Mitch Ryder

The what podcast? The podcast four Bonnaroovians, five Bonnaroovians.

There's Barry Courter with some weird things on his face.

There's Laura Taco with normal things on his face. I'm Brad Steiner.

Welcome to the what podcast? Podcast four Bonnaroovians, five Bonnaroovians.

Barry, what has happened to dad's face? Are you okay?

You know, it's so funny you ask.

Years ago I showed up at my son's baseball practice and I had been painting the house.

Is that what that is? You've got paint on your face?

Well, I looked like you would imagine and one of the other daddies looked at me as I walked up and he said,

you just gave up, haven't you?

It cut me right to it.

Yeah.

It was so perfect. I was like, yeah, pretty much. I've just given up.

I do like how though you, you refer to them all as daddies.

Oh yeah. It was all a bunch of daddies.

What kind of baseball games do you go to there, Barry?

It was a bunch of daddies.

Was it? Okay.

Was this in New York?

I don't know. This is, I don't know. It's just, you know, we're all doing it, I guess.

Taco, look, he's trimmed his three times and it's still right back where it was.

It's coming right back out.

No, he's trimmed it three times since the show started. It's coming right back out.

Yeah. I can't do that. So it's just kind of figuring this out and it itches and probably not going to keep it.

So we'll see. And my wife hates it. So it's kind of a fun thing.

Right. So you've turned into Letterman because that's what Dave does.

Like he's done the whole beard and he says he only keeps it because his wife and kid hate it.

That's exactly right. And I watched, I watched a couple of Between Two Ferns bloopers the other night.

And Zach called him Crystal Meth Santa.

Yeah.

It hit a little too close to home, didn't it, Barry?

Yeah.

Hit a little too close to home.

I laughed. I laughed because it felt right.

So today is a weird special one-off episode with Barry's best friends these days.

Because maybe not just because they live so close to each other, but they're in the same age demographic.

Mitch Ryder.

Mitch Ryder in the Detroit Wheels. Devil with a blue dress on.

You know, it's funny. I was thinking earlier and I'm going to take a minute if you'll give me, if you'll allow this.

I know. I tease you guys. I sent you some notes.

We were talking back and forth today and I said something like, let's make sure every.

You sent notes?

Notes, texts.

I didn't read any of that.

Yeah, whatever.

I didn't read any of that.

Yeah, you know.

Notes, some of that.

Look, I'm not going to say interwebs. That's the dorky.

I hate people who say interwebs and Google things and whatever.

But I sent you some notes that said, yeah, you know, let's do this when everything's Jake.

And you made fun of me. And I do that on purpose.

Bob's your uncle. All these kind of old timey things.

And it occurred to me, I didn't really mean to be that guy.

But then I thought, how perfect?

Because we've got Mitch Ryder coming on.

I do mean to do this on purpose because I think it's important that we recognize and we pay homage, if you will, to some of the, some of the old stuff.

So I'm going to keep doing it.

Do you know what let's keep it Jake means?

No, I thought that was an autocorrect.

So I was like trying to think.

Imagine what he tried to type because he never can take Jake.

He can never text anything correctly to begin with.

That's true. That is true.

So, I mean, you might as well.

Hey, young man, come on out of the Nickelodeon.

Spend two bits, two bits.

How backwards do you want to go with your speech?

How far back do you want to go?

That's a good question.

I don't know.

I will say this.

I will say this.

And I'm very serious about this.

My kids, when they went away to college, my notes to them, I would just randomly say everything Jake.

And I figured.

Who is Jake?

You've never heard that?

I don't know when Jake.

I've never heard that.

You guys say.

This is the thing.

I feel like it's my obligation to educate you young whippersnappers.

All right.

Well, educate me.

Tell me.

Tell me.

It just means is everything OK?

Is everything OK?

It turns out the letters O and K less than J.A.K.E.

You couldn't just say more times saying is everything OK?

Same with Bob's your uncle.

You never heard that one either.

You still don't know what that means.

I don't know what that means.

I just see I'm going to keep doing it.

It's it's I feel an obligation so that when you know you read a book, God forbid you should ever read a book, you know, get get your head out for your phone.

Maybe what year do I need to start from before I start getting to Bob's your Jake or Jake's uncle or whatever the hell these things are like pre I don't know Civil War or when does this book need to exist to hear these kind of all phrases that just must be so apparent in the over 70 crowd?

Well, this is this is kind of my point and I bring it up because of our guest Mitch Ryder literally.

My goodness, we're going to talk a little bit.

This guy was the last guy to sing with Otis Redding.

Jimmy Hendrix asked him to be his lead singer in a new band he was putting together.

Didn't work out my job.

Yeah.

James Brown and he were friends.

I mean, so my point is, I guess why I'm trying to bring this all around together is you need to know this sort of I feel you need to know this sort of history to understand how we've gotten to where we are.

You know, I mean, if you don't know the past, if you don't know the guys that got us to where we are.

Bruce Springsteen ended his concerts for many, many years with a medley of Mitch Ryder hits.

The ones you all know, Jenny with a blue.

I mean, excuse me.

He also sings, you know, Santa Claus is coming to town every show.

So let's not say the Bruce Springsteen set is the arbiter of everything that we need to know in musical history.

No, but my point is if you don't know this stuff, you, you know, you, you think Tame Impala invented music or whoever picks somebody.

You know what I mean?

That's that's my point.

No, I get it.

It's exactly right.

And the more that we talked to him in this conversation that we had the other day, the more that I wanted to keep talking to him.

And unfortunately, my phone was like literally on the on death's doorstep while a massive torrential tornate tornadic storm was happening outside.

So it was cut short a little bit sooner than I would like.

I would like to have him back because this was just sort of like what my palate on all the things that I sort of want to talk to him about and ask him about.

Because I mean, how many times are we going to be able to get a lane, a road into the past like that?

You're right.

That's exactly.

And that's my point.

I mean, we're you're making fun of me and I get it.

And I do it on purpose.

You know that I promise you, you will hear everything is Jake at some point pretty soon and you're going to be like, oh, Barry's not exactly wrong.

But anyway, wait, OK.

Has there been anything that I've said that you've said to yourself?

You know what, Brad, he's on to something here.

Probably not.

I know it.

I know it.

I know it.

I know it's fun and I do it on purpose.

But point being a guy like Mitch, man, that connection, as you as you just said, and I'm and you picked up on it quickly in the conversation.

And I mean, that guy is so connected to everything you love.

R&B, blues.

I mean, the stories that he has with James Brown.

Unbelievable.

I mean, this guy went to that.

That's the thing.

I think that you probably sit around with him for hours just hearing him tell stories.

I would hope that he'd be whittling, though.

I feel like every woman I've talked to him next time he should be whittling while he ruminates.

It's amazing to talk to him.

He is the most complicated man I've ever interviewed.

I think I've said that to you.

I don't know what that means.

What do you mean by that?

Mitch Mitch started at 14 and just the stories and the history.

He was an integral part of Detroit music in particular, but not Motown.

If that makes sense.

So I mean, as Motown is developing, Mitch, everyone thought he was part of Motown, but he wasn't.

But he was very much part of the R&B, the rhythm and blues movement.

James Brown was asked, who's the white James Brown basically?

And he immediately said Mitch Ryder.

What a weird question, though, by the way.

I remember.

Yeah, I know.

But there were so many.

I know you brought this up before, but I mean, this is how times are different.

I mean, imagine if somebody looked at Kanye, who's the white Kanye?

Yeah, I know. You're exactly right.

I think that we'd all be like, this person needs to please leave immediately.

But I like this chat and I want to come back to it before we get into it, though.

We probably should read off some patreons and thank them for their enormously gracious support through all of these months and trying,

trying times, which, by the way, can we just as a public just stop saying the term trying times in these trying times, in these difficult times?

I just can't listen to it anymore.

It's driving me nuts.

Taco, can you use the list that I read last time?

Yeah, because I don't have the current one in front of me.

I know, but you're in a different outfit.

I don't have the current one in front of me because you caught me off guard.

The list hasn't changed.

Yeah, we actually have one new.

We have a new Patreon joined yesterday.

Oh, what's her name?

Hang on, I can tell you.

She signed up, but won't get charged until the first.

Melanie Melody? Something like that.

Madison. Oh, this is good.

Hudsie Hudsie.

They make it easier and easier for us.

Yeah, they just make it up names for us to read.

But a new Patreon.

Boy, it really, it really would be the best investment of two dollars that you could just to try and get Barry to read some of these names.

How did this all of a sudden fall to me?

When did that happen?

I am almost willing to spend my ten dollars so you can read five of the most ridiculous names.

I know I got what?

Then the yeah, I'm not going to say.

Yeah, when did it fall to me?

But we have a new tier on Patreon.

Oh, two dollars a month.

Oh, OK.

By the way, if you are a Patreon, the tiers, we appreciate your support.

The tiers are going to change here in the next couple of weeks.

It won't affect you at all.

But for any sort of new Patreon that joins for the upcoming season next year, we will have some different tiers, a little bit more streamlined than it was this past year.

But Barry, do you want to run through them?

I was what I was trying to say is we have a new tier and it's for two dollars a month.

It's a virtual thumbs up.

I love that.

OK, so we say your name and we give you a virtual thumbs up.

This gets you your name read on the air by Barry, which is why this name is so great.

So, yeah, sign up and put in the most complicated name you can think of.

Yes. And then I'll give you a thumbs up.

Now, if you give more money, do you get a double thumbs up?

Well, it goes from the double.

No, it goes from the thumbs up to the virtual high five, the virtual fist bump, because, you know, we don't do handshakes.

Gotcha.

And then the virtual hug.

All those are sold out because we we sent out all the merch and everything for that.

But for the virtual thumbs up, you get, you know, your name read, you get the secret shows that we do, you get the live streams, you get all the all the exclusive content for how much money does it cost to have some virtual naked time?

Oh, that's going to be on only fans.

Oh, wrong site.

Yes, that's that's different from the Patreon.

Yeah, Barry's the one to look up for that at Barry J.C.

Yeah, so some some virtual some virtual physical contact.

You can be you can be a part to now you want to go through some of the names there, Barry.

You got it. You're still looking for them.

Oh, my God.

Why don't we do this? We'll do the interview.

We'll talk to Mitch Ryder and then we'll come back to it.

How about that? And then Russell have to send it to me.

Oh, I've emailed it to you.

I can email it to you again.

You're encroaching on Brad territory.

Never save anything.

You just ask you kids, you kids, you darn kids.

All right. Here we go.

Mitch Ryder, the lead singer of whatever it was.

Mitch Ryder, devil with the blue dress and so many, so many, so many hits on the podcast.

We're talking to Mitch Ryder, of course.

Brad, I don't know if you know Mitch actually played it.

That's right.

It's a name. Yeah, I did so well.

They changed the name.

It's a cue for those who don't know became Bonnaroo.

It's a cue. Didn't do very well.

I remember right.

But it was it proved to Ashley caps that that farm was a pretty good place for a festival.

So it became Bonnaroo.

But was it just a complete organizational disaster from your point of view?

No, it was. It was a mosquitoes.

No kidding.

Yeah.

Once they solve that problem, then they change the name.

It was probably a good name then.

It was actually the name of a mosquito killer.

Fascinating. You said the mosquitoes because for over a decade, Barry and I have every year we look around or like, you know, what's amazing about this farm?

There's no bugs.

Like to

We saw a skunk two years ago. That's the closest we've gotten to a bug.

Well, that's cool.

That's something that I wanted to add that link and also, Brad, to your question.

And I want to ask Mitch about it.

But he does what once a year, at least sometimes twice a year, you go over to Europe and perform for for a month.

So this quarantine or this pandemic has impacted that.

But also right now, they're not letting Americans into Germany, which is where my my label is in Berlin.

My management's in Berlin.

And we can't get over there right now.

They wouldn't let us in.

However, we have a tour book and sold and planned for February, March.

And I'm hoping that either they come up with a vaccine or something dies down so we can do the tour.

Because right now, around in America, doing nothing.

Well, not actually doing nothing.

Very as you know, I'm I'm in the studio and that is a blessing.

I swear that's a blessing.

Yeah, that's what I want.

That was the second.

Yeah, that was the second thing I wanted to talk about.

You're recording a brand new album and this is when you're pretty excited about it.

Right. So far, it's been really good.

And, you know, a lot of people don't know that I live in Georgia now, but I'm from Michigan, spent my whole life there.

And we always had this sort of a false pride thing about music.

We were the best.

And I think it was built on the Motown tradition because they were super, super label.

And so we were in Detroit anyway, thinking, well, you know, even though I play all over the country, we thought we were the king.

And like my choice of word there, I almost said, you can say it.

You can say it.

We said worse.

You know, what amazed me when we started putting this album together down here, I couldn't believe the talent that's just bleeding to be to be in the studio.

I know up in Nashville, I know a lot of guys from Detroit moved down there and not just from Detroit, but from everywhere.

And you can't it's hard to get work up there.

So we're finding people want to come down here from Nashville. That's quite a drive hour forty five.

So they can find work.

And so I was blessed that way when I went to choose instruments for the recording.

Some of the most incredible talent is on is on my album at this point.

And we're just probably about halfway through where we want to be with it.

We've got seven songs done and we're looking to do 16 so we can kind of pick and choose.

There's no time limit, which is good.

Are you are you doing most of this from your house? Is that what you said?

No, I'm actually going into a studio that FEMA they disinfected before I go in and leave.

It's actually he's actually doing it, Brad, here in Chattanooga, the songbird studio.

No kidding. I think we can go. Yeah, it's very, very intimate.

But it's also there's enough space in there.

We never have more than four people in the whole studio at one time.

So we have a lot of space. I wear a mask in there.

I'm not a middle aged man anymore, so I have to worry about my health.

And I do have one or two of the four preexisting conditions they talk about.

And so I need to be very careful.

And I've been in the studio multiple times now with no after effects.

And so it's a very safe environment.

And the people I'm working with are very knowledgeable and talented.

And it's been a fulfilling experience.

And it sure is that beats sitting around the house, wondering what to do, because, you know, you can't this this industry,

that live entertainment that I've made my living on for 51 years, it's it's probably gone for if it ever comes back for a couple of years.

And I'm watching the industry try to imagine and create different sort of outlets to to earn money from artists performing.

But nothing's worked yet. And now you see big arena type things with with organized sports and they're having to make cardboard fans.

Yeah, yeah.

I can't I can't wait. I can't wait for the concert series where they start adding fake crowd noise, too, because if it was not awkward for sports,

imagine how awkward it's going to be when they start trying to pump in fake anime, the pirate pyrotechnics for right.

Yeah. Well, we'll let Great White do that.

Yeah. Can I let me let me insert just just real quick, because I want to talk about the record.

And I think it's interesting, Brad. I've talked to Mitch many, many times.

And so we're more than friends. Our friend, he'd go to get another.

Oh, he went probably probably went to the restroom because he's been drinking his PBR. So this is not unusual.

That was the first that was the first beer I was aware of.

It was Pat's Blue Ribbon. So what kind of sort of operates a lot like your drunk grandfather who just sort of wanders in and out.

What he's hands off my kids.

Somebody's getting a storm. So what I was going to say, just a quick sort of thing about this record.

And Brad, I don't know. I mean, Mitch and I have talked many times.

Mitch has stories about his times with James Brown, Jimi Hendrix.

I mean, the history is unbelievable. And what's interesting about this record, right, Mitch, is you're bringing all of those influences that you've had over the years.

Right. I mean, you're known for devil with a blue dress on and Jenny take a ride and DC writer.

But this is you're doing some jazz blues, all of it. Right.

Yeah, pretty much. I you can only fit so much of that one recording.

If you have a rich writer fan, you would, number one, be aware of the fact that I have thirty four CDs to my credit.

Seven of those, I don't know, they're live recordings. So thirty four minus seven leaves you twenty something.

I don't have enough fingers in front of me. And all of those touched on really different parts of music.

I never really got pigeonholed into one little box, which is what they like to do in the business.

So and so. Oh, yeah. The R&B singer. So and so. Oh, yeah.

The hard rocker. So and so. You know, and so if you can't put a title on something, it's not easy.

So it would mean the trider has been scattered over all these different kinds of music, especially when you listen to the European collection of stuff.

I did the five albums out of Hamburg, six albums and the other seven that had come out of Berlin.

And then there were two in France. So those touched on all these different parts.

I love music and I've done. Is it right? Yeah, it's a storm.

That's right. There is a storm is in Barry's brain. Getting.

But when you're when you're making a decision on a song, an album, are you asking yourself what kind of what kind of genre or format you want it to be?

Or are you saying I'm going to allow the songs to sort of live where it needs to live and I'll worry about genre later?

Well, I don't think specifically about, for example, a country with music that is indigenous to that country.

However, I find myself somewhere in my mind pulling rhythms, drum rhythms, bass lines, guitar parts from throughout my travels that I've heard and remembered.

And so I'll take that information and create a song around it.

And then somebody will say, oh, that sounds like a Slovakian polka.

You know, and I'm going, well, I'm sorry. That's not what I intended.

But, you know, it's this guitar line just really appealed to me.

And that's how it ended up. And so I've gotten a lot.

Well, to get back to Barry's question, the album contains as much diversity as you can have in the limitation of information that you can put on one recording.

Now, there are no longer limitations because I mean, if you want to CD, I know what we used to do with the old LPs.

We got done with them. We put them in the oven and they would curl up in the form of a bowl and we would use it for ashtrays.

I don't know what happens now with CDs when you microwave them or burn them.

But apparently, now that you just stream your music, you can have an album that has 150 songs.

I guess if you're capable of creating them, you know, would I be right or wrong?

You can put them out. We talked about it on this show that there are.

My Spotify playlist has thousands of songs on it at a time. That's the new LP.

And that's exactly what we talked about, Mitch, is that, you know, nobody wants to hold it to a particular genre anymore.

We all listen to different things.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I love different things.

I'm glad that, you know, other people feel that way now because it was getting pretty rough.

However, I have to say that when I was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, I did accept that as an honor.

That's a tough nut to crack. I was welcomed into that club.

Pretty sure you're the only white guy in there, right?

Well, living is the only way I could point out the fact that I'm still living.

That's a key word. I'm sorry I left that out.

Kind of important.

So I have some skill sets in that genre of music.

The pure, saintly sounding clarity of the 1965 through 69 Mitch Ryder is not with me anymore.

Not so much because of age, if you might expect, but, you know, I did have the throat operation a couple of years ago, Gary.

And things have changed, but I can still sing pretty. I can really sing pretty, but it's a different sound.

And it's not what I had before having the throat operation.

I'm just glad, you know, there was a lady up at Motown.

She got throat cancer and she died. And I'm glad that, you know, I didn't die.

I'm glad that I can still sing.

Can you tell the story, Mitch? Because it really, I still think about it.

I never thought about it until you put it this way.

You guys, you and the Detroit Wheels were going to open for, I don't remember which, English band.

And you kind of got mad because the girls only wanted to hear English bands.

And can you tell that story? It's one of my favorites.

Well, it was unfortunately Dave Clark.

We were the, at the time, we were the hottest band.

They had seen from earlier, Motown X would come to this venue and we would headline over them even though we didn't have a record.

And they were coming to do their hits.

He was very popular. So we got the nod to be able to open for our producer had something to do with it in New York, to open for Dave Clark.

And they put us in these little dressing rooms, you know, in the old Masonic Temple.

And the windows were like little cracks. They weren't windows you can raise up and down.

They were just little wind windows that you wind and they open up that much.

And there was no room to even put your head out.

But all the girls in Detroit, fallen in love with the group, which we still hate today for that reason.

The simple fact that they were British made them popular, right?

Little haircuts and that that accent.

In fact, the number one radio station in Detroit actually hired a British guy for prime time this job.

Simply because of the way he talked. I mean, that's how stupid those Detroiters were at that time.

So we were pissed off about that to begin with.

And then the fact that we had to, you know, be stuck in that hot dressing room.

So I just tried to see to get some fresh air.

I stepped my hand out the window by accident and a thousand girls began to scream.

And I go, what the? That's right.

And so I said, hey, guys, watch this. And I stuck my hand out and they scream again.

And I stuck it out and they scream again.

And we looked at each other and we said, this is bullshit, man.

We're going to burn these motherfuckers. We got to do this.

So we went down to open for Dave. I called for Dave after that night.

And we did everything we knew, everything I had learned coming up to the Black Club as a singer,

everything I had known about on stage performance by watching James Brown,

everything the boys in the band loved about urban music, everything they loved about rock and roll.

I took off my clothes. We switched instruments.

The drummer would play bass, the bass player played guitar on and on and on.

I would leap around like some kind of half naked moon dancer.

And we got done. We were exhausted. We went over like 15 minutes.

And the girls went nuts and cool.

So we left and we were walking back then as they came out to the stage.

And we just let her collect them like that.

And when they went on stage, we stood by the side to watch and see if we had poisoned the water enough.

And we did.

We had stolen the film from them because they could get out there and did the very British thing,

just standing straight, playing and looking and shaking your head inside the side like this,

like Ray Charles with eyes. It was weird.

I love that. I love that story and the other and one more, the James Brown dropping to your knees.

James was, yeah, he's a funny guy. He was a funny guy.

We knew each other.

And so I came, he came to Detroit to play and I went to see him.

And I had this couple of days.

The door would open and James would sit and walk through them under one of those big,

you remember those hair dryers that looked like the nose of a rocket ship?

You know, under one of them.

And so I walked in and James, it's me. How you doing?

And he goes, get here, get here, get here.

Oh, get here. Come a little closer.

So I walked about halfway across the room.

James is mixed. How you doing?

He had that big grin. He goes, hey, get here.

I guess like maybe two feet from him.

He goes, James is mixed. How the fuck are you doing?

Get here, get here.

I get down in front of him, looking up at him, on my fucking knees.

James started to set up in the back door. That's exactly where he wanted me.

On my knees in front of him.

It's one of the best.

You know, you make me think about something really interesting,

considering you had so much interaction with urban music,

if that's even what we call it anymore.

But you had so much exposure to maybe black artists and black culture.

And while so much was going on in the world,

so much was changing around you.

James Brown being part of a giant movement for civil rights,

vis-à-vis what's happening today,

I can imagine that's going to be a very odd perspective that you have

on both bookends of it.

Well, my association with my black friends in Detroit

was well into the unrest there that culminated in the riots

that were occurring in Detroit.

We were all aware of it.

Me and the members of my group,

I'm talking about the black group I was with,

and we, this is going to sound weird,

but we wanted to shield ourselves from,

we weren't thinking of civil rights.

We were thinking that money in America solves every problem I have.

And so our combined goal was success, tons of money,

rise above the gray, you won't be involved,

because money in America speaks the truth.

We all believe that any civil rights matter that were due or forthcoming

could be handled by claiming a huge amount of money and success.

And to some degree that's true,

but as I became famous and became more aware of the gravity

of integration and civil rights,

I did, for example, a 13 city,

or planned to be a 13, we ended up doing a seven city tour of arenas

with Wilson Pickett using his band and me using my band.

And the purpose of the express tour was to bring my white fans

and his black fans together.

And Wilson also went out of his way to introduce me to the Apollo crowd,

which was quite rare at that time as well.

So we became sort of semi-activists.

We weren't marching in the street at times,

but we were putting people together as a social experiment to see if that,

and you know, young people, it's not an egregious thing,

as it is with old folks in this country now.

Today's youth, and I know this because we have children and grandchildren now,

but the young people today are more quickly ready to judge you by your character,

by what you're worth as a human being, and by the color of your skin.

And that was something we were blindly looking for back when I had started out.

Then when I got away from the urban scenery and became sophisticated,

I was living in New York City,

where all the intelligentsia of the frigging world lives, right?

I mean, the first time that theory was debunked

was when I had to start stepping over homeless people in Manhattan.

I realized it wasn't the center of the universe at that point.

So, but anyway, when I...

Wow!

Well, somebody just...

Whoa!

I can't put it again.

Sorry.

There's so few planes leaving Chattanooga now,

I thought maybe one had just crashed.

That's a storm in New Orleans.

Yeah.

It's raining down on me here.

So anyway, you got me talking, but I lost my train of thought when we heard you talk.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just fascinating to me because for as long as it's been,

sometimes it feels like we haven't gotten anywhere.

And you being on the front lines of it then,

and then having to see it all come back around again,

it's got to be a very strange thing for you.

I mean, I don't know, in your opinion, has it gotten better?

Or does it all just feel the same?

No, there have been changes, but one thing that has not changed,

there was a city adjacent to the city of Detroit where I had a friend,

and I took two of the black members of the group, the peps that I was in,

out to Dearborn, and the mayor of Dearborn was a sconce racist.

And I'm driving along with the guys in the car,

and I'm talking to them and all of a sudden I'm looking in the mirror

and I don't see them anymore, like they had bailed, jumped out of the car.

I go, what the fuck?

And they're crouched down, hiding, while I'm driving through Dearborn.

And I said, what the fuck's wrong with you guys?

What's going on?

They said, we're in Dearborn.

I said, wow, how does that happen that you have to hide, driving through the city?

And we get pulled over, and I had my dad's car,

and they took him to jail and they let me go.

And so law enforcement has not changed that much from what I have known

in terms of young black men.

But there have been other breakthroughs in different professions,

in politics, in the middle class.

There are changes, and there are a lot of places where the color of your skin

does not determine your worth.

Unfortunately, the pie that we're eating out of is only so big.

That's right.

And nobody's willing to give up.

It's like if I had eight pieces of pie, and it was the last piece of pie I had,

and you were the nicest guy in the world, and you wanted some of it,

you begged for it, you marched outside my house for it,

you wanted that piece of pumpkin pie, and it was the last one I had,

and I was like, man, this isn't going to be snowing on him.

And it goes back to your original point, which was you're all just trying to make money.

Right.

In America, money is God.

You can say all you want about religion and churches and Christians and whatever,

but there's nothing that money can't do in this country.

That's the greatest truth.

And that's why I just don't know, I just watched this Miles Davis documentary the other night.

I love Miles.

It just doesn't feel like much has changed.

When you break it all down to what it's about and what is the core issue, a lot of it,

yeah, it's about improprieties and how overwhelmingly racist some of it is basic politics,

but at the end of the day, it's all about money.

It's about money, it's about opportunity.

And like I said, we're living in the only pure capitalistic country left on the face of the earth,

and there's nothing wrong with that per se, except that, like I said,

they only baked one pie, and it's only big enough.

So you're going to, without education, without the funding for the education,

without the opportunities being presented to not only minorities now,

because I want to tell you something, we grew up poor.

We were what you call white trash, okay?

And so it's not just Latinos and blacks, it's white folk that can't bust through that economic barrier either.

And so for that reason, I don't think it's racist.

I think it's a class issue, and I think that would be addressed only through a revolution probably.

Well, I tell you, I think there's so many stories that we could probably ask you about.

There's probably so many twists and turns that we could dive into,

and I hope that in the future we'll get another chance to weave our way through some of the sometimes ridiculous.

The stained fabric of my quilt.

Yeah, he's got some good ones.

Yeah, I hope we get to do it again soon.

Good luck on the album, and hey, we'll be the first ones there when you want to play a song.

We'll be the first ones to leak it.

I'm not that way. I don't like to leak things out.

I'm going to finish it first.

We have a goal. We want to get the 16 songs recorded by November.

And the reason we're taking our time is because of the white people.

You got time.

What the hell else are we going to do?

So tomorrow I'll be in the studio for a half an hour. Why?

Because I want to be able to come all year long.

Yeah, very nice.

It's a good people. I don't care.

I love the winters down here.

I don't like the oppressive hot summers.

I'm getting to know enough people to where I feel the friendship that's available and outreaching to folks that come down here.

It has nothing to do with being the South.

It just has to do with good people.

The only thing is I landed smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt, but not exactly the Bible Belt.

We're actually under the buckle of the Bible Belt.

Yeah, I call it the gut sweat of the Bible Belt.

I believe in God. I believe in Jesus.

What can I tell you? That's where my faith is.

But I don't believe in it as a business profession.

So that's, you know, once again, money.

Well, you got a good tour guide and Barry Courter right at the road from.

He's also going to be my sort of armored vest.

I'll just walk behind him.

Yeah, I'm good at that. That and shadows.

Thanks so much.

Yeah, you have a good day.

And, you know, you kind of know what's going on with me.

And I hope that this podcast thing amongst the other ones that are out there is attractive to people.

I know it should be attractive to people in New Jersey, New York, because I know all of them creeps.

It should be attractive to people in Michigan. And I have some friends in Southern California, too.

So there you have it.

Thanks so much.

We welcome all of you guys.

Hey, time for you to take another piss.

I'll see you guys.

See you.

The what podcast podcast for Bonnaroovians by Bonnaroovians there's Barry, there's Lord Taco.

I'm Brad, great town, the trider.

And I'm serious about this.

It wasn't for the storm that was was Tigger tearing down my street or the audio issues and my phone die.

I would have talked to him for hours and hopefully we can get him back on the show because I feel like there's a lot of stories that he is dying to tell somebody.

And I would like to be the guy that he, you know, you know, just stumbles onto one day and decides to pour it all out.

That would be that would be pretty magical.

I have a feeling we can sit around for an hour and a half just talking to Mitch Ryder if we wanted to.

Oh, he's got plenty of stories and the name dropping is amazing.

And that's the he loves to name drop, doesn't he?

I know it's not. That's what I'm saying.

It's not like that.

It's it's it's just real.

It's when he says it, you know, he isn't kidding.

You know what I mean?

He's not name dropping.

He's not trying to impress you at all.

He doesn't care.

That's what I thought though is very saucy today.

He is really, really punchy.

No, look, I like saucy bearing.

Look, very now, one only fans.

I mean, let's be real.

I mean, you, Brad, you're you know, you've been in this business.

You met celebrities.

You've met people.

I don't care.

I don't care who you are.

I am one.

I'm overwhelmed.

I'm that you're talking to me.

Stunning, stunning.

Yes.

Yeah.

Let me put it this way.

The fact that you're talking to me means about as much as any of the other ones.

I appreciate that, Barry.

I really do.

It means a lot.

It means a lot.

Yeah.

I'm in love today.

You should.

There's so much positivity radiating here.

Speaking of speaking of Brad always being right, because that's what we're talking about.

I was scrolling through because I live in New Orleans now and I was scrolling through a local New Orleans Instagram feed and they happen to have a shirt that's printed.

With the proper pronunciation under the word, it's call I have been and it says, if you're not local, you don't know how to say the word.

So welcome to Brad being right.

There's even a thing that proves that you're not local.

I'm here now and I know how to pronounce the word.

Ouch.

I know how to pronounce the word.

The people here, the people here say it, Caliope.

Just like, okay, let me, let me spell the word for you real quick.

Okay.

B-U-R-G-U-N-D.

I can end this, Brad.

What's the little, what's the little city south of Ringgold?

That would be Lafayette.

Uh huh.

Uh huh.

Uh huh.

How does the rest of the universe say it?

Okay.

No, that's not correct.

The rest of the universe is not saying Lafayette.

The only, your universe says Lafayette.

Only the people of Chattanooga and Lafayette say Lafayette.

Nowhere else in the world.

Only the people in New Orleans say Caliope.

No, nowhere in the world do they say, no, okay.

So how would you say, how would you say the colors of the Washington Redskins?

Do you know the colors of the Washington Redskins?

I'm just going to guess, uh, yellow.

No.

Green.

It's burgundy and gold.

But here it's burgundy.

So there are certain ways they say words that are different.

And because, because Bonnaroo is essentially built out of New Orleans culture, because of Superfly, it carries over.

The reason why it's Caliope, and the reason why they say it's Calliope, by the way, because nobody that still runs it is from New Orleans and has the Superfly connections anymore.

But if you ask anybody with the Superfly connections what that word is and how you say it, they'd say Caliope.

Well, we asked the guys at C3 and they said Calliope.

Not part of any New Orleans culture like Superfly was.

It's all about...

And it dates back to Greek mythology, right?

Yeah, the Calliope stage has nothing to do with New Orleans.

It has nothing to do with New Orleans. You're, you mean you can...

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Okay. Yeah, they moved the, they moved the hill too.

They moved the damn hill.

It's Caliope people move the hill.

Barry, you've had 45 minutes to get the names of the Patreons.

Karen Sheets, Timothy Proctor, Aaron Carlson, Liesl Condor, David Grimes, Phil Hanley, Chloe Hannan, Benjamin Wells, Tori,

way to go, Musical Antlers, Mary T, Skyler, Melanie and Jesse Feldman, Parker Reed, Dan Sweeney, Joshua Herndon,

Lauren Edholm, Nick Yeatman, Tyrone Baskett, Evan Brown, Ross McNamara, William Richards, Clay Wilhoit,

Sean McCarthy, Ryan Mathewson, Chelsea Davis, Lucy Young, Jason Hazelbaker, DK, Linda Doles,

Jacob Marty, Andrew T. McBride, Justin Nigro, David Salano, Catherine Riccio, Meredith Ritman,

Daniel and Sharla Horton, the Rebus folks, Sean McCain, David Henson, Brooke Tussie, Ella from Signal Mountain,

and Taco, do you know who our, who's our new person?

We just got a new person.

Do you remember?

Oh, you're going to make me read the name.

Yeah. You guys are putting me on the spot.

I'm going to give a little love back.

What was it?

Madison?

It's Madison.

I'll just put the, I'll just put the name up on the screen so you can watch on YouTube and see the name.

How about that?

We need to give her some love.

She's new.

Yeah.

We got a new Patreon.

That's amazing.

Welcome to the family, Madison.

What you're seeing for the first time is I think the, I'll just put it this way.

Barry, did you get a new shower head?

I see where this is going.

Is this going to be our new direction?

Are you having some pressure issues over there in 2B, Jerry?

Are you having some, are you having some pressure issues?

It's the water pressure.

It's been a swimming pool day.

I told you that.

It's been a swimming pool day.

Yeah.

Please watch on YouTube so you can see Barry's hair.

No, no, no, no.

Please watch on YouTube so you can see my hair.

Nobody wants to see your hair.

You should.

Damn it.

You should.

All right.

Anything else to get through today before we sign off until the next glorious day that we, are we done?

I just opened a new beer.

Are you just, yeah.

How is that different than any other day?

What are we going to do?

We need to talk about, and I don't know if we want to, I mean, we can edit this out, but everyone should have gotten their swag.

Oh, yeah.

We need to get, we need to get those guys on, on to talk about it.

We need to have some debates about the mixtapes.

We need to get pictures of everybody with their stuff.

This is a great, yeah.

I meant to, the, the, the, the, why Hillary asked me about this last night.

We need to see that we should do a poll, right?

Of whose mixtape you like better?

Brad, Brad or Brad?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It would be nice to get some people on who have received and consumed the mixtapes and see what they think.

Yeah.

They love it.

They hate it.

Whatever.

I mean, I don't care.

I'd like to hear some feedback and we need to, we also need to probably, I think we talked about making the mixtapes available to everybody, right?

Maybe just open them up on Spotify and let people listen.

Well, whatever we want to do, that's what we can put out a playlist.

Yeah.

I just want to hear that.

And, you know, Russ, you start, you created the, the phone.

The phone.

You created the phone.

Yeah.

Congratulations.

You did it, buddy.

I can't believe it.

Here it is.

Right here.

We are.

Alexander Graham taco right in front of us.

Who knew?

We had him.

What are we doing a podcast about Bonnaroo for?

We've got the inventor of the phone.

We got the phone thingy.

And I want to, you know, we need to give that number back out.

Let's give the number back out.

Do you remember what it is?

I know that the last four digits are taco.

You know, we really should not do shows in the afternoon anymore because Barry is all over the place today.

I told you it was a pool day.

The four to three.

Was it six, six, seven taco or two, three, six, six, seven, seven, eight, seven, seven.

And I'll put it on the screen.

Okay.

So there's, there's something else for you to watch.

Yeah.

So we set up a voicemail box where you can call in and tell us whatever you want to tell us.

Tell us your favorite Bonnaroo memory.

Tell us what you were looking forward to in 2020.

Tell us how much you like my hair.

How much you like Brad's hair.

Tell us how to pronounce Kaliope.

Tell us if they move the hill or not.

They move the hill.

Yeah.

Call in, leave a voicemail.

We'll listen to them.

We'll play some on the air.

We'll talk about them.

Yeah.

I'd love that.

Leave a review of the mix tape.

Four, two, three, six, six, seven taco.

In fact.

Four, two, three, six, seven, seven, eight, seven, seven.

It could be you singing along to the mix tape.

That would be great too.

We would love to hear you sing some of the mix tape.

Yeah.

I love it.

Voicemail.

Yeah.

And if you've gotten your, your Patreon package, yeah, send us the pics.

Model it, my friend.

Model the shirt.

Yeah.

Put the sticker on your necklace.

I don't care what you need to do.

Put the sticker on.

Let's see it.

Let's see it.

Show us, show us what you're drinking in your koozie.

Show me that koozie.

Yeah.

Show me that koozie.

Yeah.

It's, it's very, it's a very exciting time.

You know, we've got to figure out, like I feel as though that, that the stuff that we are

putting out may just be as interesting as Bonnaroo.

Considering there's one.

There's not a whole shelf being put out, yeah.

It's, uh.

Yeah, it's tough times.

Tough times.

All right.

So yeah, I want to see it.

I want to hear what you think.

And by the way, even if you don't like the mix tape, that's fine too.

No, no, that's what I want to hear.

We're open to criticism.

That's the point of the mix tape.

The mix tape is supposed to be a representation of you, the person making the mix tape, showing

off and seeing if you can expose somebody to something different and new.

And by the way, I re-listened to, of course, mine the other night.

And a lot of changes, a lot of, a lot of weird choices I made.

I would have really made some different decisions.

I have a, I'd like a re-edit.

I'd like to go back and start this one over again.

I'd like to redo the mix tapes.

I'd like to do another version of them.

Well, that's the thing.

We could make it a seasonal thing.

This season, when we reopen the tiers, we can put out a new mix tape.

Man, I'll give you one step better.

You could do it each season, not the season of the show, but for, for winter, for fall,

for spring, for summer, like every, every season.

We could make it a subscription.

That's right.

Absolutely.

Oh, a subscription.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Interesting.

Look at us working this out.

I actually listened to yours yesterday.

I stumbled across it for some reason and, and, um, there's actually a couple of artists

on there that we might actually be able to get on the show that you had on yours and

maybe some others.

So is it repeat, repeat again?

No, it's not actually, I won't say who, cause we may not get him, but I'm pretty sure we

will.

I really like taco found that one funny.

I really made that.

I made, that makes me very happy.

I know.

I just love having repeat, repeat on.

Yeah.

It would be really great if chair had just popped in right now because he has access

to the link.

He could just go in here.

He could, he could sign, he could join the group.

He could join, join the call.

Yeah.

Listening.

If we did, if he did sign in, I just want to hear Kristen say, be sweet.

I just want to hear you from the other room before the, before the show started, he texted

me, they're on the way back from camping and, uh, she's listening to Taylor Swift, so we

won't be hearing from them for a minute.

Yeah.

All right.

There you go.

Uh, very random episode of the What Podcast.

Uh, be sure to, by the way, we don't say this enough.

Thank you for one being a listener, being a viewer, uh, being a patron to the What Podcast,

but more than that, if you could go to your iTunes store or anywhere you get the app or

any on your app or anytime you get the show, wherever you get the show, wherever you get

the show, uh, be sure to rate it and review it.

It really helps with the whole search feature thing in the, um, in the algorithm stuff.

That's a taco question, but it really does.

If you rate and review, even if it's a one, that's fine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Any interaction you can do.

If you want to leave a review, if you want to share, if you want to give a thumbs up,

a follow subscribe.

Yeah.

Really appreciate it.

Yeah.

It helps a lot.

All right.

For a taco for Barry, I'm Brad.

We'll talk to you sometime in the future on the What Podcast.

Bye.