While down at Bonnaroo this year, The What Podcast hosts Barry and Lord Taco got to speak with Briston Maroney for what is technically the Knoxville artist's third time on the show.
Following his That Tent show on Friday, Maroney spoke about what it means to be playing Bonnaroo -- especially as his father was in the audience this year for the Father's Day weekend set. He also touched on "that guy" in high school who always came back from The Farm wearing his wristbands until it fell off and the tan lines that remained like a badge of honor.
Take a listen to the episode above, or watch video of it over at YouTube. If you missed it, don't forget to check out The What Podcast's full recap of Bonnaroo 2022 as well.
This is one of three "snackable" episodes coming from The What Podcast this week as the gang reveals all their artist interviews from Bonnaroo 2022. Stay tuned for more episodes coming Friday and Saturday (July 8th and 9th).
Topic: Bonnaroo
Guest: Briston Maroney
It's a snackable version of the what podcast today Barry Courter Lord taco Brad you can even call me Brad
so this is a we call it a snackable version of the what podcast because you guys had some chats
during Bonnaroo with some of our favorite Bonnaroo acts huh yeah yeah I thought you called it as I
thought you called it a snackable version because I'm a snack yeah who doesn't want to put their
face in a taco exactly yeah no you know as we've said before part of the fun for us being on the
farm is being able to interview some of these bands that that we've either learned about or
are big fans of hey do you remember the time years ago we were supposed to I can't remember
was it alt J and we were like I don't remember what happened but it was either really hot or
we were really tired and we were like you know what all J's like 20 feet away from us we're not
gonna be doing that today yeah we're not doing that like nah yeah pass it would require us to
walk oh I don't know a whole 20 yards we can't do it yeah it's way way over there and you know we
we had the other one that we talked about all the time where we had to go find a cigarette for the
guy the thing we don't mention but we don't talk about we don't talk about Bozze around here yeah
we don't talk about Bozze but then we've had the war and treaty moments where we just fell in love
yeah you know and again that was another one of those that I would have very easily punted on if
you gave me the opportunity if you give me the opportunity the opening to cancel I'm going to
take it because I just I'd rather just sit a camp well I'm not gonna lie backseat lovers who were
gonna talk to and churches were back-to-back for us they were within half hour of each other and
I think we went to see backseat lovers and then like idiots didn't bring the equipment with us
to leave it in the media area so we had to run from there all the way back you know wah wah wah
okay see this is such a what is like there's always a comedy of problems when it comes to this group
something stupid happens like for instance in today's chat you just decided not to record it
with briston moroney did you yeah yeah I did everything right except hit the little red button
turns out the first rule in radio is you got to turn the microphone on yeah and to add on to that
you know I did the video recording I recorded the first interview fine then we redid it because
very didn't hit record so I hit record and then like 40 seconds in it stops recording so we've
got one full video and one full audio but it's two takes look I totally believe that the reason why
things screw up even if I'm not there or because of me I'm sure it's my fault you know we did blame
you yeah your name came up I'm good I said break everything we do here you know it's you you
destroyed dressing rooms I had to laugh too because when we were interviewing churches they
were drinking the what is that topo chico yeah I just laughing to myself remembering that incident
but yeah I don't remember if you remember taco too with the bristen before we even started and
maybe it's why I forgot to hit record is my battery pack the Sun fried it yeah it was not
working yeah we couldn't get anything to turn on because it had been so hot I guess sitting in my
car so fortunately Russ had a backup battery pack or we would not have it at all so yeah I
remembered to bring extras yeah bring everything that's the number one rule but I bring nothing
you bring nothing you didn't blame yeah that way you're you're you know somebody else's fault hey
I didn't break it somebody else did it's not mine yeah it ended up it ended up being great
those are really one of my favorite things to do is to talk to these guys and and they were all
very receptive and their management people made it work and you were making it work from New York
that was kind of funny what do you sent the text or was it churches or backseat you're like I'm at
I'm at dinner with their manager yeah here set it up yeah I know I was we I'll talk about that
when we do the the backseat lovers chat but the one we start with today bristen moroni you hit
play thank goodness because you know the kids got a great story and the only reason I even know him
or know of him is because one of my interns when I was a when I was in Chattanooga randomly she's a
fan I mean she's a superstar this girl I think that they dated when they were like in middle school
and she would always sit in the studio and this is like ten years ago and she'll be like I've got
this friend bristen he's a really good singer I'm you know every time you like okay sure you do
everybody's got the the buddy with a gig everybody's got the friend of the gig and she just kept talking
about him talking about him then one day I found him he was on one of my playlists on Spotify is
like wait a second this kid's actually actually a thing huh he's really really good and he's just
one of these that you know Matt Mason types that you know he's gonna write a good song not a good
song you know he's gonna write these songs sooner or later and it's gonna you know blow up and we're
all gonna be like hey it's that guy again yeah hey it's a great interview I'm looking forward to
you which one the first one or the second one it was good both were good okay the you know
unfortunately the first one was a little more off the cuff but we still got he talked about his
father which was amazing because it was Father's Day weekend and he talked about the wristband
which I thought was kind of funny what wristband it's like the Bonnaroo wristband yeah the Bonnaroo
wristband why would that come up well he because in the course of the conversation you know he's
he's a Knoxville kid so obviously he's aware of Bonnaroo and I think I said you know what did you
know about it and he he just said all the kids would come back to high school with their suntans
and their wristbands oh that's good and my my daughter's friends when they went I think they
wore those wristbands until they literally fell off their wrists I mean years so I asked him about
that let me tell you something I actually there's so I'm glad you brought that up because one day
we were eating I don't know what the restaurant was but we sit down and the guy that's taking our
our order he goes hey blah blah blah and I noticed the wristband that he's still wearing from Bonnaroo
and I'm like oh you went to Bonnaroo that's great and then he pulls the rest of his shirt up and
he's got like three years of bands on his arm and I immediately looked do you know where I'm going
with this Barry you know me I literally looked across the table to the wife and I said we got
to go this guy is gonna be touching our plate I can't have this disgusting thing interacting with
my food that's horrifying to me it's pretty it's pretty nasty because I know you guys I'm sure you're
the same when you get home it's you know it's like when somebody loses a limb they say they can still
feel it you know you cut that thing off your wrist and you feel it for the next week or two well you
know my you know my strategy with the wristband I keep it so loose that I take it off every night
it drives me bananas I hate the thing I did I cannot stand it I wish there was a way that we
could like figure out a different way than using these wristbands because I just I hate I don't
even wear wristwatches I hate watches I don't like things around my neck or my wrists so I'm with
you I figured out if you put if you if you don't tighten it and use a rubber band to sort of knot
it up it won't fall off during the day so then you can take it off at night or whatever yeah plus
there's all those years where we were like especially the first two three years where we
were like using other people's cut wristbands before they sort of got smart to it and figured
out that uh yeah why don't we just start tracking these people as they walk in and out of here so
that you know my very first one I left Sunday as I did this year but I left and stopped at
that gas station and a guy offered to buy it from me and I was like no I'm not gonna do it they've
been good to me that's not right and as I drove off I thought man that guy looked like a cop he
was a narc that you know it was not a long-haired hippie it looked like it looked like an FBI guy
and I thought man I'm glad I didn't sell that thing to him that's pretty ironic considering you are
the cop in the group I know he came up to me right yeah that's he probably figured the old man's
leaving let's go you know he didn't want to be there yeah but breast breast and was great and
it I heard nothing but good things from all kinds of people I think he's in a lot of you know people
when they list their top shows he's he's a he's on a lot of lists so that's great nice kid so so nice
and and he was a you know he's been a guest on our show before as we said you know what I just
second and third interviews with yeah I was gonna say do it other than I'm trying to think I want
to do the big board of the guests that we've had on who has come back twice of course repeat repeat
are well in the lead they they're the gold standard when it comes to guests on the show Jeff
Cuellar is probably second with three appearances three we had Ken Weinstein on two yeah and then
who else is in the in the double double appearance category and we have brist and Moroni might be the
only other one we'll we only have four return guests no no was Aaron the guy who won the
tickets this year he was a patreon oh yeah David Grimes David Grimes I'm sorry I guess you're I
guess you're right we could we could throw in the ham babies and the rubas is in yes but I don't
I don't count them I guess for some odd reason I don't know why multiple times yeah sure but as
far as performers or like quay are yeah you know what if I get it we see this is the problem if
I include the rubas in the in the hams kids that means I got to include a Bryan stone and I just
can't put him I wondered if you were gonna go there yeah yeah stones a repeat repeat offender
oh god all right well let's do it let's start the first of many snackable episodes coming from this
year's Bonnaroo with brist and Moroni on the what podcast hey everybody we are at Bonnaroo you can
hear the music playing in the background I'm Barry Courter with the what podcast with me Lord
Taco as always and we have a special guest a repeat guest three time a three-timer now we
might have had some technical issues but we're not gonna get into that brist and Moroni is here
great to see you thank you again anytime for talking to us you were a guest on our show a
few weeks ago one of our favorite guests thank you and we have had you on the list of wish list
the people we wanted to talk to when we were here thanks thank you for making it happen anytime
dude tell me about Bonnaroo and what it means to you to play this festival yeah I mean I think
the biggest thing is just like the history of this festival within being a Tennessee native and just
being a kid who grew up loving just like specifically rock music but all types of music it just embodies
just like what a music festival is inside of my brain and was when I was a child too you know yeah
you I think you had said off the air that you knew of it from high school yes talking about your
kids would come back oh yeah there was the one dude I I I won't say his name just for or what's
the word posterity sick but yeah he was the festival guy and he would come back one thing
I didn't mention last time was that I was most envious of his tan line yeah yeah the wristband
so yeah that dude rocked his wristband for Bonnaroo for like seven years or something the kid who
would go and we were like 12 and I was still like just like eating go-gurt at my house like playing
GameCube and he was out like crowd surfing at fish and I was nice nice nice it's it's Father's Day
weekend and you've got a special guest here this weekend right yeah oh yeah yeah my pops got to
come out and he's been able to come to some more shows in the past few months than ever before and
this was this was a big one for us that's excellent yeah I'm really still yeah what does it mean
having him there for you I think the biggest thing you know that we were hitting on it's just that the
fact that there there's an audience there to see this music is very special very beautiful but we
were saying that if all that was stripped away knowing that that he was there would be equally
as impactful and special to me more than anything yeah there's your happy Father's Day pops that's
really cool yeah I know you're busy you've got a lot of other interviews what what's coming up what
else besides this when you leave here we're working on new music that'll be out in the next few weeks
we're about to do a little run kind of zigzaggy with Rainbow Kitten's Prize which I'm really
excited about and then we're doing some headlining shows in the fall in September so very cool yeah
man I said it before on the show and I'll say it here we really think big things are in store for
you bristly man that's so kind you guys are so sweet we mean it I mean we definitely yeah we've done this too long to lie I think that's the best the best trait to have is being a bad liar thank you so much
okay kids there you go Bristan Moroney anything to follow up anything else before we go no it's just so
nice to hear him talk about his dad and I mean the idea that if the entire rest of the audience
went away and it was just his dad out there he would still be happy Barry are we not telling you
we love you enough no never are you is dad not getting enough is dad not getting enough attention
I got I got some I felt the love from Bristan so it meant a lot to me what about Brad Guy well I had to fish for it I had to fish for it no it was just neat to hear that kind of I mean that was completely
unsolicited and it was really cool to hear him say it yeah that's great nice kid and I can't I wish nothing but the best for him and super nice of him to redo the interview he was very gracious yeah you know I think hasn't there that's happened to us before who else have we done two interviews with we had to completely start over and we ended up not even using it because oh this is not
yeah yeah yeah who was that I don't remember I don't remember I know what you're talking about but I don't remember I think I I think I do remember and I will not repeat the other brands because they might be on the episode they might be on an episode very soon I don't want to remind them of that disaster yeah we played it I promise no we aired it it's we must have gotten lost in the archives oh it was one of our favorites yeah