Ten minutes is all I need. I'll get this shit bone dry.

Everybody's out there crying, not having a good time, and I'm like, you know what?

I like to make people laugh. Let's go clock in.

That night at 7 p.m. Bonnaroo reaches out to me on TikTok.

Welcome back to the What Podcast. Guys, we are two weeks.

Two weeks. We will be on the farm in two weeks.

Two weeks. Excuse me?

Two weeks. Two weeks.

Time flies. You know what I say. It doesn't matter whether you're having any fun or not.

We are having fun. We are having fun. Oh, I'm so ready. But I also am so glad that

Russ is wearing the same shirt that I am. Did you guys coordinate last night?

Well, I was hoping he would wear it. I figured he would. And I'm also wearing my

green. Yeah, we're wearing our Never Not Greats, the What Podcast exclusive t-shirts.

If you're not watching it. Yeah.

I've hung up the other Never Not Great t-shirt behind me that our friend Beth,

who Brian knows intimately personally. Yeah. So at the Guar show, am I guessing?

That is correct. It's got the Guar blood on it.

It's blattered in blood back there and my Bonnaroo robe. And the reason I'm pointing all this out is

we've all of a sudden had rain for what? Five straight days and it looks like we might have

it for four or five more. So I'm kind of, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to jinx. I'm

not even going to talk about it beyond this, but I'm doing everything I can.

Yeah. We need a squeegee guy. We do need a squeegee guy.

Oh, incidentally. We actually have a squeegee guy.

Real quick to your point on that, Barry, with all the rain that has come in recently and the

rain that's going to be here for the next several days. Temperatures are still very mild here.

We only had a spike for a day or two. We are not summer in Tennessee yet. We are absolutely not.

And we have been bone dry. Exactly.

Since January. I hate to be the old guy. We need the rain. But I mean, we really do.

And you don't want a bone dry hadn't been rained on all year long farm. You do not want that. So

I look at this as a very good situation. And if it stops towards the next week or so, and then it

will that when this rain leaves, very likely the temperatures will start to creep up and suck all

that up. I think we're setting up the way Bonnaroo normally does is what we're looking at right now

with weather. And I think, man, I got nothing to worry about. This is going to be perfect.

That's why I pulled out all the stops. I worry about everything. All I do is worry.

If Brian's relaxed, we're in a good spot. Yeah, I think that's true. I've been wrong before.

But yeah, so I think it's a good sign right now. I think so too. But if it's not, then to Russ's

point, we got a squeegee guy. We know a guy. We got a guy. He can get rid of all the water.

Our guest coming up special episode, we've got Austin, who you guys, if you're familiar

with Bonnaroo, will know as the squeegee guy. What an amazing story. That's so funny. I mean, Brian,

last week you said, I want to talk to this guy. And lo and behold, what, within 10 minutes or so,

we had a, hey, I'm happy. He got tagged. He sent a message. He said, I'd love to come on and

let's do it. So he had all the right connections and he's ready to go. And he even works into

some of this adjacent industry himself. So none of this is new to him. And you'll find all that

out here shortly as we get to that here in just a few. Yeah. And I don't want to give too much away.

But to me, and I say it on the show, the Bonnaroo stories, the community, the onion layers,

it's just so stupid how much fun this festival is. How the connectivity comes together one way or

another. I mean, his mom now is going, come on, his mom and his aunt are now going, give me a break.

This is amazing. It's so much fun. We'll get into that here in a little bit. But also we've got some

other news. So as we always like to jump into Brian, what else is going on in the festival world?

Well, we'll unpack a little bit of last week's show here before we wrap up the open as well. But

last night, as I'm just kicking around, looking at the landscape of the festival scene and we

cover other festivals, but I mean, there's only so much we can do, but when something really pops,

we want to jump on it. And I think this has got potential, just keep an eye on deals because we

are going to a festival that's similar to this one. The Gorge this weekend, or I should say last

weekend, is hosting, what is it called? Grizztronics. So Grizz and several others who

we know will be at Bonnaroo and you'll hear more about here on this show here in a few,

are the host of this and it's at the Gorge. So it's a camping festival, EDM heavy if not

exclusively at the Gorge, which is a kind of place I just am dying to go to. But it's just an

amphitheater in a different setting than you'll ever go to. And so they're very experienced.

It's been around for, I don't know how long the Gorge has been open, but I know for sure since the

90s, but maybe since the 80s and 70s, I don't even know. But they have had like 15 hour wait lines

just in cars, just waiting in cars to get parked for camping for Grizztronics festival this past

weekend. Festival has been all over, given updates, so have other festival accounts in the social

media landscape. And there's a video, which at some point, if you're watching us today, you will see

here that is just, it'll make your heart drop of how far this line to get in. Reminds me of 2003

Bonnaroo and Bushy Branch Road sitting there all night long for 12 hours. It reminds me of that.

And then if that weren't, if that were the worst of it, we'd have a pretty big story in the festival

landscape. But once everybody finally did get in, then the entrance into the venue was backed up to

three hours of people trying to get in. And so it has been a nightmare. People are talking on Reddit,

and I don't want to give Reddit too much attention because of all the obvious reasons, but there's a

lot of talking done very well of like class action lawsuit kind of things. And the Gorge is located

between, basically halfway between Seattle and Spokane. Spokane's more mid-state, Seattle's over

there on the coast. So right between there, so until I went there a lot recently, I didn't

understand the climate of Washington, but it is wild how many different climates are in that state.

Yeah, it's huge, isn't it? It's a big state. It's way bigger than anybody realizes, and the landscape

just makes the, because of all the mountains, you have snow here, you got 80 degrees here,

you're raining all day here. It is a very wild climate there. And so I checked the weather for

today, which would be Sunday, the final day of the festival, high of 83, high skies, sunny.

And when we hear that, we think, now that's perfect, perfect. That's wonderful. Bring it.

Well, they live out there, 83, 85, all of a sudden, that's unseasonably warm.

And so they're just baking in high skies and mid-80s temperatures for 15 to 20 some-odd hours.

And this isn't the kind of festival that you have to follow all our tips, all tacos cooler tips.

You don't have to chill the cooler. You don't have to freeze all your water bottles because it's

going to be 50, 45 degrees at night. So you don't have an abundance of water. People are running out

of water. People are, I don't think there's anything like dire emergency dehydrations,

but there is going to be some in a setting like this. So good luck to everybody there and not

trying to make a greater point other than it's a newsworthy and the festiverse thing. And a lot of

us Bonruvians over the last 20 years have experienced things very similar to it. So.

Yeah. We kind of pay attention when you hear about long lines and weather issues and stuff like that.

Yeah. It's a little close to home. 16 hours to get in and then hours to get in in line. So

it sounds like a nightmare and good luck everybody doing it. It also sounds like a hell of a festival.

Yeah. Beautiful landscape. Beautiful landscape. You got rolling mountains and snow caps in the

background. Oh God. It's just such a picturesque place. So they, to the credit of the festival,

the Grizztronix festival, they refunded all camping pass purchases. So all camping pass,

if you paid camp, which everybody did, you got refunded for that. The festival's still on,

music's still on. But so good. As we've said, things happen is how you react to them and how

they deal with it. Yeah. And just for reference point, it is a live nation event. So they are,

they're, I mean, good on them. Being interested to see, hear more and see what happened.

Yeah. So anyway, that's the latest in the festival landscape for this week. There you go.

If we can, since you had to, couldn't be there with us last week when we had Shelby and Corey,

I'd love to get your sort of reactions. I hope you've had a chance to go back and listen to

their comments. I did. And I'd like to get your thoughts and reactions and same with Russ,

now that we've had a week. And we can continue to unpack that except for the fact that we're two

weeks away. So there's not as much time, but anyway, Brian, what are your quick thoughts?

Well, I mean, first of all, thanks to Shelby for doing it. You know, we've talked to Corey

plenty and I'll talk to him anytime he wants, you know, be a cohost on the show for all I care.

Thanks. Thanks for Shelby for doing it. And, you know, I mean, just kind of a good little

roadmap getting ready for the festival. A lot of stuff that we already sort of knew, but just kind

of, you know, the last little bit of how it's coming together. I would have, I am more heartbroken,

I think, than the average person about the Who stage being gone. I don't think that many people

care. So we won't spend a lot of time here. But I think that the legacy of that stage is greater

than most people give it credit for. And I think that's because most people just don't go

to performances on the Who stage.

Well, there's no doubt. I mean, the sheer numbers. You could have 30 people there on a good day.

Yeah. So, yeah.

So, and that might be as good enough reason that it was that they don't need to do it. Plus the way

I think Shelby worded it was that, I wish I could remember the word.

Efficiency and value.

Well, efficiency and value was kind of the key words. But she said something about how the

emerging artists had been curated or spread out amongst the festival that didn't lend to needing

a single stage for it. Now, I don't know that I agree with that. But that's what their thinking

is. And at least there is a strategy to it. Strategy to it.

And like Cory brought up, you know, they've partnered with Rock Night. And that's something

they do to bring to showcase up and coming rock bands. And they're doing several showcases of

those. So you'll see that little block of Rock Night with artists that could be on the Who stage,

basically. So, you know, they are kind of incorporating it more into the group stage,

the group plaza. So, you know, it's not the Who stage, but it's something.

Yeah. Cory, I think Cory stressed that point too. He didn't say not one for one. In fact,

I think that's a quote. He said it's not one for one as far as like the same number of

you know, small acts that would have been on the Who stage are now on other stages. But he did say

they are sprinkled throughout. I'm just used to every festival I've ever been to having an emerging

artist stage. And maybe, you know, maybe that's not as necessary anymore. I'm just used to that.

And then they really started to invest in that Who stage. It started to get, it sounded so good.

That part I agree with, especially the last two years.

Yeah, when our guy Monrovia played it in 23, you know, he was nobody then.

And that was a great stage.

And he is on the huge ascension in the folk, almost protest song kind of category right now.

And now we would have known him because he lives here. But if it weren't for that,

I don't know that I ever would have heard of Monrovia before. And spreading it out is okay,

but then you're really putting a lot of work on the attendee to catch these things. That's just

one man's opinion. And I understand why once they put it out in center, I mean,

an outer guys, I kind of knew that was the end of that.

I want to go focus on that efficiency and value thing, though. I think that when she said that,

I mean, that's that's corporate speak. There's no question about it. But I've thought about it a

lot since that's exactly what we predicted. 10 months ago, 11 months ago, 12 months ago that

they should have done. And I mean, you know, call it what you want. Maybe that's corporate

speak and you don't like corporate speak. But they had to pull back. They had to fall back

and say what's working? How do we make this thing work? We can't keep you know, we can't shut down

and lose this money. I mean, we have no idea how much money they lost. No, based on last year.

A lot. And I will say this too, and I didn't think about it, but I had a conversation with

someone within the within the company. And he was like, we got to, we got to sell tickets.

And I'm like, well, I don't know, these kids, they don't seem to want to camp anymore. He said,

what are you talking about? He said, we've sold out three of the last six. I'm like, yeah, but

you canceled three of the last six. He said, yeah, but we we sold out three of the last six. I mean,

so people want to come to Bonnaroo. So it's, it's, you know, we sometimes tend to focus on

the negative, I guess, is what I'm saying, the cancellations. But the reality is the other years

were great years, ticket sales were great. So this year, my point is, they, they have to

survive. And I don't I mean, maybe that's too harsh. No, no, I think that's what you're

Shelby say, you know, when I asked, what are you looking forward to? She said Noah con, because

that means we made it to the end of the week. That's a good, that's a great answer.

That was a good answer. You know, the the bandanas thing, which we all we already knew,

mostly, I made a couple notes is that people let well, people of certain ages, I don't know

what younger kids these days when it comes to snail mail, but I mean, getting something in the

mail made me so excited. Sure. As a young person, oh my god, I've got something in the mail made my

day. Sure. And and and Bonnaroo was the king of sending your your purchase, your your admission

to the festival, whatever that looked like, with a lot of cool things and a lot of a lot of little

special stuff and mailbox with Rufus and a bandana. Yeah, I mean, I've got my you know, my my box is

right behind me over here. So that is a really cool special part that they have basically all

but now officially eliminated. I get it. She talked about it on the show. You know, this is

shipping cost. It brings them down 15 bucks. Brings them down. Yeah, brings them down.

Or one of those boxes. So sometimes it's not about what it's actually worth, though. It might people

might really want to pay you the 15 bucks. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they don't though. Maybe

some people like enough of this crap. Just send me my my wristband. I'm bringing all the cool stuff.

I'm the trinket guy, right? That we have some things have changed and maybe they don't care

about that. But I will say this, though, to make it sound like I'm not hating. I do enjoy pulling

up to the festival and being given free stuff. Yep. Back in the day when they used to give us

the sweet sound CDs. That made my day. Yeah. And the book and the sweet sound double disc. Oh, man,

it made my day. And the newspaper. Are you kidding? Made my day. I got a newspaper every day. Yeah.

And so when people show up now and they get a bandana when they get in, I gotta imagine that's

got a certain level of a gift that makes people excited. My biggest concern is that they'll run

out at all the tolls and we'll hear about it all on Reddit that, you know, I didn't get my bandana.

If I told you that we were going to be on stage live at Bonnaroo, would you believe it? No.

If we hadn't done it before, for sure. I still can't believe we did it last year, but we're

new to it again this year. We're going to be on the house stage Thursday at four o'clock,

right? Inside Planet Roo. Yeah, for whatever reason they ask us back. Can't even believe it.

But we're going to be on stage at the house stage inside Planet Roo four o'clock on Thursday. There

will be nothing else. No music going on. You can come in, get out of the sun. You can come see us.

You can hug and howdy with Russ and Brian and me. And we've got stuff to give away. We're going to

give away a goodie pack. We don't know what's going to be in it from the lunchbox guys.

And our friend David Bruce has promised to give away another I Am Bonnaroo original photo. So how

can you beat that? I know it's going to be great. Come see us. We love to see everybody that listens

and watches us every week. So come hug and howdy with us on Thursday at four p.m. on the house stage

at Bonnaroo. All right. Let's move on to our special guest. We got Squeegee Guy. You guys are

going to love this interview because I sure did because it went to places I did not anticipate.

It was fun. A lot of fun.

And there we are. Brian manifests it. He says, I wish we could. And lo and behold,

there he is. We get Austin. Squeegee Guy. How's it going? Hey, Austin, why do the work and,

you know, reach out and try to find people? Just bat signal it, right? You know? Yeah.

And within 30 seconds of that post going out, people are tagging me in the comments. And then

here we are. Yeah. All right. So let's reset it. Brian, I'll let you do it. Please reset this. Why

are we talking to Austin? Because this is amazing. This is so funny. Well, if this went viral last

year, the Squeegee video, Austin, or with the pool noodle thing, I missed it back then. But on the

recreation, which we can get a little bit further into as we can continue to talk, that Bonnaroo

released through their socials, which I am a sucker for that song, Hero, from Josie Scott and

Chad Kroger. That's the lead singer of Nickelback and the lead singer of Saliva for the

spring, the Spider-Man movie, what, 20 years ago or something, the Hero Can Save Us thing.

And when they did the recreation, I was like, that is really, really, really funny stuff.

And then we find out that you live right here in our city in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

So I guess let's start with your relationship with Bonnaroo going into last year.

Had you been before? And just talk about your relationship with the festival.

Yeah. So the first year that I tried to go to Roo didn't happen because of COVID. Next year

didn't happen because of the hurricane. And then my first year actually going was 2023.

And we have a group called Camp Grimace. If you may have seen us around the farm, we have a big

seven foot tall Grimace pull float that we use as our camp marker. We have Grimace inspired totems

that we carry around. Grimace from McDonald's, right? Yeah. The big purple taste bud.

Do you know any other Grimaces, Brian? No, but I want to make sure we're on the same page.

Oh, Grimace Johnson, yeah.

He's got an aunt Grimace.

And she's a father.

Shit's happening.

She's a badass.

But yeah, so my friend actually won the Grimace pull float through like a McDonald's contest

they were running. And so that's just how everything got started. Of course, our camp has

changed over the years when we started to have a lot of people come to the festival. So I guess

that's the reason why we're doing this. And we've been doing it since we were little.

Of course, our camp has changed over the years. We've had as few as like eight people, we've had

as many as like 20. But, you know, people come and go, but the spirit remains the same. And our

core group of folks that go every year actually inspired the skip there, the bit that we did last

year. Because my friend, Koby, who does commercial set design and art direction, had a squeegee. And

then we have the pool noodles that were up in the canopy, so we could, you know, protect ourselves

when it rained, put it together, everybody's out there crying, not having a good time. And I'm like,

you know what, I like to make people laugh, let's go clock in. So went out there and I did that for

about six hours. I fully, I was stone cold sober. That's committed. Started blacked out. And then it

was at like, nine, 10 o'clock that night, my friend came up to me and was like, okay, you're done.

You've done enough. I'm like covered in candy and trinkets at this point. I have no idea what time

it is, what day it is. Covered in people's tears because people just kept coming up to me, hugging

me and sobbing into my chest. And I'm six foot five, so they could pretty much just motorboat me

whenever they came up. So, you know, it was a great experience. We had a fantastic time. I also

worked for a local haunted house here in town. So I was able to put those, you know, those acting

chops back to work. And, you know, just trying to make people have a better experience than what

was currently going on. All right. So, so I started to ask why you did it for six hours,

but I think you've answered it. Is it because people kept coming up? I mean, it kept being funny,

right? It kept, new people would come up and be like, that's, that's hilarious. And like you said,

motorboating, which is wrong on so many levels.

So let me get this straight then. So you're, is it the, they commented on one of the videos,

Lock and Key Video. Is that, is that, maybe, okay, your face is showing that maybe it's not. They,

they just commented that they, that they thought it was funny while they were doing it. They're a

production company out of Knoxville. Yeah, they do all of Bonnaroo's video production and stuff.

They're on site every year. Okay. So they, they're post production on that. Yes.

That's what that is. Okay. Gotcha. So, so Austin, I know you just said all this, but help me

understand. So you're, you're hanging out this afternoon on a Friday on one day a-roo on, on,

on the Friday that we lose going into the weekend. Yeah. It starts what? 1230, one-ish, 130 starts to

get iffy. Right. Is that about when you started? Early afternoon. And so you're, you're just having,

you're just kind of dicking around, having some fun out there or some, or people like, all right,

here we go. Set up camera one, camera two, camera three, and let's just see what we get.

I wish it was that coordinated. No, my friend, Kobe, that I mentioned earlier, he and I were

going into Centeree to go see Ginger Root whenever they told us that everything was going to be

on pause. So we go back to camp, it starts raining like crazy. We're holding down the tents and

everything. And then, you know, it just keeps getting delayed further and further. And so

I find the pieces of the squeegee and I'm like, you know what, let's just go out here,

make people laugh for a little bit, see what happens. And then after I'm out there for about

10, 15 minutes, my friend walks over and delivers the news and you just hear people screaming

all around us. And so I'm like, you know what, here we are, we're just going to keep at it and

see what happens. All of those videos that originally were posted had no idea they were even

recording me. They were just walking by, getting shots on their phone. And then one person

on TikTok, their username is Yeetmin, Y-E-E-T-M-I-N. That was the one that really took off.

And so they posted it. I was reading all the comments, just, you know, it was making me feel

better too, because I also was in a depressive state, as is everybody else. So it was a reciprocal.

What I gave that came back to me. So that started to go viral immediately or by the time you got back

home? By the time I got home, well, by the time I had full service back, my phone was exploding.

I had people that I had not talked to since middle school sending me this video.

And they were like, well, remember us, remember us little guys.

So, you know, it blew up in a way that I never expected, but I'm so grateful that everything

happened the way that it did. Yeah. The video we see the most of is like three seconds or five

seconds. I mean, this is the story of all editing life. You know, there's five hours there. We're

going to use five seconds. So there was, you guys were just having fun, trying to get some laughs

and shooting video from multiple angles of multiple people for that whole afternoon,

just to get that five second clip or the 15 second clip. Right. That's how that went. Yeah.

Yeah. And all my friends were just standing on the sidelines. All the videos that you guys see

are just random people walking past with their phones out. Yeah. This wasn't anything you set

up to film. This was just something you were doing to have a laugh. And other people as they

were walking by were taking clips of it, of you doing it. Yeah. And then at one point, my friend

that I met during all that, his name is Clayton, he was dressed as a giant orange cone. And so he

handed out little tiny cones and I put those cones out. I did see that. We were holding traffic. We

were telling people to watch their step. At one point, my husband wrote on a piece of cardboard

caution wet floor. So there was a whole production here. It was a group effort.

Okay. So the goal wasn't to go viral. The goal was to have some fun. And then the smallest little

amount of that is what ended up going viral. That's pretty cool. That's the story of virality.

That's the very definition pretty much. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. The crazy thing. So

I, way back when TikTok changed their terms and services to be a little more big brother-y,

I deleted TikTok off my phone and my willpower broke one day at like one o'clock. That night at

7pm, Bonnaroo reaches out to me on TikTok and says, Hey, we would love to work with you to make some

content. And in exchange, we'll hook you up. And the crazy thing. So I have a best friend that

passed away back in 2020 from an impaired driver. And there's been all these little synchronicities

that have happened because they were the ones that really introduced me to the music festival

scene. And that was like our thing. This person that passed away is the one? Yeah. Yeah. My best

friend, Kade. And so there's been a lot of synchronicities that have happened since they

passed away. And so my spirituality, my spiritual part of myself attributes all this to them.

This is what's so beautiful about this festival that I love. Go back. So you said Bonnaroo reached

out. Tell that again, please. How does that work? They sent me a message on TikTok and I was sitting

in New York. When? That was back in March, I believe. Of this year? Yeah, of this year.

Of course. Yeah. So yeah, they reached out to me back in March. And then we were kind of going back

and forth, exchanging some ideas about what we wanted to do for the video. Ultimately,

Corey has some great ideas. Sorry. I'm gonna ask a stupid. So when we say they, you got an email

from a person representing basically C3, right? Yeah. Corey and the marketing team. Corey,

that's what I want to get at. So this is because this is where I want to brag on them because

this is smart, right? It's smart on their part. This thing is funny. It's cool. How can we

jump on it? So yeah. And obviously you're sitting there. You have no clue.

No, I had no idea that they had even seen the video. Of course, I had assumed that maybe it

had run its way up the chain. And my friends and I, of course, were manifesting, like, what if this

develops into literally what it is now? Okay. So you were thinking about it. Yeah. In the back

of my head, I was secretly wishing, what if they reached out and we were able to make this into

something. So you're sitting there thinking somebody at C3 is going to think we need the noodle guy.

But wait a minute, you would have missed all this had you not had that moment of weakness and

download a TikTok back on your phone, right? Because you would have missed this message.

That's what I mean. Like these synchronicities that happened since my friend passed away,

I attribute all that to them. I understand. So they reach out to you and they're like,

they reach out to you with the idea that, or at least let's storyboard this, if nothing else,

just metaphorically to recreate or to do something for social media for 2026. Is that how they

approached you? They didn't know you were in Chattanooga either, right? I mean, you could have

been halfway across the country, but you can hop in the car and be there in an hour. Yeah. They were

like, we don't know where you live, but if you're able to make it out here, we'd love to do this.

We'll hook you up for this year, you and your group. Wow. And so that was the, hey,

come on up here. We'll open the gate, drive your truck up to the stripped down arch as we've seen

in the background that's not decorated yet, or the LEDs are not in yet to do the heroes here to save

us kind of thing. Yeah. And what's funnier is that's Coy's truck. Coy was like, you're going

to drive my truck. And I said, okay. That's funny. So you don't have that nice of a truck then?

Oh no, I'm not in that tax bracket. Thanks though. I appreciate it.

So did they ask you ideas or did they say, here's our idea. Are you in? Great question. Yeah. They

told me they were like, here's the idea that we have. We want to put it to a hero and we just

want to get some shots of you squeegeeing various things around the farm. So we started at the arch,

moved over to the showers over in Plaza 2, went to the original scene of the crime. I squeegeed

the side of House of Yes. We went out to the Grove. We ended up on the main stage,

which was really cool because I got to stand where all my favorite artists have stood in the past,

squeegeed the main stage for a little bit. I've done that myself, my friend. It was very, very nice.

Wow. So another case of, there's B-roll all over the place of this because this is a 30-second clip.

So they had you all over the farm and they just chose to just mainly use the footage from in front

of the arch if my memory serves. Right. Yeah. And maybe there's other videos in the works. I don't

know, but I would love to see some of the footage that they got from the other places around the

farm. Could be. I think it was pretty funny. That's hilarious. So I think it's fascinating

that in the back of your head, you actually thought this might happen. This is part of what

I love about this festival because you're sitting there thinking, you're sitting there thinking,

I hope some dumbass like Corey is sitting in his office thinking that squeegee guy thing is funny.

That's brilliant. I might get a ticket out of this type of thing. And lo and behold,

I love it. That's so funny. That's awesome. I mean, I had people literally in the wild.

At Main Times 24 last year, I had several people come up to me and recognize me from that. And that

was the first instance of like, whoa, okay, people actually know outside of what's going on.

Okay. So it wasn't a June, whatever that was, 12, and then nothing. So it was kind of rolling

around. Okay. Yeah. I even went to Seven Stars, a festival up in Virginia last October. And I had

people coming up to me and telling me thank you and giving me trinkets and stuff then. Just out

of the blue. So are you walking around life carrying a noodle? I mean, these days? It's in my car.

Yeah, it's in my car. You never know when you're going to need it. You know, if I roll through the

car wash and my car is still a little wet, we have to flip it out. Well, I gotta say,

I'm still fascinated with how much B-Roll there is for this small thing. I always am.

I mean, from just being involved with little news vignettes here in town and they do it for like 10

minutes and then you get 45 seconds. It's like you cut all the best part. So I'm guessing there was

a lot of lines that hit the cutting room floor, but the best, I mean, just a simple,

y'all give me just 10 minutes. I'll get this shit clean. This shit drives it. Bone dry. I'll get this

shit bone dry. Like that's a great line. Y'all give me 10 minutes. I got this. If there's one thing I

will always commit to, it's the bit. I am the bit king of my friend group and everyone knows it.

Okay. Well, our former- Yeah, that's commitment.

The co-founder of the show, former host of it, Brad Steiner, that's kind of his

fall in love point, his love language is the guy or gal who will commit to the bit with 100%

attention and focus and detail. I'm not that guy. I'm going to give up on the bit real quick

because that's just not me. The commitment to the bit, as they say. That's pretty funny.

You don't have to tell us exactly, tell us as little or as much as you want.

What did Bonnaroo hook you up with? I mean, I'm assuming admission to the festival,

but is it a little more sweet than that? Oh yeah, definitely. Corey was extremely generous. I'll

tell you that much. They were able to get my husband and I both VIP bands. We've never done

VIP before. Like I said earlier, we're not in that tax bracket. We're really excited about that.

They also hooked us up with three powered car camping moon colony spots, which is enabling us

to take my mom and my aunt for the first time. Neither one of them had ever been to a music

festival, but my mom and I are pretty much the exact same person, so I knew she was going to

enjoy it. She likes to have a little bit more luxury. I'm fine with roughing it, but I was like,

you know what? If you guys come, I'll give you the GA bands I already purchased. We'll put you all in

the powered car camping spot so you can hide your fans and all the things that will keep you cool

during the day so you can make sure you have a good experience too. Our regular group will camp

like we usually do. Moon colony, isn't that the best proximity to the arch and center roof from

what I read through Reddit and everything, right? Yeah. All their spots have hookups with power. I

think it's 20 volts or 20 amps. Maybe you could make a video for the church boners about the

songs at the arch and somehow that'll fix that problem for them. Yeah, definitely. No throwback

country music this year just for them. That's so funny. That is so cool. What a great story.

Yeah. If you guys see my mom around the farm, she looks just like me, but she's about five foot two

hair down to her butt. She's going to have t-shirts that say free mom hugs.

Okay. I'll look free mom. Yeah. What does she, yeah, taco will be all over. What does she think

about this? Is she excited to go to a wild idea like this? This woman has prepped more than anybody

I've ever known in my entire life. The moment that I told her, she was like, okay, we're buying this

and this and this. And she went to the Dollar Tree and bought out the entire craft aisle.

She's making all kinds of trinkets. She put on little clothes pins. She put dinosaurs of butterfly

wings and little cute sayings on the bottom so she can pin them to people. And she's had this

dream of going to festivals and doing the all free mom hug thing for several years. And I was like,

this is your time. She's got it all figured out. This is amazing. Yeah. Yeah. She's more prepared

than I am. So she just wasn't ready to pull the trigger, make that happen until something like

this came around, I guess. Yeah. I don't think she knows of Bonnaroo and she knows that I go every

year and I've told her about my experience, but now that she is fully immersed in it, I don't think

there's ever going to be a year where she doesn't go. That's cool. So you're talking about,

you first were trying to get in around 20 and 21 for all the reasons we know and then

22, 23 is when you started going. Did you immediately, did it capture you like it does

most everybody else? As soon as we drove onto the farm, I was like, all right, we're home. Prior to

that, my home festival was Hooghlyween down in Florida, which I love, still love, but I worked

for a haunted house in October and so now my schedule is a little bit crazy

and I'm not able to go to that one. So Bonnaroo is my home fest. So you understand, I mean,

yeah, Hula and Bonnaroo probably share the most in common. Is that fair to say?

Yeah. In terms of community, of proximity to things, accommodations, all that kind of thing.

You didn't go to Bonnaroo as a true rookie, right? You knew what you were getting into.

No, but here's what I love and this is, I mean, we've done this show, the fact that we can do this

show every week, it's because of this onion. You peel a layer and you find, I mean, I just thought,

I'll be honest, I just thought we were going to have a good laugh about a guy who, you know,

swung a pool noodle in the mud puddle and lo and behold, it's layer after layer after layer and

now your mom and your aunt are going and she's doing trinkets. I mean, yeah, yeah, and this is

not at all. And this Chattanooga connection, I want to go back to that because, you know,

we had no idea you were from here and then, you know, Brian mentioned Brad earlier. You were

telling us you've actually worked with Brad at the radio station for a little bit. Is that right?

Yeah, yeah, so I was in college, I was an intern at the station for a little bit.

Okay. And so my degree is in mass common journalism, but now I work with the city

and I run volunteer programs. So yeah. Okay, so that would have been just for reference point,

HITS 96 here, Bayhackle Communications in the city of Chattanooga. One of my last real radio

gigs was there as well. It was a great radio cluster. None of them seem to be holding on

anymore because of all the reasons we all know. That's pretty cool. I bet you Brad doesn't

remember you though. That's all right. If I were to guess. Who's that guy you had on the show?

Who's your former intern asshole? Yeah, well, he may remember if I tell this really quick story.

So at the same time that I was interning with him, I was also president of our Student

Government Association and I was also one of the lead writers for our school newspaper.

And so my schedule was super busy. I was also taking like 24 credit hours of classes.

And so one night I was scheduled to run the open house party syndication. It did not add that to

my calendar. So I'm driving down the road and then all of a sudden radio cuts out. We're looking at

two minutes of dead silence. And then my phone starts blowing up. Which is a nightmare in that

industry. A little bit of dead air and the whole company loses their mind. Yeah, three seconds and

it's downhill from there. But Brad may remember that story or may not, who knows to say, but

that was definitely the low light of my internship with him. Yeah, that's not what you want on your

internship resume. No, dead air. As always, we've done 30 minutes and no one's asked who you're

looking forward to seeing. But I gotta ask who you're looking forward to seeing. Yeah. All right.

I have a top four. Definitely Spillix Night 1. I am so excited for that. I think it's going to be

a great reunion. I think it's going to be a great way to kick off the entire festival with everyone

in one spot. I am a Grizz fan through and through. I've loved his music forever. I got to do his

adult summer camp a few years ago, Camp Gulabunga, Rest In Peace. Basically where he gets a whole

bunch of adults together for like a wellness retreat summer camp in the middle of Michigan.

So it's put on by him and a bunch of his friends. So love Grizz to death. I'm so excited for the

Super Jam. That's one stuff that I look forward to every single year, no matter what, because it's

never going to happen again. You never know what's going to happen, who's going to come out. And I've

recently gotten into Noah Con. I didn't really listen to him before this new album came out,

but a lot of his music hits home on that album for me. And so we love a good shower cry here and

there. And I'm really excited to see him as well. Yeah. The amount of people talking about how much

crying is going to be going into Noah Con shows. I like that. You got your shower beer and your

shower cry. When's the last time I cried in the shower? That's a good one. I like that.

Yeah. I do think it's an interesting choice to have him closing the festival since his music is

a little more tearful. But I think if the cards are played right, and I know he puts on a hell

of a good show, I think it's going to be a great way to close it out. What's your go-to genre of

music just walking around regular day of the year? Are you a rock guy? Are you an EDM person? What's

your music favorites? Definitely more of an EDM guy right now. My taste in music changes as the

wind blows. If you look at my Spotify raps, my top two genres are musical theater and EDM.

So my taste in music is a little... Wait, wait, wait. Musical theater going out like

sound to music or current? More current. Last year I did the SpongeBob musical with

Chattanooga Theater Center. I played Patrick in that show and that was a lot of fun. Really?

Yeah. And I was going to audition for... The Theater Center.

The Theater, yes. Yeah. Theater Center. So I asked that question as far as what you listened to as

to retroactively ask you what you thought about the lineup when it first hit. Because that's...

You know, that was like the biggest news of the year is what did everybody think when they saw

this lineup that is a little... I don't want to call it controversial, but it's been the most

talked about lineup I would say in as long as I can remember.

Yeah. On first glance, I was a little underwhelmed. You know, I don't really so much go for the lineup

as I do for the community that I find at Bonnarooy. But the lineup, when I first looked at it, I was

like, okay, you know, not as strong as previous years, but totally understand. But the more I got

into it and looked at the undercard acts, the undercard is where it's at this year. I think

there's a lot of really incredible talent that a lot of people just don't know about. So I feel

like this year specifically is going to be a springboard for a lot of these smaller artists.

I think a lot of us agree.

That seems to be the common theme that people are... I mean, I'm not finding it the same way,

but I'm finding my own versions of it getting better as the year goes along. Bonnarooy has had

a lot of success over the years of their lineup seemingly getting better over the course of six

months. It's weird how that's come together. I see less of that this year, but what you described

is a common theme. And not just that, it feels to me like it's been pretty well curated. Not just

the undercard is good, but it's curated each day. Yeah. I'm also excited for the WearSage. That

whole WearSage lineup is incredible. Me too. I'm really excited about that personally. The

FN Sunrise set, if you are not planning on being there, you need to be there for it.

I'm not.

Well, listen, he considers Nashville to be his hometown, so it's going to be a roundabout hometown

show going through at sunrise. If you like chill, laid back, just music that you can groove to and

be really mellow with, I think it's going to be really good. All right. Well, man.

Awesome, man.

Really appreciate you jumping on out of nowhere. That's a very cool story.

Yeah. So are you an all weekend? I mean, you're there. Well, let's start. You get there when you

leave when? I'm guessing Monday. When do you get there? Well, last year we were a Tuesday entry.

This year we have an Airbnb in Manchester Tuesday night that our whole group is meeting up at and

having our own little pre-party beforehand. And then I have to go to Will Call Wednesday morning

to pick up our passes from Corey. So getting there at the Ask Crack-A-Dawn so we can get in line as

soon as we can. And then we leave probably Monday around like 11 or 12. All right, man.

All right. Good pull, man. Good pull. This ended up being one of my favorites. This is so stupid,

funny that it's hilarious. Yeah. And I hope your squeegees warmed up too, because it's,

we're getting a lot of rain this week. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm looking out the window now and

I don't even see a signal. So yeah. Yeah. Well, well, here's the lesson guys. Go ahead. I was

gonna say the lesson is commit to the bid. We always need it. We always need the rain.

We need this rain now. We need this rain. Then crops are dry.