Meet the man who's become a Bonnaroo legend, one signature at a time. Caleb Arias, creator of the Bonnaroo Yearbook, joins us for the third time to break down how his passion project exploded this year. What started as pitching strangers to sign a notebook is now three-hour lines, sold-out printed editions, and fans hand-crafting custom trinkets just for him.
Grab your own copy of the Bonnaroo Yearbook at bonnarooyearbook.com and use code THEWHATPODCAST for 50% off!
We get into the wristband smuggling caper, the moment Caleb revealed Bryan might have the most beautiful signature in the entire book (calligraphy pen and all), and what it's really like becoming a recognizable figure at a large music festival: including the sacrifices, the boundaries he's had to set, and why he stayed sober the entire weekend just to protect the project. Plus: a sneak peek at a possible Bonnaroo children's book starring his bearded dragon, Trogdor.
Listen to this week's episode with Caleb here or watch it on YouTube. As always, subscribe to The What Podcast wherever you get podcasts for weekly updates on Bonnaroo and festival news!
Topic: Bonnaroo
Guest: Caleb Arias
| 00:00 | Intro |
| 00:32 | Caleb, the Bonnaroo Yearbook Guy Returns |
| 02:14 | The Wristband Heist & Getting to the Farm |
| 12:24 | How the Yearbook Project Began |
| 15:47 | Bryan's Calligraphy Pen & Inside the Book |
| 24:14 | Becoming "Bonnaroo Famous" |
| 33:18 | From Passion Project to Real Money |
| 36:09 | Trogdor, the Children's Book & Music Highlights |
| 42:04 | Chasing Sunrise Sets & Planning for Next Year |
Listen Via:
Caleb (00:00)
This was one of the most incredible, yet slightly overwhelming Bonnaroos I've ever personally experienced. my gosh, are you the Bonnaroo yearbook guy? And was like, yeah, that's me. There was like a three or four hour line all coming to sign the yearbook, which was so surreal. I sold out of books like the day after I got back from Bonnaroo. And this man pulls out a freaking calligraphy pen that he had on him.
Bryan (00:26)
Yeah.
Barry (00:32)
Welcome back to the What Podcast. I'm Barry, that's Brian. You'll notice we have a special guest who looks nothing like Lord Taco.
Caleb (00:41)
Ha ha
Bryan (00:41)
Not at all.
Barry (00:43)
Longtime ⁓ listeners, viewers will recognize Caleb. Man, how are you? Welcome back.
Caleb (00:50)
I dude, I'm doing well. Thank you for having me back. Third time. Right. So I'm excited to be back and yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah. Once I hit five times, that's where the jersey comes in.
Barry (00:54)
Are you? Are you three ti man, we're gonna we're gonna have to get one of those Saturday night live like jackets or something pretty soon, aren't we? The five timers club.
Man, from the looks of it, we all had a great Bonnaroo, but I'm pretty sure you had a pretty freaking great Bonnaroo this year. Am I wrong?
Caleb (01:12)
Yeah.
you're not wrong, ⁓ at all. This was one of the most incredible yet slightly overwhelming Bonnaroos I've ever personally experienced. but in a good way.
Barry (01:15)
I'm not wrong.
So quick recap. when did you well let's do this. When did you first go? And then when was your first time on our show?
Caleb (01:33)
Yeah, so my first time I went to Bonnaroo was in twenty twenty-three. I went solo and was not fully prepared for the full experience, but my camping neighbors took care of me and I was doing the Bonnaroo Yearbook Project for the first time. And the first time I was on y'all's show was I wanna say before Bonnaroo twenty twenty five. So like maybe a couple months leading up to
Barry (02:00)
Yeah.
Caleb (02:03)
Bonaru twenty twenty five was the first time I came on here and started talking about the projects 'cause I had the twenty twenty four yearbook already done at that point.
Barry (02:10)
You I mean, you had people lined up all weekend, right? Following you around.
Caleb (02:14)
Gosh.
Yeah. So I got there on Wednesday, which is as early as I could get access into the farm. And this was the first year I went to Will Call to pick up my tickets. So I wasn't able to get in line as early as I maybe would have wanted to. ⁓ so I got to Will Call around to say maybe 7 30 or 8 a.m. ish and picked up my tickets.
And then my younger brother Joshua, who actually ended up going with me this year, he wasn't going until Thursday. He had Thursday entry. So I actually had to pick up his ticket from Will Call, because it was under my name, and then hide it for him behind a building. So he had to go on like a little scavenger hunt to go and get his ticket. So I had to like hide the ticket behind an AC unit, behind a building, kind of a thing, be like, here's where it is, you gotta find it. ⁓ and then I got in line and I think I had
Bryan (02:58)
Yeah.
Barry (02:59)
Ha ha ha. ⁓
That's funny.
Caleb (03:11)
Camp set up around, I want to say like one o'clock PM. ⁓ and then I, as I was setting up my campsite, all of my neighbors that were immediately next to me all knew who I was and what the project was that I was doing, which was a surreal feeling. Like just getting to the farm and everyone having kind of a rough idea of what it is that I'm doing that I was camping next to. That was a first for me.
so that was really cool. And then on Wednesday, the Hulu livestream team wanted to do like a feature of me and my project. So I actually trekked out to the Rue Bus and met up with the Hulu livestream team and they did like a whole segment on me and my project, which was super cool. And then as soon as I got
driven back, they gave me a ride back on the golf cart back to my campsite and they dropped me off maybe about a row away from my car. And when they dropped me off, I immediately got out of the cart and like two people came up and they were like, my gosh, are you the Bonnaroo yearbook guy? And was like, Yeah, that's me. And so they came, they started signing and I was looking at the the cameras and kind of giving them like a little outro kind of a situation. And then I turn around and there's like
15 people all huddled around waiting to sign the book. And I'm like, whoa, what's going on here? And then I ended up staying on that spot on the side of the row, just out in campgrounds, for like two hours. It got dark. And I just had people coming and coming and coming and coming to sign the book. And that's when I was really like, it's Wednesday.
And I've been on the side of the road getting signatures for like two hours, all from people just coming up, recognizing me and wanting to sign the yearbook. And that just happened for the rest of the festival. And on Thursday, the very next day, there was like a three or four hour line of people from eleven AM to three thirty PM all coming to sign the yearbook, which was so surreal. So yeah, it really blew up this past year.
Barry (05:05)
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm gonna let Brian's gonna jump
Bryan (05:32)
Well that that's certain
Barry (05:33)
in, but I'm gonna you brought some of them with you to our little panel discussion. You came up and said, Hey, I want you guys and and then you said, Sorry, but I have these people behind me and I felt so bad 'cause we we jumped the line, so to speak. So but go ahead, Brian. I'm sorry, there's so much
Caleb (05:44)
Yeah.
Well, I actually I was on the other side
of the tent from you guys on Thursday. And I actually had to leave my meetup in the grove to go and catch y'all's podcast. And so I made my way in there and I just wanted to watch y'all. Like I just wanted to watch you guys do your thing. And I was on one side of the tent. Like if you're on the stage, I was off to the left side. And as soon as I
Barry (06:12)
Yeah, yeah.
Caleb (06:15)
showed up at that little table and had the book out and people started signing, a line started forming at the tent. And then you guys finished your podcast and I saw you guys over at the table across the tent from me. And I was like, I need their signatures. Like I need them to sign the book. So I was like, okay guys, we're gonna make a little Congo line. We're gonna go over to that table so I can get their signatures real quick. And then you guys can keep signing. So I came over, got y'all signatures and then the line just kept going.
Barry (06:28)
Right.
Caleb (06:44)
Yeah.
Bryan (06:45)
Well, for for the record, I ⁓ didn't feel bad about breaking the line whatsoever. I felt quite honored to be able to ⁓ jump to the the front of line. ⁓ Caleb, I am a little hung up though here on what the very beginning of all this, and it has nothing to do with anything. We can drop it shortly. You hid a wristband behind an ⁓
Barry (07:08)
Yeah, I know, right? That sounded like such Brian
Caleb (07:09)
Yeah.
Barry (07:11)
Stone, good and bad. I could see you stumbling across one, finding it, but I can also see you hiding one and it getting picked up.
Caleb (07:21)
⁓
Bryan (07:23)
Like I would totally do
this, except I would be I would be riddled with anxiety for the rest of the day that this isn't gonna work. Would you d don't spend a lot of time
Barry (07:25)
Yeah.
Caleb (07:29)
yeah.
Barry (07:31)
Good fair point. Some dog, some raccoon
would find it.
Bryan (07:37)
Anything. Three on sucks it up into the damn ⁓ you know, exhaust. Just what did you look over your shoulder ten times? I mean don't spend a lot of time on this, but with just one more comment on this.
Caleb (07:43)
this is
Barry (07:44)
Mm-hmm.
Caleb (07:48)
yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. And what's even
so so I'll I'll give you a little tiny backstory into like how this all happened too. So I was planning on going with someone else, ⁓ but that someone else ended up not being able to come that year. and so I was like, Hey, Joshua, my younger brother, do you want to go to Bonnaroo this year? So for him it was really last minute sin. He was like, Yeah, sure, like I'd love to. Like, are you kidding me? A free ticket to Bonnaroo? Like, okay, yeah, sure.
Bryan (08:14)
Okay.
Caleb (08:17)
And then ⁓ one of my all-time supporters, Tim Myers, and I know he's listening to this, so shout out Tim Myers. He's my number one supporter of this project. And he hit me up like a week before and he was like, Hey, I have a camping pass for Area 931 if you want to like join us in camping. So I ended up meeting up yeah. So I ended up meeting up with him to pick up the pass.
Bryan (08:40)
a hell of an upgrade.
Caleb (08:46)
But it was Thursday entry. So I wanted to be there on Wednesday. So I ended up just keeping my GA Wednesday camping pass and just doing GA over near the groves where I ended up being parking wise. ⁓ and I gave Joshua the Area 931. So in this little tiny box, I had an Area 931, an Area 931 sticker, an Area 931 wristband.
Bryan (08:52)
Yeah.
And it was an area nine three one sitting over there.
Barry (09:08)
Nice.
Caleb (09:11)
And a GA wristband. So I mean this was an expensive little package to hide for my brother. And so when I got there on Wednesday and I picked up the ticket, I had already met up with Tim to pick up the Area Nine Three One sticker. So I had that already. And I don't know if you know those like black storage totes with like the yellow tops on ⁓ kind of a thing. They're like the kind of industry standard tote kind of a thing.
Bryan (09:16)
Yeah.
Barry (09:17)
Nice.
Mm-hmm. Sure.
Sure.
Caleb (09:35)
⁓
and he had a little mini version of one of those that he gifted to me with some trinkets when I originally met up with him. And so I put the wristband and the sticker and the nine three one wristband all in this like little miniature tote kind of a thing. And I have a video of this somewhere on my phone. I'll send it to you guys so you can put it in here too. ⁓ but then I but then I hid it underneath it was like this.
Bryan (09:53)
Do it. We gotta see this.
Caleb (09:59)
maybe five minutes away from the high school where I picked up the wristbands. It just looked kinda like an abandoned, emptyish lot kind of a thing. Like imagine a ch almost like a strip of just kind of businesses that look kinda run down and Yeah, kind of a thing. And so I was like, I'm just gonna go and see if there's like just behind this building, see if there's any security cameras or anyone watching. I looked around, there was like some train tracks behind it and
Barry (10:12)
A brown f a brown field. Yeah.
Caleb (10:26)
I didn't see any security cameras and no one was watching. And so I went behind one of the AC units and just like took this little tiny plastic tote with all this essential goods for his experience. Yeah. ⁓
Barry (10:31)
Mm-hmm.
Bryan (10:36)
And it and it sat there for a day, right? It sat there a for a full day, right?
Barry (10:40)
let's let's think about
this. The largest hippie fest in the country is going on and you go into a brown field and hide a a package. You're lucky you didn't You're lucky you
Caleb (10:49)
Yeah. Yeah. That's literally what it was. I mean, it felt like ⁓
you know, a James Bond like dun dun dun dun dun kind of a situation. And then what was even crazier, no, all right? No, seriously, it felt so suspicious. ⁓ and then what was even crazier is I was trying to send him the video of where it was, but my signal was really bad and like a video wasn't sending. So I was like trying to call him, trying to make sure the video goes through.
Barry (10:57)
Yeah. It's it's not like you're doing anything illegal at all. Probably didn't look suspicious at all. ⁓
Bryan (10:58)
Delu, del
Caleb (11:17)
ended up having to call my dad to get in contact with him to make sure that he got it. It it was like a whole thing and I I was like, my gosh
Bryan (11:23)
Yeah. You're you're you're right, Mary. You're right. This
I can be on either end of this because I'm the guy that goes snooping behind buildings and looking for shit under air conditioning units. So I c hey guys, look what I found.
Barry (11:32)
Yep. Yep. Guess what I'm guess what
I'm doing next year? Yeah, exactly.
Caleb (11:38)
Would have been a heck of a ground score, I'll tell you that. Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan (11:42)
That is h that is
funny. That is funny.
real quickly, go backwards real quick, Caleb, and talk about when you first did this. Wait, not the entire ⁓ backstory. We've we've told it on here a lot that you were using it as a way to socialize more and those kinds of things. But talk about the experience of getting those signatures and people's willingness to do it, as opposed to where we are now, which we you know, we're in the middle of talking about how explosive a of a of a idea this has turned into.
Caleb (11:59)
Sure.
Bryan (12:17)
But what was it like four years ago when you were people like, wait, what am I sig what am I what the fuck am I doing? Like, am I am I giving am I signing my life away here? I mean, talk about that experience four years ago.
Caleb (12:17)
Yeah.
Barry (12:23)
Yeah.
Caleb (12:24)
Yeah. Right.
Sure. So my first Bonnaroo, ⁓ decided to finally make like a printed version of this kind of like fun project that I would do just to meet people at festivals.
Barry (12:42)
Can I jump ca 'cause I think it's it Bonnaroo is not your first. You you started this at at another, yeah, was it Lala or ⁓ Coachella, which one Lala?
Caleb (12:46)
No, Bomberu was not my first time yet.
Yeah. Yeah. So Lollapalooza in twenty twenty
one was the first time I like actually filled a notebook full of signatures. That was my first like kind of big accomplishment with this like little bit that I was doing. But back in twenty nineteen at my first music festival, which happened to be Coachella, I got invited by some friends to go out there. ⁓ that was the first time I got the idea to do it as a way to meet people, just to approach people and, you know, ask them to sign it. And that's where the
The concept kind of was born for me. And then 2021, Lollapalooza was the first time I like actually filled it all out. And then Bonnaroo twenty-three was the first year I was like, I'm gonna make this into a printed book. So when I was going around Bonnaroo the first time, it was constantly having to pitch this concept to people, like, Hi, would you guys like to sign the Bonnaroo yearbook? And they'd be like, yeah, sure. And I had to tell people like, Hey, I'm turning this into a printed book.
Bryan (13:41)
So you gotta pitch it over and over again.
Caleb (13:48)
And at first I was calling it FESTI Books, but with an X at the end. So it's like F-E-S-T-I-B-O-O-X was my website handle and my Instagram handle at the time. And I didn't really have any proof of concept for this book because I never made one. So people just kinda had to trust me, A that I was gonna fill the whole book up and B that I was actually gonna make a printed book by the end of it. Because I could I didn't have any proof that I could make a book.
at that time. And so it was just a lot of going around and just telling people, hey, would you like to sign this book? And also if you go to this website, you can get a copy of the final thing and just having to word of mouth it to people. And towards the end of the festival, honestly, I started giving up trying to pitch it to people and just getting signatures 'cause I was like, I'm tired of pitching this all the time. Cause it's like I met a thousand plus people at Bonn Roo my first year. And so
Barry (14:20)
Sure.
Bryan (14:43)
Just saying it.
Barry (14:44)
Yeah.
Caleb (14:48)
having to give the same spiel a thousand times, honestly, kinda got old. ⁓ and so some of the experiences was just getting signatures from people and little drawings and stuff like that. ⁓ and then this year it was people just finding me and wanting to sign and wanting to be a part of it and be a part of the the legacy of the yearbook project. And people got so excited when they like
Bryan (14:54)
Bet.
Barry (14:55)
Sure.
Caleb (15:17)
came across me in the wild, it was like, here you are, you know, kind of a thing. So the the from the beginning of having to go around and tell everybody what it is and trying to pitch this idea essentially to people trying to find me and me becoming like a little you know, hidden side quest throughout the festival, ⁓ is is such a huge difference, you know, from where it first started.
Barry (15:47)
⁓ and I reached out to you last week 'cause I want to do over, because I I I told you my signature sucks and I wanna I wanna cover it up and do it again. But you you said ⁓ who is it has the prettiest signature?
Caleb (15:55)
Ha ha ha.
⁓ Brian has, I think, the contender for the best freaking six I'll pull it up right now. I have the book with me from this year. And I'm gonna pull it up and show you just what I mean. I'm not just tooting your horn. I think you genuinely have one of the prettiest signatures in this book. Let me make sure I can find it here real quick. ⁓ and you know, I'll tell you a funny story while I was while I was while I'm finding this page. So
Barry (16:06)
Bryan Stone.
You guys are gonna be surprised.
Bryan (16:16)
Wow.
Barry (16:24)
You guys are gonna be surprised.
Caleb (16:32)
When Brian I asked him to sign it, he went to go pull out his own pen. And I was like, no Sharpies, please. Cause I have pens that are ⁓ you know, I have my dedicated yearbook pens that don't bleed and this and that. And so I was like, I want to make sure, you know, he's not using something that's gonna bleed through all the pages, kind of a situation. And this man pulls out, here it is, a freaking
Bryan (16:40)
Yeah, you said no Sharpie.
Caleb (16:59)
Calligraphy pen that he had on him. I mean, are you so for real? Like, that was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. Just pulling out a calligraphy pen out of your pocket and signing in this beautiful calligraphy. ⁓ like, that's so sick. Like, this might honestly just be the most beautiful signature in the book.
Barry (17:00)
There's
My man mister Grumpy himself carries his own calligraphy pen.
Bryan (17:20)
Well, first of all
Fer first of all, Caleb, thank you for the compliment first of all. But ⁓ I was actually worried as you said no Sharpies. I mean, I I knew I know what you're talking about. You don't want the bleed, you want to control the the the situation here, make sure you don't have any hiccups in production and all that. But the only way I could have done that was with the pen that I brought because it's a specific calligraphy pen. And I'm not gonna say I learned calligraphy just for this. ⁓
Caleb (17:51)
Yeah.
Bryan (17:51)
Eddie Eddie Vedder
does calligraphy, by the way, Barry. You'll think that's hilarious. So that's that's where I started doing it when he would write out his set lists in calligraphy. And in boredom at work, I would just start writing in the last year, just boredom. But ⁓ and eventually I started to really like it and I'm okay. I wouldn't say I'm great at it, I'm okay. And as you said, no no Sharpies, I thought, well, I'm just gonna take a chance here and just kind of boldly just still do it. And I'm like, I think this pen might be as heavy as a Sharpie as far as ink.
Barry (18:03)
Yeah.
Caleb (18:20)
No, no, no. It didn't it didn't bleed. So it's okay. It was fine. Yeah.
Bryan (18:21)
I don't know. Okay. Okay, good. Good, good, good. But
I was willing to take that chance because I was like I've been thinking about it. Like I'm going to put a a ⁓ I haven't been able to show off this little mini skill in a l much at all. And so I was like, I'm gonna get this in Caleb's book and that's why I brought the the pen with me. I was afraid I wouldn't make it home with it. I did. But I'm glad to hear it didn't ⁓ it didn't bleed 'cause
I'm dead serious. I thought, no, it's gonna bleed right through the page. Cause you gotta press down kinda hard. You gotta press down kinda hard when you do it. So
Caleb (18:49)
Yeah, yeah.
Barry (18:50)
Well, not only
Yeah.
Caleb (18:55)
No, that's perfect.
Barry (18:55)
Well it it shamed me 'cause I think I saw your reel or something, Caleb, that next week or whatever and I was like, Ooh, I forgot that Stone did calligraphy. That looks good and mine sucks.
Caleb (19:03)
Yeah.
Bryan (19:06)
Yeah. ⁓
Caleb (19:06)
Well,
to be fair, Lord Taco probably had the messiest one. He might go on the huh page with the one the page where it's full of all the signatures of like I have no idea what that person wrote. Like I could barely even read it. Hold on. This is this is the page he might show up in. This is
Barry (19:13)
⁓ nice.
Bryan (19:13)
Ha ha.
Well in the in
the past years I just I just slapped a picture of my face on it and moved along.
Barry (19:26)
That's what I even that I wish I had done. I think I said Bonnaroo changes lives. Ask Caleb ask me. I'm not unhappy with what I said, but
Caleb (19:26)
Yeah.
Yeah. Lord Taco
might end up on this page. The huh? Page. Yeah.
Bryan (19:39)
this is that ⁓ that's funny. So you've got a whole
page dedicated to slot.
Caleb (19:47)
Like I can't read that. Like, I love you. Mm, thanks for contributing. I don't know what that says. Yeah, I know it's him, but it's hard to read. Yeah. But you had a beautiful signature this year, Brian.
Barry (19:47)
Nice.
Bryan (19:50)
Ha ha ha.
Barry (19:54)
Funny.
that's where I was my I was gonna
Bryan (19:57)
It's funny.
Barry (19:58)
go next. So for people who are not familiar with the book, ⁓ it is it is ⁓ patterned after a classic high school yearbook, right? You've got photos, you've got signatures, you've got ⁓ notes to hey Caleb, great to meet you, have a great year, stay the same, never change, you know, all that stuff that we all wrote in everybody's yearbook. But you've also got what?
Caleb (20:08)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Tags, yeah. The S thing. Yeah.
Bryan (20:21)
Yeah.
Barry (20:24)
A accolades and best of superlatives. There there it is. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome.
Bryan (20:26)
Super superlatives. Yeah.
Caleb (20:27)
Yep. Superlatives. Yep. Yep. Fun facts.
There's an I spy sections. All the trinkets that people give me ⁓ you know, get turned into like a rhyming puzzle style photograph, and you could go in and find your trinkets. ⁓ and speaking of trinkets, you know, I don't want to get too off topic here, but I just want to show off a couple of them real quick, just a few. First of all, this one. Okay. This
Barry (20:43)
Set speaking of trinkets.
Bryan (20:54)
made of you, right?
Caleb (20:54)
Is a little miniature
version of me. And if you know enough about my lore, this is the totem that I made for the ISP Hulaween book that I did for Hulaween last year. It's also got a little miniature version of my hat. It says the Rue Yearbook on there. And it's got like little pins and stuff. And it's like kind of the same shape and style as my hat. It's got like all the little clips and stuff on there. It's got my glasses.
Barry (21:12)
Mm-hmm.
Caleb (21:23)
It's got a little miniature Bonnaroo yearbook in there with like pages you can actually open and flip through. It's got my green cape on there. ⁓ it also has my Flowstar, a little miniature version of my Flowstar. And it came in this really cute hand painted box. ⁓ so that's that's one that I really wanted to show off ⁓ that I thought was just like so incredible. Like, what ⁓
Barry (21:28)
Nice. my gosh.
Wow.
Now
When when and where
w when and where was that gifted to you? 'Cause somebody had to not only make it and spend a lot of time doing it, but they had to hope they were gonna meet with you and see you. How did that work? Carry it around, yeah, yeah.
Caleb (21:59)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bryan (22:04)
And ca and carry it around ba basically
Caleb (22:06)
Yeah.
Bryan (22:07)
all the time. Yeah.
Caleb (22:08)
Yeah. So I had two meetups scheduled for Bonnaroo this year, which I next year I'm gonna do probably one for every day. Yep. So I said I'm gonna be at the Grove on Thursday for two hours, ended up being there for four hours. And then I had a meetup on Saturday as well in group camping. Super Group was hosting a carnival.
Bryan (22:15)
like sanctioned, like scheduled. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Caleb (22:31)
And so they asked if I would come and join them for their carnival. And I was like, yeah, I'd love to be there. And so those were like the two public meetups that I said, if you wanna come and find me a hundred percent, I'm gonna be at these two places at these times on this date. And so the Saturday meetup is where she came and brought this for me. But I just I just thought that was the cool and generally I am wearing my glasses. I took them off for the interview because they're like kinda glary right now at the windows. ⁓ but I just
Barry (22:52)
That's so cool.
Nice.
Caleb (22:59)
Like, are you so for with the hat on? Like, how cool is that? Like, that's so sick.
Barry (23:03)
Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, we got we were
I've got ris the candy, the wrists with are my name, the what podcast on. It's amazing that the effort ⁓ that people have gone into. So cool. look at that.
Caleb (23:15)
I mean this one too, this this twenty twenty six radiate positivity and then look at this,
wait for it. And it's got Caleb and Bonnaroo yearbook on there. It's like this whole 3D printed arch. Like, I love this thing. Like, shout out to SideQuest Grid for this one. And then I'll show you one more. ⁓ this sprout right here. You know who that is?
Bryan (23:22)
Is cool. man. That is cool.
Barry (23:32)
That is so cool.
Caleb (23:40)
That's me. That's me with the yearbook. And then on the back of this sprout, it actually says, ⁓ that's not the right one. that's not the right one either. I'm doing this like in the can. There we go. And then on the back of it it says Bonnaroo yearbook, which is so cool. And Rue 2026. So there were some like really customized trinkets specifically for me that I was just like.
Bryan (23:41)
I don't know. ⁓ well as you L you is what it is.
Barry (23:58)
That very, very cool.
Bryan (23:59)
Wow.
Caleb (24:07)
What is going on? Like what is happening, you know? It's crazy.
Barry (24:08)
Yeah. That's amazing.
Bryan (24:14)
How much music did you miss that you wanted to see because you got hung up with your obligations? I bet you missed at least some.
Caleb (24:24)
So many. But here's my thing. Like for me, the community of Bonnaroo and interacting with people doing the yearbook project, and then like the music. You know what I mean? Like the music is still great. Don't get me wrong. Like I I loved going and just like watching shows. But for me, what really gets me going is just having yearbook interactions. But where it was a little bit overwhelming was I would go and
Bryan (24:27)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Caleb (24:53)
just sit down with somebody and start having them sign the yearbook. And then all of a sudden I would look over and there'd be like a line of people like waiting to sign the book. And it was like, whoa, okay. Like I guess I'm here for the next forty five minutes to an hour now. And just trying to get anywhere throughout the festival was almost impossible unless I had like a full like gator and sunglasses and like took my wizard hat off, like and went incognito mode.
Barry (25:23)
I was gonna ask a couple of things 'cause our friend David Bruce had similar situations. You know, David is very distinctive with his hat and a camera. You know who he is. So he went out a couple of times without a hat or his camera because he just wanted to see a show. which is so crazy because ten, twelve years ago and and we're we had similar experiences, Caleb. We we got the the live nation crew followed us around as well. I wanna
talk to you little bit about that coming up, but but ⁓ be walking through and having people stop us and say, you know, hey, I listened to the podcast, whatever, is crazy. But it's amazing to me that there are so many of these stories. There's you, there's the real Roo Bus, the RooHamm guys, the Bonadude, David, I mean, all of these, I don't know what you'd call them.
things that have sprung out of this festival. Yeah, festival characters that ⁓ that people know. And ⁓ again, I'm jumping all around, but like Brian, who I like you said, Brian, I don't think you thought of you were gonna do sign your name and calligraphy in the yearbook, but you were prepared for it. When you ask people to do to sign the book, they they think about it, right? They're not just like me and Russ who just sign our names. They
Caleb (26:22)
It's just festival characters. Yeah. Yeah.
Barry (26:51)
They sit down, they draw, they write ⁓ poems. I mean, it's a it's incredible, right?
Caleb (26:54)
⁓ yeah.
I mean, it ranges anywhere from just like a little signature in a happy roue to, you know, people spending forty five minutes and doing a whole page full of stuff. You know what I mean? So there's there's a huge variety of, you know, people putting in Polaroids, stickers, you know, long messages, short messages. I'm a really big fan of this dragon. in here somewhere. Where'd it go? this is
Bryan (27:08)
She is.
Caleb (27:28)
when we did the filming. Where's that dragon? That passed by there we go. This dragon is crazy. Like that took a lot of time. That was like half an hour of going in and shading and doing all kinds of stuff to it. But it's like that's a big section of the book. And there were so many people who were like, ooh, I want to sign next to the dragon. Like that's really cool. You know, and they become landmarks in the book. All these really cool drawings.
Barry (27:36)
Wow.
Bryan (27:37)
That's
really good.
Barry (27:47)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Caleb (27:54)
⁓ so I always encourage people, even during the meetups, like take your time with it, you know, put put detail as much as you like.
Bryan (28:01)
How how many pages is the book when you walk on the farm? 200, 300, 500? How many pages are in there? Roughly. Just roughly.
Caleb (28:10)
So this was actually no,
I know exactly how many pages this is. This is a hundred and ten pages, which is actually the fewest number of pages I've had in any of my books before.
Bryan (28:23)
I would immediately think that's not enough. Like I would immediately think that's not enough.
Caleb (28:26)
it barely was. I mean, if
you look through this book, I mean it's it's so full. There's like not an empty spot really in this whole entire book. There's very few empty spaces anywhere in the whole thing. ⁓
Bryan (28:42)
Did
did you did you were you concerned you would run out and not be able to continue? I mean, yeah, maybe double that up next year, right?
Caleb (28:49)
Yeah. My my main concern, ⁓ and the reason why it was this way this year was because last year I didn't get a chance to fully fill the book up and I left the farm with a lot of empty pages, which really hurt my heart. But I think part of that was because you know, we had three fewer days on the farm. So But even still I was there from Tuesday till Friday morning, it was.
Bryan (29:08)
Well, it was only one day.
Barry (29:09)
Yeah, you only had one. I don't think it's your fault.
Bryan (29:17)
Well, okay. So
it's more than one day. More than one day.
Caleb (29:18)
I believe. So
so I had like six hundred something signatures still, ⁓ almost seven hundred. And it it just hurt my heart so much having so few empty or so many empty pages in the book still. So I was like, I wanna kinda just have fewer pages to make it more full of a book. So like every single page you look at.
has like at least 10 people contributing to it for the most part. And some pages are full pages, you know, that's just like one person kind of a thing. And some have like 20 signatures on them. ⁓ so for me, what I really liked about this year's edition is when you're going through the book, I mean, it's every page is just full of life. I mean, there's not a sparse page in there with
previous books, there would be pages where it's like, you know, someone took up a lot of room, but then there's lots of, you know, there's lots of empty space around that one thing because there's an empty page for them to like start their own thing, which is cool in its own way. And I and I do enjoy having all the real estate to be able to, you know, anyone can kind of contribute as much or as little as they like and have the room to do so. But one of the cool things is by Sunday, I mean, it was like people were having to find
Bryan (30:13)
Five of ⁓ on there or something. Yeah.
Caleb (30:38)
spaces for their contribution. They're like having to look through the whole thing and see how full it is. So that experience of having like almost limited real estate by the end of the festival, I think kind of made it a little more fun just for me, just like seeing how full it was by the end of it. ⁓ and I think having fewer pages really helped just make each page that much more lively.
Barry (30:39)
Mm-hmm.
Caleb (31:03)
and as well as when it comes to producing like the printed version of the book, once it's done, one of the things I really struggled with ⁓ in pretty much every year that I've done this is they've always been just like regular bound books, kind of something like this kind of a thing. ⁓ and so what would happen is the pages would when I lay them down to photograph them, because I photograph each page individually for these, ⁓ they don't lay completely flat when you put them down on a surface.
So it took a lot of effort for me to correct that for each page and shooting it versus a spiral notebook was able to lay completely flat. So when it comes to the production process of like recreating the book, it's gonna make it a lot easier for me. ⁓ and also prevented a lot of the like signed your crack kind of a thing, ⁓ when they like sign in the middle of the book or they go across two pages kind of a thing.
Barry (31:45)
Right.
Caleb (32:01)
⁓ because that when it comes time to recreate it in print is so insanely challenging for me on my side and took a lot of time. ⁓ so production wise, I think this is gonna be a lot easier for me to handle. ⁓ but yeah, thinking in in the future for next year's, I definitely do want at least fifty more pages just to have a little bit more real estate. I think a hundred and sixty pages would be like perfect for for this project.
Barry (32:08)
Yeah, the gatefold.
for
For
people who have not seen the actual book, it's high quality. You ⁓ you put a great deal of effort into this. This and I I and we ask you every time, you still make are you making any money? At all?
Caleb (32:44)
Well, traditionally
no. Traditionally I have not made really much to any 'cause I've never sold more than like fifty copies of any of my ⁓ previous editions that I've done. It was more of this is a passion project, this is something I'm doing for really for the bit, for just because I enjoy doing it. and I kinda just wanted them for myself. And if other people wanted one, like that's really cool, that's great. And I didn't start doing social media
Barry (33:05)
Yeah.
Caleb (33:13)
for the project really until a few months before Bonnaroo last year. ⁓ so it wasn't even like something I was really trying to promo super hard or really do much, you know, marketing behind or anything like that. ⁓ and so when I transitioned into posting more videos and starting to like kind of tell people online about what it is that I was doing and then Bonnaroo's cancellation last year.
my account started going and this year I sold out of books like the day after I got back from Bonnaroo, which was a huge milestone. ⁓ and this year I was able to make at least a little bit of money ⁓ doing this project. And it also helped that Bonnaroo gave me tickets this year as like
Barry (33:53)
Awesome. Good for you.
Bryan (33:54)
yeah.
Barry (34:01)
Good. Awesome.
Caleb (34:08)
an influencer or video creator because I applied for their media, you know, pass kind of a thing in the back end. And so having a free ticket plus selling a hundred copies this year and selling the book out was my first year, I think, actually making money off of doing this project. ⁓ which felt really cool and like I'm so thankful for everyone who's supported the project and has like been there throughout this
Barry (34:26)
Good. Good, good, good. That's awesome.
Caleb (34:38)
journey I've been on. ⁓ and running into people from like, you know, my camping neighbors from twenty twenty three were there this year and running into you guys again for, you know, the second third year in a row kind of a thing. So it's been really cool seeing like familiar faces on the farm. Like, my gosh, I've seen you guys I feel like every year, you know, kind of a thing. ⁓ but but yeah.
Barry (35:00)
That reminds me, I wanted
to mention at the st I wanted to mention at the start, ⁓ but that reminds me this community. ⁓ while we are here, it's Sunday morning, while we are talking, our man Russ is either coming back or still ⁓ with our friend Lindsay, ⁓ Bonnaroo, ⁓ up at the secret location up in ⁓ where is it? It's near Matt. Winchester, near there. And
Bryan (35:23)
W Winchester Winchester, I believe. I think
Barry (35:28)
⁓ Evan Bonnaroo is currently at this very minute having lunch with our friend David Bruce in New York. Yeah. It's just so crazy. This this little world, this community, you know, that comes out of this festival that ⁓ Brian and I would not be friends. We wouldn't be hanging out without Bonnaroo. I wouldn't know you, Caleb. I wouldn't know Russ. I wouldn't know David. So I wouldn't know Evan. I wouldn't know anybody that I just mentioned.
Caleb (35:34)
no way. Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah.
Barry (35:56)
if not for this festival. So I I just think that's worth n worth noting. ⁓ well good for you. I'm glad you made your you're making a buck. Or not losing money even, put it let's put it that way.
Caleb (36:06)
Yeah. Yeah, right.
Bryan (36:09)
Ka Caleb,
let let's talk about your ⁓ your pet dragon or whatever that thing is, your lizard thing, and ⁓ talk about that and then segue that into there's been ideas kicked around of like a children's book of sorts, or is that for real or are you are you jok are you joking around online? Talk about that a little bit.
Caleb (36:16)
yeah. Yeah, Drogdoor.
Yeah. Well
okay, so so I have a bearded dragon named Trogdor. Okay, he's actually over there in his terrarium at the moment. yeah, I'll I'll let him sleep for now. But I I do have a I do have a drawing of him ⁓ wearing that little hat, which I think is really, really sweet. But the the concept Yeah. Yeah, so I I took
Bryan (36:40)
Yeah, you can leave over there. Unless you want to get unless you wanna get
Barry (36:41)
Ha ha ha.
Bryan (36:50)
Yeah.
Yeah, he puts the hat, that little hat, he puts it on the damn dragon. And he wears
it.
Caleb (36:58)
I took this little hat and I just put it on his head, you know, kind of a thing, and I took a little video and I was like, my gosh, that is so cute. Like I I think that's the cutest thing. I posted it on my story and my grandma saw it and she was like, wouldn't it be so cute if you did like a little children's book where it's like you and Throgmore? She calls him Throgmore. his name's Trogdor.
⁓ wouldn't it be so cute if the two of you were going around Bonnaroo and like going on little adventures and stuff and he could be wearing little crocs just like you and she gave this whole like kind of kind of built this whole world up. And I'm ⁓ yeah, yeah, just with that as the concept. And so I just kind of took that concept and I'm not a fan of AI and I would never publish anything with AI.
Bryan (37:25)
Ha ha
Barry (37:37)
Radiating positivity. I love it.
Caleb (37:52)
However, I did use it briefly just to throw up a concept of like what that could look like. But then I put that on my story and I was like, hey, are there any artists out there that would like to do a like a legitimate art rendition of this concept for potentially doing like a children's book? ⁓ and a friend of mine, Izzy, she drew this up and I was like, ⁓ my gosh, that is so sick.
And it's not my main focus at the moment to produce a children's book, but I think once I get all my projects done and they're all produced and finished, I think I would like to explore the concept of making like a Bonnaroo children's book of Chogdor I going around in our little, you know, outfits and spreading pleur around the farm in different ways and like telling little stories. ⁓
I just think that'd be really cute and fun. And I've actually commissioned an artist as well who is doing an eight by ten ⁓ rendition of this as well. So it could even be where like each page is, you know, drawn by a different community member or ⁓ a different artist or something like that. And I think it could be a really fun concept. but I haven't done like any proper planning, but that's that's the idea floating around.
Barry (38:49)
Yeah, it is fun. That's cool.
Bryan (39:12)
Let's talk about real quick, Caleb. I did see one of your posts showing your ⁓ early morning rise sunrise set that you did late night that looked ⁓ pretty wild. how much what music did you see that sticks out? Like you don't have to run through the whole ⁓ list, but what what did you see that really made your weekend musically?
Caleb (39:23)
Yeah.
Yeah, I would say honestly, Effin's sunrise set was personally one of my favorite music moments of like my Bonnaroo experience. The other musical act that had me just literally bawling my eyes out, just crying so hard, was Alabama Shakes. Alabama Shakespeare is just such a nostalgic band for me. Crying my eyes out. But it was
Barry (39:56)
Hmm.
Bryan (39:57)
Really? They made you cry?
Barry (40:00)
Mm-hmm.
It was a good set.
It was great. It was great to see them back on the farm. Yeah.
Caleb (40:04)
It was such a beautiful set. Yeah.
And that was my first time seeing them perform live and just the energy and the passion behind it all. And I wasn't expecting it to be my favorite, but it it really got me. So I would say those are like my two biggest, like most impactful music sets throughout the whole week. But if I'm being really honest, those are like the two that I remember the most. The rest, like I tried to go to LSD set.
Bryan (40:13)
Yeah. I get it.
Caleb (40:34)
on I think it was Sunday. and it was like their last time performing and I just wanted to watch the show. Like I put my yearbook away, I put my gator on, I had a different hat, and people still kept coming up to me and like wanting to sign the yearbook. And as soon as that yearbook would come out, it was like moths to a flame, man. And so I watched the first like maybe twenty five, thirty minutes of it. And it just people kept coming up and I was like, I need to like go back a little bit further in the crowd.
Barry (40:38)
Yes.
Bryan (40:45)
And you couldn't.
Caleb (41:03)
And then by the time I got back further in the crowd, I was like, Man, I'm I don't remember the last time I ate today, so I need to go eat some food. So I went and got some food. And on Sunday, I was walking from like that main arch entrance towards Noah Khan to go to the what stage for like the final show. And I got about five minutes into Noah Khan's set and people just kept
Barry (41:10)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Caleb (41:32)
coming up and talking to me. And not that it was a bad thing at all, but we were standing in, you know, the crazy mud. And I was just so tired, so pooped. It was nighttime and my phone was dead. So I was just like, man, I need to go back to camp. Just like reset for 15 minutes. And I'm gonna come back and try and catch the end of the show for the, you know, big finale or whatever. I went back to camp.
Bryan (41:42)
Yeah.
Crashed. ⁓
Caleb (42:01)
And I passed out. I passed out
Barry (42:04)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Caleb (42:04)
so hard. Missed the entire last day. Woke up the next morning at like six AM and I like, ⁓ no like oops. ⁓ but but I had such a great time. Like
Bryan (42:17)
those sunrise
sets, man, I still don't understand anybody, whether they're on drugs, not on drugs, on a drink, not on a drink, on just, you know, mental ⁓ endorphin high, how people can do those those sunrise sets throw your whole the whole like inner clock out of whack. So I as soon as you started to tell that story, I was like, he went and passed out.
Barry (42:31)
Yeah.
Caleb (42:32)
Yeah.
Well, I'll t I wasn't I wasn't even
I wasn't even planning on being at the sunrise set. That was the thing. I actually got thrown on a side quest back into Santa Ru somehow. So w I I was at I think it was Gorgon City. They were playing until I think about like five AM or something like that. And then Effin was playing till six AM. And I was with a group of people getting their signatures, having a great time, and Gorgon City was ending
Bryan (42:45)
Those are the best time.
Barry (42:46)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Caleb (43:05)
And I remember them saying, ⁓ we gotta go catch Efen because he ends at six. And I packed up all my stuff and I walked out of Centero by the disco ball exit. So I walked out and there was another group of people that recognized me and wanted to sign the book. And I was trying to make my way back to camp. This was at like maybe five or five thirty in the morning. All right. And so I leave to go to the disco ball.
exit. We get out. We're at the tables by Spicy Pie in that little section right there. And I'm like
My pens! My pens were missing. I I had left them with the previous group that I was just sitting with. And so I was like, my gosh, you guys, I have to run back and go get my pens. So I left the book with them so they knew I would come back. I went all the way through security again to go in, go and find them, but they were already had gone to
Bryan (43:45)
Story on this, yeah.
Caleb (44:06)
the other set. And I was like, I can't just leave my yearbook out there with these people for this whole venture I'm about to go on. So I had to go back out again, get my book, and then I went to the arch entrance and I went in and had to go and find Effin's set where he was doing his sunrise set. And I found the group that had my pens. And only because they had a totem, thank goodness, ⁓ their totem was you shall not
Barry (44:30)
Wow.
Caleb (44:35)
crash and it was ganned off and like all whooped out and whatever. ⁓ and so I found my pens and I was like, my gosh, thank goodness. And by that point, I was so exhausted. It was like maybe six o'clock in the or maybe five thirty, six o'clock in the morning. And got to see like the last thirty minutes or so of FN Sunrise Set. Ended up finding some friends of mine. ⁓ we hung out and people were signing the book and we were just having a great time. And then as I was leaving
to go back to camp, I just kept getting stopped by people. And I didn't make it back to my camp until like eight AM. From leaving Effens set at six to getting back to my camp took me two hours because people kept w Yeah. And then I fell asleep from like eight AM to maybe noon and then was back out again on Sunday. So
Bryan (45:19)
Time for it to be blazing hot.
Barry (45:21)
Yeah, exactly.
Bryan (45:31)
Yeah.
Barry (45:37)
How is your brother's room? Does he appreciate what he Yeah, I would think so. He better
Caleb (45:39)
He had the best time. Yeah. Yeah. He had Area 931.
Bryan (45:43)
He better yeah, no good c good quest good question, Barry.
Caleb (45:48)
He had a free ticket to Rue. And he got to use the clout that his brother was the yearbook guy. But then he said he had to stop telling people because then all they cared about was just finding me at that point. And like, where is he? Where's your brother?
Bryan (45:48)
Yeah.
Barry (46:00)
all right, so that that leads me to my third. How how
are you gonna do it next year? Are you I mean, do you we've laughed and joked that we need an intern, and I'm I'm only half joking. ⁓ have you? Yeah. I mean, seriously, can you you can't split yourself? but I mean what and obviously that yeah, that's a b I mean people
Caleb (46:11)
Yeah, same. Same.
No. I've been thinking about this a lot. I've been thinking about this a lot.
Barry (46:27)
It's cool. Yeah, I get it. I get it. People coming up and wanting to hug and take a picture is amazing. We've talked about it over and over. But at some point you do wanna enjoy your own festival, right? You wanna watch a band. You wanna Yeah, you you don't you don't wanna be ⁓ so, you know, ⁓ what are you gonna do? Any you you said you're thinking about it.
Caleb (46:38)
Yeah, that's the kicker. Yeah. Yeah.
So yeah,
my my plan for next year is I want to have like a yearbook club or a yearbook team or something like that that can help me with the meetups specifically. Cause that's where I found myself having the most like my gosh, this is a lot. Like because with the meetups, having a hundred people
in a line waiting to sign the book and in addition to that people coming up on the sidelines like left and right of me trying to just like tell me a little something or just give me a little trinket because they don't want to wait in the entire line to sign the book at that moment. ⁓ if I could have a team of one or two people who could dedicate like even just like two or three hours to a specific day of like, hey, ⁓ you know, you're gonna be the
Barry (47:22)
Sure. Sure.
Caleb (47:41)
you know, your book club lead for today for this meetup. And what I think would be so helpful is someone that can just go through the line and kind of give the spiel, so to speak. Because a lot of people waiting in the line maybe have like, let's say it's a group of five people, one or two of them maybe know a lot of lore about the whole thing, but then maybe they have some friends who have no idea what the project is or what's going on or like what the deal is.
Barry (48:09)
Sure.
Caleb (48:10)
⁓ I also have like started making I don't want to say rules but kind of guidelines like try and avoid covering someone else's signature or like if you want to make something really big, try and find a space that has the room so you're not, you know, overlapping other people's stuff. ⁓ and just kinda telling them yeah, no sharpies. ⁓ kind of what what the deal is. Like if you leave a trinket, it's gonna get turned into the I spy book.
Barry (48:30)
No sharpies.
Caleb (48:40)
So this is not a take one leave one box. Some people thought it was a take one leave, and I was like, no, no, no. No, this just just leave for this because it's all gonna be documented. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ there was a situation where a guy was covered in mud, head to toe. I mean gloopy, sloppy mud, and he wanted to put his handprint in the book on Sunday.
Barry (48:47)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, good That's a good point. That's a great point.
Bryan (48:47)
No. These are mine. The I these are mine. Yeah.
Yeah, I was gonna go here before we got out of here. Yeah.
Caleb (49:06)
Like it was during the F and sunrise set after that had happened, ⁓ at the end of that. He came up and was like, Can I put my handprint inside the book? And I was like, I love you, dude. No. 'Cause you're gonna cover up something else or it's gonna be this wet, sticky mud in a paper book and it's gonna warp the pages, like no dude, I'm so sorry. ⁓ and all kinds of stuff.
Barry (49:14)
Yeah. It's a good idea, but no.
Yeah.
Bryan (49:29)
Yeah, you t you told the story
⁓ you told the story on that on your socials and it was it was f pretty funny, but it got me thinking. I wondered how many others that might be inebriated in certain certain different ways at four in the morning or midnight, or maybe just a little wild in their head in in this moment makes them just a little different version of themselves. I mean, do you have to kind of fight that off a little bit of of aggressiveness and and and maybe substance fuel? No.
Caleb (49:55)
No, I wouldn't say
I I wouldn't say it was often. There definitely were people who I was like, ⁓ they're having a good time. You can you can tell. Yeah. No, it and even in those times that they were, people were generally like super respective or, you know, respectable about the process and about the book. ⁓
Barry (50:05)
Yeah.
Bryan (50:06)
⁓ sure. But
not often though. That's that's interesting you say, not often. You didn't have to deal with that. Very cool.
Caleb (50:23)
And honestly, it was a lot less than previous years that I've experienced with this yearbook. ⁓ so I was really surprised at how much of a kind of mostly a non issue it was for me this year compared to sometimes in the past where it's been maybe a little overwhelming or people just going crazy, like, well slow down, but like I'll hold up, take it easy. ⁓ but the one thing that was really tricky was
Bryan (50:50)
Yeah, 'cause you gotta you gotta you might have to
be a little tough sorry, you might have to be a little tough and it sounds like you're being a jerk potentially and I I I can you're like the kindest guy I've ever talked to. So I wondered how that was for you. But sorry, go ahead.
Caleb (51:00)
Yeah, well, I'm trying to keep the pleur alive. Yeah,
no, I'm and that was the thing too is is like I felt really bad being like, No, you can't do this thing while this guy is rolling dick and balls basically, like wanting to be a part of this project, which like I totally understand that perspective. But at the same time, when you're kinda that far off and you're wanting to put something that could potentially harm the book into
Barry (51:18)
Right.
Caleb (51:30)
The pages, I have to think about the project as a whole and the logistics side of things. ⁓ and to be completely honest with y'all, like generally speaking, in my previous Rue experiences, like I would have those days or I would have like a day dedicated to like I'm gonna have a you know a fun day kind of a thing. But I did not do that at all this year because I felt like anytime someone's coming up to me, they want a picture. I need to make sure I'm keeping track of the book.
Barry (51:34)
Sure.
Caleb (51:58)
I need to make sure I have all my things with me, like at all times. And like I didn't feel like I had any room to kind of get anywhere near that level of, you know, state of being kind of a thing. Because it's like I'm a public figure to a certain degree now. Like I have to be on my Ps and Q's throughout the whole thing. and so part of me is like I kind of kinda missed that, but it was also really fun doing Sobaroo this year. Like I was
Barry (52:07)
Yeah. I get it.
Caleb (52:27)
holy sober throughout the whole thing. Like people would give me like a beer here and there, but I don't really count that. You know, it's like I'm not getting drunk, you know, at the festival.
Barry (52:33)
Yeah, no.
Bryan (52:33)
Well, I didn't mean sorry, I didn't mean to say
good as in like that that that's a good s s thing for you to do. that's that's a great decision to to make. And I was more I was a little curious, I didn't want to necessarily pry into your personal life that if you are if you are having a few drinks, if you are having a a a decent time like most people do and many of us have done countless times, that can lead to a lot of other confusion and where's my book? my god. And you know, like so
Caleb (52:45)
No, that's totally fair.
Barry (52:57)
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Caleb (52:58)
And that's happened before, which
is why I was like, I really can't do it this year, 'cause like I cannot be ⁓ leaving my book at places going, wait, the book and you know, running back or whatever. Like I I have to avoid that.
Barry (53:03)
Yeah.
Bryan (53:10)
Well. Good good on you for being able
Barry (53:11)
Yeah.
Bryan (53:13)
to good on you for being able to manage that. That's really cool.
Caleb (53:16)
Yeah.
Barry (53:16)
Yeah.
Caleb (53:17)
Yeah.
Barry (53:17)
I I mean I I I get it. ⁓ Brian and I we've talked about it a bunch. We've both been so many times, ⁓ and every year is different. Everybody does it different. ⁓ people don't understand its work. or at least it has been for me, you know, many, many years. It's ⁓ and I've always said people people will ask, I bet you go up there and just get trashed or do a lot of drugs and I'm like
Caleb (53:25)
Mm-hmm.
Barry (53:41)
Number one, no, because I I knew I didn't want to be that guy that somebody said, that's the guy from the paper that's up in the tree, you know, tripping tripping balls or whatever. So yeah, and it's work. It is a lot of work and it's an all day thing. So
Caleb (53:42)
Yeah.
Right. Yeah. Right.
Bryan (53:49)
Yeah.
The trajectory of this, you know, project, this thing has been really something to see, man. And ⁓ I think it's I think it's fun and and you do really good with your socials, man. Like I I hate social media more than I've ever hated something in my life at this point. I still enjoy I still enjoy I know it's I mean it it is I can't I can't take it anymore. I know I cannot take social media and the performance.
Barry (53:59)
I love it.
I love it
Caleb (54:03)
It's been crazy. It's been crazy.
Thank you.
Sure.
Barry (54:16)
It says a lot.
That list is long.
Caleb (54:25)
Yeah.
Bryan (54:26)
And the performative, regurgitative, una inauthentic inauthentic, ⁓ creativeless plagiarism that's out there. And this couldn't be further from everything I just said. It is it it is it is such a unique concept that you do such a great job with and good and good good for you for doing it, man.
Barry (54:38)
Yeah, it's so cool.
Caleb (54:46)
I appreciate that. Thank you.
Barry (54:46)
I I will
I mean there are so many things that I love about this, Caleb. What the trajectory, as Brian said, is one to talk to you three years ago and now see where it is. But when you came up to us at that little table and said, Man, can you sign this? And and then turned and said, I got people lined up behind me, I will never forget that image. I mean, it was like and they were they yeah, and they were very patient and cool and I was like, wow.
Bryan (55:09)
It's a big line.
Caleb (55:14)
Yeah. It was surreal. Yeah, it was a surreal experience. Like anywhere where the book came out in a fairly public area, a line would just happen to form. And I wasn't like trying to make it a big thing or be like, Hey, here's the yearbook guy and when you guys in the podcast you were like, and over there is the Bottle Room yearbook guy, I like, no. Like this line's about this line's about to be crazy.
Barry (55:14)
That's so cool. Good for you, man.
Yeah, yeah. Sign here.
Bryan (55:34)
Well
P part
part of it is though, I gotta think, part of it is it's it's herd mentality and in Bonnaroo herd mentality is a little different. Like it if you see like meaning herd mentality can lead to bad things. Herd mentality is hey, something's cool going on over here and I wanna be a part of it. They don't even have to know what it is. So that's that's you know, that's adds to all of this. So that's again, it it it it it's so cool.
Caleb (55:54)
Sure.
Barry (56:04)
Yeah.
Yeah. And and next year, if your brother if your brother can't make it, man, you know my number.
Caleb (56:08)
it's it's been amazing.
There you go. Yeah, I heard. There you go.
Bryan (56:13)
Yeah, yeah, I'll stay a nine through one.
Barry (56:15)
Ha ha ha.
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