Lord Taco's Bonnaroo 2025 Picks and an Encounter with "The Dancing Man"

It's the festivals are about celebration about life. That's that's what festivals are where humans are an animal

And we happen to be the only animal

that's throws a party in celebration of life and

A music festival is a celebration about humans and their interactions and life

So true. Yeah

music, I mean somebody invite

String cheese, I mean you pay the band please but it's it's about it's about people. That's why we're here

Welcome back to the what podcast we are live on location in beautiful Pelham, Tennessee

Just across the way from the Caverns. We are here. I'm Barry. That's

Russ that's Bryan

We are here for cave jam at the Caverns. You got it, right? Yes

Yeah, I have to stop

I was here for cave fest back in October and

Wonderful venue in this beautiful. It's gorgeous

Bryan and I were talking as we were walking towards the bus. You'll notice that we are

Live at the bus Russ's bus. Yeah, this is kind of like a little preview for

Camp nut butter here in a few weeks. It's a run through a run. Yeah, I've got a new awning

I've got you know, I've got tables chairs. Is this thing new your table? This is somewhat new

I've got an outside table here paper towels. This could be like a little prep table

So see the more the more tacos prepped the more I'm prepped

Yeah, and by the way guys as this thing drops in the middle of

the last week of May

13 days. Yeah

Until people are on the farm not till they show up that moment 13 days and they're already there

Yeah, holy wow. I talked to our friend David Bruce this morning and he said Barry. It's two weeks

I kind of wish it slow down. I'm ready. I'm not ready drives me crazy

I wouldn't mind if we had another two weeks. Absolutely

It drives me nuts and one little small dynamic

This as a viewer listener to the show in 12 hours, I'll be in Mexico from right now

This show next week. I will been just back for 12 hours

So you never know what kind of mood world traveler world traveler world traveler at least a continental traveler

Did you plan this? Did you coordinate with Daniel and Sharla from the Roo Bus because they're in Cancun right now?

I know they are they're they're just doing a long Memorial Day weekend

I'm gonna miss them. Yeah, they try to coordinate

What are the chances? I know we're hey

You mentioned location. I'm glad you did for those of you don't know Pelham

As my dad would say is about a driver and a five iron from Manchester

So if we if we could look through those trees, yeah, he was a pretty good golfer

No, it's what ten minutes ten minutes of this? Yeah, so we're literally in the shadow almost of

The farm yeah, I drive right by here on my way to Manchester

So this was also kind of a good just test drive coming through I take back roads and just kind of meander

Yeah, hurry. It's it's beautiful. Yeah, it's really gorgeous. Yeah, we were just talking about it, too

I mean, there's something still so very charming

About this venue that you're just not gonna get anywhere else at this point

Maybe maybe there's a few spots around the country that we're not aware of but the independently owned venue

I mean, this is this is what this is and you can feel it you can tell the the employees the the people parking you

The people at the front gates. They're so damn happy that you're here and and the pricing is so reasonable

You know, it's just a jewel. It's just a jewel

Right, that's a good point that it is independently owned because we're so used to live nation owning everything

Yeah, and it's kind of there's a lot of good and bad with

Very personable with the Bonnarooo depending on the day. Yeah

Everybody working here everybody I pulled up and the first person I talked to you know, they're like, how's it going?

Everybody's just everybody's aware of what's going on

Yeah, it's not like, you know that lack of communication and big American corporate business that everybody complains so much that nobody

Like like reads emails or sends them or checks up on what's going on that weekend

It's seemingly everybody knows exactly what's going on. Yeah, and we got to give shout out to Todd and Jeff

Jeff Todd is the owner. He's been our guest you guys remember if you've seen we we did the episode

I think last year. Yeah, yeah

December around there amazing. That was a lot of fun and Jeff is his I guess actually runs the show but

Reached out to him a week ago and said hey we want to come

can you hook us up with some artists maybe and they've been super super accommodating and

Just made everything easy. So yeah, thanks to them. Yeah, and it's gonna be a good weekend of music

I'm sticking around for the whole thing because I got nothing else to do but

string cheese incidents

infamous string dusters

Andy Frasco. Yeah, there's a bunch. Hopefully we're gonna be able to talk to some of them

You might hear it on this show it might be another show

Yeah, we don't really know we're just in the on the side of a we call it a mountain. We understand

Hill

But let's before we get too far in our giveaway because we do not have any time to waste

Instrumental and putting this together. Yeah, so we're doing a giveaway where if you know lunchbox they make the

Hydration packs the bags for festivals. They've got a special Bonnaroo artwork designed

Bag this year and they reached out they want to they want to give one away. So we're gonna do that

You know, these things are pretty cool

If you need a bag to carry they they're approved by the festival regulations, you can bring them in

it's got a hydration pack their theft proof and

So what we're gonna do is we want you to leave a review for the what podcasts on Apple podcasts

Yeah, you'll be in either way but then take a screenshot of your review email it to us giveaway at the what podcast comm

Make sure you include your address your name phone number maybe just so that we can if you do if you win

Then we'll have your info and we'll send out the

The bag but we got to do this quick. So I think June 2nd is the cutoff

Yeah, so the next time you watch listen to this show which time the winners picked

Like I'll get to that later in the week if you really want a chance to win this which I'm just gonna tell you

The chances the odds are gonna be good odds are gonna be good

And if you look on their website, this bag is already sold out

They had a run and it's already sold so they have a few to give away

We don't we don't even get them yeah, but they'll mail one out in time

It'll ship and you'll have it in time for Bonnarooo here in a few weeks while everybody well everybody

Taco but buried today to cracks their beers on the show

Official in a beer of Bonnarooo this year athletic the run wild IPA

I am a fan of that you like that Cheers Cheers can't drink non alcoholic beer all day if you don't start in the morning

Always a trendsetter

It's a tasty damn beer. I'm telling you nice. And then of course me and Barry

We just got the I just got traditional PBR craft beer from Milwaukee

Blue ribbon. Yeah. All right. What about a couple things here real quick though

They've come down in the last week. We I'm not saying we see we start trends

I'm not saying that but it seems like recently when we talk about something a day and a half later

There's big news that comes out about whether it be snake and Jake's or others

On your list Barry. Mm-hmm. You the 70s pool party. Yep, you know the baby video and everything we made

the next day

Haley Williams is announced to be at that

Super jam and that changes everything

Yeah, hey Williams has become such a part of Bonnarooo and everything whether Paramore her band is involved or not

She herself is just Bonnarooo royalty. I know it's almost like what less clay pool was

Yeah, and Warren Haynes in the first 10 15 years of this festival

They were always there and they were like just the unofficial ambassadors

Haley Williams has kind of taken that and and Matt from I think his name is Matt from KG elephant

He's been around a lot too. Yeah, and so having her on that

On that super jam right now every person on the farm wants to go

Yeah, yeah, so that's gonna change that dynamic a little bit, you know, it's gonna be fun. I could just tell I didn't know

She was coming but it's gonna be fun. It was gonna be on no

This was announced after your after we talked about it. Yeah, but we knew it was gonna be fun

Also geese

Not goose but geese. Yeah, I have the list here. Sorry

geese grace Bowers Haley Williams

Moran Morris Marin Morris Marin

Moran Marin

Yeah, Mark Foster from Foster the people Mount Joy and Royal Otis who was on my discovery list for this year

Strong. Yeah, it's gonna be great. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun

It's strong and then

What about what festival posted this week you guys see this yeah another little just kind of look for us giveaway kind of thing

The magic man, right?

We'll put up the graphic it's just a guy who's gonna be around going around wearing this wacky ass hat and it's like a

Giveaway a trade of and the main thing he has is trading cards. Okay. Well, yeah, they're trading cards

Magic cards if you played magic the gathering see I've only heard of this thing. Yeah, you know

Random

They do it at the library

Yeah, it's been around a while but it's kind of like a fantasy kind of like D&D type game

Each card has different abilities and powers. So yeah, he's made cards for everything

Pretty much everything you can think of Banu including us. I think he's got a couple of the what?

Cast cars that right? Yeah

Well, I was about to say he better. Yeah

Sorry, and if not, we'll get you some yeah, it says you'll find that this is from the festival

Tweet I'm sure it's on all the socials

You'll find him wandering around center-oo and outer-oo handing out cards for free one per ruby Rubian

Want more bring something of your own to trade? There you go. So

You know what? I got an idea would now be a good time to take a break

We can take a break. Let's take a break. We'll be right back. All right

All right, and we're back

What were you talking about magic magic magic card?

Spot you just heard make sure you buy whatever that was. Yeah any other news? Uh

What else one other thing the jam track is a little different this year. I've never written it

Yeah, you have where you were the star of the show a few years ago

Um, but the I what you'll just have to look at the graphic. I can't explain it

Well, you know just just on a podcast real quick, but the route is a little different

It looks like it's not a loop this year. Yeah

It's not like last time it would go all the way around which was good and bad

Right because if you missed it you gotta wait for it to go all the way around. I mean it goes all the way around

Right, you know

It looked like it was just one track one train or one one moving

vehicle thing

Um in one route this looks like it has a secondary route that goes out again. You can see the uh, the the

graphic

Where it's two different? Yeah, it looks it looks like two different tracks. So I assume

It could be twice as fast

You know if you don't have to wait for it to go all if you're trying to go from, you know point a to point b

You might not have to ride quite out of your way

I think it's dedicated more for the folks that are away that are far away

Yeah, rather than get on and just ride around in that loop. So yeah

It might have turned into just kind of a joy ride. Yeah for a little bit like hey cool

Get some wind riding around on this thing. I I have full confidence. This will make it run better

It's 8 a.m to 4 a.m

uh during the the the middle of the of the festival different hours on the front and back so

Uh, check that out if jam track is something so that's a little different just a little couple

Minor news items also got in word that uh friday and saturday

Day passes are now sold out

That's right. Yeah friday, I think sold out maybe a couple weeks ago, but they just announced I think yesterday

Yeah saturday days ago. We're spending now saturday's out. I would have thought

sunday's day passes would have gone quicker than saturday

Just based on how many people are excited. It seems like friday and sunday. Yeah seem to be people's

favorite

Two days now depends on who you ask but uh, so friday and saturday gone and then all the g

I mean any minute now

You know as i've said before I mean whether they sell all the tickets or not

The tickets are going to be not no longer for sale any minute now. So if you want to go

It's time to make that decision and I know I saw on our our discord, uh

Somebody talking about I think they misinterpreted what I said last week when I I said that

They're not going to have a hundred or eighty thousand people anymore. Somebody said well

They can't sell tickets. I think this proves that that's not true

But that's also not what I said

They're just they reconfigured the way everything is laid out with all the different camping areas the vip and all that

So it's just and it changes capacity numbers, right?

You know just to go in the way back machine

I mean, I know I do that all the time on this show, but sometimes that's my only point of reference

Um the first two three years were capped at 80 grand and then in like oh five or four

They experiment with a 90 000

Capacity and it sold out like that and that 90 000 year those 10 000 might as well have been 100 million

Yeah, it was so many people and they in the festival at the time run by completely different people

As they always do realize this doesn't work. Yeah scale it back

We're going back to the 80 80 minus sub 80

And it's been that way ever since and it's and it's clearly the recipe that works and a lot of that too back

Then it was pup tent. It was tent camping. Yeah, you didn't have that was your own yard v's

You didn't have vip you didn't have the yurts and you you know all that kind of thing

So the the number of people could that could fit on the farm was different there used to be

Probably

20 30 years ago with big events in america. It was all about how many people you could put in the building

From 100 000 seat college football stadiums and and and random different events wood stocks and and all those were

it's almost like

They weren't successful if they didn't have as many people as possible and the biggest story was how many people were there. Yeah

Yeah

Then they started to realize that's not really the flex that they thought it was. Yeah now it's uh fan experience

Yeah, we want everybody who comes here whether it's 40 50 60 70 80

To leave and say that was amazing and most people aren't going to say can you oh that was awesome

I was just with 150 000 people and I could breathe. I was part of the largest crowd ever. Yeah

That was once upon a time part of the narrative and now it's not and that's good

Yeah, they've reconfigured a lot of the options it used to be if you wanted to go you had to commit to all four days

You had to bring a tent you had to do this and that and it's not for everybody

So, you know some people like to come and just have their accommodations set up

Some people don't even want to camp at all. They just want to go for the day

So they've kind of spread out the options and the the funny thing is and Bryan you and I especially can attest to it

We're not the same people we were 20 years ago

I'm not the same guy was five years ago

So our wants and needs have changed a little bit a little bit a little bit to a whole lot to a whole lot

Yeah, and i'll tell you one last thought on on this property and what goes on here

If you want something and you're in the southeast and something easy to travel to that reminds you

of the bannaru spirit

Yeah, true. You're you can't see it because you're just looking at us in the bus

Trust us. Yeah, this is is very much that same ethos. Oh, yeah, we'll try to put up some photos

Yeah, there'll be a lot of you here with the the show will look great this week. Thank you so much for uh for being here every week

Um, but this really is an essence of of a of a bannaru

Feels like bannaru and pretty much everyone here that i've talked to

Also goes to bannaru. I was getting ready to say we've already had about four or five people walk by and see you in a couple weeks

Yeah

Hell it's it's probably yeah the best experience to test out everything you need

Just like we're kind of we're joking about what you're doing here. I mean, that's no this is exactly it

I wanted to come in but you're on top of this stuff. I knew I knew it would be I know I can't

I camp at least once a month. Anyway, he's been he's been a week in somebody's driveway in nashville. Yeah

I'll camp anywhere. I yeah, i'm prepared

Yeah, I i haven't even pulled my tent out from last year my little yeah, I haven't

Pulled it out of your pocket. Yeah, I pulled it out of my back pocket. Yeah, I think it still works

I don't think I need to set it up and find out that's funny

um

Yeah, so

To Bryan's point if you guys are ever in this area or make a trip it's worth it

Yeah, even if it's just a single show. I mean it's camping almost damn near every one of their shows

A lot of them told me they've gone from like 50 shows a year to 90 something

um

And I think Bryan you and I were talking walking over

I don't know whether I like the cave better or maybe it was you and I the amphitheater better. They're both

Amazing venues and they're they're literally feet apart from each other. It depends on I guess who the act is

That amphitheater is a great

addition

The the cave for the performance is actually pretty small. It's it's not very big

So if it gets real crowded, I don't know. I maybe that could be

Um where you would rather be out in the uh in the amphitheater

But they've got both. Yeah, so you you get to choose which one works best for you

Well, there's a capacity they have to limit how many people come into the cave because there's only one exit

Yeah, so maybe 1500 in there. I don't know what the number is

But yeah somewhere around I wouldn't think it's much more than that

Once they hit the limit no one else is coming in unless somebody comes out and then they'll let they'll admit someone else in

So you could stand in line there just to get in to see a show but not just those two things. We're

Camping your camping. I'm camping. So he's created a campground. There's cabins that we passed on the way in there's

Yeah, uh, there's cave tours. Uh, a couple of people that just stopped by I think are on their way to go do that

So in my old age i'm beginning to really like tours

Really beginning to like really tours that are guided by somebody who knows something more than me

Yeah, there you go, but it's a cool place and again. Thank you to thanks to those guys for letting us be here

um

All right. Any other news before we get into rus's pick? I think we've covered just about everything

I mean, there's not a lot of news left is where this well, let's knocking on the doorstep

Let's real quick mention our live podcast

Yeah, yeah, yeah

We're hearing from a lot of folks who uh planning on being there. Yeah, so excited and Bonnarooo just dropped the uh, planet rue schedule

Yeah, i'm gonna send it to a few people. Yeah me too. You need a magnifying glass to see it real close

I don't care either

It's us we're on a bill

And and really too like the planet rue is it's it's all about health and wellness and it's you know

Expanding, you know your your your mind. I don't mean that in a jim morrison way

I mean, it's just a lot of it's just it's like workshop kind of things

That go on all weekend. That is a great way to get just kind of get away from the noise

a little

and it's it's a relaxation kind of setting and um

I i've been around it before over these 20 some odd years, but i've never really

Immerse myself in it all that much. Well, there's a stage inside there the house stage is what they call it. It's small

But uh, that's where we're gonna be posted up 4 pm thursday thursday Bonnarooo with uh, none other than brad parker

You you know him you love him. You see him everywhere. He's gonna be with us and uh, i'm really looking forward to that

We're still trying to like this is this will be a kind of figured out as we go

We'll have a good idea what's going on, but it'll be a figure out as we go

I don't know if there'll be a q a kind of thing or not. I hope there is

I hope so would love for anybody who's there to be involved if that is a possibility, but whatever it is, I promise you

We will be putting our all into it. Yeah, and um, it ain't gonna blow your damn mind, but I think it'll be a lot of fun

Oh, maybe it will and then hug and howdy hug and howdy very favorite thing and just would love to see everybody

Yeah, come by and say hi

Plus a musical guest. Yeah, we some surprises. So looking forward to that. Um

All right, so let's take another quick break and we'll be back with official picks from taco coming up

All right, we're back

How long did it take you to put this together? I know you've been listening to the king gizzard

Yes, yeah the biggest king gizzard fan on the planet all of a sudden is spoiler alert. Are you finished?

It's yeah. Well, no, no

Will you ever know they keep putting out albums?

Yeah, they probably put one out yesterday

They actually are putting out an album and it releases. I think the friday thursday friday of Bonnarooo

Okay, so sort of like my morning jacket did a couple years ago

Just what we need more to learn from this great down. So

Seriously, was it an easy easy go-go through this year? It was it was pretty easy. It's it's not too heavy

You got any outeru stuff you've got your eye on I do

So you're way ahead of me, okay

Well, yeah, but you got another week. So oh, I know i'm just yeah

Next week. I can't I won't be here for the outeru stuff

I mean, I mean like the the pre thursday thursday and pre you will be so I imagine you'll be

Hitting up many of those so are you without further ado? Yeah, are you going hard? You're going pretty easy pretty easy

Okay, it's pretty easy year. Yeah, it is for me. Like I said, I want to do a lot of other experiences

All right, where are you starting? Well, let's start with thursday. I don't really have anything

Wednesday tuesday planned

But uh thursday, you know, we just mentioned the podcast that's gonna be at four

Yeah, and then hopefully we can also get in that's usually our workday

So if we can get in some interviews

Maybe thursday that'd be cool. But uh, other than that i'm starting with dogs in a pile

There you go. That's gonna be this tent. Hopefully you're doing that too barry. We're at 7 45

That would be a fun one to do just I I need a do-over on on on dogs in a pile

Yeah, not because it was bad because I didn't get my song. They've got another chance

To redeem themselves in your eyes. It's not even a redeem. I love these guys and I they're they're awesome

They just didn't play my song. So anyway, sorry. Yeah, that that super excited me to uh,

That show that we saw here and well there in chattanooga. It was fun. It was fun. Yeah, it was good fun

That's where i'm pretty much starting thursday

Then and then I feel like this is a huge miss for Bonnarooo because they have rebecca black on thursday

Why not friday?

I don't know friday's already loaded. I know but I mean

But the song is friday

Anyways, I was trying to put the two and two together wasn't equal in four now it does

Yeah, it makes no sense that they booked her on thursday, but whatever so that's that's probably where i'll check out the infinity stage

And then it's going to be kind of a toss-up. I'm i'm doing both joey valance and bray

And insane clown posse we're going to try to

Yeah, those are back to back on this or those are right up against each other on this and that yeah, it's pos that's easy enough

I think you got to get from one side to the other. Well, I don't well here

Let's let me ask you this taco the guar this insane clown posse is the guar of this year in a way

100 you were all about the guar stuff you were in the front blood splattering area. Yeah

Are you thinking the same thing for insane clown posse?

I might yeah if they got the feigo

Fago, sorry. Yeah. Um, you know, we we did get our shirt bloodied up that beth wore last year

Yeah, maybe we can get another shirt with but well I asked that because if you're gonna try to do that

I don't know that you're gonna get out of there easily to go to that tab. Yeah, I thought that's where you were going

But a man can dream

It's yeah boy can dream. It's aspiring to try to do both. But yeah, it may just be insane clown posse

We'll see what else you're looking at on thursday. So not a lot on thursday. I know you all are excited about luke combs

I don't know about excited

Excited about the what stage? Yeah, it's a it's a i've got to lay eyes on it somehow some way marcus king is going to be

The one that rocks on that stage. Um, but yeah other than that my thursday is fairly light. Well, that's well

It's a pretty full thursday for you. Actually. Yeah. Yeah, actually

Does thursday to you look like we talked about last week with my picks. I think friday

Is so spread out that hopefully the crowd will be spread out. Just what does thursday look

Do you think everybody would be at luke combs and then they're going to run over to get ready for insane clown

Or you think there's enough stuff going on that it'll be spread out. I think it'll be spread out

I think just the fact

That this what stage is open has just changed thursday

From a day i'm looking forward to be over to a day. That is one of my favorite days of the festival

Just opening that field

Just alleviates

That's true the pressure of the volume of people who are excited to be there and are ready to be out on a thursday

You just open up that field and you're going to get at least 20 000 people probably just hovering over there for no reason

Yeah, so I have a feeling it's going to be real comfortable

But I don't know. We'll see it's a full it's a full farm

So it's a full farm. It might be a little lighter attended because you know friday and saturday are sold out. I don't know how many

One day tickets to thursday they've sold if any but yeah, probably some

Yeah, I think Bryan's right. I think it helps spread it out. Yeah, and I honestly I kind of

Feel like I mean they do that every year

But I feel like they've put a real emphasis on having

people spread out

Yeah, I mean it's

Opening the what was just I I hope they sit around

all the days sit around an office or in a room and say

The best thing we ever did on thursday was open the what and we're never going to not do that even though

Some of y'all say you're not sure. Yeah, you should be sure hard to go back

Yeah, it is hard to put that back in the bottle. All right, so thursday thursday's done so friday

That's pretty much my biggest day. I think hell. Yeah, it is a great day. Yeah

and of course the beer exchange 10 30 in the morning that's going to be my

Early, I mean, you know, we're all doing that one. So that one's going to be fine

But uh, that's going to be out in group camping the plaza. So hopefully we can get a ride out there

Yeah, I think the uh RooHamm guys are bringing some malort or somebody is

Love shots of malort man. Oh man. I may I may have to be join you and that stuff that

That stuff is awful boy. What a way to start your day shots of malort. Oh god

See all three kings. Yeah

But then

Music wise cults on this tent 3 45. That's where i'm starting. I've been obsessed with this band really

Yeah, so why tell it? I mean, what's it like?

Uh, just kind of indie rock but it's got a kind of a almost 60s

Kind of sound to it

Um that they never made my discovery list. I've I might have to cram that in the next two weeks. Yeah, i've

Been kind of been listening to them over and over them and king giz. It's like the ones i've been on so

Hopefully it's a good show. We'll see but i'm excited about that flip turn on the what that's gonna be huge

Yeah, gotta be there gotta be there

Hopefully I can bounce back

to mj linderman

Yeah, that row across is tough criminal. I know

I know criminal. Yeah

You know, I might miss some of that if I end up because I think i'll probably end up staying at flip turn

For the whole show. I would want to you or me. I would want to but I do got to get back for king

Giz because that's seven o'clock this tent. That's yeah, he thought they follow uh linderman

Yeah, right after linderman now, where do you fall in the king giz? Are you doing all three? I'm doing all three

This guy's saying all 30. I'm doing all three. All right

We play some bets. Yeah, I'll make it

I'll make it

Um, but yeah, that's a good kind of

Straight down the line this tent colts mj linderman king giz and then i'm gonna bounce to that for rainbow kitten surprise

This is one i'm super excited about still can't believe they're on that tent

Yeah, yeah, they were supposed to play. What was it 2023 two years ago?

I bet I bet they were on the witch that year. They were either on the witch. I think it was the witch

Yeah, they were on a bigger stage. So they were on the witch in 2017. It's the first time I saw rainbow kitten surprise. So

That'll be a madhouse people are gonna be excited about that. I think so

um tyler

Gotta go see tyler

And then megadeth. Yeah, that's my late night. Yep. Yep. Yep

Goose and glass animals don't don't don't factor into your day. You don't other than maybe walk by maybe walk bys

I didn't like

I don't know. I think it's gonna be

Tough. Well get glass animals is right up against megadeth

So, oh, yeah, they are. I see that now I could

Yeah, why did you do that to me? I know it's not my picks, but why did you do that to me? There's a couple those

So the beer exchange we will be done

Noon ish, yes, don't go back out till three. So is that nappy?

Yeah beer exchange is a little earlier it's usually 11 this year it's 10 30

Especially if I do if they hand me a shot of malort

It's nappy time

For sure. Actually, I think there's a lot of naps that happen after the beer exchange on friday. Yeah

That's probably why they started earlier

That's we got an extra 30 minutes to sleep this off

And for you guys that are new the beer exchange is if you can make it you gotta make it it's a great opportunity

It's bring one take one

But the main thing is you can meet a lot of people that you've either

Heard about or heard through this show or any of the other podcasts or reddit, you know any of the socials?

It's it's the it's the cnb scene. Yeah, and it's it's you know, i'm not you know trying to speak out of turn here

Um, but it's pretty loose. I mean like it's not like you bring five beers and you get five beer

people just

Yeah, just be cool

Bring something and then take but I assume anybody who's participating in that understands the Bonnarooian code

Yeah, if there's something you really want to try go for it

Yeah, now russell's gonna bring his special edition pbr, but most people bring something that's uh from where they're from

Well, I also like to bring maybe some odd story. Yeah, yeah huntington smith. We have some local

Chattanooga stuff anyway, so go ahead. I'm sorry. Well, I think we're ready to get into saturday

Oh, we're done with friday. I think we're done with friday. That's all I got

this uh

Speed dating that's happening at snake and jake's three three to five

You're gonna do this. I think i'm gonna do it. All right, see, I don't know. I might go watch

I don't know. Maybe i'll be participating by the end of the day depends. Um, i've never done anything like that

So, you know, i've never done it either. Obviously I have a wife that would be very bad

Yeah, she might object if she did speed dating but I mean I could see you doing it taco and and your problem would be like

You come away with like multiple I might have to fight them off. Yeah, I know

Yeah, that could be the issue. Yeah, so this is speed dating might be it all day, you know depending on how it goes

That'd be a lot of dating face a lot of date goes on all day. We'll see is it two minutes each

That's how I meet 30 people an hour

But I do on a music wise, you know jesse murph on the witch we've kind of talked with david bruce who is uh,

Kind of become friends with her mom. Yeah, yeah, like you and flip term and grandma david and uh,

Yeah mom or our friends so

We create very interesting relationships via all of this. I've always done well with mothers. It's it's a weird thing

That's a clip you should pull that that's a good that's a good quote i've always done well with mothers

All right going back to grade school. It's fair enough. Okay

So yeah, but that's up against you know, this dope lemon and action bronson

Are kind of back to back. I kind of want to bounce between those

And then I got to see avril, you know, she's on the what but that's right up against that

And that's another didn't mention earlier when we were talking the super jam and those the the announcement since we were last talking to you guys

And gals

That's basically up against super jam and avril. Yeah, so like

Early angsty pop rockers got to decide do you want hailey sorda?

Or do you want avril completely on the greatest stage in the world? That's a lot to think about yeah

Yeah, and uh, you know, I know you're hyped about the super jam, but I kind of want to see modest mouse

And I would always do as well to me. They always put somebody I really want to see right up against the super jam

Yeah, yeah, so we'll see

Um sax squash, I think that's a can't miss on the infinity infinity

I'm surprised how many people are excited about that one. I don't know. Yeah

Yeah, it's such a great gift and he's good

It's just a while this um, I believe help me if i'm getting this wrong if you guys know

I know he comes from some band that he was playing for forever and it didn't work out and then he went on this on

His own. I think he played with marcus king. I think yeah, yeah

Yeah, one of you said that before if it's not marcus king it's another touring band you've heard of yeah

and then for whatever reason

Just went in a different route and it's really sparked. Uh

I mean, it's not some monster act, but boy it really fills up small rooms everywhere

He goes. Yeah dresses up like bigfoot plays a saxophone. How could you not like that?

What's not to like play some carry on my wayward son from kansas? Yeah

Which is one of his regular. Yeah. Look you mentioned that I looked it up on youtube. It's really good. Yeah, it's great

It's I mean, it's a gimmick, but it's great. It's it's a total gimmick, but it's a really cool

What's the quote I heard I heard it twice this week. Uh, sometimes dogs playing piano at some point the dog better be good

Isn't that funny

It's a gimmick for a minute, but at some point he's got to actually play the piano

And then you know, this is the second night of king giz that's 12 15 on this tent

That's gonna be my next late night. I got a lot. I got a lot of late nights this year. Uh-huh

12 to 2 12 to 2. Yeah, so that's that's pretty much against arcade fire fire do anything for you. I

If it wasn't right up against king giz maybe yeah, I would like to see him but

I think that's a one that i'm gonna go back and forth. Yeah. Well, it's easy to yeah exactly

But yeah, that's it for me

Um that wraps up saturday, so we're on our way to the final day. We keep getting berated for not mentioning

The day we don't ever go. Yeah

But which is true justice in particular. We've had several people say how are you not gonna see justice? Don't sleep on justice. Don't sleep on justice

So oh, yeah, that's saturday on the witch. Mm-hmm

Also late though. So that's up against that's up against your king. Yeah, that's an easy to get to it is

Well, especially with this because it's it butts up right there with which so you could totally back and forth that one

Yeah, yeah

So I think I gotta see justice at least just yeah for sure because of all the comments

You'll never see him again if you don't do it there. Yeah, apparently so

Yep. All right, and then we go into sunday. Yep. Let's go on to sunday sunday sunday sunday

I gotta see what this hot dogs and hot dads thing is

And festival babes it put it's very small print but it says and festival babes on the lineup

I don't know what this is. But where is this taking place? This is it snake and jakes

This is on the it's on the outer

It's not on my list here is on is in center room. Yeah, that's right. It's like they ran out of room

Yeah, I think it was a space thing. But uh, yeah, I I kind of want to spend a lot of time at snake and jakes

Because then you've got speed dating again three to five at snake and jake's so

You better be careful on that damn speed date and take over and make you miss all the king gizzard shows

Yeah, we'll see how the previous speed dating goes

But you know have either of you done much of those sorts of things?

For lack of a better the extracurriculars the uh, what is it the snake and jakes the robe?

Um, oh no, I have rage. Um, I did go to silent disco back when it was the christmas barn

Which was you know very much christmas themed

You go in it's sanas and yeah, that's not how it's going to be this year. It's not christmas this year

It's snake and jakes, but it's they call it the love shack

It's like they've they taken the house of matrimony and yeah spliced it with the snake and jakes for kind of a new experience

Which I like I think that's cool. Yeah, i'm looking forward to it. So i'll probably spend a lot of time there

Um music wise this is another big conflict because royal otis, which I do want to see

Right up against bill murray

Yeah, I want to see both of them. Um

King giz this is their last set sunday 6 15 to 7 15. This is the one they're doing on the witch

Yeah spoiler for mine next week if i'm seeing king giz

That's the one that's probably the one not to miss

um

And then queens of the stone age. I'm I want to I want to be there for all that. I mean, I know

They're on the witch stage

I know but I could just camp at the witch stage sunday because you got royal otis straight into king giz straight into queens

And the great part about which is that you can come and go and if you need to get out of there

You can be back in there in no time. Absolutely. It's a big area spread out. So that that could be good

And then I know everybody's talking about hosier. Well, you're not going to be swaying in the field or

I want to see washed out. Okay, definitely

Okay, and I think that so you think you might make it into infinity three times planning on it

Wow

Well, if anybody can do it this guy can yeah

If the if I don't make it for the other two fine, but I do want to see washed out. Okay

All right. So and that's nothing on the on the what on sunday really grabs you on that much

Maybe vampire weekend

It's kind of in between. Yeah, you're gonna have to really be moving to do all that. Yeah

So I don't know. Yeah, there's really not a lot of

What stage acts period for me? I mean are any of us making a an appearance at berry can't swim on sunday?

Oh, yeah, I think we got to yeah. I mean, I don't know. I mean if I were to guess i'm not

It's nothing else. I have to have a picture taken underneath. I got to

We've already had people say they're gonna bring you some floaties. Yeah, I don't know if they do those any way

They're bringing them back. I hope they do

They used to have the chalkboards that would hang out there

Not the most innovative thing ever

But it was no doubt who you were watching right because of those chalk. I remember those signs. Yeah

Yep. Yeah, we got to get a picture. Yep

All right. All right. Well that concludes a full week. Yeah, and you'll be arriving on tuesday. I will be arriving on tuesday

possibly monday

If it works out because I know common john the brewery there

Yeah, who is doing a a beer collab we haven't really talked about that

No, we haven't I look forward to seeing what that uh logo because last year's was beautiful

Even though it was mostly ai designed but hey, that's where we live in now. It's a great looking can of beer

Yeah, so hopefully we can get some of those

um, but yeah

Tuesday i'll be in for sure and that's

That's pretty full week and i'm staying till monday

Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah me too. That's the plan. Well, you really you're staying till monday. That's the plan

Okay, yeah, if i'm gonna stay sunday, it's

I am not staying till monday. So y'all get that out of your system now. All right. I've got monday off

That's the plan. Anyway, we'll see what happens. Well, you know beth our camp mate that we've kind of merged camps

That's right. That's big news. She's yeah, she said uh, she usually goes back to nashville

For stay a few days. Uh this time she's coming to chattanooga and she's gonna fly out of chattanooga

Yeah, two or three days later so

And uh, so that's cool and uh the aforementioned david bruce. We're hoping he'll be camping with us

So camp nut butter is getting a little bigger and we're growing we are putting it back together. We are we we will rebuild

We will rebuild and we are it takes some time. We are rebuilding and uh, definitely the clientele is getting better. Oh and um,

She hasn't been on with us in a while

So you might not know who i'm talking about but tara vee is back in the mix with her husband joe

Okay, yeah, and her daughter kai who has been who's now 18 who's been going to the festival since she was 10

Congratulations, she had a recent high school. Yeah, recent high school

You know, she was already joint enrollment or whatever they call it with the utc university of tennessee at chattanooga and her younger brother

Stratton is now 12

It's going to be his first Bonnaroo. Wow. Oh, wow, they will be with us in the revamped camp

Will be added to the uh to the to the annoying text thread so we're yeah, we gotta get them added

Yeah, we are rebuilding. We are. Yeah. Well good. I'm glad they're i'm glad they're coming back just found that out

Uh in the last day or two, so very excited about that. All right. I'm trying to remember if there's anything else, uh,

Start walking guys if you haven't already hydrate pack

Uh, what's it seems like I heard another pretty good tip this week check your sunscreen

I checked I had a couple bottles in the uh

In the closet or out of date. I grabbed one out way out of date. There is an expiration date on sunscreen. Absolutely do that

Uh, take care of your feet. Um, yep

So I mean I hate to keep mentioning it every week, but it's 67 degrees in tennessee

Today, we're yeah, we're in long sleeves. Is it ever gonna get hot around here? I know it doesn't

It will yes, I know when yeah, I know where it's June 11

Well, I just showed you guys I picked up that

Uh misting fan that's a battery powered. It's got a fan you put it on a five gallon bucket of water

It draws in the water and just sprays it on you. That's a good one. Oh my god. I'm still

Oh, we gotta get out of here

So yeah, that's a good cue and we gotta go do uh, gotta do another interview for yeah

What you might see on this podcast right now. We don't know excited about it. Thank you for watching russ good picks

Thanks, thanks for thanks for watching this one. Yeah, make sure you enter the giveaway

What he said don't waste time on that one if you want in what he said

All right. See you guys next week. Hey everyone. It's russ the producer for the what podcast

Thanks for checking out this week's episode with my picks

And before you go, I got one last thing for you after we recorded this

Bryan and barry went back home and I stayed and I happened to meet chris the dancing man

You've probably seen him at Bonnarooo or a number of other festivals

He's the old guy with the long blonde hair and the crazy sunglasses and outfits and he's always dancing

He's just out in the field and you'll see him at every show just dancing dancing all night long

So if you've ever seen him and just wondered what's the deal with that guy?

Well, I found out and it's an interview. You don't want to miss. He's got an incredible story

Lots to share

So I just thought I wanted to include this so enjoy and we'll be back next week with Bryan's picks

Welcome back. This is the what podcast and i'm standing here

We're at the caverns in grundy county tennessee and i'm here with somebody you've probably seen at Bonnarooo caverns

As a matter of fact in the mountains here. Yeah, it is beautiful. This is dancing chris. Is that what you're known as?

The dancing man and the people that have met me i'm chris. Yeah, pretty much how it works. Nice

Well, I know i've seen you at Bonnarooo

legend valley one year and there's like 5 000 people call me chris i'm like

Did something just drop on instagram or something because not everybody i have met everybody here

So you've probably gone viral at least once or twice. Well

In this occupation you better

Accept being called the dancing man because that's what they're going to call you anyway, so you better be good with it

Yeah, yeah

Well, so tell us about yourself. You've got a lot of wristbands on you've been to multiple Bonnarooo's multiple festivals

This isn't even half of it, right?

Oh, no, this is just like I don't know if the right word is compilation. Uh,

it's uh

There's only one of each and

Like when I go to event for the next year, i'll take off last year's and put a new one on

But they didn't all give cloth wristbands. Uh, so this is just uh

The last fest of each here's the lock-in from 2015

Uh, that was a year I did 26 music festivals in a row that I did 26

Music festivals in a row. Well, that was just the summer. I did the rest of the year, too

Oh, i'm sorry just 26 in the summer. Well, yeah one every weekend. Yeah

yeah, well I

I wanted to make sure if they had a kinesis world record or whatever that

Nobody would be even foolish enough to try to outdo that

No, I think you've got it. Well, I got the foolishness part. Yeah, and so I just all I did was apply it. Yeah pretty much. Yeah

Awesome. So you're going to Bonnarooo this year, right?

Yeah

because if I don't show up they'd sort of all see me there and

They'd all be looking in the obituary if I didn't show up. So yeah, i'll be at Bonnarooo. Yeah, it'd be like

It'd be like if the arch were missing it'd be like

Where is he? You know, yeah. Yeah, but you uh,

You're parked here you're camping you've you live full time out of your van, right?

Yeah, there's no backup. It's all it's just me. I'm the last

hippie standing at

Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah my van I follow the grateful dead. I think that's awesome across the country

Yeah, the grateful dead is still playing. Yes. Yeah, so

No, no fixed address. You just go and wherever you're at. That's that's where you're at, right?

No family behind me no property. It's just me

and

My appreciation for other human beings and I thrive on that

And when I see what well when I see that, you know what everybody else does they're going to work and

trying to keep property and paying taxes and going to work and cleaning the gutters and

And doing boring shit and wasting their life scrolling on netflix or whatever the fuck they're doing. I realize that

This may be a trepidatious way to live there's no backup

It's just me

but when I

See what the way other people are living on like the wall

I don't want I got kicked hard to get here. I lost everything and it's a really really long story

Which won't get into but had I not been kicked out of the life I had before

Three or four times. I've been kicked out of my prior life

Then I wouldn't be in this position

Yeah, when I compare being able to do this go across the country and meet all these beautiful people

Then I realized it's the right thing to do

It gives you an appreciation for it after you've lost. Well, it's sort of like it's sort of like a

I used to have old english sheep dogs and before I was a dancer I was known for my sheep dog

And if I go someplace and my dog was there ever is always asking me

And if I go someplace and my dog was there ever is always asking me and

I never had him on a leash in his whole life. He was never fenced in or anything

Well, I I told him he could go out after 10 o'clock and but he has to be on the step at six o'clock in the morning

And he did and but I knew he could be killed at any time with that

I told him about the street. He knew about the street. We looked him dead in the eye

He'd been taught that

So I trusted him

I mean, I know he's gonna be out all night long and he's looking for the ladies or whatever. He's a ladies man and uh

That he's gonna be crossing streets

And I knew he could get killed

He was always next to my knee when I was walking, but I know he's all night long. He's crossing the streets

And I would rather let the dog run free and get killed

at a

young age

Than to sit under the couch his whole life and right that dog that dies at five years old

That's out and seen the world has seen more than the dog that lasts till 20 years old

And that's the way I see with my life. It's the same thing

I want to embrace the unusual and

Take it for everything it is and again all I have to do is compare what everyone else

Uh

I went through this town in florida. It's called the villages for anybody who doesn't know

Bring a vomit bag before you come to uh, the villages because they're all

Riding around in golf carts and stuff these

I've heard of this village the villages. Yeah, I see what they're doing. They're all living in these Mcmanchions and stuff and it's it's

Deplorable the materialistic way that they live. That's why we come to festivals for open-minded people. That's why we do it

It's a good point are about people. They're not about music. Don't string cheese this year this weekend. Don't tell string cheese

But it's the festivals are about celebration about life that's that's what festivals are where humans are an animal

And we happen to be the only animal

That's uh throws a party in celebration of life

And a music festival is a celebration about humans

And their interactions and life

It's so true. Yeah, I mean we need the music. I mean somebody invite

String cheese, I mean pay the band please but it's it's about it's about people. That's why we're here

It's about people who are thinking differently or doing different things

Yeah, so tell me about the dancing did you just get up and start dancing at one show and then

It's just

I guess you guys I mean I have no problem

Explaining this I'm very open person. It's just like

Some people are gonna find this somewhat bizarre, but that's just the way my life runs

No you bizarre

Well

so anyway to answer your question I

Like my first girlfriend I I married my sort of my first girlfriend

I married a stripper who got kicked out of law school. Well after she tried to extort the married professor she had sex with him

And he kicked her out

Yeah, she was a very sweet individual a real gold digger and uh

Anyway, I was her third husband and uh, she was a sociopath a narcissist

a drug addict

and an alcohol alcoholic

smart and vicious

And she put me in jail nine times

Trying to get the name on the title to my house that was paid off

And when I wouldn't put her name on the title of the house

She would start beating on me hoping I would hit her

And I would not and she figured out oh shit. I'll just call the police. Anyway, they'll come

and uh

He's a guy he's gonna get arrested. She'll be crying and sure enough. That's what happened. So anyway

10 and a half dumb years later. I divorced her and I lost all my property

My apartment buildings my two houses on the lake my car collection everything and I was living in my car

And

I was really happy because she used to attack me in the middle of the night

Her name is peggie if she wants to sue me. Yeah

Because the truth is the ultimate defense

And uh

So anyway, uh

I realized wow i'm still alive

She couldn't take me. I still got myself. I still i'm still alive one

And I still got my soul too

And so I was so happy. I started dancing

You would too I was yeah, I was dancing in celebration and if you pay attention

So my dance move most of them are in reverse i'm still backing away from her

Hey, so what happened?

This what happened was

I went up to uh to the wisconsin state fair

And i'm just like I just want to dance and I I started dancing

And I just never ever stopped

In fact, that's where I got these sunglasses

from the wisconsin state fair on a thursday afternoon they had all these tents out on the

Lot big white tents and I go into one tent and the only people in the

Tent are me the bartender in the band

And of course i'm dancing immediately. I'm just like i'm so happy to be alive. I'm i'm on it

and uh a couple songs in the

Lead singer he bends down on the stage and he picks up these sunglasses he goes here put these on while you dance

And that's where these stupid ass sunglasses come from that you haven't taken them off since well the problem is

Problem is russia can't

Because if you if you take them off then everybody's asking where they are even at two in the morning and

And so they sort of become

a part of my uh, yeah, well it

I don't really want to be known for these glasses, but they're they're a great

Conversation starter and and they were meant the band was meant it was meant to be yeah

It was meant to yeah, because otherwise, yeah

So that's pretty much what started the whole dancing. I I was

Homeless

And happy to be alive and I knew I wasn't going to stay down

I've been kicked many times in my life and I always know that i'm gonna bring myself back up

Wow, what a story and all right, so

You've been through a lot. What is more than that much? Yeah, i'm sure there's more

but uh

Yeah, what what advice would you give to somebody who is maybe?

dealing with some shit that they uh,

You know like you maybe they've gone through divorce or you know lost a really good question. Yeah

Yeah

Well, the the answer is simple i'd never thought of a question like that before but the answer is simple

It's extremely simple

And this applies to your whole life not no matter what situation is

You always have to have confidence in yourself

Because if you think you're beaten you are

If you dare not you don't

If you think you're going to lose

You've already lost

that's so true, yeah, and the difference between a person that

Merely survives and the person that thrives is the person that has the confidence that whatever comes in front of them

Okay, you haven't seen this situation before

But you have the confidence in yourself

That you're going to do it and the inverse is horrible because if you don't have confidence in yourself

that's Most important

but remember

There's no competition

Oh

Trail

Trail

When all your friends are like wait what even happens when you lose all your friends

I'm I'm bad

chest

with

I've been kicked many times and it's taken me years

to get back on my feet.

The whole time I knew I was gonna get back on my feet.

And every single time, and this may be the advice

to the people, every single time I've gotten back up,

it's a lot of work, I always knew I could do it,

but every single time I came back,

I was in a better position than I was when I started out.

And I never would've gotten there had it not happened.

So you have to have the confidence

that whatever situation is in front of you

that you're gonna tackle it.

And sure shit, you will.

You will, yeah.

That's kinda what I was looking for.

No successful person has ever doubted themselves.

I'm not saying that everybody does the right thing

at the right time.

I make as many mistakes as any other human,

but I always know that I'm gonna put out as much effort

and I'm gonna make sure that I do win

because if I lose, I allow myself to lose, I've lost.

I've lost the time trying, if I'm still trying.

I've lost maybe whatever money I had in some project

that I didn't finish or whatever.

So I've lost time and money.

And the alternative is stick it out.

Have confidence, be confident, always, never, ever, ever,

don't ever doubt yourself.

Nobody knows what's going on.

We're all different.

There is no normal.

We all got different DNA and we all got different memories.

Our memory banks are our experiences in life.

And that's what makes people so unique and enjoyable

is that we're all different

and you can learn from every single one of them.

But not one of those people is doing the right thing.

There is no right thing.

When there's a situation in your life,

don't worry about what's right or wrong,

just persevere and have confidence

because the next guy doesn't know

what the fuck he's doing anyway.

Don't follow them.

They're not necessarily doing the wrong thing

but they're not necessarily doing the right thing either.

Don't follow the other person at all, ever.

You see the majority of people doing something?

Gets over 50% guaranteed.

Whatever the majority of people are doing is wrong.

Well, I'd say it's worked for you.

I mean, you definitely...

Look, I used to go to work

and I'd be in rush hour traffic.

And I'd say to myself,

well, I must be doing the right thing

because this is what everybody else is doing.

Wrong.

They're watching TV.

They're wasting time on Netflix.

They're whatever they're doing in their life.

They're missing out on the real stuff.

Don't take guidance from other people.

I don't.

You can't tell me what to do with the fog.

Ha ha ha ha.

All right.

Well, you've obviously recognized that

Bonnarooo and a bunch of other music festivals,

do people come up to you and want to dance with you?

Is that all right?

That's the whole idea.

That's the whole idea, all right.

No, when I'm at a festival,

I don't have any inhibitions.

First of all, I have no inhibitions, okay.

So I don't worry about what I look like.

I just threw the word out of my memory.

I don't have inhibitions.

So, and second of all, wherever I go,

because I have no inhibitions,

I always have the most fun of anybody.

Always.

But when everybody else is having a good time,

I have an even better time.

We all have a better time, but I'm on top.

I work for it.

You definitely did.

So when I'm at a music fest, I'm on duty.

I'm working.

I'm acting as a backup artist for the artists

that are up there playing on the stage.

Yeah, yeah, I saw you last night.

I'm the cheerleader for the band,

although Strinchit doesn't need my help.

Bless their heart.

They did fine on their own.

Yeah, they can make it on their own.

They can get their own food

and try their own cheerleaders.

They're fine.

But I'm there to encourage the people to let go

and realize that life is really short

and that if you're not hurting anybody,

you can do whatever you want.

And that's what I'm trying to express through the dancing

is that life is really short.

And if you're not hurting anybody,

then that's what you need to be doing.

And you gotta do it right now,

because tomorrow, we'll go

and next you know your life is over.

And so I go through the crowd

and I try to find people that are at the festival

that didn't come, they're not dancers,

or they didn't come specifically to dance.

And I can tell who they are.

And I will dance somewhat near them happily, thank you.

And they'll see how happy I am.

And they'll start to loosen up

and give me about a half an hour

and that guy or that girl will be dancing.

There you go, yeah.

So if somebody-

And recently, the last three or four festivals

I've gone to, it's my creator

to dance with as many people as possible.

Okay, so if somebody sees you in a crowd,

they shouldn't be too shy to come up and say,

hey, to dance with you.

They shouldn't be too shy to come up and say,

hey, to dance with you.

Talk to you, dance with you.

I have no inhibitions.

I have no care in the world

other than that we're at a music fest

and we're here to celebrate.

Let's dance and let's celebrate.

I'm completely loose.

I don't put out any sort of feeling

that causes the other person to remain in their shell.

Okay, yeah, that's what I was-

I draw them out.

And the last couple of festivals,

and so I'm working the crowd the whole time

so you always see me going through there.

And the last couple of festivals,

I've danced with more guys than I have with girls,

which, sorry girls, but the guys can be fun too

because you didn't expect them to dance.

And I'll try to pick out a couple.

And what I'll do is I'll come from the side

where the girl is.

What you have to know is I don't pay any attention

to anybody who's not dancing.

You're like a tree.

I'll go around you.

I'll never acknowledge you're there.

You're dancing, I'll see you immediately.

But if you're not dancing,

you can only bring me down to your level.

You gotta come up and meet me.

Come up to your level.

That's the whole idea.

We're here to celebrate.

Let's celebrate.

I'm celebrating, join me.

And so what I'll do is I'll pick out a couple

and I'll come in from the side where the girl is

and she's gonna expect that I dance with her.

This is the way girls are.

Which we like about them.

But I'll go right past her, ignore her.

And I'll stop in front of her boyfriend.

And the next thing you know,

her boyfriend and I have been,

and I go real slow.

This is not a contest.

And they see how relaxed I am and they let go.

And then you look over and you see the good look

on the girl's face.

It's like, man, I've been trying to get him to do that

for the longest time.

All it took was you.

Yeah.

And then next thing you know,

it's 10.30 or 11 o'clock at night and you look around,

you scope out the whole crowd and they're all dancing.

That wouldn't have happened if I hadn't started

five hours before.

Oh, there would have been some people dancing.

They would have gotten lubricated or whatever.

But I'm here to

show people how to enjoy life.

I love that.

All right, so.

Not as much as I do.

Good, yeah.

Just dancing with everybody for seven seconds.

What could be better?

That's the whole thing.

I can't, at times I'm the happiest guy on the planet.

I have over 10,000 people come up to me a year.

I was gonna say, you're pretty well known.

They flood up to me.

Bonnarooo, they're gonna be flooding up to me.

Thousands per festival.

And they all say the same thing.

Bless their heart.

And they tell me how happy I make them with the dancing.

There you go.

Come say hi to Chris and if you see him out at Bonnarooo.

Well, I put it out once and it comes back 10,000 times.

And there's times that I'm the happiest guy on the planet.

I was at one festival, one guy goes,

he goes, no, I'm the happiest guy on the planet.

I looked at him and I said, you can't be.

You're arguing with me.

He goes, oh, too shy, you got me on that.

I said, second place is good enough.

But there's times I get knocked out.

I got knocked out off the top place on the planet

short while back.

But I'm back very close to that again.

Back on top.

Yeah.

All right, so we said it's not about the music,

but what, where you...

Don't tell, don't, shh.

Don't tell the music.

I love the music.

I have music for you.

I can't help but love my brothers up there.

I don't know the first thing about music

because I'm a really logical person,

even though you might not realize it.

I don't know the tempo from a crescendo or whatever,

key, therein, I have no clue.

But I would pick it apart if I did.

But I get the flow.

Well, Bonnarooo's coming up.

Who are you looking, are you looking forward to anyone?

Where are you gonna be dancing at the most?

Have you even looked at the lineup?

I never look at the lineup.

You never look at the lineup?

No, I love music.

I can have as much fun,

actually I can have more fun dancing

to the high school marching band than String Cheese.

Again, String Cheese doesn't need my help.

Keep getting back to that.

But think of the high school marching band.

They put on their uniforms, they're eating hot dogs,

they're in this hot school bus, they're standing around

and they're playing this thing that they practice.

It's kind of boring for the band member

or they could think of other things to do.

But they're there and they're part of the band

and there they are.

And so they start playing.

And then I buzz up to them

and I start dancing full speed to them.

And all of a sudden, I don't know how many people

are in a marching band, let's guess 26 or whatever.

All of a sudden you see 26 people smiling.

So it doesn't matter, the music.

Again, it's about people.

I'm connecting with the people that are making the music

at this point.

Right, so you're just looking for the people.

That's where you're gonna be at, right?

No, you're saying what band do I go to?

I don't look at the lineup.

I like every single band, small or big.

And then what I try to do is I'll have a list in my pocket

and I'll have my own handwritten schedule

and I'll try to catch it.

If two bands overlap, I'll cut out in the middle.

I'm on a schedule.

Sometimes I'll look up and I'm like,

oh, STS-9 is playing.

I'm like, oh, whether you should check the schedule.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, thank you so much.

This has been great to meet you and talk to you.

And just so happens that your camp,

just down the road from me, just ran into each other.

It just so happens that String Cheese put on this great

cave jam and they're gonna be playing two more sets tonight.

They sure are, yeah.

Sounds dope.

All right.