a point with any proof behind it.
My gut feeling is, is because this whole thing is so fluid that things change and they're
changing in major ways.
I mean, who saw the riots, the marches coming, you know?
You saw the thing with Coachella that I just talked about coming.
So I mean, I think your point about certain segments of the community right now just need
to be quiet and listen.
Maybe that's giving them too much defense.
I don't know.
It does feel like there should be something.
I don't disagree with that.
I see what you're saying.
And I'm not going to push it too hard on it because I do understand that I don't necessarily,
and I've been at odds with some of my close friends and family about this.
I don't necessarily need to know what Hershey's feels about this.
I don't really need to know what Miller Coors thinks about the movement.
But this is a layup for Bonnaroo.
This is in their wheelhouse.
This is everything that they preach and what their brand values are.
This is everything they espouse.
This is everything we celebrate when we are at the farm when we get there about loving
each other, about protecting each other, about equality across the board.
They're so good at it.
And to see a brand that is such an easy layup, something doesn't feel right about it.
And something feels as though it's almost like the power is being taken out of their
hands.
Didn't I just say that?
I know.
But I think that's what I just said.
I know.
I know.
But I'm not saying.
I know that.
But it's got to be said.
Like at some point, you know, even if they push out an email with a peace sign, you know,
I mean, yeah, I get what you're saying.
It feels like we need to hear something.
We need to see something.
OK.
And I'll go one step further.
Not only is the silence strange, I'm not going to get too bent out of shape about their silence,
but I am stunned that there is nothing planned for this weekend just for Bonnaroo in general.
We are, you know, 24 hours away as we sit here right now from the first act hitting
the stage on Thursday.
Just an online something, anything, anything.
We talked about Jazz Fest in place when Jazz Fest got canceled.
Weekend of Jazz Fest.
You know, Lollapalooza is going to do since they've been canceled, they're going to be
doing a live stream of all the Lollapalooza.
Hangout tried to do something similar.
I am stunned.
Now, by the way, back to to what we were just talking about, Bonnaroo did say something.
They participated in the blackout movement on the Tuesday where some of the industry
were blacking out their social media.
But other than that, we haven't heard a peep from Bonnaroo since the first of May.
Now that coupled with what I'm trying to get at, we are we are on Bonnaroo week and I haven't
seen a retrospective.
I haven't seen a live point to a live show.
I haven't seen the highlights of of the the great black performers that have graced Great
Stage Park.
I haven't seen a schedule of what they could put together for the weekend.
Nothing.
I am really surprised.
I am sort of actually I'm not surprised.
I'm stunned.
I'm stunned that this Bonnaroo week is coming by and the organization is operating as if
it didn't exist.
Where do you lay the blame?
I don't.
I can't.
How am I supposed to lay blame with?
I don't I don't know.
I have no idea.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It makes no sense, though.
It makes no sense at all.
Yeah, I can't disagree.
The only thing I can fall back on and it's just a total me piecing together bits of string
here and there is nobody knows what going forward looks like.
I get that.
But how hard would it be to do an online stream of past Bonnaroo performances?
A lot of the folks have been furloughed.
I don't know who all is working.
I know of a couple of people that are not there anymore.
Look, I'm not I'm not trying to be a dick.
I'm not.
But it's a fair question.
But it's not like they didn't know the date was coming.
Yeah.
It's not like they haven't looked at a calendar.
And it's not like they don't have back videos and music and all kinds of that.
So no, they have their own.
They have their own radio station that you can stream online.
I mean, worst case scenario, you can do an online stream.
I something about this is very, very strange.
Now the only reason I bring these two things up is because they are so similar to each
other.
Right.
Yeah, I can probably take, you know, their silence in in the ways of the world right
now and what's happening around us.
Maybe I can take that.
I know a lot of people who couldn't, but if I'm giving them for the doubt, but couple
that with also the silence for the for moderate week, something's weird.
Yeah, something's something's weird.
Something is going on.
And I don't quite know what it is.
But I sure as I sure as hell want to like start waving the flag in the sign to say,
am I the only one that notices this?
Yeah.
Our our friends, RU bus are planning an event this weekend, TACO.
You probably look at.
And Brad, I know you do.
You guys look at it a lot more than I do.
Is there a lot of chatter on there or just the occasional?
Hey, this is this would be the weekend type of thing.
You're going to have to I'm going to have to punt the taco on this one because I haven't
looked in a long time.
Daniel actually just made a comment on our video.
He said, even though the people that own the trademark are quiet, the community is as loud
as ever.
I mean, you know, RU bus has been doing like a virtual Bonnaroo thing this week.
You know, there's something this weekend that they're planning.
I don't know if we're supposed to talk about that or not, but good luck.
Good luck finding if they don't want you to find it.
Yeah.
You know, we follow a lot of Bonnaroo fans and they are definitely not silent.
You know, today there's all kinds of pictures in the feed of, oh, this time last year I
was setting up camp this time last year I was hitting the road and it's I have seen
those.
Yeah.
See, you see a lot of that.
So there's definitely people that want to talk about Bonnaroo, even if it's not happening.
They still want to kind of relive it.
I mean, Daniel and Sharla Rubez are to Brad's point, I mean, year round, those those guys
are radiating positivity all the time, which is terrific.
And I think really sort of illustrates what you're talking about, Brad.
This is not a normal brand.
That's your point.
It's not Hershey's chocolate.
It's not a rental car place.
You know, this is kind of what they what they are about.
So yeah, I get what you're saying.
And I don't mean I'm not trying to take a contrarian view just to take a contrarian
view.
I don't know the answer.
It is it is weird.
You would you would think something like that.
I mean, your festival down there, our festival here, we've had several conversations and
it's in part because I hound them about it, but also in part because they're just decisions
that had to be made and made public.
So I don't have a good answer.
Well, I don't have an answer.
I don't either.
And I'm not looking for one.
I'm really not.
But I do think it is something that needs to be brought up.
And you know, I'm not I'm not trying to, you know, pat our, you know, pat our backs and
say that we're something, you know, great and grand.
But if if the Bonnaroo folk are listening, you know, I'm glad that they did what they
did about the refund policy.
That is a they should, you know, be celebrated for that because, you know, they did the right
thing.
Doesn't matter if it was, you know, late or whatever.
They came around and did the right thing.
This one, you know, if if we have a voice, we should use it.
And it is to ask a question why exactly.
I mean, not getting anything, which again, it sounds a little presumptuous that we're
owed something.
But you know, it's a testament to a brand that we love so much that we really wish would
interact with us.
It's sort of like calling dad and dad not returning our calls for a while.
Is it me?
Is that mad at me?
I sure would.
I sure would love to go play ball with them.
I love to go play catch.
The last update on the Bonnaroo dot com website was April 28th.
That's when they updated about the refund.
Well, OK, so let's I've said I've said what I need to say in emergency podcast mode.
I said what I need to say.
That's fine.
So let's move on to what we know, which is Coachella officially canceled.
Lollapalooza officially canceled.
Here's here's what I know.
The headliners for Lollapalooza were Foo Fighters, Lizzo and Kendrick.
Of course, I mean, it's a good lineup.
It's a pop lineup.
It's you know what you see when you go to Lollapalooza.
They tried every look.
I tweeted this last night.
There was no chance that it was happening.
None.
And I got nobody to tell me otherwise.
But they did try very hard to figure out and play the thought exercise as to what could
happen, what they could make work.
And nothing came of it.
The mayor was on board.
The festival wanted it to happen.
Live Nation wanted to happen.
All the people that needed it to happen, they wanted they were going to make it work, but
just never even got off the ground.
So you know, that's something that we said back in March, the first of March, and never
really changed up until yesterday.
And they made the right call.
But what does it mean for Bonnaroo?
Look, I'm gonna I'm gonna punt, but I'm gonna tell you my very, very, very, very informed
opinion.
Bonnaroo is not happening.
And it sucks to say.
But if I had to start talking out of both sides of my mouth as to why exactly they're
probably not doing something this weekend, it's probably because they know they're not
going to have a festival at all.
And they don't want to, you know, poke the fire a little bit.
It could be.
It could also be, again, they're different animals.
But our Riverbend Festival here announced they were canceling last week.
They were looking for a fall date, had a fall date actually had 95% of the acts they had
everybody but three acts agreed to the new date.
But they basically determined that if they needed 40,000 tickets to make money, they
weren't going to get anywhere close to that.
I think that's what all of these other festivals are looking at.
In addition to the things we've talked about, you know, Moon River is two weeks before Bonnaroo
in September here.
Their ticket sales, they didn't sell out as they have in the past.
But that's even though it's a much smaller Bonnaroo had sold out 80,000 tickets, Moon
River is 11,000.
Sixty percent of the people come from out of town.
So now you're talking about airplanes, hotels and all that other stuff.
So it's a different animal than like what Riverbend is where you get in your car, you
drive 20 minutes.
As an aside, when did Moon River go on sale?
Do you remember?
January, February, February, Valentine's Day weekend.
Is that it?
Yeah, it was February 14th.
So point being, I guess, is they're all asking, as we've talked about over and over and over,
what does the model look like?
Brad, when you said a couple of weeks ago on this podcast asking about could I envision
myself on a Saturday afternoon shoulder to shoulder with, pick a number, 40,000, 60,000,
80,000 people, you know, after having camped for four days and being tired and malnourished
and worn down.
And that was that image alone is strong enough that I think people are questioning.
But I said, then you throw in the porta potties and the FEMA showers.
So I had a conversation with one of our camp guys, Nicky T. And I told him about a dream
that I had the other night.
And he called me and he's like, man, I just need to get this off my chest.
My body is...
Say it the way he says it.
Hey, man.
That's better.
I see you called, Taya.
My body is reacting to Bonnaroo Week.
So he basically tried to explain to me how even though he's not going to Bonnaroo, his
body still feels like he is.
And how, you know, all of the endorphins are moving for some odd reason, I guess, because,
you know, after year after year of doing this, it's just trained to do it.
But he said something I was telling him about a dream that I had the night before is so
odd that he called to talk about Bonnaroo because I had this dream where it was a really
hot Saturday.
We are walking from, you know, this to which and a line of shirtless men were walking towards
us.
Right.
And taco, don't get too crazy.
The dream is not about shirtless men.
So it's that kind of dream.
Yeah.
So we're walking towards and they're shoulder to shoulder.
And it's obvious that they're going to have to move out of the way.
Well, we wedge ourselves in between and walk through this band of shirtless, sweaty men.
And then we all look at each other covered in their own sweat, knowing that we just got
the COVID.
Like I, I woke up and saying to myself, that's not a dream.
That would have happened.
And the moment that I felt that that morning, I said, I don't know if I could do this.
I don't know if I could even go if it was happening this weekend.
There's no possible way.
I feel comfortable enough to share somebody else's sweat.
I can tell you that I did, I did a story for the paper this past Sunday following River
Bend's announcement that they were canceling because they're going to shift their energies
to a summer festival, a six night riverfront nights.
Brad, you're familiar with it.
It's Saturday night down on the river.
1500 people, anywhere from, you know, a thousand to 2500, depending on the act.
The, they're going to invite nonprofits, food trucks, all these other people to hope, hopefully
to make it in their mind, a community event, bring everybody back out.
The reason I'm mentioning that is I know from talking to people that, I mean, Birmingham
is looking, Atlanta is looking, Nashville, Knoxville, all the venue types, the festival
types.
It's really the first one out of the, out of the gate and they all want to see, obviously
how it works.
Do people show up?
Can they make any money on it?
Will people get sick?
Will the mayor even let it happen?
There's no guarantee that it's July 11th and the mayor has made it very clear here that
he can.
The first one's going to be July 11th?
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
While Chattanooga becomes one of the hotbeds of the COVID and Tennessee's numbers just
keep going up and up and up.
They're planning on doing an outdoor event for 2000, almost 2000 people in a month.
They're going to do six a week, one a Saturday for six weeks.
So yes.
And your face, I honestly, your face, I think somewhat explains.
Thanks.
I'm glad, I'm so glad to see it.
I think is one is part of that discussion.
My face is part of the discussion.
No, it doesn't explain why, you know, Bonnaroo has not said anything this weekend, but I
think it is, it is why it's so complicated.
I think nobody wants to move forward and then have to back up.
Nobody wants to.
That's right.
You know what I mean?
And so to be honest, the friends of the festival folks, the Riverbend folks, they just have
reached a point where they feel like they have to do something.
This is what they have.
Now, is it right?
Will it work?
It's a bold step.
Well, here's something interesting to piggyback on what you're saying.
And maybe this is a little bit more news that, you know, I didn't know that I was going to
share, but there is a major southeastern city that is being as preparing for fourth quarter
events in the outdoors for something up to 10 to 15,000 people.
And the city is preparing for two to three of them in the fourth quarter.
Now, I don't know if it's going to happen, but it's a live nation initiative.
And you know, whether or not they're doing it in other cities, I don't know.
But I do know of this specific city and I do know it's going to be outdoors.
And I know that it's not going to be in a theater and it's going to be somewhere between
10, 15,000 people.
And they do have, you know, some major artists ready to ready to go.
No, no.
Yeah.
Now, whether or not that works, I just don't know.
I don't know if it if I'll say I'll say it this way.
New Orleans, at least, is going in the right direction.
We opened phase two as of yesterday, but we're doing it while the numbers are going down
and down and down.
I think that our last number was only like 100 people.
New cases as of yesterday or the day before.
So the numbers are going in the right direction and the city in question, the numbers are
going in the right direction.
But I don't nobody feels confident in it, but it is something they're at least looking
at.
And I'm telling you, I worry that the they're going to force feed something for the sake
of making some sort of money by the end of the year.
And somebody can argue if that's responsible or not, and maybe come September, October,
November.
But it does feel a little forced.
It does feel a little forced.
Oh, it feels a lot forced.
It feels there's several factors that it feels like to me.
One is just because people want it to be over.
They think it's over.
You know, data, you know, be damned, whatever it's I've suffered enough.
I want it to be over, therefore it's over.
There's definitely some element of that.
Hey, I got my haircut.
I mean, I can't I can't say that I'm immune to it.
Me too.
I went to lunch.
There is there's another element that we just have to do something.
We a lot of businesses and organizations are just watching their lives go away and sitting
doing nothing is unacceptable.
Right.
And and believe me, as a as a guy that sort of owns a business, seeing the quarantine
thing start to rebound and getting some good days in a week under our belt and then all
of a sudden, you know, mass hysteria and the country on fire, you know, it's one hit after
another after another.
And priorities right now are not necessarily opening a business and making sure that, you
know, money's rolling in.
That's just not the priority.
The priority right now is equality and justice.
So you know, that's just another part of the, you know, let's kick in the can down the road
to see exactly when is the appropriate time.
But again, you know, you get to you get to September and we are not going to be at a
zero number.
This is not going to ever go away.
It's not going to be just magically not around.
We're going to have to figure out a way to live with it and operate with it.
And you know, whether or not there is a a a shot you're going to take or not, you're
going to have to figure out a way to to live amongst it.
It's just going to be our intermediate future.
Again, I'm basing this on hair, strings, threads, whatever that I know.
Nothing specific, but I've had several restaurants, businesses, events, even somewhat what Riverbend
is doing.
Their approach at this point now is whatever we had before is over.
That whatever we do forward is a brand new thing.
I don't know.
Again, I don't know if a Bonnaroo can do that or wants to do that because of 20 years
of building this unbelievable brand.
But I know that a lot of them are in their boardrooms are saying, OK, great what we did
before, but everything has changed or exactly what it you know, let's talk about exactly
what has changed and how do we take that and move forward.
Again, things like, do you can you see a hundred thousand people in a field in Manchester anytime
soon, even next year?
Let me say something to you that astonished me yesterday.
The New Orleans Saints are trying to be at full capacity come September.
LSU football wants 100 percent capacity, and if the Saints can't get 100 percent capacity,
they want 75 percent.
That doesn't make any logical sense.
NASCAR is the same NASCAR's.
They're going to have what, five thousand people in Talladega, I think, coming up.
Right.
But look, I understand the argument against it and for it.
And I understand why people want it to happen.
And I know that we're going to have to live amongst it at some point.
To your point, we've got to figure out a new way to probably do all of this.
Do I foresee LSU football getting 100,000 people in a stadium?
You're damn right I do.
Yeah, there are certain things I could see happening.
But I don't know if anybody will let that happen.
Yeah, I'm conflicted.
I mean, I know what you're saying and I could see there are 100,000 people that think this
is all a hoax and they would show up and they love LSU football so much that they're going
to go.
But yeah, I just, how an organizer responsibly does that, makes it happen, lets it happen
is one thing.
And are there truly that many people that just don't think they're going to get sick?
Man, I mean, ask yourself.
If you're, make it Bonnaroo.
If you're Bonnaroo and it's in September, how many amongst you in the decision making
room says screw it, just do it?
What's the number?
What is my comfortable number?
Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, would I go if it's 10 or 20 or 30,000?
But come August, do you not foresee plenty of people in decision making rooms saying
I don't care anymore?
It doesn't matter.
We'll either get it, if you get it, you get it.
If you don't, you don't.
Yeah.
No, it's happening now.
I mean, it's happening now with the, I mean, we're seeing it on small scales with some
of the restaurants that are opening.
And I'm not, I don't own a restaurant, but I get how tough that would be to have been
told for three months, you can't open.
And then to be told you can have 20 people there and 60 show up.
It'd be tough to run 40 off, you know?
Right.
And oh, by the way, your PPP loans about done.
You don't have any more of the PPP loan money.
So good luck.
Good luck trying to end it all.
By the way, your business that's just now starting to get back on its feet can't really
operate the way that you want it to because the world is on fire.
Yeah, there's other things happening.
There's bigger, bigger, bigger stuff going on than, than, you know, whether or not I
can get a cheeseburger.
So that's why I, I still to defend a little bit.
We don't know what discussions actually are going on in the boardrooms.
And I mean, these guys running Bonnaroo and events like it got to be, you know, what's
next and, and just being so careful.
I mean, it would have been easy to want to come out two months ago and say, we're doing
it because Riverbend tried to do that and then found out there were certain realities
that they couldn't overcome.
I don't know, man.
And I'll come back to where I started.
These two specific instances, equality, justice, and then the second one being this is your
week.
This is your week on the calendar.
These are layups for this brand and why they aren't even on the court is bizarre to me.
Absolutely bizarre.
I can't disagree.
Anything else to, to get to before we go?
No, we've got, we've got this, we put this out there, just live, let it go.
And then we've got, I know.
Yeah, we're going to, we're going to put this online as soon as humanly possible.
I mean, it's, it's ready to go.
Yeah.
So we're going to open it up and then this weekend we're going to release, Emmy Sunshine,
right?
Yeah.
Tell me about Emmy Sunshine.
Yeah.
We've got our interview with, Emmy Sunshine, who I just find this fascinating.
Emmy is, I know she, she's either just turned 16 or about to turn 16, but she's been performing
for a long time.
She was asked by none other than Bootsy Collins to co-write a song for the moment.
Bradley Blackcloud.
I get that call all the time.
You know, Bootsy's calling me all the time.
Yeah.
But she was real cool and sat with us.
I know you came on a little late, but she did an interview with us last week to talk
about the song and Bela Flack is on it.
Victor Wooten is on it.
Cornell West, who is all over the media right now, was on it.
And is the lone man that still rocks the ascot.
I really appreciate the way that he still has the ascot going.
I wish that I could pull that off.
Yeah.
So the timing is great.
That's the reason she's not on the Bonnaroo lineup.
We just wanted to talk to her.
I did.
And I did, to be honest, at Bootsy.
All I needed to hear was Bootsy.
But this song is relevant.
It's an of the moment sort of song that they did and it releases Friday.
And so we should put it out there as another podcast as part of what the Roobust folks
have going.
Yeah.
Yeah, we'll get it out.
Maybe we'll on that episode, we'll talk a little camp stuff, you know, reminisce about
camp a little bit.
Because I have a feeling it's Wednesday now, but I feel like you give us 24, 48 hours,
we're going to all feel a little sad.
Yeah.
Especially when and here's the thing I didn't want to say, but did you see that weather
forecast?
Oh my God.
It's going to be nice.
Oh man.
If you were here right now, you'd be glad you're where you are.
Yeah.
Last I saw it was 80 degrees is the high this weekend.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then let me make you make it clear to those who don't know Tennessee in the summer.
June is not the summer anymore.
The summer is now September.
So if you are thinking that September is going to be some sort of like relief for the heat,
forget it is going to be hotter in September than it would be in June.
100%.
Well, and if you're also not familiar with Tennessee, go take a big heavy wool sweater,
get it wet, go stand in the shower for a while.
That's pretty much what it feels like right now.
All right.
There you go.
Anything else before we go?
Taco?
Nope.
I think that's it.
Radiate positivity.
All right, thanks for indulging me in this emergency episode.
There's a lot going on in the world and it's a hard place to navigate right now.
Seriously, if people would just listen and be empathetic, that would go a long way.
Try to see it from somebody else's point of view.
And by the way, I wish that next time we do this, you guys give me the memo on the tie
dye shirt policy.
I wouldn't change it.
What the hell?
What the heck, man?
It's Bonnaroo week.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
I'll see you guys next time.
Bye.
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
How y'all feeling?
Journey through the stories that define the artists playing Bonnaroo.
Who are they?
What are they?
What will you see?
The what?
Which bands?
This year?
That matter?
Yay!
With Brad Steiner and Barry Courter.
I'm Brad Steiner, signing off.
Bye-bye.
