Listeners of The What Podcast should not be surprised Bonnaroo 2020 was cancelled. We Brad, Barry and Lord Taco put the wraps on this season and reflect on the news and predictions we brought you. Were we correct? What does the future hold for Bonnaroo and live music in general? Season 3 may be over but The What Podcast is still going strong. We hope to bring you some more interviews and breaking news just as we always have. But for now, it's time to pay our respects to 2020, the Bonnaroo that never was.
Topic: Bonnaroo
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Wait, it's come to this.
There's no difference between what that is and PBR.
Oh, yes there is.
I can't even drink a PBR.
I was gonna ceremoniously open a good Hutton and Smith and put it in one of these.
Oh, is that a what? Podcast koozie?
Are you kidding me? Yeah, I was bringing some hope and then he brings out water.
Sorry. That hurts me to my core.
Those koozies look good. Look at that.
Yeah, we should mention if you're listening to the podcast, you should probably watch this on YouTube.
So you can see the what podcast koozie that Barry has.
Yeah, and not only do you see the koozie, but sometimes you don't see his arm.
It just sometimes disappears.
You're like the back to the future photo and back to the future one just gradually disappearing.
So yeah, the koozies are ready to go.
The stickers are ready to go. T-shirts are on the way and should be on the way to you.
All the patreons and first and foremost, thank you to all of them for making season three the most successful to date.
And I guess this would be a good time to run through some of them before we get into the news of the week.
Keep talking.
There's the sticker right there.
Oh, look at that. The sticker.
The podcast, the koozie and then the T-shirt. I feel like the mixtape.
The mixtape is the only other thing that I haven't brought up.
Mixtapes are we're wrapping those up. Most of those are recorded. Ready to go.
Yeah.
Actual real mixtapes. If you have a tape player, you can play this in your tape player.
I actually got something that I haven't gotten in years.
Being in radio, they send you CDs and merchandise and shit from bands all the time.
For the first time in probably 20 years, I got a cassette tape this week.
They actually sent me a cassette tape. I know it's been a long time.
Somebody actually sent a cassette tape through the mail.
But yeah, to work me on a song, they sent me a cassette tape. I loved it.
I loved everything about it.
I'm looking at a stack of the CDs. Yeah, I haven't had a mixtape in forever.
And did they ever work? I mean, you know, the whole idea behind the mixtape was, you know, to impress a girl, right?
You were that's you're picking songs that impressed.
I always it was always seem to do the opposite.
I don't know. It was my level of tape.
Taco and I are far younger than you, Dad.
We use mixed CDs, so we didn't use mixtapes.
Oh, I never used mixtapes.
Yeah, they were. Yeah.
Either one.
You know, I don't know.
I guess I never tried to use it for for picking up girls.
I've used it to try to try and show off.
Yeah, I try to show off.
That's the same thing.
I guess. But like I had no intentions of like someone actually liking it.
I wanted you to be, you know, you know, somehow take me more seriously than I was taking myself.
And this is how much I understand.
I will say, though, through the three that you can choose, mine is absolutely the best.
My mixtape is absolutely heads and above better than the other two you can choose.
By the way, I'm very excited today that me and Barry finally match for the first time this season.
We've decided to wear the same outfit.
This is the first. It took 25 episodes.
By the way, how many episodes did we do this year?
We've done a ton. We're up to, I think, 23.
Oh, my God. Yeah.
For a year that doesn't exist.
For a bottom that didn't even happen.
Can we go ahead and tell the next year we're not doing 23 episodes?
We're not doing 23.
I'm not going to say because we didn't think we'd be doing year three.
Are you kidding?
Good point.
I think I think when we set out this year, we said 15 was our number.
Fifteen was going to be a comfortable number.
And boy, we went past 15 really early.
I mean, I think we were in 15 in March.
Yeah, but I mean, not to, you know, toot our own horn, but I think they've been good episodes.
And I think, you know, it's one of the reasons I want to talk today is, you know, we've we've sort of been on top of the industry.
You know, I mean, obviously, it's a weird year, but I don't correct me if I'm wrong.
But I don't think we've been wrong about anything, have we?
No, I don't think so.
And it is it is, you know, it's not time for us to toot horns and and and pat on the back.
But there is a reason why I hope that you listen to this show, right, because we we are talking about things that we are either either know as facts or are very, very, very, very informed opinions.
And when we were saying back in March that this was not going to happen, it's because I was explicitly told it's not going to happen.
And it wasn't from one person. It wasn't from two people.
It wasn't just for me. See, it wasn't just from Live Nation.
It was over and over and over from artists to management.
It wasn't going to happen. And then I tweeted this out the other day when I was told that the rescheduled day when they made the rescheduled date.
I said, well, what's the percent before the rescheduled date?
It was zero percent chance of it happening.
And then they made the rescheduling. I said, what's the chance of it happening now?
And the same person told me one percent.
It was never going to happen.
And, you know, I was an idiot.
We were all proven wrong from this virus at first.
I mean, when this started in February, I straight up said, it'll be done by Easter.
I think it'll be done by Easter.
And I was fighting it and fighting it. And then we can all remember when ACL fell.
I'm sorry. It was South by Southwest. When South by Southwest fell, that's when everything started falling apart.
And then Coachella went and so went the rest of the industry.
And the writing was on the wall from the beginning.
And I think I think that last part that you just said is the key.
I don't mean it to be a na na na na. You know, we're right and you're wrong type of thing either.
It was just you and I were able to see how big it was. You know, it's not a want it to go away.
It's not a we wish we wish we're right type of thing.
It was just there were so many dominoes and pieces that were falling that it just didn't make sense.
You know, this week, you know, Bonnaroo, I mean, I don't know.
I assume we're going to get into it because obviously you made phone calls.
I've made phone calls this week.
Live Nation is much smaller than it used to be.
AC Entertainment is much smaller than it used to be.
It's not a simple and that's the point I've been trying to make from the beginning.
It's not just a simple ring a bell and open the door. Hey, we're all back open.
You know, there were so many moving parts that quit moving.
And for them to be able to to make it happen was just not possible.
And it's not because they didn't want to trust me.
The not because they didn't want to. Yeah.
So when when I go back and I review all of the things that we either were trying to say that were newsworthy,
that were information that we had been given, there wasn't a time where that information was wrong.
And each time it came up, we tried to make it pretty apparent that these were very, very informed opinions slash direct pieces of news.
And not one of them. Yeah. Yeah.
And not I never I never I never said anything that I only got from one person.
I wouldn't be and I know and I look it may be different next year.
We may be totally wrong next year, but this year I keep seeing people on Twitter and the Reddits and God love them say things like called it.
Told you this was going to happen. Called it told you it's going to happen.
Well, I mean, we sort of broke this news in March.
We can sort of explain this to you. So I'm glad that you called it.
The other thing that was interesting to me was over the past week, Ashley's interview with that Knoxville paper,
which kept kept saying the same things that Barry had been saying for so long.
And the thing that we sort of kept hearing as well over and over and over a tour doesn't just happen with one offs.
And it's so expensive for one off to happen.
A whole tour has got to be built. A whole show has got to be designed.
A set has to be built. People have to be paid.
It cannot. And just one off festivals.
That is going to be an expensive, expensive endeavor.
And, you know, nobody got that money right now.
So a one off festival is just not going to not going to happen if there wasn't a tour to support it.
And I thought that was such a great point that you made damn near eight weeks ago.
Yeah, no, it was. That's what that's what people were telling me is that there's so many moving parts.
And, you know, the fact that add in nobody wants to be the one to make somebody sick.
Nobody wants to make their family sick. So, no, it was just so evident.
And it troubles me a little bit that there's still a few events out there that are fighting this, if you will.
You like Trump rallies, Trump rallies, NASCAR and college football and pro athletes.
I it's it's confusing. I know there's money. I know there's massive amounts of money involved.
I can't speak as an expert on what people in college football and sports are going to do,
because I just don't have the people I can call and ask.
But it to me, this sounds insane. This NBA thing.
The baseball is the dumbest set of rules I've ever heard in my life.
I mean, you're not going to buy a 90 dollar silhouette head of Brad to sit in whatever your favorite.
I don't know. Nor am I. No. Nor am I going to watch a sport that is only playing a third of the season
and is changing the overtime rules basically on a whim as games are played.
That's stupid. The college football thing is just getting worse.
You've got LSU players getting tested positive.
You've got the NFL thinking they're going to start in 75 days.
That is I just can't. It's not going to happen.
I keep going through this idea of if one person who's young and healthy gets sick and it infects an entire team.
What does a team do? They just.
All right. So so play it out. What if the entire team gets sick as has happened down in Texas? Right.
And they pull out of the league. You're going to you're going to make up new rules.
Now, instead of eight teams, we got seven. Right.
And what is the end goal? What is the end goal?
And Malcolm Jenkins, who plays for the Eagles, said it perfectly the other day after Zeke Elliott was, you know,
diagnosed with covid. He said football and sports are not an essential business.
You want me to put my life on the line and my family's life on the line and so many other my friends.
What for what? This is not so glad you asked that I actually posted on my favorite college football team.
I said, let me ask it this way. What as a parent, you're asking my kid to go out there and play so you can watch football.
And I got all kinds of blowback.
You know, he's doing it so he can get drafted by the NFL. Really? OK.
Yeah, there ain't no NFL that's drafting right now.
I get it. I mean, it sucks for everyone. I get that.
It's not fair. I get that he's worked his rear end off to get to this point that that wasn't the question.
Basically, you're doing it so that TV can, you know, you can get the TV revenue and that, you know,
Brad and Taco and I can watch football. That's right. That's right.
Otherwise, it's, you know, and then so, yeah, same with I mean, NASCAR.
I can't. I don't even know how I feel about that. I'm not a NASCAR fan, so I don't you know,
I'm coming at it from a bad attitude already.
But just because you've got eight point two billion dollars wrapped up in TV doesn't mean they have to race.
You know, right. Well, there it is true. And the sports, the sports is one thing.
You know, I keep hearing from a lot of people who are fighting this this thing and just desiring it to go away.
And because they want it to go away, it must be gone. Correct.
There is something to be said that we cannot function as a country without the economy to move.
And the economy has to move in certain ways.
And, you know, businesses are shutting doors across the country. When does it when does it stop?
When when do we actually try and make this economy work? And how do you even do it now?
Granted, I don't know those answers. I'm not I'm not smart enough to figure that out.
But what I do know is there's absolutely zero leadership from the top.
And nobody seems to know what in the hell to do.
You know, Florida and Texas rolling back the bars and the restaurants after going literally crazy
and having Sean Hannity, you know, give them a standing ovation a month ago,
as if they were doing something so monumentally brilliant.
Yeah, which is which which I think is why it's important.
What's happened? I know what's happened in the last two months is that the second that somebody gets sick,
it shuts everything down. And imagine if somebody gets sick in the middle of an NFL season
or in the middle of this basketball season, all of a sudden, one team's totally gone.
Another team can't play that team. And then the whole thing's done.
You're not going to get a full season. Which is why it's just coincidental, I guess.
But I mean, the thing the things that I have covered written about whatever are restaurants and entertainment.
And they're so connected. And to me, they're so connected to everything else.
We need to eat. We need to be entertained. We want to eat. We want to be entertained.
But in doing so, we're asking other people, you know, to put themselves at risk. Right.
Which is what we're talking about. So I think you and I were on the phone the other day.
Things like Bonnaroo, they don't have TV money, so they don't have that.
But their entire industry is shut down. I mean, I don't think people understand.
It's not just that Brad and Barry and Taco don't get to go see Miley Cyrus, you know, which, by the way, the more I study.
I was literally about to say when you put it that way. I know. I'm not kidding. The more I study it, I really want to see that.
But it's not just that. It's entire families, you know, are out of work. I get that. But it's for a reason.
I can't tell you how devastated the people that I've talked to in the industry are about. They're people out of jobs.
You know, it's not because they don't want to have Bonnaroo in September. They desperately want to.
Think about the impact of Manchester. I mean, they kind of rely on that.
Well, that's, you know, yearly. Yeah, we should bring that up because, you know, the rumors were out there.
Taco, I think you were hearing it that they were going to do something. They might still do something, right?
Because that city needs it so badly. I mean, you're talking millions and millions of dollars that come in and 10 days now gone, at least for this year.
Yeah. But again, back to what I was saying, you can't force it just because you want it.
And I said this to you. I said this to you three weeks ago that I absolutely know that Live Nation is trying to set up events in and around the southeast for five to 10,000 people, mostly outdoors.
I just can't say where it's going to be, but read between the lines here. They are going to try and put together something to salvage some money.
And if they can find the right artists to take this risk and if they can put together enough safety protocols, then they're going to try and recoup something for the end of the year.
Yeah. We're doing in New Orleans, there is a C3 is putting on a drive in concert.
They're doing Tank and the Bangas one week, Galactic the next week, and then Revivalist the third week. I don't know how tickets are selling.
They went on sale last week. I've got to imagine that some of these things are going to pop up from time to time.
I'll be totally honest with you. I don't think they're going to work. I know that some artists are better for this than others.
But the last drive in show that I saw, they've had people dancing on top of their cars.
They don't last very long in their car when the music starts going. They're up and down to the bathroom, on and on and on.
It's a powder keg ready to blow. And the last thing Insert Community wants is to look like another Ozark pool party.
You're right. But the other thing is I think they're doing it not because the revenue.
They think they're going to see from it so much as the optics and the we got to do something and let's do something and then learn from it type of thing.
One of the things that we've heard is that the farm will host a couple of small shows, 5000 and under.
I think I told you that and your immediate reaction was why that makes no sense where they make any sense, where they're going to draw people from.
But I think it's more to taco's point. It's probably a little bit of throw Manchester a bone. It's a huge farm.
Obviously, they can have lots of people there. 5000 doesn't even feel like, you know, a gathering.
So they can do it. They'll learn from it. I say that because our own songbirds here is doing similar.
Not all of them are working very can I ask you something? You're making money. Can I can I back up for a second to our conversation with exit in and and
to the song boards point. Does Chattanooga in Tennessee, except especially not have some sort of live music band.
Are you is it OK that you can do 200 people in a space with live music? The governor had shut down bars and restaurants and all that.
But then he opened up sort of outdoors. And so what they've been doing is sort of patio shows because they have that station street.
If you remember, it's so they can have a guy out on a patio playing as people walk by. It's not necessarily a gathering.
Now, they've been moving inside because that's opened up a little bit.
But I've got it. So that's not banned in Tennessee. No.
Indoor shows are not banned in Tennessee. No. OK.
So nothing is so there's there. I don't we haven't checked in with Chris since all this has happened.
He hasn't had any. Yeah, I was about to say he hasn't had any.
And honestly, the I mean, I think I'm saying this right. And if I'm wrong, apologies to songbirds. But it's more or less they want to set them up outside.
And if the weather forces, they go inside. Now, they did have any sunshine, which, by the way, did very well for us.
People watch that. I was a good show. I'm glad we did it.
But she was there last Friday downstairs in the larger room and it did it did well. But it was, you know, is 25 percent capacity or less.
So they're not making any money. So back to the this idea of, you know, putting things on C3, Live Nation, whatever.
I mean, they got to do something. I can't I get it. If I were them, it's just so hard.
How do you sit back and do nothing? Well, because because there's nothing to do.
I like I can't. I mean, this is where I just going to argue with you.
I don't know what the point is to do something just for the sake of doing it is a is putting the health at risk of people is people putting people's risk at health.
And until and look, they're just not. Falchi said it the other day. There's no contact tracing that's working.
There's no real method to finding out if someone is is sick or not before that they are.
There's no way to actually figure any of this out.
So until then, you're putting people's health at risk by doing something that you just want to do.
It goes back to it goes back to I'm just going to will my way out of this, and that's not going to work.
No, I agree. I keep going back. I mean, it's to me, it's the, you know, peeing and non peeing section of a pool.
One of Rick Honeycutt, who's a pitching coach from here, he equated it to taking your child to daycare with a temperature, you know, just because you want to go to work or need to have the day.
You're putting every every other kid in that daycare and their families at risk.
The difference is, in that case, you know, you know, and what you're talking about and what I've been talking about is people for whatever reason want to just ignore it.
And I know what you're saying. I agree.
I'm becoming a little more understanding, if that's the right word, of the people who say we got to do something because there are so many of them.
And I'm talking to him over and over, but it doesn't make it right.
And the point in this and the reason it's important for us is this is why Bonnaroo canceled exactly what you're saying.
This is why they canceled. It would have been easy for them to say we've got to do something.
Not easy. But they don't have the staff.
You know what I mean? Well, that is a good point.
Let's let's bring that up because I want to get to something real quick. But, you know, any festival is it takes time for them to initiate some sort of plan one way or the other for Bonnaroo.
Yes, Live Nation owns it. And yes, Live Nation operates most of it.
They punt a lot of it to AC Entertainment and AC Entertainment, whether or not it's a very small staff, it's a very small operation.
The fact that they and by the way, they do a lot of shit.
They're not just running Bonnaroo, man.
They run a ton of venues and a ton of of of experiences and a ton of festivals.
So they're a busy group of people and it's a very small staff.
So I cut them a lot of breaks when it comes to timing on stuff.
And, you know, I was pretty irritated that that we hadn't heard anything about anything in the Black Lives Matter protests or the weekend of Bonnaroo, mainly the weekend of Bonnaroo, because you had so long to prepare for it.
And you just didn't you came up with nothing.
So but I give them a lot of slack. Not only do they have a small staff, but half of them are furloughed.
You know, you're not getting a lot of their what is there four or five people in that office at one time if they're even going to the office anymore.
It's about now. Yeah, you know, you know how many are left now.
I don't even want to know. Eight.
You know, man, that stuff.
And so, yeah, anybody wants to give, you know, AC or Bonnaroo a hard time.
They ain't golden voice and they're not Live Nation as much as you think they are.
That's what I'm saying. And Live Nation is cut, too.
I mean, in there, the 800 pound gorilla.
I mean, they all are.
That's the point I've been trying to make to people is it's not like you flip a switch.
You know, think about how many people it takes to make that festival work.
All right. Right. Real quick back to the thing about doing stuff on the farm. I've got a couple of problems here. One, it's the same thing that I don't think drive in shows are going to work because that's just not how you experience a show.
And the artists that would work are going to be artists like train where you can sit and stare at it and you don't really have to engage your body or it's like, this is fine.
And but the show, if you try to explain to me, we're going to do a show and it's going to be in Manchester for 5000 people and it's going to be outside.
I would say, why in the hell would I drive to Manchester if I'm living in Nashville?
Why in the world would they not just put it in an amphitheater that holds 10,000 people?
They've got all the space in the world, not Nashville to do this.
And into tacos point, it's got to be only just to help the city of Manchester, but I don't see anyone showing up for that.
Why in the world would you drive to Manchester, Tennessee, only to sit outside and see a band for a day that makes no sense?
Well, and I'll ask you because you're more in that world than I am. Is it about ticket sales or is it about optics and sponsors?
I got to give my sponsor something to hang on to them.
You know what I mean? I got to do something. I've got to present an event.
Their sponsor money out there. If I don't give them something this year that pays my salary.
You know what I mean?
My bet is my bet is the sponsor money is already gone.
There's no getting it back.
It's already paid in my salary. That's what I'm asking, I guess, is, yeah, they've already given me.
I mean, what is that first quarter or second quarter? Right.
Look, look, let's let's just use T-Mobile as an example of T-Mobile is a sponsor of Bonnaroo.
My bet is that they haven't paid anything yet to begin with.
And whatever they did pay, they got a refund on because the executable hasn't happened.
And I don't foresee somebody like the sales force of AC Entertainment or Live Nation calling up T-Mobile is like, all right, so I've got this idea.
We're going to do a small show for five thousand people. Will you give us twenty grand?
What do you think? I don't know what the numbers are, but I disagree because I think I'm seeing that happening in some other events.
There's a couple here that are that are happening, and I'm sure it's about sponsor money.
I'm certain that it's about keeping sponsor money.
River Band, Riverfront Nights, Jay Fest.
Right. OK, OK. They're scheduled to happen.
That's fine. OK, but but my bet is it's with a brand who I'm not going to get.
I don't want to get into like what is good brand management and not.
But if you're calling up Brad's Mattress Store and think and trying to convince me that insert event is a good place for me to put my money, I'm going to laugh you out of the house or laugh you out of the room.
You are. I'm not going to.
You are. You might. But if you're a loyal guy and you know, you got to do something, it's better than nothing. It would be my argument.
Otherwise, I'm giving you nothing. I'm giving you zero.
Yeah, I just don't know what the brand value is to be attached to anything right now, especially if you are a brand that is a sieve of money.
Yeah, I don't know. I just I would want my money back. I want if I've given anything, I want my money back.
And if you're willing to put on something just for the sake of putting on something, it's probably going to be half ass to begin with.
And I don't want my brand attached to a half ass product. So I don't know.
I just don't know. But I go back to there are just as you said, there are people who don't believe this is real and are all about.
I want it to be over there for it's over. So like minded people.
I don't I think that's a presumption. But I think that's I think that's I think it's more that than we think we can make money off of five thousand people buying a ticket.
Yeah.
And I agree at all. I mean, you know, who are the artists that are going to do this?
I mean, you're not going to go see you, too, with five thousand people.
I promise you that. Right. By the way, just as a side, by as a side, did did did we ever for sure hear the number that McCartney got a boner?
Did do we ever actually hear for sure the number? Oh, I want to say I did, but I can't pull it out.
It was OK. Well, I heard it and I don't I don't remember ever hearing the number.
So when somebody actually confirmed it to me last week, I was like, I don't think I knew that two point five.
Two point five. He got four for Coachella, two point five for Bonnaroo.
With every penny I watched it in the every penny.
Unbelievable. Anyway, so yeah, so there are there.
That's the other thing. I mean, that's sort of the reason why I brought it up.
You think you're getting a band that's going to be I mean, somebody.
Well, what was the oh, like White Reaper right now? I mean, that's a that's a fifty thousand dollar band or, you know, local natives.
It's a sixty thousand dollar band.
You think local natives could even sell five thousand tickets in a farm in Manchester?
Not happening. And you think that you're going to spend sixty grand and then one hundred.
I mean, it's going to cost you a buck twenty five to put this show on just to even put it on.
And five thousand people times how much money how many tickets?
It's not going to work. The money doesn't work.
And that's that's where the reality comes in is they're still going to ask.
They're not coming down 25 percent or 75 percent, you know, because they still have costs.
Yeah, there are some I mean, there are some acts that have that perceived value that bump it up.
But then there's the real cost. Yeah.
And 25 percent basically is the real cost for them to even go out on the road.
And that's why that's why I think that you're going to see if you see anything,
you're going to see shows like what they're doing, C3 is doing in New Orleans where it's Tank of the Bang is Galactic and Revivalist at a drive in theater.
I think that's what's going to happen. It's a local band.
It's going to open up regionally.
We're going to see a lot of acoustic shows. We're going to see a lot of, you know, lead singer with a guitar shows.
You're not going to see Pyro and all that stuff.
If you want if you want to make something happen, if I may see or if I'm live nation, I would do, you know,
ten country stars on the farm in Manchester and sell seventy five hundred ten thousand tickets.
Let's look at it this way. Country fans come out and see six to seven artists.
Let's look at it this way. I mean, glass half full kind of thing. I don't have a problem with that.
I'd love to see some really talented singer songwriters.
I don't need to see lights and all that stuff.
You know, it's an it's an opportunity for the industry to reinvent itself.
And that I mean, I'm reaching I'm seriously reaching for silver linings.
But I can see that being a good thing because the talented acts will win out.
Well, if you find you find six to seven local Nashville country stars and then you put them on the farm at Manchester.
And, you know, your overall budget's one twenty five and you've got ten thousand people there and they bought, you know, a seventy five dollar hundred dollar ticket.
You know, that could work. That could probably work.
And then you could probably go up there with Taco. You'd go.
We'd go. We're close enough. I don't know about.
I actually thought about that. I would not go in September.
But it would be a small honor.
But to your point, it would have to be local Nashville based artists.
It would have to be somebody who's willing to not be on the road and something they can just pop in and do real quick.
Yeah, because nobody's on tour. So they're not going to drive straight to Manchester for one show.
Yeah. And the other thing to the great point, Taco, by the way, most of the bands probably live 15 other places like KGL lives in Nashville.
Half of the band, half the band is not. Matt Schultz does. The rest of the band is not.
I was getting ready to say that our Nightfall concert series has been doing it virtually for the last four weeks.
And when she reached out to the scheduled lineup, that was a problem.
You know, we we assume they all live in the same house or something or down the street. And yeah, they're all over the place.
And we all what if us three live in the same place?
Same house. Fair point. You know, you say, hey, let's do let's do Nightfall together.
Well, no. Brad lives in New Orleans and, you know, no.
And so that's the reality. It's it's and that's it's so is the roadie, you know, so is the lighting guy.
And I mean, I'm not sure if you're going to be able to see that in some other part of the country.
So these are the kind of things we're trying to talk about.
Nashville is one of the one cities where that could work because there's so much of the industry, you know, parked right down.
So then probably most definitely.
So so the next thing we get to get to is what happens for next year and what does the lineup look like next year?
I mean, I guess I guess there were so many that were surprised that Bonnaroo didn't come out with some sort of plan for twenty twenty one.
Again, I'm I wasn't surprised to the point that I was making earlier.
They don't have anyone there.
So I don't know what kind of like major plan you think they're going to come up with with, you know, one fourth of their staff sitting in the room.
This is going to take a long time for them to sort of sort out and shake out and just let me ask you this already is plausible.
I'm sorry to interrupt. But the so the entire industry shut down.
Right. So I maybe that lineup already had twenty twenty one booked, but I'm bet I'm guessing they know.
No, he didn't. And so that's what I was. I was shift it.
They are. So that's that's what I heard last week was there.
Ninety percent of most everything that you see is going to carry over into twenty twenty one.
And that goes for Coachella, Lollapalooza, most tours, Bonnaroo.
I was told 90 percent is probably a pretty safe number to bet on there.
The thing that that popped in my head, though, is something that Stephen Bryan said to us in the in the lineup show.
They were already getting confirmations for twenty twenty one.
There is a certain specific female pop star that they are trying to go for for twenty twenty one.
And that will have a new album out.
And they are this close to it, at least back in in February when the lineup was announced.
So how does that change the lineup for next year?
It's those things that I think that were asking.
Yeah, I'm really because because back to the point that Stephen Bryan made is that when they put into the to the to the deal,
they've already put in the deal, the time and the stage and the place on the poster.
It's part of the contract, especially for the top third of the lineup.
So how in the world do you fit?
Gaty Lala into the somewhere up there and never heard of her.
Yeah, I've met that on to a on to a on to a stage.
How do you do that? You make it work.
You make it work. And then you come back.
You come back in January and say, man, last year sucked.
But yeah, but it's going to cost you an extra bill.
It's going to cost you an extra bill.
And you got that just sitting around in the coffers.
Well, you're going to have to make it.
You're going to have to make some cuts.
And that's where this is going to get really weird.
I can't wait to find out how this how this how Stephen
Brian's job changes from now until December, January, February,
when they've got to come up with a lineup.
Some of it's carried over.
Some of it are commitments from the year before.
And they're just going to make something work with with probably a cut budget.
Well, this is where.
You and I have talked to you and I taco.
Do we just shut this down or do we dig deeper into those kind of questions?
My personal hope is that we are we the What Podcast are somehow able to dig deeper into that because I'm interested.
How we make it work, I don't know.
I mean, can we make it work?
I don't know. But I'm interested in this type of topic right here.
And if we can get these guys to talk to us, I don't want us to come on every week and just speculate.
That's nothing. But if if we can find people who will speak to us about the process,
because this has never happened, so nobody knows.
I mean, these are great questions and I'm glad to see that there there's there's a secret, Barry.
It's somebody who's willing to come on and talk to us about this and say something beyond.
We don't really know yet.
They will at some point, though, is my point, I guess.
Yeah, we've done the we've done the predictions.
We've talked about it. You know, I'm about getting into the realities of it at this point.
I mean, there's still some other cool things to brag on.
Ross, he put together the phone call thing.
I thought that is so cool.
We're going to we need to give that number out here again where we have people call in.
And let me let me and why you do that.
Let's go through the patrons that we were supposed to do 35 minutes ago.
I change. You read them.
Yeah, go through some of them.
I want to read them. Thanks again.
The phone number out. Yeah. Yeah.
And then we'll do that because I just love it.
But I am serious to to to figure out how we go forward, because I think there's a lot to talk about.
But thanks to our patrons, Aaron Carlson, Bill, David Grimes, Frank Swanson,
Liesl Condor, Phil Hanley, Timothy Proctor, Chloe Hannon, Dan Sweeney, Dustin Garig,
Haley, Mary T, Melanie, Melanie, every time I do that, Melanie and J.C. Feldman, Mitchell Stafford,
musical antlers, Parker Reed.
Parker was one of our phone callers. Hey, Parker, Skyler, Tori, Chelsea Davis, Evan Brown, Gordon Silver,
Jason Hazel Baker, Joshua Herndon, Lauren Edholm, Linda Doles, Lucy Young, Nick Yeatman, Ross McNamara,
Ryan Mathewson, Sean McCarthy, Tyrone Basquette, William Richards, Clay Wilhoyt, Andrew T. McBride,
Catherine Riccio, David Solano, Jacob Marty, Justin Nigro, Meredith, Ritman, Brooke Tussie,
Daniel and Sharla Horton at the Roo Bus. Yeah, Taco, that was a great show, by the way.
Yeah, I wanted to talk with them. Yeah, we're just getting that.
David Henson, Ella, Phil Nye, Sean McMain, McCain, Benjamin Wells, Karen Sheets, Stephanie Romero,
and DK. Yeah, that was a great show. You guys did.
Yeah. So tell me about that. I have not listened to it yet. But what how did it come about?
What happened to that whole thing?
All right. Well, first, let me mention the phone number. I'll put it on the screen if you're watching on YouTube.
If not, it's write this down. It's 423-667-7877. And it's just a voicemail box that you can call and tell us,
you know, your Bonnaroo memories, your Bonnaroo wishes. You can confess something. It's anonymous if you want to be.
And yeah, we've we've gotten a lot of great messages and we've played some on the show.
So we'll probably keep putting those out there. Do you know what's really irritating about this phone number?
It spells 423-667-RUS. You pick you picked up on that. Yes, it does.
Nice. My mom years ago, she when I was a kid, I had my own phone number when I was in my room.
And that was the big thing. And in my when I was growing up, the guys that had their own phone number, that was a big deal.
Right. And then you got the pager. That was another big one in high school.
So when you got your own room's phone number, my mom set it up so that my phone number was 7 7 4 Dave because I love Dave Letterman.
Oh, not Dave. Yeah. 677-RUS. 677-RUS. Yeah. All right.
The phone number is great. I hope people will call and leave us a message in a memory because that's a lot of fun.
It's really cool. There was one that was really hilarious. Oh, my God. I meant to. Oh, that's right.
There is a story that the guy said you put it the first one that we put up. I did hear that one, which tell me that story again.
Yeah. Yes. Flaming Lips was 2010. Right.
And he said, right. Is there covering money by Pink Floyd? He said he saw a guy pull out a crisp hundred dollar bill from his wallet lighted on fire.
And he's just said his mind just exploded. Seemed like a really good idea. Yeah. At the time.
Yeah. So I've got to. So weirdly enough, that is so odd because you know what I was doing at that exact moment, because I'll never forget the song that they were playing.
We were letting a hundred dollar bill on fire. I was not. But I was sitting on the stage for that show.
And I mean, maybe five feet to my left was McLovin.
And who was McLovin hanging out with? Kings of Leon. And they were chugging whiskey from a plastic bottle.
And within, I mean, they started chugging at the show. And right when that song hit, McLovin went right over the back of the stage and threw up.
He went right back as soon as that song. And this is really am I high?
I was so confused. What was happening in my world? That was the that was the put me over the top show.
That was the first two years I was by myself and it was just hot and I was alone and I was kind of digging it, but not really.
But I had gone back to my tent prior to that and I could see the camp was in that different space.
Yeah. And I remember hearing the music start and I looked over and saw the big ball, you know, Wayne Cohen coming out and I was like, what the hell is that?
Crawled out of my tent and went back over and thought, OK, now I kind of now I kind of got my Bonnaroo moment.
So by the way, get it now. The space that Barry's talking about years ago, the backstage camping area used to be so different.
They used to put it right. They used to put us right behind the what stage and then anybody that came in after that was overflow.
They put you directly where the Cali wall is. So you see the I don't know that one. Where's the Cali?
Oh, I heard of that. Yes, the Cali. Is that like the Calliope?
No, I've never heard of Caliope. And I know there there's a wall there.
And then right on the backside of that wall was where they put like overflow media slash slash guest parking.
And it sucked. It was one tree. The worst was one tree that was as big as my hand.
Yeah, everybody fought for it. And then that was it. It was. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, there was there was and that was when I started saying these amenities have got to get better. Yeah, me too.
All right. So the I love that story. That guy was good.
And then after that was the the Roobus show. So I think what's that like?
Tell me about it. That was a lot of fun and big thanks to Lindsey Huffines.
He's part of the Roo Fitness people. I think he's the main one. It was his property.
So it was kind of his you know, he gave the green light for all of us to go out there and set up camp.
And he had a basically a trailer that the stage was. And, you know, he had some campsites and a creek behind it.
So, you know, big thanks to him for for hosting that.
But, you know, we it was maybe 50 people that he was they were trying to keep it really small.
So, you know, the space feel cramped at any point when you with 50 people.
No, I mean, there was plenty of space for there was way more than enough space.
He's got maybe seven or eight acres out there. And OK, you know, we were all pretty spread out camping wise and, you know, had plenty of room for that.
So, yeah, Roobus was there. They brought down Seeds, a band from Huntsville to play and they had a DJ.
So, you know, we got kind of it was kind of a live music experience and then a DJ kind of was like the experience.
Was it just one night or is it two? It was two nights.
Oh, no. OK. All right. Yeah. The first night there was a guy that just the singer songwriter guy with a guitar that played.
I can't remember his name, but he was good, too.
And all these people were just, you know, begging to play for anybody. OK.
And we were pretty much I mean, you could have put a guy, you know, playing the triangle on stage and we would have been like, yes, you know.
But it was a really neat experience. And, you know, I swear, if at night when it was dark, you're looking around at all these people,
they're all dressed up in Bonnaroo attire. They're all high five and they're saying happy room.
I could have been convinced that I was at Bonnaroo this year.
Just it just had that feeling. You know, Moonshine will do that.
Moonshine convince you if you're anywhere. But yeah.
But I am David from New York. Makes me a good dancer, too.
Yeah, I'm a great dancer. Yeah. Good kisser, too.
Prove it. Bring the moonshine.
Bring the moonshine. Yeah. Yeah.
David Bruce, the I am Bonnaroo film photographer.
He drove down from New York. That's where he lives.
Is he the one that tags us in all those photos all the time?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's good. He's really great.
And when he introduced himself, I didn't know he was because I'd never seen him before.
And he had to tell me, oh, yeah, I do the I am Bonnaroo project. Oh, good.
Oh, OK. You're that guy. So he was there taking pictures.
You can go on his Instagram feed and look at those.
Yeah, he came down.
Our friend Kyle, the Bonaroovian was there.
Of course, he lives in Murfreesboro, so it wasn't a tough year for Kyle,
who moves to Manchester a mile away from Bonnaroo and then Bonnaroo doesn't happen.
Oh, man. Maybe maybe he's the jinx.
Maybe Kyle is the jinx. Maybe moving to Manchester.
Yeah, that's heavy.
I want Kyle.
But it was like just, you know, just a slice of Bonnaroo.
You had, you know, the music, the food. There was a guy selling barbecue.
I brought my own food because I didn't know what, you know, what the situation was like.
But nobody was slinging pies. No pies.
Just one guy. No creme musties. No creme musties.
No, I mean, you know, there was a lot missing, but for what it was, it was pretty good.
And yeah, so we did a just kind of an impromptu show.
I don't think we were planning on it.
Daniel recorded on his iPad and then promptly lost the audio.
So they're done that. Yeah. Yeah.
We've learned from those mistakes. But so, you know, I had some cameras rolling.
So I pulled the audio from that and, you know, it sounds OK.
It's not the best production wise. It's not the best episode.
But for something, we just were like, hey, we're all sitting here, you know,
talking about or let's just record as we'll do one as well doing so.
I thought, yeah, that's that's how this show started.
It was me and Barry every lunch was like we were talking about Banner every time we lunch.
Yeah, we just recorded and start talking something else every time.
Yeah, that's awesome. And it's available now.
What podcast dot com? Yeah.
So do we have we have anything else we want to get to?
Do we have anything else on the list before we I do?
And it's crazy. And I told you, but I think I still want to try.
I just want to try.
So I was yesterday watching the McCartney show
and I stumbled across the old Edwin Sharp show.
I don't remember the year, but they went out when sharp.
What did I say?
Edward is it Edwin McCain's brother?
Edward Sharp, Edward Sharp and my heroes. Yes.
I don't know why I do that.
I swear that was on the Calliope stage.
Yeah, Calliope stage.
But that's how you say the word they brought.
No, it isn't. They brought.
They brought a guy named Hayden up on stage who they had met and he had had a transplant.
And I'm asking anybody out there if you know Hayden or have any contact.
I'd love to talk to him for this show.
So I know that's that's a reach, but I think it'd be fun.
You're going to have to say that again.
That is a tough, tough poll that you just made.
Except either they somebody knows or they don't.
At the end of Home, they were singing Home and they went out into the audience
and had people tell stories and they pulled a guy named Hayden,
who the band had met in a hospital some years prior while he was having a I think a liver transplant.
And they pulled him up on stage.
It was just a really cool moment.
And so I'm asking if anybody listening knows Hayden or how to get in touch with or maybe Hayden's listening.
I don't know. I just think it'd be one of those things that would be fun to do.
Barry wants to cast it and see what he pulls back.
See what happens. See what comes onto the boat.
Call that number, Hayden. We'll talk to you.
I know three, six, six, seven Russ.
That's it. Well, speaking of guests, we'd like to have on.
I would love to get David Bruce on. Oh, absolutely.
He was such a nice guy. And, you know, we were we kind of mentioned it on the podcast last time.
But, you know, it's him and Brian Hensley, I think, is the other kind of big name photographer that shoots Bonnaroo.
And Brian Hensley is good at getting like an entire scene.
But David, he really focuses on the people.
So he will do portraits of people at Bonnaroo.
And that's kind of the whole idea behind the I am Bonnaroo series that he's doing.
Is he part of a media entity or is he just by himself? He's by himself.
OK. And they let him bring their gear.
They let him bring that gear into Bonnaroo without having a media pass.
Oh, I think he gets a media pass.
But, you know, he's he's pretty much just works on his own. So he's not part of a company or anything that does this.
And, you know, he shoots a lot of film, which is interesting because most everything is digital.
But, you know, he's actually there loading the rolls and, you know, he's going to wind them and shoot.
You know, does he have a Volkswagen bus he can use as a black room?
Those dark room things that he's literally making the photos at Bonnaroo.
That'd be kind of a good idea. Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, I don't know if you want to get a blacklight in here.
Yeah. Rubas has stickers. Taco has DNA. Yeah.
But yeah, he was telling us some good stories about, you know, because he's shooting film, he can't just pop in another SD card as quickly as someone else does.
So he's got a limited number of shots.
And he was talking about the things he's had to do to, you know, go over here and switch the film rollout real quick to try to get the shot because, you know, he's he'll shoot artists, he'll shoot bands, you know.
By the way, when when you're we need to have like our own paparazzi just follow us around.
I was like my own personal photographer just following us around documenting the whole weekend.
OK, let's make that happen. Good luck with that. Yeah. OK. Anyway, you know what I'm sitting here thinking, though, is basically it's like we're a month after what would have been or a couple of weeks after.
So we're now back on schedule, if you will, for twenty twenty one.
Yeah. So now we've got to come up with season four now season four.
OK. Yeah, I think we can do it.
All right. Well, save all your your loaded save all your bullets and put it in a gun for season four. Say what you got, because every year I look at that calendar and say 15 shows.
We're going to do this.
We're going to do this. And then we get to twenty three and I'm like, I think we just wasted all of our material.
I think we might get better and better. All right.
Well, let me guys talk to you soon. Anything else before we go?
I can't get anything now. Yeah, I listen to the if you listen to the RooHamm podcast, they did a kind of a fictional wrap up show where they kind of pretended that they actually went and they talk about the shows that they saw.
That's funny. So and they you know, they mentioned us a little bit. That's why I listen.
That's you know, the guys are great. I don't get a Google alert on our names like you guys do.
Apparently, I don't. Yes, you do. And Parker was he's one of the phone callers. So that was cool.
Parker called in and I'm not kidding. I really, really want to see.
Talk about talk about dad not understanding, understanding technology.
He's one of those phone callers. Well, he called the number.
He's one of those phone callers. Yeah. What would you call it?
I would say he's one of those that left a message. Yes. That's what I would say.
He's one of those phone callers, you know, doing those phone calling.
Did the thing with the phone. He dialed the digits. Exactly.
Yeah, they talked about like meeting up with us and, you know, it was it was kind of entertaining.
Did we enjoy it? I don't remember. Did we like it? OK, good. All right, good.
Yeah. Did they bring hams? Did I get to try a ham?
I tried to hams, apparently. I sort of got it. No, I don't think I did. These guys, these guys scream about the hams.
But then I never actually see them with a ham. I feel like it's not it's not real. I feel like it's a made up product.
I've never heard of the ham. I want the ham and I want it proof. And I don't have it.
Have you ever had hams? I've never had one. I've never heard of it until I'm vegetarian. I don't have that.
It's a lot like a PBR. It's not bad. It's a lot like a PBR.
Yeah, I mean, that was part of the plan that we were going to meet up and share some ham.
I will say I will say the thing that I miss the most about not doing Bonnaroo this year was, you know, of course, the shows and camp.
But I really did miss that that beer exchange. That thing was fun. That was really, really fun and miserably hot.
I mean, you couldn't hear half of anything was anybody was saying. But at the same time, it was super, super fun.
I love that little bar that was tucked away in there. I think about that place all the time and how amongst the campsites, you could walk by every single day and not know there's a bar back there.
That's pretty amazing. I love everything about that.
Yeah, I think that I missed the most besides the lineup, which was incredible, was the fact that we were going to meet a lot of these people that we've been talking to.
I know that sounds made up, but I really was looking forward to, you know, face to face with a lot of these people.
And I hope we can manage to carry that over for the next 11 months or whatever.
I agree. And I love that idea. I just don't know how accomplishable that would have been considering what our days look like.
You know, I'd hope to just be like a random run in really. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't. Yeah, that's I was worried about that.
And you don't like people. So that was going to be weird to begin with.
I'm not that anti-social, but no, I really was looking forward to just sort of seeing how that played out because I just think this community is it's unusual.
There's no question. I mean, we're four years into something we thought would last with three months.
I think I think the word is badass. I think the phrase is bad. It's pretty damn cool. Yeah, it's really cool question about it.
And so I was looking forward to seeing a lot of folks. I mean, Daniel and Sharla as Russ, I mean, he's still talking about last week and those, you know, those are those are cool people.
And I really wanted to see him. Yeah, it was that was what made the the speakeasy route so fun is all the people that were there, because that's the same people that we would have hung out with a boner pretty much.
So right. And that that that is sort of a shot in the gut. You know, you talk and talk and talk and talk this thing up and then you look around and you're like, OK, I'm ready to ready to be with my people now and see some people and meet some people.
And then you know, you just get these three dopes. Yeah. And over and over.
We basically got fan fiction from the RooHamm guys, you know, making up stories about what we did because we couldn't actually be there and do it.
Yeah, I really like that idea. That's really it's pretty entertaining. Yeah. I'm going to go listen. All right. I wish I wish I knew what I did.
I mean, I'd love for them to fan fiction and some things that, you know, give me some, you know, memories that I'll let's be honest with you.
That's the other thing we need. The photographer idea is one thing to have a paparazzi follow us and document the thing.
But I need somebody to take some notes and some minutes because I forget most everything that happens.
Well, yeah, we need a stenographer. I need a court stenographer to follow us around at all times.
All right. There you go. So until we get some information or some news about something, I guess that's it for a little while.
Yeah, I don't have any other other news. I mean, you're talking to the same people I am. Yeah, maybe we can get some guests on and I want to.
I want to I want to get David. I want to keep doing this, but I don't want it to feel tired. So we'll we'll we'll figure it out.
And all the stuff, all the patreons and stuff's on the way, we promise. Yeah, I'm really excited about this stuff.
You got that koozie? Hold up the koozie. Shirts are on the way.
So the shirts are super interesting and they're doing a different process than just a regular basic, like boring screen print.
I want them to be like really high quality. So they've they've been a tad delayed.
But it turns out, you know, Bonnaroo didn't happen. So we had some extra time.
We we can I'm going to ask it because somebody out there is going to be thinking, can they buy this stuff?
I mean, obviously, we're sending stuff to patreons, but we got extras for some of the others, right?
Yeah, we talked about setting up a storefront where, you know, I know I have a few of these in my living room.
I got a lot of these stickers. Yeah, you made a couch out of them.
So many of them sleeping on. Yeah, we'll probably do something like that to where you can just buy some merch.
Cool. If you want to probably ought to send something to somebody that calls in on the phony thing.
Dial does the ringy thing, the ringy thing. Yeah. What are the phone callers?
The phone callers. Maybe we'll send you something.
Someone named Edwin will call about a guy named Jamie on the phone call thing. Yeah. Yeah. All right.
There you go. Talk to you then. What podcast is Barry? It's Taco and Brad. Love you.
