This week, Brad and Barry tackle a whole plate of Bonnaroo leftovers, including the Bonnaroo vets we've lost along the way, big news about the podcast, and an in-depth discussion about Lizzo as the first female headliner at Bonnaroo as we get closer to lineup day. Thanks to The Moxy Downtown Chattanooga for another live episode of The What Podcast!
Hey, hey, hey, hey. How y'all feeling? Journey through the stories that define the artist playing Bonnaroo. Who are they? What are they? What will you see? The what? Which bands? This year, That Matter. Yay. With Brad Steiner and Barry Courter. Another big hit. Another Bonnaroo veteran that we've lost probably way, way, way too early. Probably is not the right word. But 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. It is 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. And we talked before about the Don Meddies and the CYUK and the Juice WRLD. So there are a lot of people that play me out. Your big Juice WRLD guy? So it's weird because you're Barry without an A. And he was Juice WRLD without an O. Right. Right. Barry. That's my joke. It's Barry Courter. 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 bradstinks on Twitter at, what is your Twitter by the way Barry? I can't even remember. Barry JC. Okay. Barry JC. BRRYJC? Okay. And then of course the what? Underscore podcast. So you've got Juice WRLD. We've 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 John Cain. I mean, you know, the Alan DeSantis on the, if you have to say. You know, I didn't have him on the list, but thank you for adding him. Yeah, he's awesome. 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, the next day. And I had two songs there that Bill discussed with him. Wow. And made her, I told you I used to bring my kids to the, they have an Iqbal concert, they have a series here. And it went, you know, it was a great night. And I was like, I'm going to go see them. And I was like, I'm going to go see them. And I was like, I'm going to go see them. And I was like, I'm going to go see them. And I was like, I'm going to go see them. And I was like, I'm going to go see them. And they, I said okay then whole dinner. to go that way. I wonder if when I went to Music Midtown in 2001 and I stood next to a guy with a kid on his shoulders and we were at the Rick James concert, I wonder if he had the same feeling about his kid. I was at the concert and I was trying to think, you know, I think we'll see Richard at night for a little bit. He had absolutely no reference. Yeah, you don't get these opportunities very often and you're pulling it back to young people. So you think this world will do good. Years and years. This show's going to happen forever. Mac Miller, I'm sure. You know, 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, you know, 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 Ralphie Mae. Ralphie Mae, former, 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, you know, when James Brown was getting all the credit, it was really Bobby Womack that that was the guy, him and Syl Johnson. You know, first talk about somebody I can't believe he doesn't do shows anymore. And if he did one show, I'd probably ever see him at Bonnaroo, Syl Johnson. But Bobby Womack, his last show he ever played was at Bonnaroo. He died a month later, a month later. I mean, I don't think you're going to say that Bonnaroo is like a curse. No, because if you think about it, that's that's only like a dozen artists. But but 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, Ralphie May, Alan Toussaint, that is a lineup, man. That is a lineup. There's no telling you. I mean, I've already talked about it. I think we're going to miss it. You know we're missing somebody. 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 if you hit us up if I've missed anyone. And if you hit us up, if you hit us up, if you hit us up, if you hit us up, if you hit us up, if you hit us up, if you hit us up, if you hit us up, if you hit us up, if you tell us what you felt. Did you have the same feeling I did like I did a 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 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 know if you and I get this sense of it, I think we did, and I know I did it in the other times of the age, and you can't 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 no one out here that saw them. So, you know, I kind of felt that way when I heard about Trump Pride, I felt that way about the country, the country that the kids did. The Grand Ole Opry? The Grand Ole Opry, those guys. You know, that was important to me, to be able to see that, and I get that the show wasn't what we wanted, and, you know, that's really not for everybody. You know, see a show, you're not gonna get that. I get that. But what an opportunity that had to walk through, and that's really one of the great things about all of their silly acts. You get to walk by and see somebody that you're not gonna see. Do you feel as though, and yes, the John Prine 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 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 they have. But I don't think it took up this, and I don't know that I'm blaming them for it. I've heard picks that have some people like, we are from the entire show, 40 years ago. I didn't care for it. I just don't know. But you were really excited about it. I was just extremely excited about it. I thought the show was just basically, and I get that, you know, the lead singer, Bredin, you know, Bredin is the bass driver, just a white laborer, and the reason that he's here is that it's no longer with him. It felt like a terrific show. Yeah. That's not their fault. That's part of it. That's the struggle you get with legacy acts. Another one that comes to mind, that I'm glad people saw, that was my mother in my root book, was Wanda Jackson. Man, see, the Wanda Jackson thing was gonna be, I was hoping you were gonna 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. I mean, you have to say you've seen. Well, I ended up seeing, 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. The only thing that I was not going to miss was Angelina Jolie. I know, I know, you're right. So, the Herbion Legacy Act. The ball is backstage, right on that side stage, and I've never seen anything like it. There was, the ushers were pointing out to me that so-and-so would be my nation, and that so-and-so would be that one usher said, I know it's an unbiased pain to me to say, take care of that. But like that one to me, he said, I'm sorry. Wait, that wasn't me? It wasn't you. Oh, damn it. But that was cool, to see an angel who keeps you high, and I go, in fact, you said 300 people. Yeah, you know. It's an idea that from a rest of your life, your play is a really, just to be able to say you saw them is one thing, but you need to know that they're 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, 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 two o'clock, one o'clock in the afternoon. Charles Bradley, there was, I mean, 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. That to me is the best part of Bonnaroo, that it's difficult, because you go on with the gig, not just one day or Tuesday, but months later, you 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 immemorial stuff, but there have been Roo 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 Roo crossover podcast with the Roo 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 gonna 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 Roo Clues. You want to go through some of the Roo Clues first? You know, I'm of course just. Okay. I'm gonna start with my Roo Clues. All right, so there have been five. There's been five Roo 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 gonna 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 Roo 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 gonna be. Look, I don't know Loop Daddy, and someone's gonna have to, we need a guy. We need a guy on Loop Daddy. Do we have a correspondent for Loop Daddy? 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 gonna 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 stories about, is Pine Grove and Still Woozy. Pine Grove is, Pine Grove's 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 sort of 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. They take their shirts off. 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 gotta take this more seriously than wearing a t-shirt and some Bahama John shorts. You can't do that to me. Yeah, you had to have this work with another artist about appearance, so I get it. It's all about image. Image counts is my kind of work. I just want you to take this as seriously as I'm taking it. That's all, that's all. Okay, 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, this boy, he actually found 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 feels so strongly about an artist, that means they're gonna put a lot of money into them, that means they're gonna put a lot of investment into them, 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 gonna be a Thursday night stunner. What are they asking their readers? You know, for a fact, these are the addicts? Because I kind of thought of that, because there's the bad of it, I guess, and it's like, how do you even know that? 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 gonna 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. But 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 Gazard, or yes, it's Pine Grove, I'm gonna go with it, I'm gonna go with it. Yeah, I just couldn't help it. It's not something that I, like I said, I don't think you can do. 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 gonna 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. I would just add, you know, I have to listen to it on the Ace Magazine, and I put there 2019 best festivals and videos, and one of them, one or it was two. Well, that's AC and AC. I know, and there's a bunch of them around the world, so. So did our own Moon River get in there? Did we? Did we not? Okay. You got Big Air, so we have one with Brown Roo, three, what is it? It's a high water festival in Charleston. I'm sure, but I think they're around some people. I mean, AC. I don't know. And then Iceland Airways in Iceland. That's one of the things you go from Big Airs in Knoxville to Iceland, Montreal Jazz Festival. Really? And not the New Orleans Jazz Festival, huh? Is that not the same people, too? Oh, stop it. Throw that list in the trash, Barry Courter. Throw it in the trash, because Music Midtown is garbage. It is garbage. I'm stunned. What, 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 musical user experiences than at Music Midtown. Let's see, major music festivals may have become a wash of major label, uniformity, and corporate branded tents, but that doesn't necessarily suck. Yeah, it does. It's not really funny. So it just goes on and on, yeah. I mean, I think it's experience. You know, 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, and me, you got my letter, and you get dinner, or something like that. You know, I gotta take care of it. There's just no culture to, I'm not gonna get it. I'm not gonna argue about, I'm not gonna, 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, you know, Something in the Water has a real lineup, but it took me to get to the P's to see Post Malone. That is a problem. You know, I know that it's dopey, but that kind of stuff to me matters, and I didn't wanna 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 just, 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, basically, I wanna make this point at some point during this podcast, but now seems like a good time. I just think it's fascinating that, you know, four years ago, you and I were just sitting around talking about it, and it's been like, all right, and now here we are in December, the 8th, how many did you say this is, what, our 80th or 60th podcast? Oh man, that's a conversation with Lord Taco. I don't know, I don't know the numbers. But I mean, no growth in the festival industry in any of this area. Well, but there's so many that- Three now in this town. Well, I know, but then you go to the festival graveyard, and you find Exit 111 Fest, which was universally, they were all, 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, you know, it's gonna find the graveyard because there are things like the Rockville Fest within Daytona Beach that are, that's servicing that group of people of the Metallicas and the Deftones of the world. But I think it's because, it fits in there again like you and I talk about every time. It's, we gotta 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, you know, being a family. You and I have learned through conversations with Ashley and Jeff Bray are, you know, the industry people. There's a right way and a wrong way. And I don't think that actually, no other people, I don't think there was a 100% commitment to be honest from everybody involved. I thought the fans, like you said, I have not heard anybody say anything. The other way, she went, it's 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 meant. So, 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 gonna 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 sort of 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 first, 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 happy to have him. And you would have known that had we been able to put out our Hangout episode last year. We're in our conversation with the other seven right here. I'm not sure. I don't know if you do. But he's part of that group of people that you and I talked to about how to do these festivals. And we were all up to it. Talking to him, I did anyway. Just the level of detail that goes into these things. It fascinated me. All those that's interested in that is the way it's 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 everyone's happy? That's what we talked about with him. You go through the Hangout lineup and you've got Chili Peppers, Post Malone, Billie Eilish, Marshmello. You talk to them in guitar class. 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. The whole first reality is back. So I'm pretty excited. Okay, well, good for you. You've got a sock on your groin right now. You're so excited. Yeah, both of them are not been advanced since the beginning. So that's the question we're doing. Then you got K.J. Elephant, Iliam, Kane Brown, Rainbow Kit and Surprise, et cetera. Look, Hangout Festival is a top 40 lineup. It is as big of a top 40 festival as you're gonna find, the second being probably Music Midtown and 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 the top 40 listener, top 40 lifestyle. And in that way, you know, 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. If 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, right? 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 a thousand people? Every ticket sold over capacity equals $1,000 in pure profit. That is unbelievable to me. See, there, there, let's get over there. There's an example of just being smart. They combined, well, you didn't want to go to golf shores. 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. I mean, it's actually pretty, it's really well done. You know, you're graduating from high school or college or whatever, but we came to golf shores because already you left. Well, that's a good point. And now there's a festival involved. 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 for Bonnaroovians by Bonnaroovians Barry Courter. I'm Brad Steiner. This is the What Podcast. Follow along the what underscore podcast.com or, I'm sorry, the what underscore podcast on Twitter, the what podcast.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, you know, 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 liked 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. This is pretty cool. I'm excited about it. I'm nervous as you are. It's, you know, it feels like passing that note across the aisle to the girl 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 I'm a, as if I'm some sort of busker. Yeah, well, I don't feel that way. 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, our own What Podcast Cousy that will also keep your PBR cold and allow you to be a good dancer. It's pretty good. All these things are magical. There's one coming out that I'm really excited about. 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. Okay. 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. 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, you know, be interesting to you in any way. I'm excited to see me in this shirt that makes me sexy. Well. That's promising a lot. Yeah. You'd be 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 spin 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. This is really cool, I hope you guys will participate. Yeah, it would mean a lot to us, you know? And 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, you know, they are at a breaking point with the Lizzo conversation. It's three dots. I'm following all that too. By the way, we should say, oh, she gets better. She's sick, she's sick. This is the worst drug I've ever had. We have tried to do a podcast for the last two and a half weeks, and every time we try to, one of us has been sick. It's bad, and our pride, our position was gonna be our enemies. He's down, so yeah, so we got Laura Taka. You're probably gonna have to back this up and you're so outspent there. 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 this 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 shows 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 wanna 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's gonna 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, right? And they got it. So when she, when she. It's like, you know, if Home Depot, if you create a whatever, Home Depot, if Big Box wants to buy it, you need to be able to reason out what they're gonna sell. They have to have the mechanism in place, right? The whole package in place. Or at least they tried. Well, if when we actually, now if, I'm not gonna 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, dark 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 gonna 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, I mean, going from date to date to date, city to city to city, and when she was doing it, she was doing it right. I mean, she was living it. And I said then, I was like, you guys, I love you, and I love her, but you guys gotta 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 gotta have a break. She's gotta 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 issue, but you have to really have to have a break. All right, now I wanna clarify a couple of things. Yeah, sure. I just wanted to add to that. She could be, well, nevermind. I was gonna say she would be a bit of a different headliner, and that it would be a projection type of thing, but there's a couple of views that have had her show given a bit, right? And if they got her, it's not just the one hit, but she could be a mighty good, and it's an amazing show. 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 she can't hit a note, or she can't, guys, what in the hell are you talking about? 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 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 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, I 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 is a bigger star than Lizzo. 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's 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. 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. And I read somebody say she's not, 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 gonna be and where she's gonna 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. How excited is she? So 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 wanna make something a couple, 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 one 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 gonna be. So if U2 is five million dollars and Post Malone is two million dollars or whatever it is, Lizzo's right there. Lizzo's right there. Yeah, I'm gonna question the concept of Bonnaroo. 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, she's part Oprah, part Beyonce, and they're gonna get all of their money's worth for a buck and a half. So yes, it is the least, and I know for a fact that you can, she's turned down nothing but $500,000 offers for the last three months. It's been $500,000 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. Lizzo has sold out every show that she has had for a year plus, and she's about to, by the way, have about a pocket full of Grammys come January. I told you this when we talked at the Roobus. I said that you're gonna see her get some Grammy nominations. Yeah. Yeah, something absurd. She's got the most Grammy nominations of anybody. That's not a one hit wonder. And yes, she's had one number one single. She's about to have two and she'll 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 sails through the roof. Guess what? The top three out of 25 songs in Chattanooga are streamed. It's Lizzo. And 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. You don't have to sell me. Well, I 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, you know, the amount, that doesn't mean it's not a headliner. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I've thought about it a lot. At the moment, if we see her in 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, especially with the major update, we're looking at, and it's pretty regular now, right? Starting lineup day. Starting lineup day, we're gonna be damn near every week until the festival. We're gonna be back live, right? Like we have in the past. You know? Yeah. That's gonna take the efforts of somebody who can get us the lineup pretty soon. They can go through so far. We've had them the last, like, three years. Yeah. 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, Tamenpala, 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 gonna 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, one million percent, with that top two lines. What I'd like to say, I could hope, because we've done it for three years, we've had the lineup, not first, but we've had it in our hands as it's announced, and so we'll go live with it again. So, you guys are listening to one, find out what Brad and Barry think about the lineup. 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 at lineup day, bye. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, how y'all feeling? Journey through the stories that define the artists playing by the rules. Who are they? What are they? What will you see? The what? Which bands? This year, That Matter. It's gay. It's Steiner and Barry Courter.
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