This week, we get to catch up and find out what Brad, Barry, and Lord Taco have been up to for the past few months. Briston Maroney, one of our 2020 Bonnaroulette picks drops in for a chat. Find out why his parents didn't want him to go to Bonnaroo at first. Also, Lord Taco introduces the Roo Gaming Crew!
Topic: Bonnaroo
Guest: Briston Maroney
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 band? This year, That Matter, with Brad Steiner and Barry Courter. A podcast for Bonnaroovians by Bonnaroovians. Welcome to the What Podcast. That's Barry Courter. I'm Brad Steiner. And he's the Lord of the Taco, Mr. Taco slash comma Lord Esquire LLC. Gentlemen, how in the hell are you? Haven't seen you in forever. You guys look good. Everybody's got a new background these days. Everybody's doing new video stuff. Nice to be back talking with you again. I seriously have missed you guys. I didn't think I would. I don't know why. I don't like either of you. But I've missed you. Barry, you sit there. You sit there in bed, screaming my name. Why doesn't he call? Why doesn't he call? Yeah. I've done everything. I've done everything I know to do. What's been happening with you guys? Catch up. Give me the give me the lowdown. We haven't talked in forever. Taco, you go first. All right. We have started playing video games on Twitch. I have and then got together with Daniel. Where I thought this was going. By the way, I love the idea of talk was saying, well, I started playing video games. You've been playing video games your whole life. I found this new thing called video games. I mean, there's kind of been an election. There's kind of been this COVID thing. There's been some drama. I've been up to guys. I've discovered the moving picture box. It has pictures and they fly through the world wide web. Found a new beer called Paps Blue Ribbon. Really? But has it won an award? It needs to. OK, good. I'm going to need a minute. Well, I guess the point is, like, I know this is this is. And by the way, for you, Bonnaroovian, I know there's been a weird lapse in everything. We love that you've stuck in stuck with us and you continue to stick with us. And hopefully there's something to talk about about Bonnaroo very soon, because today we have a special guest. We have a kid that we tried to get on a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago that never actually came to fruition because, you know, of the Rona and a kid that we had on our list is playing. Think he's playing video games? You know, we're going to ask him. We're about to find out. Yeah, Bristan Moroni is going to be on the program this afternoon. So I'm really excited about this kid. He was one of the guys that we found in the Bonnaroo let. And then just he's stuck. Got a great voice and hopefully he'll play a song or two. Video games for Taco Barry Courter. For you. Sorry, I'm still other than, you know, you you dog him out for video game, but you've got the world's largest and only CD collection left. Man, look at the money. That's my my kids inheritance right there. They have no idea. Do that. I left you all of my CDs. I left all your money in CDs. Yeah, I got all the Justin Bieber and Aerosmith stuff back there. Those Aerosmith CDs are going to be worth tons. OK, Barry, what about what about you the last couple of months? What have you been doing? I hesitate now after, you know, the video game thing. But we've had we've had a major shift in our household. We've had my stepdaughter and her husband and three and a half year old. My granddaughter move in while their house is being built. So I don't think we're unusual, probably unusual in that most people aren't having a house built. So we're fortunate in that. And I don't make light of that at all because people are going through some horrible things. But you continue to be the most patient man I have ever known in my life. That's my only superpower, right? That and, you know, being able to drag something across a concrete floor and snag it on something. Those are my two super. You're talking about a body, aren't you? You're talking about a body. But yeah, no, they moved in this past week and it's been a lot of fun. Interesting. I can't I can't believe like, you know, when we say that Barry is sort of the dad of camp, it's because he literally does this every single day. He's the only person that could keep us all together and, you know, allow for us to survive for five, six days because you literally have to do it every day, every single day. You just move on. You just move on. You deal with it. You got room for me. I'm not coming, but you know, if you let me move in. Yeah, he's got a I know you're I know you're really, really good at identifying babies. I am. And I have one. So I need you to know. I think Taco will be the judge of that. I need I need to confirm that she is in fact a baby. We can. Yeah. So Barry's superpower is patience. Lord Taco's superpower is identifying babies. What's mine? Ooh, I'm so excited. What's it going to be? Gotta go. Talking about Brad, I'm going to go with it's really good. It's a really good topic. Nobody. Nobody is better at talking about Brad than you are. It's a great point. It's a great point. So have you spent any time? Let's put it this way. I get a better question. EBarry Courter you seem to drop a little bit of knowledge on me a couple of weeks ago that I fought back on. Have you gotten anywhere or found anything out about a lineup release date? I have heard rumors that they're going to announce it. Do I know anything more specifically than you? Because I know when I reached out to you, you reached out to your people. My guess is that the industry, let's just put it in the big umbrella, is going to proceed as if things are going to happen. When did I ask you that? Six weeks ago? That was before Thanksgiving. That was before the blow up. That was before the election or right around. So yeah, I don't know. That's a great question. Since then, our festival here in Chattanooga, it's not happening. Not only is it not happening, the people who run it basically have ended blown up. So I'm not here to rain on anybody's parade. I want it to happen so bad. We all do. I don't know if I told you, I ordered bandanas from Bonnaroo. They came yesterday. I know that's terrible. I ordered a t-shirt. Just disappears any time he tries to move. It's the strangest thing in the world. I know. But my point is, I love this festival. I want it to happen so bad. So to your question, I have no new news except to say nobody knows. If anybody is trying to tell you any differently, they don't know. Well, it's all going to depend on this vaccine. It's all going to come out. Whenever this whole vaccine thing figures itself out, I feel like I'm still trying to convince certain people that this is still a thing and still happening. We're all still trying to not have people die on a daily basis. So trying to even go to the next step as to what happens after, we still have people who don't wear a mask. So I don't know how to wrap my head around what the next step is when we're still eight months ago. I feel like we're still having the same arguments and conversations from eight months ago. So how do we even project what happens in the next six to eight months in front of us? But yeah, it feels like everything is dependent on the vaccine and its ability to get to the marketplace. But at the end of the day, I think that all of us feel really comfortable in saying that it's going to happen in September. If it happens, it's going to be September. Absolutely. Well, I think I feel like I'm absolutely confident it's now going to happen. Okay. Well, you have new news that I don't have. I don't know. It's not news. No, no, no. It's not news. I'm going with my gut on this one that you get to July 4th weekend and I think that things start looking a lot different for a lot of entities. Now I don't know if that means that any sort of like a lineup is given. I mean, I just cannot imagine somebody putting out a lineup before Christmas and getting any sort of traction. I just don't think that you can break through some of the noise that's out there. Now maybe that's a strategy. Maybe you put it out there because you think that it will get some attention. I don't think that it will. But whatever. What do I know? I think that's right. I think that's right. I think they're trying to figure out how to both keep the tickets that have been sold, sell tickets, and who can blame them? I mean, they're trying to stay alive. These are business people. They're trying to put food in people's mouths. That's the point. Like a baby bird? I think that's the point you and I have been trying to make this whole time. I don't think I've been making the point that they're literally trying to feed me. Not you. Oh, okay. But they're trying to feed that guy who drives the truck and puts the lights up. And that's the thing. It's not just the artist. And that's it's bizarre. Not bizarre. I don't know what the word is, Brad and Russ, but I mean, we started talking about this in March. And I mean, I reported it as if I was smart or if it was news that it's not just the singer that needs your money. It's the truck driver. It's the light guy. And the deeper we get into this, that's exactly what I keep talking about. I popped into Revivalist's space, their practice space last weekend. And I was saying, hey, by the way, you guys did great on the outdoor show that you did. I wonder how and I was poking around. I was like, I wonder how you did on that. Did you make any money? He's like, not a chance. We have a 19 person crew. That's the Revivalists. Yeah, God love them. They are wonderful men and as good of friends as I could have in the city when it comes to the industry. My God, if the Revivalists have 19 people. My friend, Nathan Bell, who I think is one of the great songwriters ever lived here in Chattanooga, he's become such years ago, became such a defender of Taylor Swift. He's like, she employs hundreds of people like her, don't like her, make fun of her music, whatever. But she is a business woman that employs hundreds of people. And for that alone, it just sort of turned my way of thinking. And that's what we're talking about. These festivals. I don't understand. All right, so we've got the restaurant industry, we've got the football, we've got sports, whatever. I mean, music has just, entertainment has just taken a beating throughout all of this. I mean, it's just gone. And this is what we love. This is why you and Taco and I are in and in Bristol here in a little bit. That's why we're here. We love this. You mentioned Taylor Swift, just as an aside, you're putting Taylor Swift in your top five albums of the year? You're putting folklore in there? I'm gonna leave that one to you. Why? I asked you the question. No, I haven't. You haven't listened to five albums, have you? No. I don't think I have. I have albums this year. If I have there from the 60s, I've gone so vinyl. I have gone totally vinyl. It is so bizarre. So in the end, there's an industry newspaper thing that called it like, hey, all right, what are your top five albums of the year? And I literally put Suddenly by Billy Ocean on there because I've listened to that record more than anything else in my collection. Mine would have been Paul McCartney's Ram, the reissue thing that I bought on vinyl for 40 bucks. I told you forever ago, just as a radio person, it's impossible for current based formats to survive right now because all anybody wants is comfort food. And even as a person who runs a radio station that only, predominantly, I mean, 35% of our playlist is new music, but oh my God, if I hate it, I can't imagine how the audience likes it. You know, most of the stuff that has come out this year, I have cared less. I could not have cared less about it. I didn't give a damn. Even if it was great, I didn't pay any attention to it. I don't know why that is. It's that comfort food. That was such a, I mean, I did a story on it and talked to you about it. And that was such a great push. You're exactly right. I mean, I'm literally listening to old vinyl that is from the seventies. And it's not that I don't like the new. It's not that I don't have the ability. You know, I mean, I have, like everybody else, probably 55, no, it's exaggeration. I have every way imaginable to listen to music. But all I've listened to- Do you have any CDs? I've got a few. All I've listened to is vinyl. And it's old vinyl, obviously. So- Well, you need to pick up Billy Ocean suddenly because it always works in whatever situation you are in. It is deep. It's been my absolute favorite piece of work. Look, it sucks because for somebody who is a consumption junkie, like I'm obsessed with finding everything and listening to everything. I have no appetite for it. I don't care. It's like I went into a coma and I came out with the inability to like pizza. Imagine if you woke up one day and you're just like, I don't like pizza anymore. It's really sad. It bothers me to my core. I can listen to something even like I love James Blake, that James Blake EP. It's good. I don't care. I don't care. Yeah. No. My thing is, once I find out that there's another way to listen to music, I'm obsessed until I have it in my house. If you tell me that there's a gadget that you got to plug into this and that and it'll play, I'm going to go get it. And then when I get it, I don't care anymore. Because my point is, so it's hard to explain. You've seen my office. You've seen my office. I have more gadgets and technology and nonsense in here, but you know what? All I'm listening to is a 1976 Pioneer SX-708 or 780 amp and a 40 year old turntable. Well, if I have to tell you one... Okay, of the five that I was supposed to put together, I'll give you two that you absolutely should listen to. I think Run the Jewels four is great. Unfortunately, I think that the front half of it's a lot better than the back half of it. But again, we ain't that much to pick from. So it makes my top five. But the best album of the year, without a doubt, not even close. And I hate that all the other publications think this too, but it is what it is. Fiona Apple Fetch the Bolt Cutters is as advertised. It is not even close. There's not even a close second. I have heard that and it is wonderful. It's damn near perfection and I don't know how it was totally ignored, it felt like by the Academy. And you know, as a voting member of the Academy, I shall say. All right. Well, speaking of, what about the country music controversy? I mean, that happened since we've talked last with the whole Jason, or not Jason, but John Prine being ignored. And who was the other death that was ignored? You know what I'm talking about? No, I don't. I don't know. You're talking about the CMAs. I'm just going to let's say, I know you don't know me well, Barry, but I know enough. I thought this might have crossed your radar. Can you see a guy like me? Hey, how's it going? Real quick. Brissa, nice to meet you. Do I look like a guy that watches the CMAs? Oh man. Well, I will say this is going to sound like a cop out. It's kind of dark in the room. Yeah. I'm trying to keep it that way. There's Booty today. He's getting darker. I mean, the sun's going down. Yeah, that's definitely not the vibe of the CMAs. The CMAs very cheery event for sure. More importantly, how do I look? Do you guys watch the CMAs? Is that the truth? No. We were talking about the controversy with them ignoring John Prine's death. Oh, did nothing come up? No. They listed all the people who died this past year and they left John Prine. Oh, it's killing me. I'm not even going to say it, but they left a couple of people out and it became a big thing. Michael made a big stink about it and several other people. Good Lord, man. I had no idea they did that. Yeah. We won't get into that. But Brad, you need some light because you do look. I turned the light on. It's going to ruin my Christmas decor. The tree looks good. The tree looks great, Brad. Well, this is the first time. I don't know about you and I don't do Christmas stuff very well, but it's the first time in my life I've had colored lights on the tree. It's never happened before. I feel very weird, but we moved to New Orleans and we feel like we've got to get some color in our life. We've got to get this some pop. Speaking of where you live, are you still in Knoxville? Do you live in Knoxville? I am from Knoxville, born and raised, but I made the trip out to Nashville, so I'm a little bit about two and a half hours out from Dirty Knox right now. I've got so many questions for you, but we'll start this whole thing, I guess, properly. First off, I'm Brad. That's Barry. That's Lord Taco with the PBR. I'll tell you how we found you. First off, as a Bonnaroo podcast, we talk a lot about, turns out, Bonnaroo. Each and every year, to get ready for a bunch of artists that we've never heard of, we do a thing called Bonnaroo Let. We spin the wheel and we just land on artists and we start playing some of their stuff on the show and we figure, let's see if we like it. Started on Bristan Moroney. Oof. Big hit. Tough break. Big hit. I was immediately into it. I loved it and I just started going down the rabbit hole. It turns out, within 15 minutes of me going down the rabbit hole, I find out we have mutual friends from being right down the road in Knoxville. The more I learn about you is that, I'm not trying to be a jerk about it, but you're still fairly young. What the hell? Well, I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because I can't imagine being really good and really young and being taken seriously. Oh yeah. So I wonder how much of a hurdle that was and then on top of it, in maybe not the most musically eclectic or music forward city like Knoxville. Sure. Yeah. Well, thank you for saying that, man. Yeah. Oh my Lord. Do you know how long, how many days I spent strumming my little six string at the farmer's market having people like literally pat me on the head? Barry does that to me every show. Yeah. It's nice sometimes. A good pat does a long way. But no, man. I mean, yeah, it definitely, I'm really thankful to have grown up around people who allowed me to take music seriously from a young age and who encouraged me to take things seriously and then henceforth took me seriously. So I'm really thankful that I was around people who allowed me to commit really hard to playing music. So yeah, I mean, it had its moments where I was at the farmer's markets where things were like, it was a cutesy thing to see a kid in a beat up flannel acting like he'd lived 100 lives when I had left the eighth grade or something. So over time, yeah, man, I just figured out how to not take myself too seriously and therefore I feel like people started maybe appreciating more my, once people found out that I was willing to admit the things I didn't know at a young age, it was so much easier to have conversation with people as an artist. Yeah, that was a big turning point for sure. This is such a great topic and we could do hours and hours on it because people come from everywhere. Right? I mean, not everybody comes from Nashville or New York or LA. So what is it that sort of, you said people patted you on your head, but what were the encouraging moments that said, it doesn't matter that I'm from Knoxville or wherever, or I'm good at this. What were those moments that encouraged you? Thanks for saying that, man. Yeah, I think, golly, I think one perk of being from Knoxville is that very few people that I looked up to were from Knoxville. You know what I mean? There were a lot of great people in that city, but a lot of my heroes were from the big three or four musical cities. So I didn't feel like I had to be from there because it was just such a blank slate. So just growing up and just thinking, taking kind of the pressure off of making a name for myself coming from a place and more so just making a name out of what I had to say was a big thing. And the motivation to do that came from my family, from my dad, from my grandfather, both musicians. And honestly, I had a lot of great teachers. I got really lucky. I had some teachers who wanted me to never speak again, but I had a lot of teachers who were very positive people who said, hey, you can, I had an English teacher in high school who was really great, who basically was like, it's very evident to me that you don't want to take a lot of things seriously, but you seem to care about music and you seem to care about writing. So like you're allowed to take that seriously. Like if you don't care at all about any of this other stuff, you're allowed to care about what you care about, but you just have to care about it. So those were really big moments for me. Well, I think first off, I think the big shocker here, and this is the headline, Briston hates Peyton Manning. How dare he not have a... And as soon as I said that, there's a lot of amazing people from Knoxville. Peyton, the Weezer guys. You know, it's funny, we share that. Quentin Tarantino. So for people who are listening, Brad has lived in Chattanooga for a long time. Russ is in Ringgold. I'm in Chattanooga. So Knoxville is whatever. It's going to be that place. Every state has them. And I think that's the biggest shocker for me. I think it's the biggest shocker for me. I think it's the biggest shocker for me. I think it's the biggest shocker for me. I think it's the biggest shocker for me. I think it's the biggest shocker for me. If you were from Athens, Georgia, you know, that'd be exotic. So we're sitting here talking about Knoxville like it's podunk. And it is, but probably the people near Eugene are thinking the same thing. Nobody is wax poetic or written a love song to Knoxville. Nobody has done that. Well, there is, except for Rocky top. There's the famous bluegrass song called Knoxville girl, but it's, it's like a murder song. So I get, but you know what I mean? Everywhere seems, I love when you were romance me, draw me a bath and put on the murder song. Yeah, that's funny. Sorry, Barry, but real quick, the back to something you said a second ago is about the writing part. And I think that's the part that I was, I was drawn into the, and again, I hate to keep bringing this about, you know, just youth and, and, and, um, vis a vis where you are as a writer, but I mean, it is a Jeff Buckley thing to write beyond your years and write beyond whatever experiences you might have. And yeah, you might be flannel shirted, you know, pat on the head at the farmer's market, but there's an ability to write something that you may not have ever lived, but yet you can still sort of, you know, uh, you know, put it in prose. I wonder, you know, not because of course you don't know how that happens, but how in the hell does that happen? And I just jump in cause we were laughing as he came on with talking about Jason Isbell. I asked him the same question. Sure. You know, how do you write a song about something, you know, that you've never done? And the example, of course, just like a Johnny cash, he didn't go to prison. He didn't shoot a man just to watch him die. I mean, he never did it. Yeah, I'm sorry, man. Yeah. Spoiler alert. Uh, but you know what I mean? That's, that's the beauty of the artists. So, um, I think you, you have to listen. Well, I think I grew up around a lot of people who, uh, who had a lot of stories to tell me. And I think I, yeah, I grew up with people who had so many stories to tell that they didn't want me to have to live a life where I had stories like that to tell, you know what I mean? So both of my parents have had, you know, pretty remarkable lives as far as what they've overcome. And so what do they do? What do your parents do? My folks are basically all in medicine, but my parents split and both remarried. And so my dad and stepmom are, my dad's a nurse, stepmom's a doctor. My mom is an x-ray tech and my stepdad sells medical equipment. So Jesus Christ, I mean, you, you have got the, the, they didn't take the tattoos well. You got the litany line happening right now. Oh, I know, man. They're busting their ass. And if, and if like, if there's somebody that could write a COVID song, it would be the son of and the grandson of literally the entire frontline. Entire. Yeah. We go down the whole list. Yeah, it's crazy. Man, what you just said, and I think that goes probably back to some of your English teachers being able to listen. Yeah. That's the thing that I tell, uh, I'm, you know, I'm a reporter now 53 years. That's the one thing I tell the new reporters, what do you know? Just listen, sometimes stop talking. Don't worry about your questions. Listen and then go from there. So that's not an easy, you know, it sounds so simple. It sounds trite, but, uh, being a good listener is, uh, is really important. Um, that's pretty interesting to hear you say that. Wait, were we talking about me? You're not a good listener. What's that? Walked right into that. Yeah, I know. What I do. He's a radio guy. He's a joke. I'm doing jokes. So, um, okay. So you, you get, you get to the bottom thing. How did the Bonnaroo thing come to be? Uh, I, one can assume that AC entertainment in Knoxville finds you and then, uh, basically attacks you and drags you into the farm of Manchester. How does that, how does it all work out for you? What was the feeling that you had after you found out? It was the most mind blowing thing because Bonnaroo was like off limits my whole life because my parents didn't want me to be the kid running around on the farm with the tie dye t-shirt tied around my head. Really stoked about Edward Sharpe and the magnetic zeroes. They didn't want me to be that guy. So once I got to be a part of Bonnaroo by way of playing it, it was like a totally different perspective that made me be like, I'm calling the shots now, mommy. Like I'm doing it. Maybe the creepiest thing that's ever been said on this show. I'm calling the shots now, mommy. I'm sure that you guys can just clean up anything that's leaving my mouth right now. I love it. I'm still not really used to like getting to talk about Bonnaroo. I'm scared that I'm getting boy taken away if I do this. It's kind of sucked because it didn't happen. So now what happens? My roommate and I took some really funny pictures. I just laid on the couch without my shirt on with a box of cereal, just eating straight from the box and was like, Bonnaroo 2020, what a great experience out on the farm. I think they're booking a lot of artists again for next year, which would be really bad ass. But I don't know how that's going to unfold. I really hope that we get to go back out there. Regardless, the next time that it happens, I will absolutely go whether or not we get to play. Because just the thought seems like it was just so exciting, just the idea of just even being there. So yeah, man, I'll definitely be out there. Have you not actually been approached about coming back yet? I think that our management has talked to some people and they've talked to the booking staff. I think a lot of festivals just automatically push the line up to next year for 21 for whatever they had this year. They just literally moved it to the same date next year. And I don't know if Bonnaroo was one of those. I can't remember. No, they moved to September. Yeah, it's very exciting. So what have you been? What have you done? I mean, how do you... There's so many artists, they're either recording, they're going back through old songs, you've got time. So what are you doing? Yeah. Luckily, we had just wrapped up a record when everything shut down, maybe two weeks before. I had flown back home from LA with a finished record, which was really exciting. So I've been just so lucky, man, to be able to have that record done, spend the rest of this year basically just building the world around however many songs. So we've busted our ass with visual stuff. My best friend directs all our music videos. So we spent so much of this time shooting videos. The label, I have no idea why they did this, trusted us to do a video for every song. So we've been pretty full plate with a ton of videos. So that's been a really big part of it. I love to act and I love to be a part of visual stuff as well. So I've been really invested in that. But aside from that, man, I've done so many boring, painfully boring things that I have loved so much. Like a Bonnaroo podcast. With dudes you've never met. You guys make me feel funny. That's why I like it here. Brad makes me feel funny. He always has. I always have. But okay, I understand you got an album on your hands and you might have some visuals, but it's also got to come along with an external world around it. And that external world doesn't exist anymore. So for a guy like you who's trying to make their mark, trying to acquire a new fan, another set of fans every time you go through a city, how does that sort of blunt the momentum that you were trying to build? Yeah, it throws a freaking wrench in it. As far as meeting people in a city, having the experiences that you have at a show, which are arguably the most formative experiences you can have with music, for that no longer to be an option sucks. And especially for us, man, I value our live show so much. Because that's just what got me to fall in love with music and why I started becoming a massive fan of bands. I just loved going to shows. This year, I am so bad with technology, social media sucks the life out of my body. And I've had to kind of bite the bullet this year and figure out ways to engage with people that way and still feel genuine doing that. And so honestly, this year, man, it's been tough too, just with what social media has needed to be in a year like this. There's been a lot of need for really purposeful, intentional conversation. But as things have started to improve a little bit in certain aspects and people are just communicating in new ways by the end of 2020, I've kind of let social media be a really open thing for me as far as being silly, interacting with people the same way that I would interact with my friends at a show. Connecting to people's messages really just like personally and just like trying to have a good time with that stuff, man. And not being afraid to say like, this sucks, I would so much rather hang with you guys at a show. I would so much rather talk to you guys in person. You know what I mean? Like just being willing to be pretty transparent on how I feel. This is an unfair question, but I'm going to ask it from your perspective. Do you feel like you come out of this, I mean, screaming, is your first show going to be this ginormous thing or is it going to be just pared down in acoustic set? You know what I mean? I think we're all trying to figure out how we come out of this. Part of it feels like we're going to have this ginormous, this huge Bonnaroo with 400,000 people. I really, really want you to keep saying the word ginormous. I know. I'm trying to think of all the old timey things I can think of that just make your hair crawl. Is it going to be a barn burner when you get going there? Yeah, wing ding. We're going to have a wing ding. You're going to go down to the block busting and get two bits? Two bits. Would it qualify as a hootenanny? A hootenanny, yeah. We've had a few hootenannies. We've had some hootenannies. That's what I'm wondering. Seriously, do we come out with this big thing or does it feel like we just sort of inch our way out of it or do you even have a sense? Oh, we're sock hopping it, man. We're going. I love a sock hop. He does love a sock hop. I didn't think of that one. I think the second that we get the green light to have the wood stocky moment where it's just some outdoor show going wild with as many people as we can safely get somewhere. I want it to be that. I've said since the beginning that I've... of the lockdowns and shutdowns that I've really... I'm just highly anticipating what it will look like as far as live music, meaning new things to people once it's an option. We just announced some dates opening for Rainbow Kid and Surprise. It's scheduled for May of 21. Socially distanced outdoor show. They're doing the pod thing. Where? In Pelham, Tennessee. It's this venue called The Caverns. Oh, yeah. That's right. You're on that. That's a great new venue, man. It's cool. It's insane. I don't know if you, Brad, that's the cave. Yeah, I know. They're going to clear it outside and they're going to do stuff outside, so that's cool. How many dates are you doing with RKS? It was two originally, May 7th and 8th, and they just an hour ago added a third one because I guess they sold out. That's great. That's a good look. Those are good people up there. That's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad we're getting to come back in Tennessee too, and Pelham, Tennessee, of all places. Just some talk about... Yeah, for you guys listening, that's about 20 minutes from Manchester. I think I would be really remiss as a Bonnaroo podcast and as someone who lives and operates in Nashville like you do now to not mention what COVID has done to somebody near and dear to at least the industry's heart and mine and ours is the Bonnaroo community and Lightning 100. I don't know if you know what's been going on with Lightning 100 up there, Briston, but they are independently owned radio station. They are the radio station that operates Bonnaroo radio. They operate the entire media compound back in the back when it comes to how radio stations around the country cover the event. They have been there since the very first minute. I think that Reverend Keith was the rev, was the first guy to walk onto the festival grounds 16 years ago or so. They're in a really big pinch right now. They basically have turned over their social media, their website, their station over to saving the airwaves. They're going to shut their doors. They're going to be done. They're going to be goner. They're goner if they can't raise somewhere upwards of $250,000. They're trying to come up with creative ways to come up with that kind of money. If you do have the ability, if you do have the option, sign on to their website, give them your time, give them maybe a couple of your dollars because they are invaluable in value. I can't explain to you how important Lightning 100 is to not just Bonnaroo, but to Nashville musicians. There was a long time there that maybe a decade, two decades, where the only place that local musicians in the region were getting played was Lightning 100. I don't know if they reached out to, I don't know what kind of relationship you have with them, but if it wasn't for them, a lot of the people that you love at Bonnaroo wouldn't exist. They wouldn't exist. Damn, yeah. Like heartbreak. Truly, yeah. Truly makes me want to cry. Those people have done so much for me, so much for all of my friends, so much for Nashville. I met my best friends at Live on the Green, which is the Lightning 100 concert event. That was my first experience in Nashville. I've shared so many experiences with people I love through Lightning 100. I remember calling my dad the first time they started spinning one of the songs. It was like, it is a huge deal. What was the song, by the way? Was it Freaking Out on the Expressway? Which one was it? It predated Expressway. It was the song called I've Been Waiting, which is just a bad song, but they were still there. You didn't say they were a good radio station. They were important. Man, what a thing. That's the thing. You know what? Brad, I know, is a music history guy, and so am I. When you hear Paul McCartney talk about hearing their song on the radio for the first time, and Brian Wilson pulling over on the road to hear their song on the radio for the first time, that just gives me chills thinking about it. It is so awesome. There's nothing like that. That's what it's about, right? That's it. That I think, and looking out into a crowd and them singing their lyrics back to you, that would have to be the two of the greatest moments ever for an artist. I can't think of anything better than that. That's everything, man. I mean, yeah, you nailed it. You summed it up, and then you spend the rest of every time. I'm trying to get it again. Just like a woman. Yeah, right. Yeah. So it wasn't a good song. What year was this? This was 2018, maybe? Maybe right after I'd signed my first record deal. You didn't like the song? Oh, I don't know. At the time, I probably liked it too much. I was probably a little too proud of it, but looking back on it, it's like on paper, they took a chance on a little disorganized, curly-headed kid who had an opportunity to record it, and it was a good song. I've asked this question before, and every person I've asked it laughs me out of the room, but I will find the artist that will take this as an idea. I really love the idea of you looking back 10 years ago, and if you get 40 at one point, and you look back 20 years, and you see the songs that you wrote, and you're like, how about if I rewrite these one more time? I want to give this one more pass and see if I can make this something, and nobody will take me up on this idea. Nobody will take this idea. I'm all about it. Yeah, I hold on to that stuff way too tight. I'm constantly... I guess this is weird. I don't say this out loud often, but I constantly listen back to old recordings and old songs, because I have found so many times, man, those are the ones that the ideas that were good enough to write down usually may not have made sense at the time, because they were good enough ideas that you needed to learn more before you could put them where they needed to be. Yeah, dude, I go through that. I agree. Even as a stand-up comic, I wrote up earlier today, poo, poo, pee, pee, poo, and at some point that's going to be really good one day. Yeah, here's the difference. Sometimes you have to have been talented at 20. That's where you're missing the beat. Missed that 19 years ago. It is funny, because you've mentioned this before, Brad, and I'm different. I ask people this all the time. They all go back and look at stuff, and the good ones, the good ones, and that's the difference. They were good at 20. Now they're looking at it as a 40-year-old. They've had children. They've been married. They're older. It's still good. It's just filtered through a different light. I don't want to say you're wrong. It's just a different... No, you want to say that I'm wrong. I understand what you're saying. It's the old poet. I think it was Keats who said, I used to write poems. I would stick them in a drawer, and then I would come back a year later and wonder who the fuck had been messing with my poems. I can't believe. I pulled Keats out. I just dropped. I did. Come on, now. All right. Any Walt Whitman quotes? Barry Hennear. Ooh, that's a good one. I'll have to look that up real quick. Anyway, I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for spending some time with us and shaving the beard. Oh, yeah. I had a few weeks to get off before I got here. It was very sick. I know. We're big fans, and we really did really fall in love with your work. Hopefully one day we'll see you actually perform it soon. Yeah, thanks for being a part of the Bonnaroo experience here, even in the weirdest of weird times, man. Thanks for having me, man. If this is the closest I get to the farm this year, I'll take it. Oh, come on. Yeah. Look, you were our first... We both said, that's who I want to have on the show. Yeah. Thank you so much for doing it. Yeah. Absolutely. Not telling that because you're here. I really appreciate it, man. It means a lot. There you go. Bristan Moroney on the What Podcast with Barry Courter, Lur Taco, Brad Steiner. I like that kid. I could tell before I met him and talking to him that he wasn't an egotistical 20-something, and I'm just glad that I was sort of right. The only thing that I hate is when I meet somebody I like, I'm like, oh, God. Oh, no. No. We've got a few of those. We've been lucky. Well, yeah. We've been lucky. We had three or four that I'm the one comes to mind that we- Bozzie. Bozzie. We won't talk about ever again. But for the most part, they've been pretty great. Are they safe label? We can't. He was great. Great. I love him. He's dead to me. I love him. He's the best. Can't wait for the next hit of yours, Bozzie. Dead to me. But we've been lucky. Most part, they're just people. For him to come on and do that with us was terrific. I love it. What about what I did? You didn't talk about me coming on here and doing anything with you. I think the best thing you did was finally turn that dang light on so that we could see your face. That was big. That was huge. That was huge. That's the first time you've finally spoken the truth. That was huge. You have finally spoken. You wanted to see my face. I wanted to see that punum. We were starting to look like EOB. The big windows behind him. You guys don't understand. I have turned into a English rock star. Oh, that's what it is. All right. That's what I'm going for from now on. Okay. What? By the way, taco, the whole setup is nice. I've never seen. I've never seen the inside of your house. It's always been the bus. Look at that. That's awesome. Yeah. Look. He's got his little what is it? Nintendo, the Gameboy there. Nice. Hmm. Vintage. Vintage. I love you're in the festive spirit. You've got your you get the whole house decorated, it looks like. Yeah, we got lights. It's old fashioned typewriter and lights. We got lights. I mean, you with with the with the analog clock, the typewriter, the rotary phone and the Gameboy. You have got Barry Courter and erection. I mean, he is ready. And a dog all for you, Barry. And a dog. What is a dog? That's what you said. And a dog. And a dog. And I said, and I said, and a dog. And I do say that weird, don't I? Yeah, I do. Yeah. And the only reason I bring it up is because you sure would have brought it up. It had been me saying it. So pounce on every possible golly gee whiz. That's what you do. You do this old timey sayings. I know, because I have such a potty mouth normally that I I don't want to. That's not what I want to be known for is my potty. I'd rather be known for the guy from the 40s. Yeah, I'd rather work. We were the guy. Yeah, the gee whiz. Gosh darn it. What was it? What was the episode that we what was it? The hoot nanny. Oh, yeah. You talk about the hooping in the holler and the hooping in the holler. Yes, Barry would rather be the hooping in the holler. Yeah, I did have to look that up. I thought it was Slim Pickens in. Oh, what was the Peter Sellers movie? Oh, shoot. Dr. Strange Glove. They were who we know. No Blazing Saddles. Remember, he said we come in a hoop and holler. But that's not what he said. Thanks, Dad. All right, guys. Anything else? Anything else? I think it was a good good good catch up. You know, good catch up. It was. If we got a few minutes, I can tell you about the the Rue gaming that we've been doing. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. Yes, because we went around the room talking about the things that we've been doing and we just stopped talking about that for some odd reason. I think that was probably for some reason. I thought so, do you guys guys would even doing this whole break? You tell. Well, I've been playing games on Twitch, which let you think getting into video games and getting into video games. Really? I really think there's something here with these video games. I think it's going to take off Jeepers Wally. So I started doing that. Was talking to Daniel with the Rue bus. He just got a PS5 and he says there's a there's a charity called Extra Life. They raise money or they donate money to children's hospitals and you can raise money by playing video games on Twitch by just asking for donations. So we decided to like put a little crew together of some Bonnaroo gamers, if you will. So we've got me, Daniel Parker and Jake from the Rue Ham. And then we also added Ben who used to work for AC Entertainment. He did their social media stuff. He's now playing games. So we what are the games? Well, it's kind of whatever we want. He got the PS5. So he's been playing like Spider-Man and some new games. Oh, so it doesn't matter because I'm just watching it on Twitch. Yeah, you're just watching. I get it. OK. We'd like to figure out maybe a way where we could all play a game together or something, because there's a lot of fun online games you can do that with. But we set a goal initially of two hundred and fifty dollars that we thought maybe we could raise and donate that. And we like shot through that, you know, within within the day or so. That's awesome. Yeah. So we're up to about three hundred and twenty dollars, I think. And we're just going to keep it going for the rest of the year. So what days do you do it? I've been doing it every other day or so. Daniel's done it pretty much just whenever we have time. So it's not like a set night that it's like, you know, it's a Bonnaroo game night. No, but we are talking about putting together maybe doing like a 12 hour block where we all kind of play, you know, continuously one day. That's really good. Twenty four hours of nonstop gaming. Yeah. So obviously, Brad and I, this is not us. And I feel somewhat bad making fun of you earlier. But I mean, this is a great this is a great thing. How can people help? So if somebody wants to contribute, how can they do it? I'll put a link down in the description and we'll you know, we'll tweet it out and stuff. There's a there's a link you can just go donate. You can tune in when one of us is watching or one of one of us is playing. You can watch you can donate money while we're playing. We have we started like a Twitter account called Rue Gaming Crew where you can keep up and see when we're playing, what we're playing. And we wanted to open it up to anybody. If you go to Bonnaroo, if you play games, if you stream them or not, if you want to join us, you can you can certainly hit us up and we'll we'll add you in to the fold. Barry, I've very often times just been sitting there and I'll notice that Taco will go just like go live. I don't know. It must be on Instagram or Twitter or something. I'll say, Lord Taco is now live on Twitch. And I pop on and I basically I love watching Taco Play video games, to be honest with you. And I never understood why, but he always plays all the games that I was terrible at when I was a kid. So it's like all these Nintendo games like what were you playing the other day that I was so obsessed with? Mega Man. I was playing some I could I can never get past that for a screen of Mega Man. I don't care if I was six or thirty six and never I still can't figure it out. But well, it's not even easier for me. I'm still bad at it. It's so hard. And my favorite part is that, you know, they talk like Taco will talk a little bit here and there and he'll like give you a play by play here and there. But you because we know him so well, you can hear the PBR is open just. I'm stopped. The soundtracks of our lives. I may be in there for 20 minutes and I've heard three times. Yeah, I put the PBR cam on there. I've got a dedicated cam on the PBR. And then the occasional about every 10, 15 minutes where he just disappears for. You show up and he's just on pause. He's going to pay. No, I love this idea. But the thing that I've never stood is like when you're when I'm watching it, am I watching like a camera on your TV or have you plugged your TV into your computer or something like how is it? How am I watching the video game? I hate to be dumb about this, but I have no idea. It's going through a capture device that takes the video signal and displays it on the screen through the computer. So it's plugged into your TV's plugged into computer. Yeah. Now, I think Daniel, he's the PS5 is so new, it's got it built in to where it can go ahead and stream just from PS5. There's no extra computer needed. So it's taken me a few months. And part of it was, well, I've got all this gear from podcasting microphones, lights, cameras. I could set up a video game stream. And so that's been my I've slowly been like figuring out how to do it, how to set it up. And it's been a lot of fun. So that's been my kind of quarantine project. I love how you just keep it with old school video games, though. You know, I like the new video games. I have no interest in watching that World Warcraft or whatever that garbage. I do not care. It's just too much gobbledygook. Too much gobbledygook, too much malarkey on the screen for me to. Hey, I can't keep up with all the nonsense that's on the screen. There's just a. I hate it. I hate it. But boy, I'll sit there and watch anybody play. You know, Super Mario Brothers. I'm all in. The thing is, you know, I've had this collection of like Nintendo, Super Nintendo, old vintage video games systems and games and stuff. I was like, why not dig it out and hook it up and get it to work? And while I'm doing them, I might as well, you know, play where the best part. You should be doing like with the guy with the guys like Mike Tyson, punch out. I like Mike Tyson punch out. Yeah. You should be playing like other people in it and then like, you know, trash talk a little bit. We can do some trash talking. OK, you can tell I trash talk a lot. Oh, man, you can't stop. The sound of victory. That's awesome. All right. Well, I'm sorry we we interrupt that earlier. I know. It's fine. And I'm glad you brought it back up. Good for you. You and Daniel, they're doing good things. So thank you. Yeah, Barry, you're not doing anything good. Look at you. Nothing. Nothing. Nobody. I'm not improving the universe one bit. Sitting over here looking orange. I'm just looking at. Yeah, I am. All right, well, missing you guys. Anything else? Anything else where we go? Let's do this again. All right. I guess we can. I guess we can make this a regular thing. Sure. Yeah, sure. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Yeah. Amazing. I will say, I mean, I do think that there's there needs to be homework here. I mean, there is a there is a documentary and I cannot believe Barry has brought this up, but I do want us all to watch that Dolly Parton documentary. Yeah. How have you not brought this up? I didn't know. I haven't seen it yet. I haven't seen it yet. Man, it's all it's all. You might be a look. It may be old. I don't know what it is, but it's on Netflix. And I have an early Christmas album is great. And man, everything just feels like she's going to be at Bonnaroo in September. And I'm hoping and praying. No. How about Miley? No. Oh, I mean, maybe. But I think that I think that if you if you've made it this far, I think that you can probably in this podcast, I think you can probably start to fill in the bubble of the Foo Fighters. Yeah, I think everything is starting to move that way. And they have got a new album. And look, I haven't Foo Fighters. I haven't been a fan of the I haven't been a fan of the Foo Fighters for a long time. Dave Brol is as good of a dude for radio people as you can ever imagine. I think he's good music. Yeah, he's great for music, too. Yeah, absolutely. But they they've got a new album coming out and it's good. It's really good. And I'm surprised that I'm saying that because it's just not my it's not my flavor. It's just not where I've been ever since, you know, that two and a half Foo Fighters albums ago. But this one's really good. The new single is good. The next single is really, really good. So yeah, I think that I think that you probably should start thinking along those lines of how, you know, if if the first one that comes off the board, who gets filled? And I think that you're exactly right, Barry. We've been saying it for months. My morning jackets probably first because of their history with the festival and Foo Fighters gets put up there, too. I disagree. OK, disagree. I just I really want Miley and I really want Dolly, so you're getting dirty. This is getting dirty. This is really getting dirty. Which, by the way, do we need to see on the head? Do we need to see Miley Cyrus naked anymore? She's no again on Rolling Stone. It's just I've never seen someone. I haven't seen my wife naked this many times. Like she's naked. I turn around. I don't want to see her naked. I don't want to see her tongue ever again. Ever again. Ever. But I love her. I love her more every day. She shows off between her legs more than my dogs do. I mean, it is so much. That's saying a lot. That is saying a lot. She is constantly naked. And I don't understand why. Yeah, I don't either. I don't either. I agree. But I like her more every day. Yeah, I know. She's really fun. She's really fun. I know. She's being who she is and I love it. So anyway. But the whole point of it is that she is decentralizing. Is that the word? Is that the word I'm looking for? Sensitizing? Yeah, that's what. Thank you. Us from seeing this. You know, it's not like shocking anymore. Right? It's putting the Miley. It's putting the Hannah Montana thing behind her, but she's done that and move on. So I moved on. She wants the female body to be as accepted and as able to be seen as the male body is shown up all the time. And I don't want to see your crotch either. So well, a little too late. Very little too late. All right. Bye. Bye. Can I read the patron names? Oh, yeah, sure. Boy, is keeping us on point today, isn't he? That's why he's who he is. I know we almost forgot how to do it because we haven't done a show in so long. And we have a good group of people that have stuck with us with their passion. You guys are amazing. And if not for covid, I'd be tongue kissing all of you. That's the only reason why. That's the only reason. So let me read these names. We've got DJ Bryce Brinston, Kyle Boyle, Riley Benson, Madison Hadziko, Hadzeko, DK, Benjamin Wells, Tory, Daniel and Sharla Horton of the Roobus, Jacob Marty, Musical Antlers, Mary T, Andrew T. McBride, Justin Nigro, Sean McCain, David Solano, Brooke Tussie, Lauren Edholm, Jake Yeatman, Melanie and Jesse Feldman, Katherine Riccio, Timothy Proctor, Aaron Carlson, Evan Brown, Ross McNamara, William Richards, Meredith Ritten, Parker Reed from the RooHamm guys, William Wilhoit, Sean McCarthy, Ryan Mathewson, Liesl Condor, David Grimes, Linda Doles, Ella, Chelsea Davis, Dan Sweeney, Phil Hanley, Chloe Hannon and Jason Hazelbake. And I know it sounds like we read the same names every month or every show, but like these people have really like stuck with us. I know. It's awesome. You're exactly right. You're exactly right. By the way, you guys on the way to New Orleans, you coming down? You guys on the way? We have light on. Okay. I'm running out of power. I don't have any lights left. Stay up. Stay up. That's what my guest. We'll talk to you next time. Love you. Bye. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, I'm Phil. Hey, I'm Phil. Hey, I'm Phil. Hey, I'm Phil. Journey through the stories that define the artists playing bongos. Who are they? What are they? What will you see? The what? Which bands? This year? That matter? Yay.
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