Another Bonnaroo veteran that we've lost probably way, way, way too early.

Probably is not the right word.

December 8th we lost Juice WRLD and Barry, I was going back and looking at all of the artists that have played Bonnaroo that we've lost.

And the list is like the heavy hitters of the last 25 years.

You could create an entire festival just on the artists that we've lost in the last 15 years.

It's not even the young ones though.

It's the ones that, I apologize, it's not even the old ones though.

It's not even the ones that you can be like, man we had a good run with them.

It's the young ones that get, I mean Mac Miller, Juice WRLD.

Those are the ones that really, really, really hurt.

Yeah, we talked before about the Tom Bettys and the San Juan UK and the, and the Juice WRLD.

There are a lot of people to point me out.

You're a big Juice WRLD guy?

Yeah.

So it's weird because you're Barry without an A.

And he was Juice WRLD without an O.

Right.

Barry.

It's Barry.

It's Barry.

It's Barry Courterner.

It's Brad Steiner.

Welcome to the what?

Podcasts, a podcast for Bonnaroovians by Bonnaroovians.

Now, there's so much to get to and we have a load, load to talk about.

But real quick, I want to go through the list of artists that we've lost.

And if I've missed one, please hit us up at Brad Stinks on Twitter at, what is your Twitter

by the way Barry?

I can't even remember.

Barry JC.

Okay, Barry JC.

BRRYJC?

Yeah.

Okay.

And then of course the what underscore podcast.

So you've got Juice WRLD.

Lost Charles Bradley.

Solomon Burke, which was one of the great, there's two specific shows that I remember

that I knew I was seeing the last hurrah.

I knew it was going to be dangerously close to the last show that they ever did.

And in fact, one person on this list, it was the very last show they ever did.

Solomon Burke, one of those guys who is the King of Philadelphia soul.

And I am a unabashed 60s soul, obsessed lunatic.

And Solomon Burke was my guy.

There's times when you know that you're never going to get this ever again.

And I know that you have your favorite artists on the planet and I know that you're probably

going to go see them at Bonnaroo if they show up at Bonnaroo.

More often than not, you could buy a ticket and go see them.

Solomon Burke was not that guy.

You could not just go find a ticket for Solomon Burke.

So the fact that he was at Bonnaroo, it was like it was specifically chosen for me.

And I got to watch the King of Philadelphia soul in front of maybe 125 people, seeing

every great 60s and 70s hit he's ever had.

He took me to church and I knew it.

I was bawling throughout that show because I knew this was the last time I was ever going

to see him.

Yeah, it's a weird thing.

We've talked about this before again with the Don P. I think you know that the Alan

DeSantis on the, he's left this.

You know, I didn't have him on the list, but thank you for adding him.

Yeah, Alan DeSantis.

He's worth it.

I actually, my wife has been to Bonnaroo one time.

I actually didn't know that.

She actually came up for the Springsteen night.

Came up that night and we had the next day.

And two songs there that Bill was passed down.

Wow.

And they are, I told you I used to bring my kids to play at a night club concert.

It was serious.

You hear anyone?

Yeah, I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

I was there.

And I had a big time meeting.

Taking care of every children, and holding them up and say, take me later.

Really?

Yeah.

I'll take you!

But I think the same with her.

Yeah, I think that's too light for me.

at the Rick James concert.

I wonder if he had the same feeling about his kid.

I think it was a concert, but I'm just trying to think

about whether I could see Richard at night

or get a little bit of that.

That's a really good question.

Yeah, you don't get these opportunities very often.

And you're worried about the young lips or anything.

Here's one with you, Brad.

Years and years.

This show's going to happen forever.

Mac Miller, I'm sure.

In 2012, when Mac Miller was still a guy that you had

to be in the know to really like it and get it.

But he's gone.

Of course, the Tom Petty's.

We lost James Brown.

We've lost Dr. John.

The only comic that I can remember that we've lost

is Ralph E. May.

Ralph E. May, he's a Chattanooga kid.

He was born and raised in Chattanooga slash Houston.

Sharon Jones, of course, we've lost.

And then the one that I'll double back everything

that I've said about Solomon Burke,

I had the exact same feeling about Bobby Womack.

And there is not a better, pure soul singer than Bobby Womack.

And he was the guy that when James Brown was getting

all the credit, it was really Bobby Womack that was the guy.

Him and Syl Johnson.

If you talk about somebody I can't believe

doesn't do shows anymore.

And if he did one show, I'd probably

never seen a Bonnaroo Syl Johnson, but Bobby Womack,

his last show he ever played was at Bonnaroo.

He died a month later, a month later.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't think you're going

to say that Bonnaroo is such a curse.

No, because if you think about it,

that's only like a dozen artists.

But that lineup, if you go through Juice World,

Charles Bradley, Solomon Burke, Sharon Jones, Bobby Womack,

Dr. John, James Brown, Tom Petty, Mac Miller, Ralph E.

May, Alan Toussaint, that is a lineup, man.

That is a lineup.

They're not telling you.

No, I mean, I've already talked to their general minister.

You know where they sit somewhere.

I've got to be missing somebody, man.

I've got to be missing a big one too.

And that's what I'm worried about.

So hit us up if I've missed anyone.

And if you've seen any of these shows, tell us what you felt.

Did you have the same feeling I did,

like I did to Solomon Burke and Bobby Womack?

I mean, Solomon Burke hit me hard.

Hit me really, really hard because the man was barely

able to walk out onto the stage.

And he had to sit on a throne and have, I guess,

his daughter or whoever his girl was there at the side

literally pat him down from sweat the entire day.

Well, I think it's important to note,

because you and I get this sense of it.

I think we did.

And I know I did it in a couple of days,

and you might tell me, but you don't get to see these people.

You know, when they're gone, they're gone.

We don't get to see them.

We don't get to see them go out there and see them.

So I kind of felt that way last year about Tom Pryde.

I felt that way about the country, the country that

kept getting the Grand Ole Opry.

The Grand Ole Opry.

Those guys, that was important to me to be able to see that.

And I get that the show wasn't what we wanted.

That's maybe not for everybody to go see a show,

you know, that they're going to do.

They get there.

But we're an opportunity that had to walk through, technically.

That's to me one of the great things about our anniversary

acts.

You get to walk by and see somebody that you're not

going to see again.

Do you feel as though, and yes, the John Pryde and the Grand

Ole Opry thing is one thing, but do you think that they've done

a good job lately in the last couple of years with legacy acts?

Or do you feel as though, like some people's theories are,

that the legacy act has sort of gone away?

No, I don't think so.

But I don't think it's a focus, and I don't

know that I blame them for it.

I've heard mixed names.

Some people like, we are from the entire show,

40 years ago.

I didn't care for it.

I just thought it was really exciting.

I thought the show was just basically,

and I get that the lead singer, Perdue,

Perdue is the bass player.

Mr. White Labored, that means that the audience is no longer

with him.

It felt like an interesting show.

Yeah.

That's not their fault, but that's part of it.

That's the struggle you get with legacy acts.

The only one that comes to mind that I'm glad people saw,

that was my line in my book, was Wanda Jackson.

Man, see, the Wanda Jackson thing was going to be a kind of,

I was hoping you were going to bring that up,

because boy, do I love Wanda Jackson.

And she struggled at that show.

And she said so.

She was battling the heat.

She was an hour late.

She just didn't.

You have to say you've seen it.

Well, I ended up seeing Wanda Jackson twice on that tour,

because I was so obsessed with her.

I saw her in a sit-down theater, and then I saw her at Bonnaroo.

And the Bonnaroo show was just one of these things like, oh,

god, I hope she makes it.

I hope she makes it.

Because it's fun.

It's a really, really fun show.

But it's those kind of acts, and precisely to your point,

that I wonder if they're even paying attention to anymore.

Because it takes somebody in that office

to know exactly what they're doing

and to be able to find the person.

And here's what I'll say.

And I know, well, I don't know.

But I hope to god the AC people are listening.

And I'm begging you, find Syl Johnson just for me.

If there's anything that you could do just for me,

find Syl Johnson, who is the guy that's

been sampled more than any other 60s soul artist ever,

other than James Brown, find him from Chicago,

drag him to the farm, and please put him on a stage.

And I don't care if 35 people are there.

Now back to another legacy act, but never really got.

I mean, he wasn't there because he was dead.

But William O'Neal-Bor.

They did the atomic bomb William O'Neal-Bor tribute.

And again, there might have been 300 people at it.

It's these kind of acts that just don't move the needle

for very many people.

But boy, do they give Bonnaroo a slice and an angle

that nobody else has.

I'll tell you what, the US, when I was not going to this,

was actually teaching them.

Right.

I know.

I know.

You're right.

So they were in a legacy act.

But the pod is backstage, right on that side stage.

I've never seen anything like it.

The ushers were pointing out to me,

that so-and-so in my nation, and that so-and-so in that.

One usher said, oh, I know.

I said, my boss came up to me and said, take care of that.

But I didn't want to.

But he wasn't there.

Wait, that wasn't me?

Wasn't you.

Oh, damn it.

But that was cool to see an age of the teaching

who I adore.

In fact, you said 300 people.

Yeah, you know.

It's an idea that probably isn't being

able to let your players or just to be able to say,

you saw them.

It's what they need to know to be on a show.

And that's what I think.

Well, Sharon Jones always brought a show.

She never left anything to be wanted.

Charles Bradley's show, to me, was, man,

that was the pinnacle Bonnaroo moment.

Because it's a Saturday or Sunday.

I can't remember.

I think it's a Sunday.

That was that church moment that I've been begging for them

to bring back.

I want church on the What Stage at 2 o'clock, 1 o'clock

in the afternoon.

Charles Bradley, there was maybe 1,000 people tops

at the What Stage.

And he came out at the end of the show

and hugged every single damn person in that audience.

And it was unbelievable.

I'll never forget that moment.

And it was like him saying thank you

and appreciating what he had gone through for 30 years

to get to that moment.

And he had it.

And he got it.

And he wanted to say thank you to every single one of them.

There's somebody in that office that pays attention to this.

There's somebody that does it.

I don't know how much attention they're paying to it.

But if there's an audience that still appreciates it,

I think it's the Bonnaroo audience.

I agree.

I agree with the fact that you're asking this question.

I think it says a lot to that.

And to me, the best part of Bonnaroo that it's done

is that you go home and you eat it, not just one day

or Tuesday, but months later and realize, wow, I

got to see so much more.

Right.

Now, I appreciate you joining us on this episode.

There's so much that we've got to get to.

And we spent a lot of time, probably way too much time,

on the memoriam stuff.

But there have been Rue clues that have come out.

We've got news about the podcast that we want to share with you

that we're really, really excited about.

There have been lineups like crazy dropping

over the last month since we've been back.

I mean, the last time that we did a show

was the Rue crossover podcast with the Rue bus.

And the amount of information that

has happened in this last month is baffling.

There's so much going on.

So I was just going to run through some of it.

But I think that we probably should start with, well,

actually, I don't know where to start.

Because I want to talk Lizzo.

I want to talk the other lineups.

I want to talk the Rue clues.

You want to go through some of the Rue clues first?

Do you know what the pattern for this is?

OK.

All right.

So there have been five.

There's been five Rue clues.

And here's what I know about the lineup.

The lineup is coming out the second week of January.

And my bet is based on the history of Bonnaroo

and going through all of my old emails

and how they position it, I'm going January 14th.

It's a Tuesday.

They normally like to release the lineup on Tuesday.

And it's going to be one of these first thing

in the morning things as well, like they've

been doing over the past few months.

So my bet, and this is my educated hunch

based on what I know and the people I know,

I'm going with January 14th.

But as always, I reserve the right to be wrong.

Now, you go through what the Rue clues have been saying.

And I can't remember how many they've done in the past.

But we've already have five.

First is Loop Daddy, which is weird

because that's what we call Barry.

I didn't know that Barry was going to be here.

Look, I don't know Loop Daddy.

And someone's going to have to, we need a guy.

We need a guy on Loop Daddy.

Do we have a correspondent for Loop Daddy?

Yeah, that's why I said I have to be sorry.

I need Loop Daddy.

I need a Loop Daddy guy or girl.

Rez was the third clue.

And boy, do people love Rez.

And again, I'm going to assume that it's one of these EDM acts.

And it's one of these that is constantly talked about.

But for me, it's like the show Lost.

I never watched it.

But it's so far into the mainstream culture,

I've lost it.

There's no way that I could catch up now.

It feels like Rez is such a big deal to so many of these people

that I feel like I'm just now joining the party way too late.

King Gizzard is another one that is a big hit on the Reddits.

And then the two that I know pretty well,

and I can tell you a couple of stories about,

is Pine Grove and Still Woozy.

Pine Grove is a struggle for me.

As an indie alternative kid who lives and breathes

that thread of music, Pine Grove is such a struggle for me

because they simultaneously are such a great set of songwriters.

That kid can really, really write a song.

But so often, the way that it is then performed and executed

comes across so whiny.

There's just this whine about it that is really, really tough.

Now, Old Friends is damn near one of the best written songs

of the decade.

The last album, they had a song called Old Friends.

And it chronicled through a relationship that went wrong

and how he was too wrapped up into himself.

And he didn't really realize it until he ran into an old friend

on the train.

And it turns out somebody close to both of them had died.

It's a brilliant song.

I mean, the way that it's crafted and put together

is insanely brilliant.

But I specifically went to A Music Festivals

that Shall Not Be Named to see Pine Grove.

That's the only reason I went to see Pine Grove.

And I went to it.

And they played that song, which was at the time their biggest

hit.

They played it first.

And guess when I showed up?

About seven minutes into the set,

they played the biggest song, their only song, first.

And I missed the entire thing.

Here's the other thing that they do on stage

that I swear to God I hope that they have fixed.

Because I really want to like them.

I hope you understand that I want to like Pine Grove a lot.

Because I like him so much as a songwriter.

They wear shorts on stage.

No, they don't take their shirts off, thank God.

But they wear shorts on stage.

And that is a deal breaker for me.

It's a deal breaker.

You're not taking this seriously.

MGMT did the same thing at Hangout.

And I'll never forgive them for it.

You've got to take this more seriously than wearing

a t-shirt and some Bahama John shorts.

You can't do that to me.

Yeah, you might have had to perform with another artist

about appearance.

So I get it.

It's all about energy.

English counts.

I just want you to take this as seriously as I'm taking it.

That's all.

That's all.

OK, and then finally, Still Woozy.

Dude, I love Still Woozy.

Still Woozy's my Quinn 92.

Now, I told you all year last year how much I loved Quinn 92.

This guy, Still Woozy.

You know, Mr. Woozy, you have some proud image.

Yes, and knowing him now on a personal level,

I understand why he's doing it.

I understand the bit that he's trying to pull off.

But Still Woozy is sort of in that vein.

And I was lucky enough to have dinner with Interscope Records

the day that they got signed during Lollapalooza.

And the way that the record people were talking about Still

Woozy, it's like they had uncovered, you know,

I mean, Taylor Swift is too far, but it's

like they had found the next great artist,

the next big one.

And they, believe me, they feel so strongly about Still Woozy,

the way that they stream, the way that they sell.

They think they have a monster.

They think they have an underground monster that's

waiting to erupt.

And if that's the case, and you have somebody like Interscope

Records who feel so strongly about an artist,

that means they're going to put a lot of money into them.

That means they're going to put a lot of investment into them.

And this, and you might be looking this time next year

saying, oh my god, Still Woozy played Bonnaroo probably

on a Thursday night?

Wow.

That band, those guys are really, really good.

In fact, I don't even know if it's those guys.

It might just be a guy now that I think about it.

But either way, give them a listen,

because they're going to be a Thursday night stunner.

I'm asking the lawyers.

Do we know for a fact these are the acts?

Because I don't follow them.

I guess it's some kind of a guess.

And it's not even a thought.

I'm taking the very educated assumptions

based on the people on Reddit that make a lot of sense.

I mean, these people are really obsessed with this.

I mean, they know who's touring where, who's going to be where,

and does it fit into an overall tour?

And this is what they've got.

Now, if they're wrong, they're wrong.

But I think that I trust these guys.

I trust these guys a lot on their stuff.

I mean, no, they haven't.

But here's the thing.

When you get to a point where you've

needled through so many clues, and you come up

with so many different options, and everybody

gets to a consensus that, yes, it's King Desert,

or yes, it's Pine Grove, I'm going to go with it.

I'm going to go with it.

Yeah, I just couldn't help it.

It's not something that I'm necessarily thinking to.

With that being said, there are so many other lineups

that have been announced.

So many lineups.

They desperately want you to buy these tickets for Christmas.

And let's go through a couple.

Electric Forest was announced.

And again, Electric Forest is one

of these that just you're not going to find me there.

And I know that it's really, really popular.

It sold out really, really quickly.

And everybody I've ever known has loved it.

If there is a more highly sought after or thought

of festival in the country, I would be surprised.

I mean, Electric Forest is way up there on user experience

and how people think of it.

I've never heard someone have a bad word

about their experience at Electric Forest.

That's not true.

I would just add, you know, why I

have to listen to my name at pace.

My agency came out in 2019.

Best festivals in Big Air was one.

And Waterloo was two.

Well, that's AC and AC.

I know.

And then there's a bunch of them around the world.

So did our own Moon River get in there?

Did we?

It did not.

OK.

You got Big Air, said it had to do with Waterloo.

Three, what was it?

It was a hot water festival in Charleston.

I'm not sure.

But I think they're going to have some big big.

I don't know.

And then Iceland Airways in Iceland.

That's why they need to go from Big Ears in Knoxville

to Iceland, Montreal Jazz Festival.

Really?

And not the New Orleans Jazz Festival, huh?

Is that not the same people, too?

It's in Midtown.

Oh, stop it.

Throw that list in the trash, Barry Courter.

Throw it in the trash, because music Midtown is garbage.

It is garbage.

So it's ahead of the New York Jazz Festival.

I'm stunned.

Did they do a description on each one of these festivals?

Read to me what they wrote about music Midtown.

I hate to be so mean about this, but I've never

had worse user experiences than at music Midtown.

Let's see.

The major music festivals may have

become a wash of major label uniformity

and corporate branded tabs.

But that doesn't necessarily suck.

Yeah, it does.

So it just goes on and on.

I think it's experience.

I don't know.

I didn't read the entire list.

That's stunning.

I can't take that list seriously all of a sudden.

I can't take it seriously.

I always teach you, you write yours on your own VIP.

You get me.

You got my address.

You get me.

You get me.

There's just no culture to it.

I'm not going to get it.

I'm not going to argue about it.

I'm not going to.

I'm stunned.

So you've got the Something in the Water Festival

in Virginia Beach, which by the way,

I need to say something about the Something in the Water

Festival.

I have never been, and I'm sure it's a wonderful festival.

But can we please, as a collective group,

fight back at people who alphabetize their lineup

on their poster?

You have.

No, Something in the Water has a real lineup.

But it took me to get to the peas to see Post Malone.

That is a problem.

I know that it's dopey.

But that kind of stuff to me matters.

And I didn't want to look through your whole lineup

to find artists that I might like.

I want you to tell me who's your best.

Tell me.

It's bad for the eye.

And I hate to make such a weird argument about this.

But dear Something in the Water Festival,

you might have a great festival.

But I can't go because I can't read your poster.

I just want to make this point at some point during this

podcast.

But now seems like a good time.

I just think it's fascinating that four years ago, you

and I were just sitting around talking about how much we liked

water.

And now here we are in December.

How many did you say this is our 80th or 60th podcast?

Oh man, that's a conversation for Lord Taco.

I don't know.

I don't know the numbers.

But I mean, no greater than the Festival in this country.

Well, but there are so many that

Three down in this town.

Well, I know.

But then you go to the Festival Graveyard

and you find Exit 111 Fest, which was universally.

Yeah, they were awesome.

Exit 111 Fest was universally praised.

People really, really enjoyed their time.

As odd as a fit as it was and as odd as the space was,

people really, really loved it.

But it's going to find the graveyard

because there are things like the Rockville Fest

in Daytona Beach that's servicing

that group of people of the Metallicas and the Deftones

of the world.

But I think it fits in there, again,

like you and I talk about every time.

We've got to have a mission.

There is a right way and a wrong way.

And that's why I think we're able to do what we do

with this.

It's not just us.

And when you have learned your conversations with Ashley

and Jeff Bray are, the industry people,

there's a right way and a wrong way.

And I don't think that Exit 111 people,

I don't think there was a 100% commitment,

to be honest, from everybody involved.

That's all.

But that's like you said.

I have not heard anybody say otherwise.

I wish it was so cold.

We should have a rain.

Let me tell you something.

If that was less than 100% commitment

on everybody involved, then they're

better at this than damn near everybody that's ever

done a music festival.

Because if that was 60%, wow.

That's really well done.

If you could pull off 60% of your care in the world

and you still pull off Exit 111 Fest,

that was universally praised.

I don't mean to say they didn't do it well or committed that way.

They just weren't committed to it.

I think that's what I'd say.

And then the final one that I wanted to bring up

was Hangout Fest.

Because I don't know how out in the public this is,

but I'm going to talk about it anyway.

But apparently, Sean O'Connell, who

is the guy that was really early on for Bonnaroo,

he helped with the booking and helped with the radio compound

and some of the media stuff, went to be the CEO of Hangout

Festival years ago.

And I give him 100% of the credit for turning Hangout

Festival into what it is today.

He made it a much better user experience.

He turned it into a major, major product.

And he was helped with Golden Voice.

When Golden Voice came in and bought most of the shares of it.

But Sean O'Connell is one of the great minds in this world

when it comes to music festivals.

And he did an absolute phenomenal job with Hangout.

He's no longer there.

Lineup that you see, from what I understand,

is not the person.

He didn't book this lineup.

He booked most of the ones in the years past.

He didn't book this one.

He's off to doing other things that I don't know are public

or not.

But the guy knows what he's doing.

So he deserves a ton of credit for what Hangout is.

No matter if you like Hangout, or if it's a festival for you,

or a lineup for you, I'm telling you,

based on everything that I have gone to,

all the festivals I've gone to, Hangout

is as good of an experience as it gets,

as far as an organization is concerned.

Yeah.

I am up to that one.

And you would have known that had we've been able to put out

our Hangout episode last year.

We had our conversation with him.

It's never a hit or miss.

But he's part of that group of people

that you and I have talked to about how to do these festivals.

We've learned a lot from him.

Talking to him, I did anyway.

Just the level of detail that goes into these things.

It's fascinating.

I'm almost as interested in that as it makes everything else.

How do you get a crowd from one A to one B?

How do you make sure the vendors are happy?

How do you make sure vendors are happy?

Yeah.

And that's what we talked about with him.

You go through the Hangout lineup,

and you've got Chili Peppers, Post Malone, Billy Eilish,

Marshmello.

And I'm a big guitar player.

Lana Del Rey.

Shockingly, I'm no Red Hot Chili Peppers historian.

So I can't talk too much about, you know.

I like them.

They just came out this week that First Yachty is back.

So I'm pretty excited.

OK, well, good for you.

You've got a sock on your groin right now.

You're so excited.

Yeah, both of them are happy.

I've been a fan since the beginning.

So I'm excited to be doing it.

Anyway.

Then you've got KJ Elephant, Iliam, Kane Brown, Rainbow

Kitten Surprise, et cetera.

Look, Hangout Festival is a top 40 lineup.

It is as big of a top 40 festival

as you're going to find, the second being probably Music

Midtown, at least in the Southeast.

But Hangout Festival has a very specific crowd

they're going for.

They have a very specific lineup that they do.

And it is all built on how they can maximize a top 40 listener,

top 40 lifestyle.

And in that way, they did a very good job.

And what's crazy about Hangout Festival

is it is going to sell out before the end of the year.

When I talk to the way that things have, the RSVPs

and the tiers, they have sold so quickly.

And the numbers are so high.

Hangout Festival is going to sell out that quickly.

You've got to be doing something right.

Now, they don't care what your opinion on the lineup is.

They can sell.

Because I was told, this is the number that is so crazy to me.

For every ticket over capacity that is sold,

so they'll hit their capacity number.

And then every ticket after that,

that they have to go to the city and say, hey, by the way,

can we get this upped by 10,000 people or 1,000 people?

Every ticket sold over capacity equals $1,000 in pure profit.

That is unbelievable to me.

See, there, there, let's say, over there,

there's an example of just being smart.

They combined.

Well, you didn't want to go to golf shows.

Well, I was the guy.

I didn't want to go.

Because my argument was always, if I

go to Hangout Festival at the end of the day,

when it's all said and done, I'm stuck in golf shores.

But then I realized when I went, I'm stuck at golf shores.

It's actually pretty real.

It's really well done.

That's what we had in Minnesota.

You're graduating from high school or college or whatever.

A week in, the golf shores, it's already lit.

Well, that's a good point.

And now there's a festival at Baltimore.

That's a good point.

So yeah, it's a genius idea.

It's a really good point.

So again, this is the Bonnaroo podcast.

We're Bonnaroovians by Bonnaroovians.

Barry Courter.

I'm Brad Steiner.

This is the What Podcast.

Follow along, the what underscore podcast dot com.

Or I'm sorry, the what underscore podcast on Twitter,

the what podcast dot com for all of our previous episodes

and season.

I guess when we hit lineup day, lineup day

will start our third season.

Our third official season, we're set up for about 15 to 16 shows.

But throughout next year and throughout the third season

of the Bonnaroo podcast, the what podcast,

we are adding a little wrinkle.

And we're really, really happy to announce because,

and by the way, not only happy to announce,

but also very scared to announce.

I'm very nervous about this because this

is a direct reflection on how much we're actually liked.

And if you actually like the product enough,

but it was something that we struggled with.

I'll be totally honest and vulnerable with you

for a second.

It was something that we struggled with.

We talked about over and over and over.

We had cold feet, and then we started,

and then we got cold feet again.

It's very nerve wracking to put yourself out like this.

But we are now officially on Patreon.

We're doing the regular podcast thing and asking you

if you would like to be a part of our Patreon.

There is several levels that you can join with.

And as low as $2, you can be a Patreon.

And up to $20 a month, you can be a Patreon.

And I wanted to go through some of the levels

in which we've sort of set up because we kind of wanted

to create some cool things that allow you to be a Patreon

and more than just, hey, we'll talk to you some more.

We'll do more content, which is cool.

And we think that people like content.

We can do it.

I mean, not like we got anything to do.

But we wanted to add some more things to it

so that you can feel even more tied to this product

as you already are.

Yeah, this is pretty cool.

I'm excited about it.

I'm nervous as you are.

It feels like passing that note across the aisle

so that we're all next to you and asking her to check

one of those boxes.

Right.

It's interesting you put it like that, like, do you like me,

yes or no.

To me, it feels like I'm sitting outside homeless asking

for a few change.

It's sort of as if I'm some sort of busker.

Yeah.

Well, I don't know.

It feels good.

That guy's guitar is out of tune.

We've got five different levels of Patreons.

The $2 a month for a commitment of five months

gets you a shout on the show every show.

And we'll go through a list of them at the end of the show.

And we'll thank you immensely for your support.

That's the high five.

The Marty McFly, it's $4 a month.

And we've added our own What Podcast Cousy

that will also keep your PBR cold and allow

you to be a good dancer.

It's pretty good.

There's one coming out.

Now, of course, this is a per month basis.

And we hope that you stick around for the five months

from January to the festival date,

mainly because these things that we are printing cost money.

And we hope that you don't just get it for $4.

Then the third package is named after our good friends

Repeat Repeat.

We've named it the Glazed package.

You get, of course, the mention on the show.

You get the Cousy.

And you get a What Podcast T-shirt that even makes

Barry Courter look sexy.

Yeah.

And even those shows.

So you start at that package.

And we're going to do secret shows for the people

in that package and above.

So if you can give us $6 a month,

we're going to do secret shows that not only are available

just to Patreons, but they're also going to be video shows.

We'll do the podcast.

And it will actually be videoed.

And you can see our faces as if that would be interesting

to you in any way.

I can't believe I'm seeing this shirt in my

T-shirt section.

You better off not wearing one.

And then the fourth package, Bring Back the Arch.

You get all the things before, plus something that we're really excited about.

You get the Cousy.

You get the T-shirt.

You get the mention.

You get Barry Courter being sexy.

You get to be a good dancer.

But the fourth package, Bring Back the Arch.

We are going to custom make you a mixtape.

One of us, either Barry, Lord Taco, or myself, will make a mixtape for you for only $10 a

month for the period of the what podcast from January until June, which is what?

50 bucks?

50 bucks.

You get a T-shirt, a Cousy, and a mixtape.

And then finally, the Mike Tyson.

Now we'll talk about the joke, the inside joke about this, but for $20 a month.

Now I know $20 a month is a lot, but we hope that this is worth it for you.

You get all of the stuff in front of it.

You get all of the benefits of the tiers in front of it.

Plus we want to have you on the show.

We want to spend an entire episode just dedicated to you.

Now each one of these tiers has a cap, and I think there's only like 15 per package.

And then the final one's only five.

So there's only five people that can do $20 a month.

We're not asking for a lot.

We just hope that you like us enough to throw us a little bit so that we can keep this thing

going on a more regular basis.

Because turns out we haven't had somebody call us and offer us say like 80 grand just

to take over the product, which by the way, we'll take that phone call.

So there you go.

The Patreon available at the whatpodcast.com.

It would mean a lot to us.

Who doesn't want to see Barry Courter in some sort of sexy negligee?

And the wife.

All right.

So the other thing that I wanted to get to was I'd like to talk a little bit about Lizzo

because boy, I could talk about Lizzo all day.

And I know that if you follow any of the reddits or the infaroos, it feels as though they are

at a breaking point with the Lizzo conversation.

We have tried to do a podcast for the last two and a half weeks.

And every time we tried to, one of us has been sick.

He's down.

So yeah, so we got Lord Taco.

The Lizzo thing is such a confusing, confusing argument for me.

This woman, when I found...

I was lucky enough, and I don't mean to pat myself on the back, but I was lucky enough

to be the very first guy to ever play on the radio.

And I stumbled upon her on a blog and because of that, the record label literally called

me and said, please stop playing the song.

We don't know what we're doing with her yet.

Well, I said no and I kept playing it.

Well, that forced them into moving it up a lot faster than they wanted.

And they repaid me with this by coming to Chattanooga, bringing Lizzo to Chattanooga

to play a free showcase for about 350 to 400 people on a random Tuesday afternoon.

And in that moment, it was five months after I had started playing her, she was doing no

free shows.

Even then you could start to feel the momentum starting to hit.

And I'll never forget in that moment, she comes to the Songbird South here in downtown

Chattanooga.

She goes up and her manager says to me, we will be doing stadiums by the end of this

tour.

We're tracking on every metric.

We see it happening.

And even then, even then this was without a hit.

She barely had a hit at the time, but the metrics were just moving in a way that they

knew things were going to blow up.

Whatever argument you want to make about somebody being a one hit wonder or two hit wonder or

whatever, that's not how industry treats artists.

They see the metrics and they see where things are going.

They can track it very, very precisely and they know exactly what the person is going

to be worth six, eight, 12 months from now, especially an artist like Lizzo.

So even though I got to say things like I was the first in the country to play her,

it didn't matter.

It was predetermined.

I mean, she was, I didn't know, not at all.

Not one, and they knew it and they knew it because of the reactions from sales and streams

and concert ticket sales.

They knew it was something.

They just needed to get the right, they needed an inside straight and they got it.

So when she...

It's like, if Home Depot, if you create a whatever and Home Depot, Big Box wants to

buy it, you need to be able to reason out the little bit of a sell.

They have to have to, they have to have to have a little bit of a sell.

They have to have a little bit of a sell.

They have to have the mechanism in place, right?

The whole package in place.

Or at least they tried.

Well, when we actually...

Now, if, I'm not going to jump 10 feet or 10 steps in front of ourselves, but if Lizzo

is actually a headliner and she's actually the first female headliner in Bonnaroo history,

if she ends up being that, we will have our own Lizzo show and I'll tell you some deep

dart secrets about the Lizzo world and as far as I know them.

And I'll go...

Remind me because I'll go back to that Big Box store theory that you have because I'm

going to stun you with a couple of things of your theory.

But when they told me that she was going to be doing stadiums and et cetera, at the beginning

of the tour, mind you, this was May of earlier this year, okay?

She gets to the event space, she's deathly sick.

She's so sick and she has to lay down.

She was an hour and a half late getting on stage because she could not get off the couch.

And even then I noticed that she was just going from date to date to date, city to city

to city.

And when she was doing it, she was doing it right.

She was living it.

And I said then, I was like, you guys, I love you and I love her, but you guys got to calm

it down a little bit because she is hitting it hard and because she gives so much of herself

on stage every night and she was doing so many nights in a row.

And so to even be able to fit her into a small showcase in Chattanooga, Tennessee was stunning

that they could make that happen.

But that hasn't stopped.

She has done, I saw a chart that went through the top performing artists of the year as

far as tour is concerned.

And she did like, of all the artists, she did like the top five amount of dates of the

entire year.

She has just done so many dates and she keeps coming back to cities and back to cities.

She's got to have a break.

She's got to have a break.

So I can imagine how sick that she truly is if she's having to cancel Saturday Night Live

because I've seen her sick and I bet that she's been sick for the better part of six

months and it's just bound to happen when your immune system breaks down.

So that's separate.

Sure.

Alright, now I want to clarify a couple of things.

Yeah, sure.

She would be, well never mind.

I was going to say she would be a bit of a different headliner and that it would be

a projection type of thing.

But based on what you said about her show, it's a hit.

Right?

And if they got her, it's not just the one hit type of thing.

She could be a mighty good.

It's an amazing show.

I look, I have seen this show almost 10 times this year.

This show just keeps getting better and better and bigger.

And when somebody wants to tell me that she is not a headliner or if I read that, you

know, she can't hit a note or she can't.

Guys, what in the hell are you talking about?

I have, I have never, never.

And I've been doing this 20 years, Mary.

I have never seen a crowd react like they do at Lizzo shows.

I've never seen it.

And I've, I'm, I don't mean to bloviate and I don't mean to overstate this, but I have

never heard a crowd lose their collective shit.

Like I heard at the Tabernacle in Atlanta when I saw her earlier in the summer.

This was the most amazing sound I have ever heard.

And it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

The show just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Her, what she's doing on stage keeps getting bigger and bigger.

I've never, I've never been at the ground floor of something and been along for the

ride and seen it happen.

I have no personal stake in this, mind you.

I've just been along for the ride because I've just been really lucky to go to a lot

of the shows.

They're just better and bigger every time that I go.

And it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter what you, you know, if she misses a note or two, or if you don't know

any of the songs, it is a damned blast.

It is, do you understand?

I am a heterosexual male who knows all the Lizzo songs, but when boys comes on, I'm screaming,

I like boys, I like big boys, like little boys.

That is insane.

That is a cult of personality that you can't get with half, damn near half of the industry.

Half of the major artists in this, they would kill for what Lizzo has.

And just because you're just now finding out about it does not mean that she is any less

of a major, major headliner.

And I read that, I read stuff like that and I go through stuff like people, I read somebody

write that Cardi B was a bigger, is a bigger star than Lizzo.

That's the point that we made and I wanted to make is maybe that the show from where

I'm hearing your idea with her as a headliner, if that is the case, is going to be an actual

show.

It is a major show.

It's a real show.

Don't sleep on this.

It is a major show.

And she not only, she brings out guests every show, every time.

I've seen her, every time that I've seen her, there's Iggy Azalea has been there, Macaulay

Culkin has been on stage.

She even called Missy Elliott on the speaker phone and tried to talk to her via the speaker

phone.

Everywhere you go, BB Rexha showed up.

Now granted, this may not be for you.

If you are a fish fan, I understand that this is not necessarily for you, but she is worthy

of the big stage because that's how big that she is.

You have to understand that this is as big of a zeitgeist and as big of an artist as

you can imagine.

I read somebody say she's as big as, I would argue till I was blue in the face about her

popularity and who she is and where she's going to be and where she's going to go versus

Cardi B any day of the week because Cardi B has a limitation on her show.

It's a limitation.

You get two and a half minutes of a hit, song over.

You get two and a half minutes of a hit, song over.

Two and a half minutes of a hit, a dance break, song over.

That ain't Lizzo.

Lizzo is banger after banger after banger and it's nonstop pummeling you for damn near

75 minutes.

The other thing was, I tweeted this out the other day about how I got confirmation that

she is at least a million dollars.

Now I want to make something really, really clear.

I was not confirming that she was going to be a Bonnaroo and reading it back, I understand

how somebody read it that way and I'm sorry about that.

That's not what I was saying.

I can confirm 1 million percent that she is a million dollars and that is the least amount

of money that she is.

Now she got a million and a half for her New Year's Eve show in Vegas.

Now New Year's Eve shows of course are at an inflated rate but she is at least a million

dollars for just regular shows.

I can't tell you what her festival price is going to be.

So if U2 is 5 million dollars and Post Malone is 2 million dollars or whatever it is, Lizzo

is right there.

Lizzo is right there.

She would be the first female headliner in the history of Bonnaroo and she espouses everything

that Bonnaroo is about.

When it comes to culture, there is not a more culture fit than Lizzo in the way that her

body positivity, the way that she is screaming about equality, how she wants everybody to

feel included and then at the end of the day to love yourself.

There is nobody that fits that brand better than Lizzo.

She is part Oprah, part Beyonce and they are going to get all of their money's worth for

a buck and a half.

So yes, it is at least, I know for a fact that you can, she has turned down nothing

but 500,000 dollar offers for the last three months.

It's been 500,000 dollar offers and they just roll their eyes and move along.

You have to have a million dollars just to book her just to start.

The other thing that I read about it is that she was a one hit wonder.

That's absurd.

I can't even begin to tell you how absurd that is.

The way that people price artists are not based on chart position.

They are based on how you can sell a ticket and Lizzo has sold out every show that she

has had for a year plus.

She is about to, by the way, have about a pocket full of Grammys come January.

I told you this when we talked at the Roo Bus.

I said that you are going to see her get some Grammy nominations.

Yeah, something absurd.

She has the most Grammy nominations of anybody.

That's not a one hit wonder.

Yes, she has had one number one single.

She is about to have two and she will have a third one by the time Bonnaroo gets around.

It doesn't really matter.

You know why Post Malone gets as much money as he does?

It's because he sells out at every tier.

It's because every time that he puts out a song, it streams and sales through the roof.

Guess what?

The top three out of 25 songs in Chattanooga are streamed.

It's Lizzo.

If that's Chattanooga, that's a deal in Atlanta.

That's a deal in Nashville.

These songs, you may not know them, but they are major hits in the world that we are in

now.

I just needed to say some of this because the argument online about Lizzo not being

a headliner is just, to me, it just misses the entire mark.

It misses the mark.

Because it's not Tom Petty or Phish or U2 or the Rolling Stones, it doesn't mean it's

not a headliner.

Just because you don't understand who they are or you don't like it or you don't agree

with the amount of money, that doesn't mean it's not a headliner.

I agree.

I agree.

I've thought about it a lot.

At the moment, if we see her and the show that she presents, it makes perfect sense.

I wonder if there's anything else that we need to get to.

I think that's it.

I think we're looking at it.

Especially with the major up now, we're looking at it as pretty regular now, right?

Starting lineup day.

Starting lineup day, we're going to be damn near every week until the festival.

We're going to be on the back, right?

That's going to take the efforts of somebody who can get us the lineup pretty soon.

That'd be good news so far.

We've had a lot of us for the last 20 years.

I would love to.

I mean, I want to be the first place that you go for the lineup because I don't know

what they have planned.

We normally don't.

But if the rumors hold and it's Tool, Tamampala, Lizzo, Vampire Weekend, Oysterhead, if that's

our five, I have zero problem with any of that.

I have zero problem.

I think that that is as good as you're going to get for this day and age.

I think that's unique.

I think that you can find the lanes that we talk about all the time through all six of

those.

I am totally okay, 1 million percent with that top two lines.

What I'd like to say, I can hope because we've done it for three years, we had the lineup

not first, but we had it in our hands as it's announced.

So we'll go live with it again.

So congratulations to you on finding out what driving day you think you've got the

line.

Turn on those notifications.

Turn those notifications on because as soon as the lineup drops, the show will drop.

Exactly.

Yeah.

All right.

There you go.

Again, Patreon, the whatpodcast.com.

We would really appreciate your support.

If you can, if you can't, that's okay too.

We still love you and we'll still give you high fives and hugs.

And Barry will still be sexy, frankly.

We'll still talk to you line up day.

Bye.