Here's another thing, and I just thought of this.

I had this, that's one of the bandanas.

I used to wear this thing all the time.

I can hold this in my hand.

I put it on when I'm mowing grass.

I put it on when I'm doing whatever.

It reminds me every day, 360 days about Bonnaroo.

That's why it's a little bit more than just a bandana.

It is May the 11th.

If you're watching, probably Wednesday,

but for us, it's Mother's Day.

And the only reason I mention that, guys,

I don't normally do this, but I have to share a story.

I never do this, but we were on the phone this morning

with my daughter and our grandchild, who is 18 months,

and she literally, while we were on the phone,

FaceTime, which is awesome, she ran to the bathroom,

stuck her hand in the toilet.

Her dad got up to get her, and she turned around

and ran and put her hand in his coffee cup.

All right.

That's awesome.

Hey.

That was a pretty exciting day.

Yeah, good morning.

Pretty funny moment, so I just had to share that.

Happy Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day, everybody.

Happy Mother's Day last week.

How are you guys doing?

I'm doing well.

Glad to be back.

Taco, how about you?

I'm doing well, and I just want to point out

we are officially under 30 days.

Yeah, yeah.

I was just thinking that last night as I was dozing off,

a month from this day right now that this drops,

so the 14th of May, will be over halfway through Bonnaroo

in 30 days.

Are you ready?

Yeah, unbelievable.

I'm ready.

No.

Thank you.

Thank you.

But I never am until about an hour before we leave.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm excited.

I'm starting to pack.

I have packed some stuff.

Thanks to Evan and Kyle last week

for those guys jumping in and joining us.

That was a lot of fun.

A lot of good information.

I'm glad we're all back together, the three of us.

It feels like it's been a minute.

Yeah, it's just been a wild month or so.

I'll break down a little bit of things,

just not too far in depth of where I've been

the last couple weeks towards the end of the show

as we get out of here,

but it does feel like it's been a while,

and part of that is I just can't believe

how much I have bit off and can't chew and swallow.

Right before Bonnaroo, somebody was asking,

maybe it was Daniel from over at Rooboss,

he was just, hey, what do you think?

Do we wanna do this?

Maybe you think that this is?

I'm like, I don't know, dude.

I can't take it.

You see this?

I can't take it anymore.

I don't know, I don't know.

We'll get back to you.

So that's just kind of a scheduling problem

that I've created for myself,

a problem of lots of fun, Barry and Taco.

The guy sits around and complains about having fun.

Yeah, right, right.

Too much fun.

We mentioned it last week with Evan.

You mentioned Daniel and Rooboss.

Those guys have a packed weekend or week planned.

I don't know how they're gonna do it all.

If they're not careful, they will get burned out on this

because they've just planned so many events, so many.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a busy, busy time, boys.

Boys get in here quick too.

They're really excited about it.

All right, so we have lots to talk about.

Obviously, bandana, gift gate,

whatever you wanna call it.

I think this is worth spending some time on for sure.

I do too.

And we'll get to it.

I got a couple things before we do that.

Barry and Taco, as far as old news,

do we have any old news we need to get out of the way

here from the DS?

Do we have anything?

Or what do you guys got in the last week

that we need to get to, anything?

I'm excited to say I think they listened to us

because remember a couple weeks ago,

you were complaining about the platinum areas

saying they need to go?

I've been saying that for a year, yes.

Yeah, well, they're not going away,

but they are reworking them and they are keeping that in mind

that it's a bad look to have such a big empty area

right in front.

So.

Good, I did not see that.

I think we can take credit for that.

I believe they said that on the Roo Bus podcast

a couple weeks ago.

Well, let's see, we brought back Jake and Snake and Jake's,

Jake and whatever else it's called.

We brought that back.

We have now, geez, I should make a list of these

not real things that we did.

Our track record's pretty good.

Yeah, our criticisms, our advice.

Yeah, our constructive criticism,

I like to think that it is.

To me, that was an obvious one.

That was such a, I mean, huge space.

It was a nice idea, I get it, it's fine.

It just didn't, it wasn't utilized properly.

So that's a good, and they listened,

and it wasn't just us.

All you had to do was walk by any of the tents

and look over there and be like, okay.

Yeah, and there's Russ.

There's Russ inside of two acres.

I'm in there all by myself.

Why is there one guy in there with a PBR?

Where is everybody else?

And how did he get that PBR in here?

Even he doesn't look happy.

We don't sell that stuff.

Yeah, right.

Even he doesn't look happy in there.

By the way, thank you, Bonnaroo,

for not selling PBR anymore, I appreciate that.

Oh.

Oh, I wish they would.

Oh, we're going at it, here we go.

Yeah, any other news?

Well, just, I wouldn't call it news,

but a couple of things I saw people on Reddit

talking about, just skimming through it here

as I've tried to get caught back up into real life.

Looks like on Tuesday, there's gonna be a Whiffleball game

in one of the empty plots that hasn't been filled yet.

Yep.

Boy, if I was there on Tuesday,

I would show y'all how to play some Whiffleball.

And so that's a really cool idea.

And boy, the idea is out of left field.

Keep coming from everywhere.

And then this was announced a few weeks ago,

maybe a month ago.

And I just haven't got around to mention it

because I keep forgetting.

There's the coffee exchange now they're doing.

It looks like, I'm sorry I don't have the info

as far as what pot or what plaza it's gonna be near.

We'll figure that out in the next month.

But the beer exchange has been something

that's been quite popular over the last few years

and many years actually.

And bring a beer, take a beer kind of thing.

And it's now been arranged to do a coffee exchange

of packages of what appears to be mostly whole bean.

Let's make this a whole bean coffee thing guys and gals

by the way, don't bring that powdery ground up junk

you buy at the grocery store.

Don't bring that.

Bring the whole bean stuff.

The problem is for me and maybe us

is that it's on Thursday at noon.

So that's a cramped day for everybody.

But certainly for us it's always our busiest day

is Thursday.

So I, boy, I hope I can make it.

But there's a signup sheet that's a live signup sheet

that you can go when you find it.

I'll look for the link and send it.

Maybe we can get it on here and then you can go in there

and give an idea of what you're bringing.

Part of what makes this exciting for me is

I had never had other than a sip of coffee

to realize I hated it my whole life

until two years ago, two Bonnaroo's ago.

Tara V our regular in and out regular of Camp Nut Butter.

She had a jug of cold brew

and it was right after I quit drinking alcohol.

And so I was like, what the hell am I supposed to do

with Bonnaroo?

I was just kind of a lost year.

For me just in my head and she's like, here, try this.

I remember.

I didn't realize it was that big a moment.

I remember that.

I was like, I don't drink this crap, but okay.

And I was like, oh my God, this is amazing.

This is so much different

than just a pour over brewed regular coffee.

And so I have now drank it ever since then.

So Bonnaroo is another connective tissue to something,

well, basically an addiction to my life.

Yeah, it's just swapping one for another.

Exactly.

And so now, and I am a whole bean.

I got a coffee grinder.

I grind the beans up.

I make them every day.

And so I do cold brews pretty much all the time.

So in the just the jar where it just soaks

and seeps overnight.

So Bonnaroo now for Stone is he's gonna do the 5K

and he's gonna do coffee exchange.

Yeah, what the hell's going on here?

Let's go for a race and exchange coffee beans.

Wow.

Talk about changing your life.

I know, I know.

And so I love it.

I can't wait for that.

If I'll do everything I can to be at the coffee exchange.

I don't know what's next for you.

We'll figure it out.

I don't know.

Yeah, we'll probably,

if we don't have on somebody from the Roo Run soon enough,

Bonaroovy and Kyle might join us before a month is up

and because he ran the Roo Run last year,

maybe many years.

And yeah, I still think I might be messing up

with that one.

And I know we said it last year,

but he was first in line and he got to pick his number.

He was 420.

420.

It's awesome.

There you go.

Yeah, that guy is,

yeah, I think he is a runner.

He sure looks like a runner.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, he looked like he did it and then could do it again.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I'm looking forward to having somebody

and I don't know if we'll get somebody officially

from the Roo Run.

It's just, it's a busy time.

So it might not be,

but we'll talk about it a little bit,

but yeah, it's wild what life will do to you,

especially Bonaroo.

Mr. Kermudgeon.

Now all of a sudden he's worried about his coffee beans

and his running.

I don't know, man.

You gotta turn 45 and grow up one of these days.

There you go.

All right, what else we got?

Cause I'm ready to get into this bandana gift thing,

cause it's important.

Yeah, oh yeah, the one more thing that I did see

just people chatting about the fountain.

Looks like it'll be not open 24 seven.

There was not a lot of specifics,

but with the idea of trying to keep it cleaner.

That's a fine idea by me.

I don't know that it needs to be open at 5 a.m.

or 2 a.m.

I'm not sure if the idea is to keep it clean, that's fine.

But the next time,

the next time I get in the fountain

will be the first time I've ever been in the fountain.

So for people who have never been,

the fountain is one of the iconic images of Bonaroo.

There's the arch and then there's the fountain, right?

And then there's the sphere, there's the...

The disco ball.

The disco ball.

Yeah, the clock tower.

The Ferris wheel.

Ferris wheel.

So the fountain runs all the time

and it is connected to well water.

And it's clear when you get there on Tuesday,

say or Wednesday.

And by Sunday, it looks like peanut butter.

It's brown.

And that's because it recycles

and it's because people have, you know,

suntan lotion or whatever.

Yeah, mixed with dirt and everything else.

It's disgusting.

Well, you hope it's suntan lotion.

Yeah. Fair enough.

Yeah, at best case scenario, it's a lot of, yes, that.

I do remember about year two or three being there

at about four in the afternoon

and two or three people just decided to go skinny dipping.

And it was the first time I saw security.

And I thought, you know, all right,

well, there's naked people in this fountain

at four in the afternoon

and this security person in a t-shirt,

that's the only reason I knew, it wasn't like a cop.

She just kind of walked up and said,

y'all need to put your clothes on.

And they were like, okay.

Simple enough.

And that was the extent of it.

That's my sort of moment with the fountain.

Yeah. I don't know how much cleaning up they can do

if it's just recycling well water,

but if they're trying anything, that's fine with me.

The biggest controversy of 25,

the exchange, which I didn't even really realize

that it was the bandanas is what's got people

mostly been out of shape the most,

but they've been, you know,

Bonnaroo has been given a unique ticket delivery system,

whether how, in every angle,

pretty much since the beginning.

Right.

Certainly for the last 15 years or so,

like getting the gift that comes with the ticket shipment,

it's a big deal to people.

And I get it.

I totally get it.

It feels weird.

So let's just start from where it is.

I mean, you know, by now,

Yeah, if you're listening, you know.

You're just getting the wristband in the mail.

That's it.

That's all you're getting.

And most festivals and most concerts

and most anything you're doing

that's an entertainment attraction,

that's all you get.

Like that you just get your admission.

They don't send you a damn gift box.

Right.

To go to the Metallica show

at Nissan Stadium over the weekend

or the Pearl Jam show in Atlanta or Nashville,

I don't get a Pearl Jam sticker in them, you know,

along with it.

All I get is the ticket.

So it's just kind of going to the standard distribution.

Now, if you, you know, you get it on your phone,

you get a barcode or whatever, for the most part.

As a matter of fact, yeah, I even put that poorly.

You're right.

They don't send any of that stuff in the mail.

Yeah.

So for years and years and years,

when you signed up, you know, you bought your Bonnaroo

and you got a package in the mail.

And in some years it was a lunchbox, literally.

Yeah.

A lunchbox.

That was probably their most bold year

of sending out a really neat gift.

I mean, I've still got mine.

We've all, you know.

Yep.

And inside you got Rufus.

You got a bandana.

One year you got a Magic 8 Ball.

Last year, I guess you got was a notepad and a pencil.

So you were, you know, the idea being

either you wrote down your own memories

or you had somebody sign it or whatever.

Yeah.

There was a board game recently.

Board game.

Like the little die that you throw and, you know.

Yep, yep, yep.

It was stupid as hell.

Yeah.

It was stupid.

Nobody played the board game, but it was still neat.

It was still neat.

It was different.

And that's, I can go, I mean, I am all over this one.

I've thought about it for days.

I get it.

It's a cost cutting thing.

These things were expensive.

They were an added.

But as I've said, ever since we started this podcast

in 2018, when you get to Bonnaroo,

there's something different about it, right?

There's just something extra, whether it was the beacon.

I mean, you got there and like.

The newspaper.

There's a newspaper and there's radio, Bonnaroo radio.

You know, when you come over the mountain

and you can tune into the radio station

and you're suddenly hearing the bands

that are playing and interviews.

Nobody else did that.

Nobody else did that.

And nobody else even copied that, that I'm aware of.

Yeah.

That was such a unique idea and such a audacious idea

that nobody even copied that one.

Absolutely.

So we have said over and over and over

that Bonnaroo is different.

Bonnaroo changed our lives.

This is one of those things.

I mean, is it the end of the world

that you're not getting a gift anymore?

Is it the end of the world

that you're not getting a bandana anymore?

Of course not.

No, but is it worrisome?

Yeah, it is to me.

Maybe a little.

I also think it's more about,

it's less about the bandana itself

and more about how this was communicated

because, you know, Fist of Al put out a tweet

and that's pretty much how everyone found out.

After they had already shipped.

They had, after they had already shipped

and they, you know, Brad and Corey

had just done this big Discord AMA.

Right.

Not once mentioned it.

So it seems like if they had maybe gotten

in front of this a little more

and communicated it better,

people would be less up in arms, maybe?

Probably.

It goes from, this is a weird thing to be mad about

to I'm enraged.

Exactly.

Like that's how far apart everybody is on this.

Like you guys are so stupid for caring about this

to you're the dumbest guy ever for not getting it.

And one thing I wrote down was just,

Bonnaroo and you just basically,

you just said all this Barry,

but it's just a couple words that says the same thing.

Bonnaroo is about a different experience.

Everything about Bonnaroo is a different experience

from everywhere else.

Correct.

And when you take away those different experiences

at any time, it's gonna bother people who are regulars.

And I, this is a right now note to self.

When we, when we talk to the, the, the wigs

and the movers and shakers of this festival

is how much does it matter for repeat business

at this point, 21 years in?

Are they, is it more about new, fresh, young people

to keep this thing going?

Which I think it probably is, or-

Definitely is.

Is it more, or how much emphasis,

let's make a pie chart on, on return repeat business.

And so the people who've never been don't know

and don't care.

Right.

But anybody, but most people who love this,

let's just say, I would, I think that's fair.

Most people that love this,

they're gonna go more than once

and they're gonna, and they're gonna want those collectibles.

I mean, just think about the explosion of the trinkets

and the, the, the necklaces and the bracelets and the,

I don't even know all the jargon.

Sorry, all you young people, fellow young people,

the, the drift for your wrist, right?

Like all that stuff is part of it.

And it's, when it, when it gets eliminated,

it just feels like a piece of the soul

kind of floats away.

You cannot turn your back on these people

that have been going 15, 10, 20 years.

But also if you want a bandana, go buy a damn bandana.

Like there's that too.

So I, I-

It's, yeah, is it,

there is a, there is a reality.

People don't riot because they don't have something.

They only riot when you take something, right?

That's generally true, yes.

Yep.

So any change, and, and, and this is what I've heard

a lot of people talk about on Reddit and whatever.

You know, we, they, we don't have the comedy tent anymore.

We don't have this, we don't have that.

Things are silent disco.

So when you start looking at it that way,

I think that's what upsets the veterans.

The-

Yeah, it's, it's another reminder of all the things

that we don't have now.

You don't have.

That you used to.

That you used to, yeah.

That's right.

And Bryan, you and I were talking briefly yesterday

on the phone.

You've been to everyone.

I've been to most of them.

Russ, you've been since 2018.

So we have that historical knowledge.

And to your point that you just were making,

Bryan, the half of the people that will be coming

this year have never been.

So this is nothing to them, right?

What do you mean a bandana?

What are you guys whining about a bandana?

Like bandanas aren't even that cool.

Exactly.

Who cares?

You know, get me my wristband in the mail

or on my phone and I'm good.

Yeah.

Because, and I'm sure Brad and Corey will point this out,

you're getting flushable toilets.

You're getting, you know, better water stations.

You're getting all this other stuff

that they're putting money into.

Yeah, that's one way to look at it.

They've cut this one thing out,

but look at everything else they've invested in.

I'm looking at a whole freaking new stage.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, that's not, that's all real,

but you know how much people care about that

in their day-to-day life?

Not at all.

Not at all.

They're happy about it, but generally on a Tuesday in May,

they're not like, boy, Bonnaroo, that infinity stage.

I am so excited.

They're, that's just human nature all the way around.

And here's another just little angle of this too.

There's been a lot of news this year.

And part of that is they've been very, very out

in front of it.

Absolutely.

Brad and Corey, I mean, you know,

talk about getting some of these guys and gals on the show.

We don't need them on the show.

Just go look around.

They're everywhere.

Yeah, they're everywhere.

And they're, and good on them for doing this.

Good on them for doing that.

That's another thing that's unique to this festival.

The Lollapalooza festival director isn't all over

social media and podcasts.

What's his name?

You know?

Exactly, yeah.

So great on them for doing that.

And guys, thank you.

Legitimately thank you for doing that.

But because there's so many changes, both good and bad,

nobody who's approaching past a very, very youthful adult

likes change.

No.

Nobody does.

Here's another thing.

And I just thought of this.

I had this, that's one of the bandanas.

I used to wear this thing all the time.

I can hold this in my hand.

I put it on when I'm mowing grass.

I put it on when I'm doing whatever.

It reminds me every day, 300 and whatever,

60 days about Bonnaroo.

That's why it's a little bit more than just a bandana.

I've got those things in my life too

that I see almost on a daily basis.

You've got your Pearl Jam hat on.

You've got your bag.

I've got a T-shirt.

I mean, we can get a T-shirt, same thing,

but you bought that, right?

Right, yeah.

No, this was not a gift.

Right, a surprise.

And I'll give you another example of,

I don't know if all sports teams,

I would imagine many, many NFL teams do this

because the Titans would have copied this.

They're not unique enough to come up with their own idea,

but I was a season ticket holder for the Titans

from 2013 until like five minutes ago.

Like just the other day, it was the official, you're done.

The 100th time, are you paying,

are you buying tickets again for the 100th time?

No, I'm done with this.

But every year they sent out a gift box in the off season.

Usually came in January.

And every year I would forget about it, most years.

And it was mostly junk, like stuff like, you know,

a football commemorative 15 years

of the stadium or something.

I do have a cutting board actually, I still use to this day.

Just stuff like that, trinket style things, coasters,

a little bit better than the super cheap,

way better than a bandana, way better than a koozie.

And they sent that every year, had a bobble head,

and this stuff is junk.

You can't even turn around and sell it on eBay

for more than a few bucks,

because it's made in China junk that they just send out.

And you know what?

Every year I was so damn excited

about that shipment of stuff,

because I give them a lot of money every year

for a product that ain't all that damn great.

And Bonnaroo is people giving them a lot of money

for a product that is great.

A product that's always great,

but it can also be, it's experience driven,

so it could also not be that great.

You could have a year that isn't good

and doesn't have anything to do with Bonnaroo's inefficiency,

that's just on your, you know, your anecdotal situation

that might not be good.

But those gifts, things like that, you remember,

think about when someone gives you a gift.

Oh my God, what an awesome thought.

You just gave me something that you knew that I would like?

That's the whole ethos of gift giving.

So it really makes people feel special.

And if you sit around and think,

I don't know about this anymore.

I don't know if I wanna keep doing this.

Oh hey, they just give me, well look at this gift.

How thoughtful.

Hey, I can't wait to do this again.

I mean, that's a psychological,

even if it's subconscious,

approach that I think many people have.

And I think it leaves a little bit of a hole.

Like a little bit of a hole in the soul.

A little bit, a little bit.

That's my question.

The fact that it didn't happen,

what does that do to you psychologically?

You know, yeah.

Probably to most people, no.

You know, I used to get a 10 cent gift.

This year I didn't get anything.

Does that mean, you know, is it gloom and doom?

I don't know.

I don't know.

And see, and the package that they would send me,

the Tennessee Titans would send me every year,

the last like five years,

it got worse and worse and worse and worse.

And it's funny you mentioned.

Smaller and smaller and less and less.

And I'm like, these jerks, screw these people.

But come on, man.

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned the work thing.

Cause I, where I work,

we get a coffee mug from a vendor.

People we use, you know, nice, love it, great.

How many coffee mugs do you need?

You know, but we, another vendor,

we didn't get anything.

If you're, if you're Bryan, you need a bunch.

You know, I need a whole bunch.

Yeah.

But another vendor, we, we got a gift cards this year.

We didn't get anything until you're like, Ooh,

are they struggling or like business bad?

You know, they don't like us.

Yeah.

You don't love me anymore.

Well, yeah, it's almost an indicator of, okay,

are things good financially?

Yeah. Like what else are they cutting costs on

and stuff like that?

Well, I'll also tell you this.

And it falls on deaf ears.

And I'm not, and I'm going to take up for,

for all the Redditors and every, and all the disc orders

and all the people who are not happy about this.

And I'm going to take up for them here.

It falls on deaf ears when the response is,

we're cutting this because of all these other great things

we're giving you.

Hey, Ronald Reagan in 1980s and trickle down economics

called, right?

Like, come on, like we just don't know.

That's not palatable.

That's not going to be, someone's not going to be like,

oh, hey.

Yeah.

Makes sense to me.

Like that's not how we're conditioned to respond.

And, and I don't know if that's good, bad, right or wrong,

but that's kind of how it goes.

I don't think it fell on deaf ears this year

because they said, well, you know, wow,

we could have handled this better.

And next year the bandanas will be back.

They promised that.

So we'll see.

But I think this is a-

A year goes by and it goes by quick,

but it's still a long time.

But we'll see.

I mean, I think they actually did kind of listen

to all this feedback and thought,

yeah, we got to get those bandanas.

By the way, give me another example.

This cup, right?

You get a beer and they give you this cup.

I think you're spending a couple extra dollars.

This cup sucks.

Look how bad it sweats.

I just filled this up.

It does sweat.

This cup sucks so bad.

It looks awesome.

It's a great cup, but functionally it sucks.

But if they were giving this to me every year

and they said, here, you can't have this cup anymore.

Like, God damn it, I want that cup.

So isn't that the weirdest thing?

That's, I don't know what it is about it being the bandana.

The gift is never the same.

It's not the same except for the bandana.

That's the one consistent, right?

Yeah, that's the constant.

So maybe that's what it is.

I'll tell you what it would be for me.

If I was in the world of getting these gifts every year

and I collected those bandanas,

I am huge on the date,

on collecting things with dates on them.

Just got this hat last week at the Pearl Jam show

and the only thing I hate about it

is it doesn't say the tour name on it

or it doesn't have the year on it.

That's so interesting.

That's a big deal to me.

I like to be able, it's almost like a badge of honor.

Like, check it out.

I've been every year.

I can show you, I've got a bandana to prove it.

That kind of stuff.

The opposite of that is,

because we used to do this with baseball tournaments.

When my kid was coming up,

you didn't wanna put a date on it

because then you couldn't sell it again the next year.

You ended up with a trunk load of t-shirts

you couldn't get rid of.

You couldn't give them away.

That's a big problem.

I've actually read about that

and I've wondered about that over the years.

These smaller bands that tour around

and they wanna have show specific merch

and it's like, you don't sell that stuff, man.

It's going in the garbage.

It's going to Dominican Republic.

Yeah, exactly.

It's gonna go to a third world somewhere

and someone's gonna be wearing something like

a Bill's Super Bowl 91, something like that.

Right, exactly.

But-

20 years from now, it's valuable again, but not now.

But in things like a Pearl Jam ethos

and a Bonnaroo ethos and anything that's,

the Who just announced their fourth farewell tour.

The Who, something huge.

You're probably gonna go through most your merch

and you're probably not gonna have an issue with that.

But yeah, that's the thing that sticks out to me the most

that if people were that upset that they're probably,

some of them are upset that they don't have

their documented year to put it

with the rest of their collection.

Let's be real fair.

There are people who are gonna bitch about anything.

There are people who are gonna find out about that.

Yeah, yeah.

You ever listen to me on this show?

Exactly.

Exactly.

And I do, and I give credit to Michael from RooHamm

and I agree with him.

Man, I hope to God they're not selling bandanas

at Bonnaroo this year.

I saw that and I promise you that they are.

I wouldn't do it.

I wouldn't advise it.

I think they would not do that now.

I think that's a bad idea.

I don't know.

I have a feeling they might.

There's a big difference in selling a few of these

and getting 80,000 of them out for free.

I don't know.

I saw that somewhere too

and I kinda smiled at that one too.

But my money is on.

They are going to be selling a bandana in there

in the official merch for 2025.

That's my guess.

But I could see people be like,

yes, my baby.

All right, so final verdict.

Is this the end of the world or is it just another,

is it just something to talk about?

I think it's just something to talk about

but I think the people who truly care about this,

which there's a lot of them, they're not gonna forget.

They won't.

They won't.

Like you said in the beginning, I mean, you take away,

I don't mean to be so overly dramatic,

but you take away my rights, you take away my freedoms,

you take away the things I'm accustomed to.

I don't forget about that.

I might get over it and move along,

but I don't forget about it.

But what does that mean, you don't forget about it?

Yeah.

What do you think of the postcard idea?

I mean, we have to see it.

Obviously it's nice.

Expand on the postcard idea, sorry, Taco.

Well, I said they were gonna kinda keep it a surprise,

but since this happened, they went ahead and told everybody.

They partnered with a bunch of local artists

to design a bunch of different Bonnaroo postcards.

And it was something they were gonna hand out at the gate

when you come in, just as a little extra gift.

That's cool.

Yeah.

I like that.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up

because we've talked about,

and Bryan, I know you have as well.

You guys remember walking out of Moon River,

the local festival, which is run by the same people.

And our buddy, Jeff Cuellar, was there in a banana costume,

saying goodbye to everybody

as you walked out of Moon River on-

I forgot about that.

Those kinds of things, man, that's what we're talking about.

Those are the kinds of things that these guys have done

that are special.

Obviously you can't hold a, you know,

Jeff Cuellar in a banana costume in your hand.

I hope to God you wouldn't ever want to,

but those are the memories that-

It's memorable, yeah.

That's the extras, right?

And those are the kinds of things

that these guys have typically done that make it different.

You got to see a concert, right?

You got to see your favorite act.

That's awesome.

And hang out with your friends.

And hang out with your friend.

But you can do that at any concert.

It's the extras like getting a gift

that we're talking about that make Bonnaroo

different.

Yeah, I mean, it's almost like they're, you know,

they've kept this tradition going

through the multiple management changes

and ownership changes of the festival itself.

From day one, it was the Sweet Sounds CDs.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a good example.

I am a huge compact disc, you know,

tangible media guy as you guys are too.

And getting those CDs the first two, three, four years,

I think it might've gone to 05.

Like I'm going back into prehistoric times here.

But man, that just lit me up.

I listened to those front to back.

That was the only way you listen to music still.

Right, right.

And it would have, it was a sampler,

just real quick to reset what it is,

it wasn't a sampler of music that was all at Bonnaroo.

It was, you know, some kind of record label conglomerate

or a compilation, I should say,

of music that's probably stuff you're gonna like,

that's similar, half of it's from the festival,

the other half are on tour this year.

And, you know, a promotional giveaway,

send it to the radio stations back in the 90s,

kind of way of marketing music.

And what better way to get a bunch of new music

into people's hands than when 80,000 of them pull in

and don't have anything to do except for listen to music

and wait until bands play on the stage

because of the primitive nature of the festival back then.

Those were huge for me.

I saved them all, I forgot to pull them out of storage

over the weekend, but, so it starts from there,

it's been going this entire time, 20 plus years.

Where do you put bandana, losing the bandana and the gift

in relation to like losing the beacon

and losing Bonnaroo radio?

Yeah, I was gonna mention those too.

Yeah, it's tough for me to have a comment on that

because of my biased nature of it.

Yeah, mine too.

I mean, Barry, when you woke up in the morning.

I did radio, so there was a newspaper, there's a radio.

Exactly.

Bryan and Barry are very happy right now.

But that was one of those, I mean, when you got there

as a first time goer, right, you're not a festival veteran,

say, and you wake up and they're handing out newspapers,

like my God, this place is nuts.

Yeah, and the only way you were getting weather updates

accurately was the radio.

There's a radio.

The app was not sophisticated enough.

But when they took it away.

The connectivity was not sophisticated enough.

But when they took it away, it was like, yeah, I get it.

It's expensive, right?

I mean, but it didn't, I mean, we complained,

but did it feel like, uh-oh,

I'm worried about now at the festival.

I'm worried.

Well, for a few minutes, yes.

Yeah, okay.

For me, yes.

But the hell, they haven't had Bonnaroo radio

in five or six years.

And probably the same with The Beacon.

The Beacon was also a Relix thing.

So that was more than,

that wasn't a Bonnaroo only sanctioned thing.

Relix is the magazine and website, jambands.com

is part of that umbrella.

They have scaled everything.

Right, right.

And so, you know, of course.

Printed schedules for years.

That was how you got in.

They handed you a printed schedule day by day.

On pretty nice stock paper too.

It was great.

Yeah, we got a bunch of them.

Can withstand the wind and moisture, you know?

Yeah, it wasn't just a throwaway.

It was a keepsake, like you said.

It's got the date on it.

It's a reminder.

You take it home, you know?

They did away with those.

They brought them back, what, two years ago?

One year ago?

The printed, yeah, the guides.

Yeah.

We'll see if it comes back this year or not.

First of all, I forgot, here we go.

There's 2004 Sweet Sounds.

Forgot I have that from 2004.

And I found more than,

and I've cleaned up in here over the weekend,

so I don't know where the other one is,

but more than the printed schedule, the book.

Like the bound book about that size,

that was full of bios,

and it was more than a schedule.

It was a reader's digest.

Sorry to throw back to the 90s again.

Here a bunch of old guys talking about Bonnaroo,

but, and you know, that was something they did for years,

and they haven't done that in forever too.

And that was a very high cost.

Bandana, glued booklet that's 200 pages,

bio of everybody at the festival.

Well, okay, the book, see you later.

Bandana, piece of nylon from China.

I don't know.

All right, so we've all, Russ, you do the Bugapalooza.

Bryan, I know with your radio,

you've been involved in events.

I almost, I'm sitting here trying to imagine

Brad and Corey or anybody else involved with C3 Presents.

And I'm thinking, man,

I wish we hadn't even introduced this stuff.

Because you can't keep doing it.

You know what I mean?

It's like, what a great idea.

But then it's like, we can't do this every year, right?

You know what I mean?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, again, it's that whole people don't riot

until you take stuff away from them.

So.

Yeah, and most people will absolutely get over this.

Yeah, absolutely.

We'll get over it by the time the festival starts.

They won't even think about it again

until sometimes someone starts a thread

that gets 200 comments and then it'll be like, oh yeah.

That's a great point.

Who's leaving, yeah, who's leaving on Sunday the 16th?

Man, I didn't get a damn bandana.

Worst week of my life.

The only person that was, the only person,

and there might be a lot of these only persons

that's gonna be irritated by that

is the person who is the collector.

Let's also not forget about that.

Collecting is a pastime, I believe,

of the coolest people you know.

If you meet somebody who doesn't collect stuff,

I ain't interested in hanging out with you.

So the guy that, the guy or gal that collects

and then maybe didn't have a great year.

Maybe the weekend didn't go well for him

and they're like, and I didn't even get a bandana.

Yeah, it's just one more.

Let me ask you this, what if they had,

why couldn't they have just gone to one of their sponsors

and said, hey, we need a bandana, you know.

Good call.

Tito's vodka.

Just something that'd be like, hey, can you,

you wanna put your name on this

and we'll make a Bonnaroo slash Tito's giveaway thing.

It seems odd that they couldn't have just.

Excellent point because that's how that gets handled

a lot of the time.

I sent you pictures of all my bandanas

and included in those Lodge Manufacturing

and Ben and Jerry's bandana.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's a good point.

I get the feeling,

I get the feeling from what I've read a little bit

from Brad and Corey that they are a little surprised.

I don't think they anticipated the pushback.

Yeah, I think this took them by surprise, huge.

Yeah. Yeah.

Fair enough.

I don't know.

I hadn't seen the, when people say, you know,

whoever they are, people,

and I don't really read the comments.

I actually really don't.

I don't read a lot, but I mean, I just saw.

I didn't see them, but.

I know, well, the comment was,

it was a couple of weeks and the cost,

I think the tariffs is what ended up being the reality.

The cost of the bandana jumped way, way high.

I don't know that for a fact.

If that's taken effect yet or not, I don't know.

I'll leave the geopolitical people to talk about that one.

But to speak real quick to your comment,

Taco, about the sponsors,

probably a little too late in the game

for something like that.

Well, yeah, at this point.

Yeah, the only reason I'm gonna, you know,

the only little bit of barely basic knowledge

I would have is that Miller Lite is,

I've worked for for many years

and they were the sponsor for many years,

which was awesome for me for all those years, not anymore.

And that was a long contract that they were in

and they couldn't wait to get out of it

by the time it was over because it's a very,

very expensive partnership.

It's not as simple as just, you know,

hey, we're doing y'all a big favor.

Won't you print us up 80,000 bandanas?

So that's probably where they would have run

into some issues.

I mean, I don't, who do we got this year?

Is it Corona again or White Claw?

No, we have Montucky.

We have Athletic Brewing, which is awesome

because it's finally a non-alcoholic.

Smirnoff Ice, I'm looking at the sponsor, Sierra Nevada.

It seems like they didn't get one big White Claw in there.

They didn't get one big brand.

They got a bunch of other, you know,

smaller brands it seems like, which I guess is pretty good.

Well, a big brand owns all of those, likely.

And I'm not sure which ones are which,

but so anyway.

But they didn't put just like Miller Lite or Bud Lite,

or Corona or PBR like they did after.

Or Corona or PBR, yeah.

To me, what's fascinating about this,

obviously it's not the bandana.

It's the fact that we care, we collectively care so much

about this event that something like this is worthy of,

what, 52 minutes?

Yeah, I mean.

Yeah, we're still going on about it.

I mean, I'm telling you, like the joke in the text thread,

going back to my Titan story with the gift box,

the joke in the text thread was every time in the off season

I'd leave a crappy message about how bad I'm like,

I hate this team.

They'd be like, uh-oh, looks like somebody

got a bad gift box this year.

Not happy with your gift box today, I see, Bryan.

And so like it had a life of its own of this.

And most of those people don't care for a second

about a stupid bobblehead.

I got them all lined up right over here.

This is Jarell Casey from 2018.

Like it has the year on it.

And so like I'm such a collector,

I understand the people who are upset

and I will never get mad at you,

but I also get it when someone says,

what the hell's the matter with you weirdos?

Yeah, what would you take for that?

A dollar?

Yeah.

Yeah, I'll print some up.

I'll sell them for five bucks each.

Right.

How about that?

I get it.

Yeah, I was thinking about it

because I think I got one bandana this whole time.

Oh yeah?

Because we don't get them as a media.

Right, right, we don't get them.

We don't get them to get to you.

I have her because of my daughter.

You know, same with the t-shirts.

You know, Bryan, you and I wear the same t-shirt.

Yeah, yeah, but the one bandana that I have,

I couldn't even tell you where it is.

Oh, no, I tell you exactly where all my stuff is.

Oh, I got a ton of bandana.

I just don't care what any of them say.

Right.

They're just for wiping sweat off my face.

You know, I don't even wear them.

I collect them, put them around my waist.

Again, it's not what it is.

It's like you with the Titans thing.

It's not what it is.

It's the fact that I have it

and it is a reminder of this event

that I love very, very much.

And it makes you feel special.

And it makes me feel special.

People that do collect them,

I know you've seen it,

people have, they've made shirts out of them.

They'll sew them together and make a shirt out of it.

Or put them around their hat.

Or put them, yeah, they'll twist them around their hat

or something.

And it's just really cool to see,

man, that's a lot of years of bandana collecting

to build up to something you can actually wear like that.

And for me, I'll be honest, it's like, if I wear it out,

I'm hoping someone will see it and say,

hey, do you go?

You going?

What's your favorite one?

You know, start the conversation.

Oh, I've got the Bonnaroo sticker on my car.

I've got my Bonnaroo mostly shirts from Grace, your daughter,

from back in the day and those things.

And I always welcome.

Love it.

Love a Bonnaroo.

And I don't want small talk ever,

but if it's about Bonnaroo, whoa, whoa, stop everything.

What years did you go?

And then I like to test my knowledge.

They'll be like, I can't remember what year it was.

Or I can't remember who the headliner was.

I was like, let's go.

What year was it?

Who did you see?

I'll tell you, I'll tell you.

Like those kinds of things come along with,

it's not as much like that stuff gets built up

through all the lore of this entire magical place.

I would never use the word magical anywhere else in my life

other than this festival.

And that's a part of it.

So yeah, I mean, we've said the same thing

over and over again here now.

And I think that's why we're having this conversation

because it feels like to some of us,

you keep taking things away, it's frightening.

Is that the right word?

It's worrisome.

I think it is a little bit.

Worrisome's the right word.

I think worrisome's the right word.

I don't know what the worry would be for exactly.

The worry could be as much as I'm worried

that I might not wanna keep going.

Like that could be the worry.

The worry could be, I mean,

look at how many festivals don't exist anymore.

Right.

They've just gone out of business.

Because it's expensive.

It's expensive.

It's so expensive you can't print bandanas.

Yeah.

That's the worry.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I don't know.

We'll see.

But I think if nothing else, it's a measurement.

It's a barometer on the enthusiasm for this event.

And it's showing you, showing me anyway,

that it's not fallen off.

It's still very strong.

The Bonnaroo fam, as they would say,

is very strong together.

And this is one of those,

they'll all hang out at Roo and have fun

and have a million bracelets

and a million everything else.

Yeah.

For people like Brad and Cory that put this thing on,

this should be kind of a good sign, right?

That they're like, whoa, oh, you guys actually,

y'all are pissed?

You care about this stuff.

Yeah.

Okay.

You mad, bro?

He hasn't.

I think the worst thing would be

if they took away the bandanas and nobody cared.

Right.

Because then it just means like, okay,

people have just lost interest or just, you know.

That would be worrisome too,

from a different angle from different people.

Yeah.

So the fact that people are up in arms in this,

I think is a good sign to them

that they've really got something here.

Get emotional over things they don't care deeply about.

Exactly, yeah.

Yeah.

That's right.

We'll see where it goes from there.

Okay.

So, Bryan, do we want to talk about your last two weeks?

Yeah, let's spend.

You've been missing, you've been MIA for a little while,

but you've been doing some stuff.

Yeah, as we close out the show here,

thanks guys for Evan and Kyle for stepping in.

I was actually here that Sunday for recording,

but I was dead and I knew I would be.

So just a quick reset of just the last,

and it's got a connection to the show.

So that's why I wanted to do it,

not just to tell you about the 19th time

I saw Pearl Jam, right?

I mean, hat, shirt, the whole thing.

This was on the street of a bootleg,

on the street of Atlanta outside of Centennial Park.

This logo has no business being on a tie-dye shirt.

It does not fit, it does not work.

I mean, as far as just, but because it's a bootleg,

I love it more than anything I have.

I love a bootleg shirt.

Love, love, love it.

But so I went to see Pearl Jam, well, panic before that,

but Pearl Jam in Atlanta last week,

and then a golfing tournament with my work in Johnson City.

Did you wear that t-shirt to play golf?

I did not.

You should have.

With, up in the top right corner of Tennessee.

So just put the state of Tennessee in your mind

in as far right corners you can get, that's Johnson City.

And then, and I'll mention that for one specific reason

that I'll come back to, and then Nashville

on the Tuesday after that.

And Atlanta was fine, good time.

It was nothing notable.

Then I ended up in Johnson City for this golf tournament,

which I don't play golf, but it's,

I work for Miller Lite here locally,

a beer distributing company.

So a lot of drinkers, hence why it was a problem for me

for so many years.

And so we go play golf, and I'm just mainly wanting

to see the big wigs who are from Knoxville.

That's where the home base of the company is.

Just remind everybody I still work here,

and that I still value all you people and all that.

That actually worked out quite well for me.

But afterwards, 30 minutes away in Bristol, Virginia,

there is a casino.

Like a full blown, like you're in Vegas style casino.

And so we got this bright idea,

designated driver guy will drive all these buffoons

30 miles to Virginia after the golf tournament.

And just think about a beer company,

all their alcoholic employees drinking all day long

at this beautiful resort, beautiful golf club resort

in Johnson City.

Man, we were a motley crew at this place.

Then at eight, nine o'clock at night,

I'm driving them to a casino in Bristol, Virginia.

I won't do that again.

Little slushy, little slushy was it?

I will not do that again.

These drunk, they don't listen to this.

If you do, I love you, you know it.

It was awful.

And so we went there.

I found the little sports book in the corner

and watched basketball and hockey

and played on my phone for two hours.

Why they all played, because whatever they did.

Then in trying to herd them all up

while they're all stumbling and falling over.

Oh my God, it was horrible.

On the way back to Johnson City, it's raining sheets.

And these idiots are making fun of me and stuff

and joking like, I'm like, you guys really wanna poke fun

and like really try to irritate me at midnight

in a driving rainstorm in your car,

which is a company vehicle by the way.

You really wanna do this?

So that was pretty wild in itself.

It was fun, but the end was ridiculous.

And then to wrap it up, so then two days later,

I end up in Nashville for night one of Pearl Jam.

So that's the second night and that puts the cap

on this five day kind of run around the Southeast

or at least Tennessee and Georgia.

And for that show, I bought all these tickets,

I bought six to eight tickets, which were concert tickets,

arena prices, just start doing some math in your head

and it's probably more than whatever the math is

in your head.

And I bought them for Christmas presents for my brothers

and closest friends and it was a really great idea.

It was hard to do at the time because of the pain

at the swipe, at the counter.

But by the time May got here, boy,

is the best money I ever spent.

I mean, just being with best friends and family

at my event, this is way better than seeing them in New York

with Brad Steiner who couldn't wait to leave

the minute we got there.

So that was awesome.

But I've imagined that event and I'm guessing

it was pretty much you wide eyed Madison Square Garden

and Steiner's like this the entire time.

And then taking pictures of me looking stupid

and then sending them to people and then putting like a,

yeah, genitals on the picture.

I've had that picture in my head for a year.

That's exactly what it was.

That's exactly what it was.

This was a far more festive kind of setting.

But, and I'll wrap it up here quickly.

So for the Nashville show though,

I didn't, I got the worst seats that I've ever had

at a concert in 30 years of buying concert tickets.

Second to last row.

There's a row behind us and there ain't another one

after that.

At the ceiling.

And I was not happy about that from the beginning

and I apologized to the people

it turned out it was a perfectly fine place to be.

It was comfortable.

They were happy.

The people that were with me,

their apologies were not necessary.

But if you remember a month ago maybe

when I was at Billy Strings and I mentioned by name,

I'm not going to now because I didn't talk to him about,

you know, specifically getting into our conversation.

So you know who you are.

Thank you very much.

A director of some programming maybe at Bridgestone Arena.

And he got me a wristband for the floor,

which is worth more money than you could ever start

to imagine because that's where, you know,

everybody always wants to be.

And so for the first two thirds,

I stayed upstairs just to hang out with brothers

and friends and cause it's fine up there.

You can still hear good.

I've seen them from every vantage point.

It's not that important to me except it kind of is.

And so I was like, all right, it's set break.

We got probably another hour left.

I'm going to the floor.

And so you'll see as if you're on YouTube and Spotify,

just the vantage point from how things started

to how things ended.

And I'm right in front of Eddie,

right in front of Ed Vetter.

And I have never been that close.

I have been for Madison Square Garden last year,

pretty close.

Bonnaroo have been there pretty close,

not Pitt, but pretty close.

There's countless examples.

Never been this close.

It was a thrill and a bigger thrill

than you could possibly imagine.

Being that close to my hero.

And I have never, ever done that.

So you know who you are, dude.

You made my summer, maybe my whole year

by just an act of kindness that you absolutely didn't have.

Thank you very much.

We need to do an episode.

You make fun of me for getting into those platinum areas.

You hate him until you get in yourself.

Well, it's that typical, well, if I can't do it,

it must suck, right?

Yeah.

If I didn't make it to the floor,

I would have been like, it's no good being

that close to Eddie, right?

You know, he smells.

Who would want that?

He smells.

I don't want to be that close.

We need to do an episode sometime about our various

concert experiences.

Good, bad, you know.

We will do that in the off season,

because that list is long between the three of us.

Absolutely.

Because I've said before, I'm not that elbow my way

to the front guy.

I can't stand those people.

I'm not here.

That's why I've never been that close,

because I don't need to, because especially if you're

in a good arena, in a good venue, like the what?

Everybody, we've got to get into the pit.

To the pit.

Yeah, the rail.

Got to be on the rail.

No, you don't.

No.

Yeah.

With somebody pushing you.

This stage is perfect.

The what stage?

I mean, I actually stumbled on a show,

I don't remember why, just the other day, with Brad Steiner

and you guys from like three or four years ago.

And it just happened to be the topic that day

that you were talking about how good the what is.

So we've been saying this for 20-odd years.

It's the best stage in the world.

You can't convince me there's a better one.

I don't need to beat five rows out.

But in this case, because I had the opportunity,

after 27 years, I finally was right up in front.

And I don't need to do it again.

It's one of those.

You kind of fulfilled something I never

was able to do because I just like you, Barry.

I mean, you know, come on.

I'm not doing that.

And this allowed me to just walk right up and do whatever I want.

I'll say this.

The weirdest thing I ever had happen

was at the Arena UTC, which is a terrible, terrible venue.

But I went with a friend.

And we were down on the floor.

And it was seated.

And I don't know what happened.

I don't know who made the signal.

I don't know what triggered it.

But all of a sudden, everybody grabbed their chair

and moved forward about 35 feet.

It was the weirdest thing.

I think it was Def Leppard.

And we all, I looked at my friend.

She's like, what the hell just happened?

That is some really interesting behavioral science mob

mentality kind of thing.

Everybody just cheered.

And then the show started.

You couldn't get those people together to do anything right.

It was the weirdest thing I've ever been.

But they were able to make their seating arrangements together

better by about 35 feet.

There was no, it wasn't like we were all talking about it.

It wasn't like everybody was like, you know,

it'd be great if we'd move forward.

It was just boom, go.

The concert, I think that's why we're all so fascinated with it.

The concert and festival lifestyle, it's just different.

It's just something you got to get.

It's in your blood.

Love it.

The bad you love as much as the good,

sitting the second to top row before I knew I'd eventually

be on the floor.

All these things, it's just such an interesting dynamic.

That's why we do a show like this.

That's why we do a show like it.

And thank you so much for listening to it and watching.

Because we know you guys love it just as much.

Absolutely.

What you got, Russ?

Well, let's mention our live podcast.

Oh, my god.

Yeah, what the hell?

The Meetup, Thursday, 4 o'clock.

Planet Roo.

Planet Roo on the How stage.

We will be there.

I'm looking forward.

And the aforementioned Brad Parker will be one of our guests.

And so it's going to be Q&A. Not only can you ask us questions,

but you can ask Brad anything you want, I assume.

Maybe about bandanas.

Maybe about bandanas.

There might be a list of questions you can't ask.

It might only be like two.

And that might be one of them.

Because he's tired.

I'm kidding.

There won't be one.

Yeah, he doesn't strike me as being shy about anything.

So that's a yeah, we're really excited about that.

It's one of those kinds of things.

We don't really know what exactly it will be.

But it's at 4 o'clock on a Thursday

before much gets started.

If you guys and gals are out there and want to come by,

I would be just thrilled and tickled to death

about it, because I just mentioned earlier about when

people come up and want to talk about Bonnaroo.

It means the world, doesn't it?

It does.

And anything that I've done over the years in this medium,

when somebody who recognizes or appreciates and understands

what it all is and says hello, it absolutely

means the world to me.

Now, if I'm just standing around at the grocery store

and some guy's like, I think we went to school 30 years ago.

How are you?

I don't know, jerk.

But we're not friends now.

Get out of here.

I'm not a big fan of that kind of stuff.

But so I know that I can be a little difficult.

But yeah, it means the world to me.

I know it does you guys, too.

It does, absolutely.

Yeah, it's going to be a live podcast.

We're going to record it.

We're going to publish it on the feed later on.

So if you miss it, you will be able to catch it later.

But we're also going to try to do just a meetup

and just a meet and greet, hug and howdy,

like Barry likes to say.

And so we hope everyone that listens

is going to be able to hear about this.

I like Evan's idea.

We need to do a hug and howdy t-shirt.

Yeah, good idea.

Yeah, for me, I don't have music until, not

to jump ahead to our picks, but I don't have music

until Dog's in a Pile at 7.45 on that Thursday.

So I mean, we'll be busy doing other things.

But I got all the time in the afternoon.

We should have plenty of time to do a meetup and hang out

and talk to everybody.

Maybe we'll even have a cup of coffee together.

And we've had several people on our Discord

who say they're going to be there.

And so very, very excited.

I think I'm almost getting to be as excited about this

opportunity as everything else.

So looking forward to it.

All right.

Yeah, well, but for me, before Barry, real quick,

as we close, there was, we've talked amongst ourselves

about how excited we are about this.

And it's just, it might just be some recognition of, hey,

we see what you're doing.

We'd like you to be involved.

It might be just that.

But last on the Radio Bonnaroo thing that went for so many

years, run by incredible people from Lightning 100,

when I finally was able to, Lightning 100 radio station

out of Nashville, when I finally was able to break

through and do a couple of years on there,

I think I did three years.

But one in particular, and that I did a lot,

it was an absolute thrill of a lifetime for me.

And it was like, I mean, I explained it to people who go

to Bonnaroo and they got this.

I didn't really say it to strangers.

But it was like I got to perform at the festival.

It was like I got to be able, like I was,

that's ridiculous, that's preposterous.

That's not what I was doing.

But that's what it felt like to me.

And so this is a version of that.

And all the way reverse engineering this back

to the beginning of the show, I think those bandanas

and giveaways all fall into those same kind of specialness.

And that's why people are so passionate about it.

I did not know you well.

But if you remember, I took a picture of you doing radio.

I know.

I knew how much it meant to you.

I do.

I've still got it.

And I thought it was so cool.

I thought that has to be awesome.

It was cool.

And it's a good point.

I mean, it feels like you performed.

That's essentially what we're doing.

We are on it.

We're not headlining, but we're on a lineup.

We're on stage performing at Bonnaroo.

Yeah, you're part of the coolest thing in the world.

It's pretty special stuff.

It's pretty special stuff.

Now, will it be content that people can't wait to hear

and listen to?

I don't know.

It might not be.

It's going to be the three of us.

I don't know.

We're getting an alderman.

I think that's a pretty big deal.

I don't care.

I'm super excited about it.

Alderman.

I didn't even know what that was until like two weeks ago.

Makes it even better.

All right, guys.

I think that's about all I got.

But it's nice to be back with you guys here.

And boy, this week, Wilco and 311.

So look for the reviews of those shows next week.

I'm mostly kidding.

All right.

Love you guys.

Thanks for listening.

Like, share, do all that stuff.

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