The spectre of Bonnaroo is large and real (finally), and on this episode of The What Podcast, Brad and Barry are starting to focus in on the live music festival season, which will be more exciting and intense than ever before. They talk to the winner of their ticket giveaway. Also, Barry and Lord Taco make a trip to a Mini Roo with some serious Roo fans like Daniel and Sharla from the Roo Bus and Kevin and Mitchell from Reddaroo.
Topics: Bonnaroo, Roo Bus, Camp Reddaroo
Guests: Jaclyn Collet, Mitchell Padgett, Kevin Barnes, Daniel Horton, Lindsey Huffhines, Chloe Hannan, Sharla Horton
We are entering the home stretch of this extended waiting period for the most condensed festival calendar of all time. Friends of the What Podcast stopped by today, including a special chat from Mini Roo and our winner for Bonnaroo Tickets. Wrapping up some odds and ends this week, before we enter the home stretch, the Barry Courter, Brad Steiner, the What Podcast begins right now. Welcome to the What Podcast, which bands this year that matter. That's Barry Courter, Brad Steiner, Lord Taco, you know, taking an undisclosed vacation today in his Volkswagen bus. We will keep him in our thoughts and prayers. So today, a quick show today, Barry Courter, because we really hit the home stretch starting next week with a ton of artists lined up as we get into what feels like a festival season that is literally steps away, steps away and going to come fast and furious. Yeah, you'll probably be hitting more of them than I will. But it's gonna be a busy, busy late summer and fall. Well, you make the call for me. So I obviously I've got to do Lollapalooza for for the job. And I've got to do Bonnaroo because it's my favorite week of the year. You make the call for me. The Jazz Fest lineup came out this week. You you're going to go Jazz Fest or ACL Fest? Well, you're going to go Jazz Fest. But there are two weekends. Remember, there's two weekends of both. So if I if I do one weekend at ACL and then the next weekend at Jazz Fest, do you think I can make that work? Yeah, you can. Since Jazz Fest, you're just going to walk out the door. Yeah, it's two blocks from my house. It's not hard, but it does make you like so. The thing that people always tell me about Jazz Fest, there's a couple of things. One, everybody's got their own way of doing Jazz Fest here. Everything about this city's traditions, everything, the things that succeed are the things that have been here forever. The things that people love are the things that they've done forever. So people have their specific Jazz Fest. They have their specific Jazz Fest Saturday ritual. They have their Thursday ritual. They have the certain entrance. They like to walk in at a certain time of the day. Everybody tells me, even though that it is a non-capped event and they just don't stop selling tickets. So you could have one hundred and fifty thousand people. You could have ten thousand people. They all say during the day is when to go. You know, seeing local legends like Nicholas Payton and, you know, the the Hot 8 Brass Band or the Treme Brass Band, they're all during the day and at night is when it gets really, really crazy. You saw the lineup come out. Foo Fighters, our friend, Brittany Howard, is closing out the festival on a second Sunday. Lizzo is on there. Stevie Nicks, who just never seems to play the South. And now she is Barry Courter. She's in Atlanta, too, right? Yeah, she's at the music midtown. No, shaking. I'm sorry. Shaking. So, yeah, it is it is going to be an interesting needle to thread because there's so much going on. And if you go hard, just like a bonnaroo, if you go hard at Jazz Fest, you're going to wear yourself out. It's a 14 day festival and it's in it every single day. Exactly. You'll figure it out. And if I know you, you'll probably be at a restaurant around the corner from where Brittany Howard's playing. So happened to run into her every time I turned around. Didn't go to the show, but you were at a restaurant nearby. Well, here's here's the OK. You know how I am. The problem that I have with Jazz Fest is that they just don't seem to have a backstage area. There's no VIP for there is no VIP for the for rag guy. So it's it's going to be a weird one. I'm going to have to go like a regular person. Back to your question. You'll probably be at ACL. Yeah, if I could, if I could. It really only matters. The backstage accommodations. No, I seriously it doesn't bother me that in a city festival, that kind of stuff matters so less than it usually does it at Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo really matters. It really, really matters to me because I'm asked. You're asking me to do so much. I just can't do it. You know, it's interesting abilities are our Moon River Festival, which I love is the week after Bonnaroo. I've done the VIP thing and it's really not like you just said, it's not that different. There's a few perks, you know, but the experience is the same for everybody. It's you know, you can get a great seat no matter where you are. Yeah, the backstage basically means just a different bathroom, maybe. Yeah. Or a free bottle of water instead of a paid bottle of water. No, I mean, I do. I've said this to people here in town. I actually appreciate the fact that Jazz Fest doesn't do any of that. They just don't have any interest in creating a different world for different people. That's sort of the beauty of New Orleans is that everybody is, we're all the same. We're all on the same level here. Nobody's more important than anybody else. I love that about Jazz Fest. Normally in a festival like Lollapalooza, Lollapalooza though, you know, the only benefit to the world in which we travel in is that, and for those who their eyes are stuck in the back of their head, they're rolling them so hard. The only benefit this thing has is that Lollapalooza is just so massive and it's impossible to get around. And if we're doing actual work, which happens on occasion, we got to get somewhere pretty quickly and there's this amazing golf cart system through the backstage of Lollapalooza that gets you from point A to point B really, really quickly. Other than that, I'm just hanging out with friends too. You know, they just happen to be work people, you know, and they just happen to be carving out some free cocktails. Other than that, there's real, there's real no difference in all that, especially in these boutique festivals, which is where I want to start today, Barry, with the endless amount of festivals that are announcing that I've never heard of. I mean, aside from Voodoo canceling and then Jazz Fest going, there is, there are festivals called the Made in America Festival, Day in Vegas, Rock La Homa. I've never heard of any of these festivals and they are popping up. It feels like every day. Maybe it's me. Even though we've heard time and time again that the festival world feels like it's on shaky ground and who knows if it can continue in a post COVID world. It feels like there's another one every week announcing, dude. Oh, you're exactly right. And some are much, much smaller. We had two just this last weekend here in Chattanooga. One was put on by a local brewery, but it was a three day festival featuring all local bands. It was called a festival. There was another one up 45 minutes from here at an old where they used to have. And when you were saying that, it made me think maybe they're just renaming them. I mean, we've always had things like the Strawberry Festival and we've always the Cornbread Festival, you know, and I'm wondering if some of the ones you're talking about, I know, but Slayer never played the Cornbread Festival, you know, you never got Metallica there, but you know, these things tend to go in cycles for a while. It was barbecue cookoffs, right? I mean, everybody was eat up with barbecue cookoffs and you'd have a band and then it became here, the Beer Festival. So I just think it's people trying to figure out a way to, to make money for their charities or whatever. Well, but you're not wrong. And I remember Rolling Stone or I think it was Rolling Stone did a story probably five years ago, the explosion of festivals. I think most of us, when we think of it, think there's, I don't know, what number would you put a dozen, two dozen? It was actually like 600. Oh no, I was about to say, I mean, there's a, I feel like, I feel like I've, I've heard of a dozen just in the last week. Yeah. And now with their line. So, um, I want to start the show today with something we haven't done in a long time. Today is game show day. It is time to play a brand new game. The game is called Fake or Festival. It's a tour through fact and fiction. Welcome to Fake or Festival. Welcome back to another edition of Fake or Festival. The game today is, is it a fake or is it a festival? Playing today, our contestant Barry Courter from Chattanooga, Tennessee, introduce us to you Barry Courter. Hi everybody. I'm excited to play. What am I playing for? Oh, it's very, very exciting. It's tickets to Bonnaroo 2020. You can win a pair of tickets to Bonnaroo 2020 all the way through the year. It's very, very exciting. I'm going to give you a name of a festival. You tell me if it is a fake or a festival. Are you ready to play Barry from Chattanooga? Let me stretch. I'm ready. I'm ready. Let's go. First time caller, long time listener, first time long time. Here we go. Barry Courter plays Fake or Festival. Head in the clouds. Head in the clouds. Is it a fake festival or a real festival? Head in the clouds is a fake festival. Sorry. Sorry. You're 0 for 1. Number 2. Number 2. Rolling loud. Rolling loud. Fake festival or real festival? Fake. Fake festival. The actual answer is real festival. Rolling loud. Let me introduce you to a loud festival. It's in Miami. The lineup this year, ASAP Rocky, Post Malone, Travis Scott, and of course the little Uzi, Little Babies, Baby Uzi's, and Uzi Babies. Big big party down in Miami. You ready for number 3 Barry Courter? I'm going to have to say no. First right answer you've given so far. I know. Somebody missed two great opportunities. First one I thought was a great idea and the second one was a horrible name. That's right. Forbidden Kingdom. Forbidden Kingdom. Oh my gosh. The Forbidden Kingdom Festival. Real. Forbidden Kingdom Festival is a real festival. It is all base and dubstep. It is June 11th and 12th and again Central Florida and Orlando. The bands that you can see there are Dreamtakers, Hero Bust, Hi I'm Ghost, and Dr. P. Funtcase. Alright. Alright. You're on the board Barry. You're on the board. Alright. Do I win tickets to that festival? We could probably afford those. Number 4. Skitty Diddy. Skitty Diddy. The Skitty Diddy Music Festival. Skitty Diddy Music Festival. Fake. That is a fake festival. You are tied up 2 and 2. Alright. I'm back in the game. Back in the game. We go to number 5. Tree Fort. The Tree Fort Music Festival. Real. Now are you Google searching now? No. Are you Google searching because that is a real festival. You're exactly right. In downtown Boise, Idaho comes Tree Fort Music Festival. The Tree Fort Music lineup. Japanese Breakfast, Lake Street Dive, Built to Spill, Lark and Poe, our buddies from Mdumaktar. It's a pretty good lineup. Tennis is going to be there. It's a pretty good tennis from Nashville, Tennessee. So a pretty good lineup there for the Tree Fort Music Festival. And finally, finally Barry's on the board to seal the deal and win these Bonnaroo 2020 tickets. The final fake festival. The real festival is Destination Dubstep. I'm going to say fake. It is a fake festival. Barry Gordon, big finish. 4-2. Congratulations. You're the big winner today on Fake or Festi- Starting out horribly with Finish Strong. Some of these are just so strange. There's a Merle Fest. There's a Tree Fort. There's the Backwoods. Merle Fest has been around forever. Has it? Yeah. It's not Merle. Of course it's not. No. It's like a blue burl like a dog. No, no, no. It's Merle Travis, I think. Not Merle. Of course. Who doesn't know Merle Travis? You wouldn't. Backyards Bash, Base Canyon. We talked about Day in Vegas. Just like heaven. Like, I've never heard of any of these festivals yet. You know, they are everywhere. I've heard of the Boston Collings. You know, we know the Fireflies, but man, these little boutique festivals are popping up literally everywhere and they're coming with some strong lineups. It makes me really question why I'm not doing this. Why are we not throwing our own festival, Barry? It's Merle Watson, by the way, not Merle Travis. I don't know. But I mean, Head in the Cloud. That's a, that's how is that not a title? You like that? You like that? The other one I had was Electric Fur. I thought that was a pretty good name for a festival. Electric anything. Yeah. This one didn't make the cut Backyard Biddy Bop and the Don't Tell Mom Fest. Those are the ones that didn't make the cut. So no, no, Poopoo Kaka Fest. No, you know, the Pee Pee Poopoo Fest had to be canceled. Just couldn't get those health code violations off our record. So there is something to be said about the, by the way, later on in the show, we've got our winner for Bonnaroo tickets that we'll talk to from Florida, from sunny Florida. She will join us on the show. And then Barry, you want to explain what's going to close out the show later on this afternoon? The Mini Roo, Mini Roo, uh, Taco and I. Is that a festival? Mini Roo? Well, we can call it a festival. Okay. I don't, is there a limit? What's the, what's the number? How many people have to be there for it to be a festival? Five, I guess. Five, five. As long as there's five people, we've got a fest on our hands. There was music, there was DJing, there was a fun had by all. Uh, Taco and I ended up in an undisclosed place over near Manchester. Beautiful place, unbelievably beautiful place, uh, with a whole bunch of, uh, people you might know from Reddit or wherever, you know, with Bonnaroo names, Roo Bus guys were there. Daniel and Sharla were there. Um, it was amazing. We had a great time. And, uh, so explain to me what this is. You guys just hung out in the woods. It's about a 12 and a half acre piece of properties between a stream and a mountain. It's a bunch of Bonnaroo people. Chloe came from Iowa and, uh, Liesl came from Washington. Oh, wow. So this attracted people from around the globe. Well, this is the one, remember if you remembered, uh, I am Bonnaroo. David Bruce went to the first one, drove 16 hours from New Jersey to attend. Right. Yeah. It's a, it's small, but they, boy, they do it right. They put up a stage and, uh, and is it by invite only? Yes. Oh, yeah. It's, it's, it's very, I guess my invite was just long. You're invited, but, but we all agreed you would not enjoy it. You would not have enjoyed it at all. I mean, I would have enjoyed it. You would have, I would have been there for an hour. I would have been there for an hour. Yeah. It's amazing. It's camping, uh, but it's such a beautiful place. Um, I put it this way. I looked at my watch and it was 1130 at night and I looked again and it was five in the morning. So I don't remember how I got from 1130 till five in the morning. Okay. All right. And you, how long did you stay? I slept for a couple hours and then I drove home. Now it was a two night, two night thing and they had bands, uh, local bands, uh, Daniel, uh, and hooked up a couple of folks from, uh, Huntsville area, which is nearby. They came up and played, um, there's a lot of fun. And then we, several of us gathered in the rebus, which was cool to see and did a little podcast. So, oh yeah. Okay. All right. So, so Mitchell and, uh, in, uh, Kevin, Kevin, right from those guys change. Yeah. We had a good time. We had a lot of fun. It was funny. That's, that's awesome. We'll play some of that, uh, to the end of the show. Uh, but before we get into, um, to, to, to circle back on what we were talking about a second ago about, you know, boutique festivals, there's something that we haven't ever talked about on this show in the four years that we've been doing three, four years that we've been doing it. Have you ever noticed the difference between international festival lineups and American festival lineups? And no, not really. What do you mean? They're incredible. They're international ones. Oh my God. There was one and it hit me earlier this week when the mad cool fest announced their lineup. Now this is in Madrid. Just look up mad cool fest, 2021 the mad cool festival, their headliners, Metallica, 21 pilots, imagine dragons, the killers muse faith no more alt J deftone St. Vincent, Carly Rae Jepsen. Now, again, you can, you can complain and bitch and say that, you know, not my kind of festival, but to me that just screams diversity, right? And as long as you keep going through the lineup, there's just, it gets thicker and thicker. All right. Go to hell fest in France, the hell fest festival in France, hell fest open air 2022 will feature this lineup is insane. We have nine inch nails, guns and roses, Metallica, scorpions, faith no more, deftones, avenged, sevenfold, Alice Cooper, on and on and on deep purple. All right, and then the final one that I want to share with you is the crown jewel. I think of every festival I've known people that go and they say it is unworldly beautiful primavera sound. It is the white whale of my festival life. It is the one that I want to be a part of more than any other festival. It's in Barcelona, Spain. Imagine the amount of money that it's going to take to make this thing work. Let's just read the lineup this year, just this year, because I'm not going to bore you with the lineups from last year and the year before and the year before and the year before, but they're always the best lineup you'll find all year. It's over two weekends in Barcelona, pavement, Beck, Tame Impala, gorillas. That's just the first weekend. Massive Attack, the national, the strokes, Nick Cave, Tyler the Creator, second weekend, Beck, Disclosure, Interpol, Jamie XX, Dua Lipa, Gorillas, Interpol, Tyler the Creator, Lord, the strokes, Megan the Stallion, Tame Impala, yeah, yeah, yes. If you can find the primavera sound 2019 lineup, it's even better than that. What is the difference between international festivals and American festivals? Whereas American festivals seem to be rehashing the same lineups over and over and over, yet international lineup seems so much bigger, so much more vast. I couldn't tell you a hundred percent. I'm going to say, I think it's two things. They've done it for a while, so it's very much established. I remember Ashley Capps telling me that he had, he hoped Bonnaroo would be modeled after Glastonbury, which at the time was already 20 years old or so. And I, this is a small version, but there's a band out of Chattanooga here called Glasshammer. Very well known, been around for 30 years. They're one of the great prog rock bands in the world. They live here. Very few people here know about them, but the prog rock people know them. They were invited to a festival and I don't remember where in Europe two years ago, basically a free festival. I think the entire city gates itself off and the entire city becomes the festival for those three days. You know what I mean? They're entirely committed to it. The bands are treated, all of them treated well, they're put up, you know, in great lodgings and treated very well. So I just think it's that commitment to it and it's probably back to your point of it's probably the only one, you know what I mean? There's probably not six the weekend before and six more of the weekend after. Maybe I don't know the inner dynamics of each individual international city and how they, you know, set up their live music calendar. My guess is that's it. They commit to it. And also, I mean, Jazz Fest typically has a pretty great lineup. Every year, if you don't know this yet, then then then let me walk you through. And if you already know this, I apologize in advance. Golden Voice is the equivalent to AC Entertainment. Golden Voice started Coachella. Golden Voice also helped work with Hangout Festival. Golden Voice got bought by AEG, AC Entertainment and C3. C3 ran Lollapalooza and ACL Fest. C3 got bought by Live Nation, AC Entertainment, Bonnaroo. It's that thing they do in Asheville. They got bought by Live Nation. There are two companies, two main live music companies in America. It's AEG or Live Nation. If you go to 90% of the shows that are booked in this country in big rooms are done by either Live Nation or AEG. Now locally, they might have a different name here. It's Winter Circle. But Live Nation or AEG are pretty much running the live music space in this country. I don't think AEG and Live Nation run these festivals in that country, in any other country. Primavera Sound is their own business. The reason why Jazz Fest is so interesting and so like an international festival is because it's booked locally. It's booked locally. They do it with private dollars and donation dollars, by the way, because it's all part of the Jazz and Heritage Foundation. But there's something to be said that the monopoly on all of this, it has watered down the entire product for everybody. Now the benefits of it is that it has expanded everything and it has brought it to so many other communities that didn't normally have it before. But it does make you sort of like turn around and wonder if this is all for the good. These large, large booking companies, you know, you talk to local people that have tiny little rooms or, you know, an 800 cap room or a 1200 cap room and they think that they're being priced out of the market. That they'll put a band on and then have that band snatched by a Live Nation or an AEG because they're willing to spend a thousand more dollars and you just can't compete in this marketplace. It is a, it's got rough ripple effects that go through the entire live music space. I agree. I agree. I think in some ways it's cyclical. It tends to work itself out, maybe not quickly and maybe not to a place. I mean, a place like Chattanooga is never going to get the acts that a New Orleans gets or an Atlanta gets. We don't even get what Knoxville and Nashville get, but Knoxville doesn't get what New Orleans gets a lot of times either. So in that sense, it's bad for a fan, but we'd, 20 years ago, I didn't have an opportunity of a Bonnaroo. Sure. I understand. I mean, somehow it tends to find its own level, I guess. I don't know how much it is talked about that if you are going to a show, unless it is a locally owned and operated venue, you're mostly giving money to Live Nation or AEG. Yeah, that's right. You're going to a show that they had something to do with. And I don't know if I'm in a position whether or not to say if it's a good or bad thing yet. I just don't know. I would say from our point of view, because this is something I've studied and written about many, many times. For years, it hurt a city like us because of relationships with AC Entertainment, which about 10 years ago, or not quite that long, six, seven years ago, started booking. I mean, it was always doing it. Ashley always had booked shows in Chattanooga, but they contracted with Tivoli Foundation here. So our two venues suddenly had a direct connection with AC Entertainment, then C3, then Live Nation. Our pool of artists that they could get grew, got a lot bigger. And as we sold out a C level or a B level show, suddenly the A levels, Brian Wilson, Graham Nash would have not played here eight years ago. Got to see them both. There's massive amounts of benefits to it. But it also just sticks out like a sore thumb to me sometimes when I see festival lineups from around the world. And then I place them next to Forbidden Kingdom, just like Heaven, Rock La Homa, Made in America, Backwoods Bash. And when they all start to look the same, it becomes a little confusing. It becomes a little confusing. I agree. And that's one of those. And I think we touched on it several episodes ago. That's one of those that I really think will work itself out. Because at some point, the fan is going to say, it becomes about the experience, the travel, this lineup versus that lineup, and the money. This is kind of a weird year to compare because we've been locked down for so long. It just seems like everybody's ready to go out. But at some point, we're going to sit back and say, I can only do two, or I can only do three, or I can only do one. Does it become about travel? Does it become about the total experience? Does it become about the lineup? The Foo Fighters seem to be out everywhere. Do you want to see them close to you, or do you want to travel to see them? Well, you know, and to that point, and this is what we always come back to, and I know this sounds so self-serving. This is why I think that Bonnaroo matters. And I know it sounds foreign to people who may not be into Bonnaroo or not necessarily have ever been. But that show is different at Bonnaroo. And I know the Foo Fighters are going to be there. I know they're going to be at Lollapalooza. I know they're going to be at Jazz Fest. I get it. That Bonnaroo show is going to hit different because, you know, Jazz Fest has got a time limit. You got to go. There is a curfew, even in New Orleans. There is a curfew in Chicago that if every minute that they go over, insert time, I think it's 11 o'clock or so, they have to pay like $10,000. That's right. That's right. That's right. And that's what I mean. Then it becomes for the fan, it becomes the extra experience. Not only are you going to see a great Foo Fighters show, you're going to have that experience and you're going to meet cool people. And it's just a, it's the total thing. And that's what I mean. I will say this one story back, and if you don't know this, but yeah, if you go, if you every minute that you go over at Lollapalooza, they charge you like, it might even be 50 grand. I don't know. But one year Eddie Vedder got on stage and they said, they are going to charge us blank the amount of money for every minute that we're going to play. So we're playing for another half an hour or something like that. Well, hate to pull the curtain back. The city of Chicago never charged them for the extra time. You know, it's not like an enforceable rule that they can, you know, all of a sudden start asking for a hundred thousand dollar check. So but you know, it's still there and it's still something they have to, to, to, I mean, there's a reason that most shows are 90 minutes too. And they end before 11 o'clock because after that union fees kick in, in a lot of places. So that's a good point, especially in bigger cities. All right. So here we go. That's a, we've played our game. We've gone through international festivals. Let's talk to our winner for Bonnaroo tickets. Then we'll get into Mini Roo. It's the What Podcast. Barry Courter, Brad Steiner. Thanks for joining us. Brad, your hair looks great. Say hi to Jacqueline. Great. That I'm glad we started there. Jacqueline. Hello. How are you? I'm good. How are you guys doing? Super duper. Where are you? Where are you right now? I'm at my house here in Florida. I live in the panhandle, so. Yeah. I was hoping it wasn't your, I was hoping it was your house and not some sort of like locked in a basement sort of thing, because you look like you might be in some sort of trouble. Well, I don't really have a lot of setup areas for this. So I was like, I'll just sit at my dining room table. I swear I have more things in my house. Okay. Yeah. Show us around. Give us a tour of the place. Sure. Yeah. My dog. I also picked this because I have a mastiff. So he makes a lot of noise. Yeah. As he's going to play on the toy right now. So yeah, that's okay. What's his name? Nuke. Nuke. Like a nuclear bomb. Cause that's what he's like. His parts are pretty bad. But there you go. That's what we say about Barry. I guess we got a nickname for Barry. Bad to relative. Bad to relative. Yeah. This is exciting because you, the reason we're here is because we're going to be doing a show today. So congratulations first and foremost. And it seems to me like you already have a history with Bonnaroo based on your t-shirt selection. Oh, oh yeah. I had to wear a shirt today to celebrate that I won. So thank you. You wore a shirt first and foremost. Secondly, we're glad it's a Bonnaroo shirt. Of course. Yeah. I've been going every year since 2016. Obviously not last year. Nobody went, but I, yeah, love it. I love Bonnaroo. I could talk everybody's year off about it. So Barry, 2016, she showed up the year that was supposed to be the worst year ever. Yeah. Yeah. Did you, did you buy your ticket based on that lineup or did you buy it? And then the lineup came out. I bought it based on the lineup. So who was the, who was the, the draw for you? Surprisingly, it was Jay Cole. I really wanted to see him live. Interesting. Really random. My friend was like, Hey, a bunch of us, cause she lives, she was going to college at the time. And she's like, Hey, a group of us are going to go to Bonnaroo and they're down in Cincinnati, Ohio. So they're like, Oh, it's not that far of a drive. We'll just go. Jay Cole's playing like, if you just want to go. And I was like, all right, cool. And ever since then I got, we, we pitted for Jay Cole and was on the rail for him. And everybody that whole year was talking about how this was the worst year. Like there was hardly anybody there. It wasn't a good lineup. Everybody was crapping on it. And I had the best time. I was like, this is amazing. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. And I was, it was awesome. So Real quick about that 2016 decision that you made for Jay Cole. I remember first and foremost, what'd you think of the show? I thought it was great. Okay. So here's fantastic. Are you, I'm guessing you're a Jay Cole fan. A big one. Yeah. So I don't think it will disappoint me. So, so I remember Barry years and years and years before 2016, where he was finally booked. Like he was that for some reason that white whale for rap fans, right? That was the Bonnaroo. Why have they not booked Jay Cole yet? What about Jay Cole? What about Jay Cole? And now that they booked him, I forgot they booked him. Yeah. I'm betting we could do a entire episode on things like that. You know, like it was such a, everybody was clamoring for Jay Cole because you know, they had had Lamar, Kendrick Lamar, they had had Jay Z. And at this point they're like, well, who's left with Jay Cole's a big name. I totally forgot that he was even on that lineup. I totally forgot that was the thing. Who else did you see that you loved in 2016 that sort of put you over the edge? Trying to think. I had seen two door cinema club, which was like a midday set. That was really interesting for me. Unpopular opinion at the time, the chain smokers were really cool. So I mean, I like to think they are maybe in 2016, right? I saw them, I think Halsey, third eye blind was another one. I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. I'm really sad though. I think came in, Paula was on the lineup in 2016. And so was M 83 LCD sound system. And I'm, I didn't even know who came in. Paula was at the time and I missed out so big and I was like, oh my gosh. But another episode, another episode topic. Yeah. I mean, you didn't know better. I know this is talking about unpopular opinions. I know this is going to sound crazy because I love that new Tame and Paula album so much, but I liked the last one so much better, which is why I'm so glad I saw them on that tour and not this one. I mean, I'm going to see them on this tour, but that at last album was so great for me. And you know how they, they put sets together now. They do it based on album cycles. So you're going to have a Tame and Paula set. I'm betting that is going to be very heavy on this new album, which is great. It's fine. But I really, really, really loved everything around the less I know the better. So if you, if you miss Tame and Paula 2016, it brought you back in 2017 when you, I'm guessing that you didn't care about the lineup in 2017. You were going anyway. Yes, I was a hundred percent. I was like, I'll find someone to see. I don't care. I'm going, I have to. So much so that literally I didn't have a group to camp with until like a couple of days before. So I, we've said it before in the 2016 and what you just said is such a great sort of lead into it. Cause it was your first one. You had nothing to compare it to. Right. So I mean, people like us are talking about, oh, the crowds are down and all that. How would you have even known? Right. For you, it was just a great festival with 45,000 or 48,000 people. And that's the point of that. Our friend, Ken Weinstein made with the never not great, you know, for what did he say? 35% of people, Brad, or is it the other way? You know, you know what? 2016 is going to turn into being, it's going to be like space balls. We're like everybody critically panned it at first, but now everybody loves it. 2016 is the year that I work. I talk about more than any other year. You're right. And it must be because it's been shit on so long, but it's going to be one of those moments. You're like, I saw kid rock when there was 15 people. I like your space balls analogy better. Oh my God. Yeah. What a stupid movie, but man, it's funny. I watch it every time it's on TV. That's a good analogy. Yeah. But, but 2016 just like keeps living in lore because, uh, look, I love it. And, and you're so right, Barry, because nobody, somebody like her, Jacqueline doesn't know what 2015 was. No clue. You don't know they moved this around and that around and you know, silent, moved and I had no idea. Did you notice, did you notice a difference in 2017? Oh, a hundred percent. I was like, great question. I was like, why are there, there's so many people here. This is insane. I remember, I think it might've been one of the years it would have might've rained or something. And I remember everybody just funneling into one area and it just became like a pit of mud and everything like that. And I was like, it wasn't like this last year. There couldn't have been this many people last year. There's no way. Twice. Yeah. That's right. It was look how much we love 2016. All of a sudden look how much we wish it was 2016 again. Can these lineups get shittier? Please. Yeah. That's a great point. That's funny. So who are you excited about this year? If you, by the way, were you gonna, were you gonna, you hadn't bought a ticket, obviously. So were you just going to sit it out? Were you just stuck? I was, I was either going to wait or my friend was trying to convince me. She was like, Hey, I'm getting a pass. Like this is going to be our last festival for the year. If you want to go, like, let's do it. Just like send it as they say. So I was like, well, I'll see if I win a ticket and if not, then I'm going to buy one. I'll pull the trigger and buy one because they're pretty expensive right now. But like on a third party site or something. Yeah. If you're like the Bonnaroo resell, like all the websites. That's right. Yeah. And then with fees and everything, cause I'm one of the people that like, I will be, I think it's what Black Friday. They sell, they start Bonnaroo tickets every year. I'm like always tier one because I'm just like refreshing the page. So you, so along the way, have you found, you said you didn't have a group when you went on 2017, but along the way, have you compiled a good enough group where you feel comfortable just dropping in anywhere in the ticket crowds? Yeah. So my first year I drove down with the group. The second year I flew in and camped with them. The third year I did it. I camped alone in tent only. And then I met people the year that I was alone that I ended up doing group camping with Wieneroo. And now we're all like lifelong friends. So I know if I were in a bind. Barry, do we know anybody at Wieneroo? Not yet. Not yet. On the list. Now it's on the list. Jacqueline, I meant to ask you when we started because I'm fascinated by what, what is your career? So I am in the Air Force now. I work on servers basically. Air Force. I do. Yes. I am enlisted in the United States Air Force. Good for you. Thank you. My old job. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Wow. Congratulations. That's awesome. I'm sorry, but how old are you? You look like you might be 14. I guess that's a compliment. I'll take it. I'm actually 25. Wow. And what do you do in the Air Force again? I work on servers. So cyber, like computer stuff. I got you. So Barry, Barry feels the same way. I'll be honest with you. I promise you, Barry feels the same way. For guys like us, a guy like me who literally just tells fart jokes on the radio, meeting anyone that has a, what seems to be a substantial job is mind blowing to me. Yeah. A commitment. A real job that they're committed to. You mean you have to get up in the morning at a specific time and do what? Oh yeah. Five in the morning, head to PP, work out, then go into work all day. Yeah. Oh yeah. So I literally told my uncle yesterday, we were talking about the military and I said, no, that wouldn't work for me because I would be the first day or the second day at bootcamp. I'd be like, this, this whole hike thing, I got a little chafing going on. I can make it today. Hey, those, that, that's probably going to go well. That direction that you gave me earlier. That's totally necessary. I thought about it. I thought about it. I thought, nah. It's not going to work for me today. It's not going to work for me today. I need about 45 more minutes before I'm ready to go. I'll get my coffee. Yeah. But Barry, I like how you, I like how you specify that it's a military problem. I don't know. I don't know how you would operate in any work environment whatsoever. That's correct. That is correct. That's why we are doing what we are doing, Brett. Yeah. We're good for you. You got to be an expert in some field, right? And this is yours. I guess. How long have you been doing that? I joined last August. So I haven't even hit a year yet. You joined the Air Force last August? I did. Yes. Why? So I was working at Starbucks on a base and I was getting less hours, wasn't getting a steady paycheck. COVID hit really hard. And I was just like, you know what? I want to go to school. Honestly, it was like a steady paycheck and they'll pay for college. So if I really wanted to do it, not trying to recruit anybody here, it just seemed like a golden opportunity because COVID was such an uncertain time that we just took advantage of it. No, I don't. I don't feel like you're recruiting me, but I do want to talk to you about the Mormon Church. I've got some information I'd like to share with you. Some panelists. So you're in IT. You're in IT. So was IT an interest before? To be honest, no, it wasn't on the top of my list. I really wanted Intel, but it was on my sheet of jobs that I could pick. So yeah, my friend got he signed up for the Air Force back years and years ago. And they told him he'd have choices and his choice ended up being MP or MP. What does that mean? Cop. He could become a cop. Yeah. They said you'll have all kinds of choices as long as it's this. Here we'll give you 10 options, but one is only the all 10 are the same. It worked out great for him. So OK, so you you signed up last August and it was primarily for school and to find a field in which is a steady paycheck. That decision not regretting one bit in the last year. It's hard to give up your freedom, I will say, because you are kind of at the hands of the military now. I don't regret it because I've met so many cool people. One of my I was fortunate to meet someone who I had gone to Okeechobee last year and she had gone and we met in the same basic flight like we were together room together. So it's been interesting to get to meet people and the job that I have now whenever I get out, I'll be able to make quite a good living off of it. So what you said, you said it's hard to give up that freedom. How do you break away? Have you figured out a way to break away for a week to go to Tennessee? Oh, yeah, I already put in my time. Oh, good for you. I came in yesterday and I was like, sorry, guys, I'm going to be out for Labor Day weekend. You know, you're not going to see me. So yeah, well, are you planning on doing a Thursday, Friday? Are you trying to get up on Tuesday? Because the way that we have figured this out over the last 15 years is our day, our week just gets longer and longer and longer every year. And then the day that passes now, the sudden we're showing up on Tuesday morning. What? Yeah. So initially I was like, oh, we'll drive up Thursday morning and try to just, you know, set up everything Thursday and then get crazy on Thursday night. Although it is a marathon on sprint, but I think we're going to try. We did Wednesday in 2019. We got up on Wednesday morning and drove in and then sat in traffic for four hours. So I think we are one of the fortunate ones that got in pretty soon. But I think this year we're going to do the same. Maybe I'm not sure. We have to get the troops together and figure out like planning. We haven't done logistics yet. Good for you. I want to go back to the 16 versus 17 thing a little bit because that's fascinating. That's a great question, Brad. How was it different? You know, you said it was bigger, but how else was it? What else was different about those two experiences? For first timers, this is going to be sold out. So it's going to be packed. It's going to be huge. Insane. Right. 2016 it was really cool because the people that were there, it felt like they were there for Bonnaroo. Like it was definitely just like, I'm here because I love Bonnaroo and that you could feel that energy. And not to say 2017 wasn't like that, but you definitely had more people there for like specific people or reasons. But the vibe was still great. Loved it. Yeah. Tons of people still there. I felt like the experiences that they had around the farm were more exciting too because there was a lot more people involved in all of it. I definitely did more exploring in 2017 of like the barns and going out like out in the campgrounds, like everything like that. Barry remind me, did 2017 sell out? Because I look at that 2017 lineup and you can keep it. You can keep it. I'll take 2016 any day over. U2, Chili Peppers, Weekend, Chance the Rapper. That is looking back on it. That was just one long yawn. I loved U2 and I'll never see him again. I'll never have the opportunity to literally look up at Bono's crotch. But it was for the rest of it. Like I keep going through this major laser, Flume, Travis Scott, Martin Garrix, Cade Yeleven's third line on that. Was that Macklemore? Was that the Macklemore Sunday afternoon? No. I can't remember them all. No, but I look back in this and I have no memories of 2017. But I think Jaclyn hit on it. I think because the numbers were down and I think that was the, was that the first year they really sort of shifted towards putting energies into these experiences? Right. I think she nailed it. So that was the big shift there. Yeah, I'm looking, I'm trying to find if there's any show on this poster that that rings a bell to me other than U2. Not really. I don't really, oh, Future Islands. I remember seeing that. That was so, that show might have been 200 degrees. That poor man was sweating into the crowd. It was like a river of water running, sweat running into the crowd. And then so you go back in 2018. At that point you were a vet. Like, you know where you're going, you know how you're doing, but you're doing it alone? Yes. So I did 2018 alone. My friends weren't going. The whole group that I had normally camped with had, they all moved out to the West coast. That wasn't feasible for them at the time. So I was like, well, I already bought my ticket. I'm committed. I'll go by myself. I know it sounds kind of scary when you tell people like, hey, yeah, I'm going to go camp in a field in Tennessee by myself with a bunch of strangers. But that's how most horror movies start. Yeah. Yeah. You know, not a lot of people are really open to that idea, but the people I camped around and tent only were super cool. And then I pitted for, I think, I'm trying to think Paramore was when I met the people that end up camping with the next year. We just had a good time just chilling in the line, all sweating, waiting for the next artist to come on and everything. Just like making friends. So I kind of love about Baderu's like you're all there for a reason, kind of like you're all there to enjoy the music and have a good time. So can't really go wrong. Yeah. 2018. If I'm not mistaken, Barry, it was 2018, our first year of doing this show was 2017, our first year of doing it because. 17. It was 2017. I thought we started in 16 to talk about that lineup, but it must've been 17. Another one when you go back and this exercise of going back and looking at lineups always is provides new things for me to think about, man. I look back at it. 2018. Remember, like loving when it first came out, all I cared about was bony there. That was our first year. That was our first year, Barry. 2018 is our first year doing the show because I remember our second episode. All I wanted to do is talk about bony there. Yeah. And you and Ashley talked about it for quite a Ashley caps. You and Ashley talked about what he was going to do. Still only there do I don't know if I've ever told you the story, but still to this day, one of my favorite bonder moments is that second bony bear show. I love that show so much. The first set was great because they did album from top to bottom. That in and of itself is worth the price of admission, but the second set was such a incredibly beautiful soundscape that he was creating with the super jam. One problem though, I think that I might have fallen asleep standing up because there are parts of the show that I don't remember and walking out of the show. The wife would be like, wow, did you see Moses? So many walk up and do that. That was my favorite part. I was like, when did those? I do remember you. I think I might have taken a nap while I was standing up. Anderson packed that year. He hits the main stage. He, you know, I thought that he was going to do 2017 and a smaller stage, but now we wait till 2018 on our off cycle for the what stage show. That was tremendous. That was your now. Roger Nile Rogers year, Barry 2018 that you were so in love with. That was the year I cried. Yeah, you cried. I cried from lunch to midnight. That's right. Yep. Was that often? I can't find her. I can't find her. But wasn't that Sunday? The was that not Brandy Carlisle on Sunday or is that 2019? That was this last one. Okay. All right. That was 2019. That was a lot of tears too. By the way, in that 2018 lineup way, way, way, way down is a little new girl, brand new Billy Eilish. Oh, I saw her. I saw her in the kid. I did. I knew about her. I'm one of those cool people. I knew about her at the time. Like your like your coffee mug there too, by the way. Oh, thank you. Is it a is it a Brad Stinks coffee mug? Is it a Brad Ross, right? It's a Bob Ross. Yeah. Hair. I think a raw. Sorry. So now you move to this year, you have you have somebody to go with. You have a group. Who are you excited to see? You got anybody on your list yet? In this year. Yeah. I'm really looking forward to the Foo Fighters and came, of course, kind of on the undercard part is Kate McCray. McCray, I think it's like, I really like her music right now. I'm trying to think. I'm going to see Glass Animals, I think, for my third time. What city do you live in, by the way? I live in a called Crestfield. But what's your major town near you? I would say Fort Walton or Pensacola, Pensacola, the Air Force base. So I was I was there. I was there two weekends ago. I was at Pensacola. I did a weekend in Pensacola or actually just a day trip to Pensacola. The reason I ask is because I'm trying to figure out which top 40 station you listen to because somebody likes top 40 music. I knew about Glass. I saw Glass Animals. I'm trying to think when they they were at Bonnaroo one of the previous years. I saw them then and they've kind of blown up over the last year in quarantine. And then I randomly found I love TikTok. I'm all about it. But I saw Kate McCray on there and I like got hooked right away. And then Foo Fighters are just I feel like that's the kind of legacy act this year. I don't want to call them a legacy. I feel like they're not that like old. No, it's true. I'm glad that you know how to talk the language, that's for sure, because, you know, the legacy act, we always anticipate being on Sunday. And again, Barry, we can talk about this till we're blue in the face. Somebody from Bonnaroo will explain. Maybe it's a Steve or a Brian who books this thing. But why a legacy act not on a Sunday night is completely new for them. Putting Tyler, the creator, as the closer of the entire festival feels so completely foreign to me because that's not what they've ever done. One of the things that I want to talk to you about at some point and Jacqueline, I'll ask you too. The more I think about this year, the more I think it feels like it's almost a restart. You know, as long as we've been going, Brad, I don't know what to expect because they've had so long to think about this. I know, but wouldn't just basically Bonnaroo, wouldn't basic Bonnaroo would be just fine for you? I'm going way off the rails here, but you know, because we do this every year. We always worry they screwed it up. You know, we hate it. We're not going to go. They've messed it up and we get there and it's great. So I'm trying not to have that moment. But I just wonder about they've had so much time to think and I don't think they're going to screw it up. I just I'm wondering if because of COVID, because it's been so long, how it's going to be different. And again, I know I just threw a grenade into the into the discussion, but you know what I mean? Feels to me like there's an opportunity for it to be really different. Well, I mean, there is something to be said of when they were planning the live stream show and some of these other festivals are trying to figure out a way to make it through COVID. So putting these live stream shows, these Lollapools, the weekends together, et cetera. I remember somebody telling us that, you know, this is an opportunity for us to like rethink a lot of stuff. I don't think that you're going to see that, you know, because when you do something different, that usually costs money. And, you know, trying to whip up something completely unique is a lot harder than, you know, well, let's use what we have for right now. That's why this this squarch conversation is is actually kind of interesting to me because they have an opportunity to bring back something that they've had before. But they just spent a lot of money renting that big, giant square thing. That's a good example. That's what I mean. Yeah. Why not bring the arch back? Because it's not going to cost you any money. You can overthink things, I guess, is what I'm worried about thinking about. I hope they don't. But again, look, it's already different in that we've got the closer for an entire festival is Tyler the Creator. Now, again, the way that I've always thought about this is like they put the the Legacy Act on Sunday because the camping guys will stick around through all days, all the days of the festival, keep spending money every day and not leave early and they'll stick around till Sunday night. Those guys are not going to be sticking around through Sunday night because, you know, first off, do those guys even exist anymore? Do the people who are so hardcore camping, they're going to be there anyway. Probably I'm trying to figure out the calculation of putting their weakest headliner on Sunday and not on where we normally see the weakest headliners on Saturday. I don't know. I haven't given it that much thought yet, but it shows for Barry doesn't really matter. Call me back later. We'll talk about it. But the other thing that I wanted to say, as soon as Jacqueline got on, I mean, Brad, you and I focus on Camp Nut Butter. We have a large group, as many sometimes 20, 25 people. Jacqueline is how many people have we talked to who go by themselves, you know, whether our Patreons or whatever. It's amazing to me that people come to a festival like this and it's not like they're driving an hour. You're coming away. Well, it's bad. I think it's great. It's baffling for me because I count all of you guys to bring my stuff. Well, that's what I mean. We all do. It's a group thing. So for somebody to make that commitment and say, I'm going. Jacqueline, the year that you flew in, what did you bring with you? So the year that I flew in, I brought a tent with me. I brought some snacks that I could fit in my big duffel bag. I brought my basically necessities and everybody else was like, hey, we'll pick up water for you. We'll pick up stuff if you need us to. But that's not a big deal. And then I just showed up and they already had canopies and everything set up. So I was really thankful. And then I don't know if I can do it. Just fly in and trust everybody. Yeah, I don't know if I could do it, Barry. That's why I brought it up. I mean, and she's not alone. I mean, how many people have we talked to that that do this? If not every year, at least one year, you know, they go with a group and they fall in love with it and they say, I'm going back. I think that's incredible. It's also really fun, too, because even if you're missing something, you could literally just like run down wherever you're parked or like scream out like, does anybody have a spatula? And like, someone be like, I do. And they'll just like run over like, hey, thanks. And you guys just start up a conversation like, oh, who are you looking to see today? Where are you from? Then you just start meeting people. So it's like a little community over the weekend. So, you know, it's like your Bonnaroo family's got you. You're missing something. I can promise you, I can't. I can promise you, our camp nut butter people are not screaming for a spatula because there's four of them already there. But the other thing you said, they are. The other thing you said was the you make friends, you get there and you make friends and and that's why you. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, super exciting. It's also cool to me. However, like how far people some people travel to go to Bonnaroo is insane to me. They'll be like, yeah, I started a 14 hour drive two days ago. Like we were so excited. And the other thing is you said it, you talk about it year round, which is why we're having this podcast. But that I mean, we hear that all the time. It's so funny. That's the first thing you said was I wear my friends out because it's what I talk about all year round. And that's that's why we started doing this. You know what we've never found. We haven't found a an international traveler. Oh, Canada. Huh? I met Canadians. I want somebody that's coming from Germany. I wonder Korea. I wonder if we have a Norway contingent contingent listening to this to this podcast. We need an ambassador to a foreign nation to call us and let us know if you fly from the international country, from a country outside of America. I'd love to I'd love to talk to somebody who has planned an entire international trip and will mainly because of the conversation that we had earlier, Barry, about, you know, how international festivals are so much more interesting than American festivals. But I want to talk to that guy. Look, 14 hours is a major commitment, but dry and flying across the world for a festival. You know, I want to do that for Primavera Sound one day. Well, like Jacqueline said, to go camp in the middle of a field in middle Tennessee, that's got to when you announce that to your family, you got to wonder how that goes over. Right. Well, Jacqueline, I'm so I'm so happy that you're part of the what podcast family. I'm so glad that you're a fellow Bonarovian and I'm glad that you're going to be with us. We'll see you very shortly. It feels like it's just around the corner. We're like days away. Oh, yeah, I'm super excited. I'm super thankful. I'm glad you guys have me on. Yeah, extremely excited to get back to the farm this year. Thank you, Jacqueline. Bonaru winner Jacqueline from Florida from Pensacola. I mentioned it earlier, Barry, but I did a day trip to Pensacola. And so I got there and we sat on the beach. You know how much I love the beach. So we sat there for like nine hours. And of course, I just got blistered. Right. I got totally sunburnt. Do you see any of that tan on me now? I'm like I am a freshly peeled apple in that if I can, the atmosphere gets to it turns completely rotted and then just goes away. Like the sun that absorbs onto my skin turns into nothing. How do you get so tan? How does my wife get so tan? I'm sitting here like an aquarium. It's just jeans. I would never wear jeans. I'm not picturing you on the beach. What? Can you did you wine for nine hours? I mean, that's actually, you know, no, because I knew it had a time limit. I actually enjoyed it a lot, you know, until like the wind picked up and destroyed our tent. And we had to basically, you know, oh, looky there. Guess we're going to have to back it in. Yeah. Yeah. It was fun talking to Jacqueline, though. And good for her. I.T. in the Air Force. That's that's cool. That's a random pick. But I mean, it's a it's a big leap to make from Starbucks. That's for sure. It's a big leap sitting there serving. What do I want to do? I love to do fighter jets. They call them list. Good for her, though. It's cool. I this is no this is no not casting versions onto Starbucks, but boy, that boss really must have sucked. That boss must have been the worst human being. Yeah. Anything is better than the Starbucks, including the military. I could be yelled at by customers or a drill sergeant. She was cool, though. And I'm glad she won. She's excited about going. And so this is I'm very happy whenever we get to actually talk to not just listeners, but but fellow festival goers and festival Bonnaroovians like you did two weeks ago, three weeks ago at Mini Roo, the special little secret show that that the brew bus people put on. Right. There's a lot of fun. It's the third one that they've done. And they did it because of, you know, quarantine and they plan to continue to do it. Nice. All right. Let's let's close out the show with some of your chat from the Mini Roo. Who else? Who are you talking to? Who's around the horn here? We've got guys from the beer exchange. We've got Chloe. We've got Liesl. They were Patreons of ours, friends of ours. They've been on the show. Taco was there. Daniel and Charlotte from the Roo bus. OK, here we go. Finalize. Finish up the show today. Mini Roo on the What Podcast. I don't know if you guys understand how cool I think you never you wouldn't be here, but it's amazing to me. Let's put it that way. I drink the champagne. This event has brought us all together from literally all over the country. Right. Yeah. All the way from the Pacific Northwest or Iowa. Yeah. Atlanta, three hour drive plus two hours of traffic. Yeah, I had a little bit of that myself. So but we're on one of the most iconic things related to Bonnaroo, the Roo bus. I'm glad to finally have you aboard. I don't know if you knew this, but all this was specifically designed to entertain you. Am I that sad? No, no, no. You melt as a snowflake purposely. We want to encapsulate it. It took us three tries to find this. This is the third. You got to show up. You got to blame Taco. He got sick last time. So Barry finally rolls in today. It was about three o'clock when you finally got here and we were doing a very Red Roo style beer exchange. Every Friday brings in some brews from their local hometown and we swap around and try things that you don't normally get to try. And I see Barry pull up. He parks behind Lord Taco's VW bus. Let's mess with him. I've been waiting for like a year and a half for you to finally show up at one of these. And here we come rolling in. We all get real quiet and he comes in and we're like, oh Barry! I knew something was up because you're singing Happy Birthday and then it's like, here he comes. The birthday was beguiling. It's very cool. So who all is here? You guys have been here since last night. Yours. Hello, I'm Unimportant. That is life. That's my favorite trick name to give out. I'm Mitchell. Pleased to meet you. I'm just me. I exist. No, he is underselling himself. He has the life of any party. You're on the lineup. You're not Unimportant. You made the poster. The whole point of being a lineup is to undersell yourself so they're overwhelmed. That's very smart. So you're like, hello, I'm delivering. I made a fake lineup poster that I kind of just made as a joke to send to friends and I needed some extra space. And I was like, you know what? Mitchell's going to be there. Mitchell is a headliner. Any party he's at. So I put him on there and you have been fantastic. I would go to the show again. If you need a rock, tell me your party. I'll give it a rock. I'm Lindsay. I'm the weirdo who kind of owns this place. And this whole thing started with a crazy hair brained idea between Daniel and I because we were tired of being cooped up in our houses a year ago. So I'm just an eight time Bonnaroo regular old Bonaroovian. Nice. Who lives conveniently fairly close. Yeah, I live about 20 minutes from here. So yeah, to butt in, I believe we are existing on his third child from my understanding. From a contextual standpoint where it was like, try for another boy. No, we want a girl. Fuck it. Let's bet on this. And this is a sure thing. And it's beautiful out here. Absolutely. It's gorgeous. Beautiful place. Beautiful drive. Lindsay. Thank you. Sure. Sure. Glad to have all my Bonnaroo friends here. Daniel, we heard from. Laura Taco is with me. I'm here. What podcast? Yes. How many PBRs have you had? Yes. Well, I started with mimosas. And then moved into the PBRs. Yeah. The real champagne. The real champagne. How would a PBR mimosas or a PBR champagne taste like? It'd be pronounced champagne. Thank you, sir. It might be the only mimosas that won a blue ribbon. They're real proud of that one 1894 thing. Not letting that go. No, they're not letting it go. I say I started with mimosas. Technically, I started yesterday with PBR and then what do we have? Moonshine. That was very good. It was very good, yeah. Yeah, thanks for that. We got more tonight. We had the beer exchange and it's making me purposely truncate my drunk experience. So I've got Hefeweizen and then Hefeweizen lined up. Currently. But you know, when you're out here and everybody's sharing alcohol, you have to pay yourself. Everybody needs to be careful about these things. It's a marathon, it's not a sprint. Correct. It's the bottom of the way. Well, Lord Taco did participate in the beer exchange. We exchanged a PBR for a PBR. I did. I had a West Coast PBR. How many ratings are you up to on? Oh. What's that? I'm on untapped. I'm over 300, I'm sure. All PBRs. All four stars. I am impressed and horrified. I think it's one of the funniest things. He never tells anybody. It's just Brad running up. His crocs have PBR and they're glorious. I mean, it'd be one thing if he was like out telling everybody this all the time, but he never talks about it. He just been doing it. I'll just go out and have a PBR. Okay, I'll check this in. I introduced him to this. I remember this. This is like 2018. So Walmart, every year before Bonnaroo, they pull out all the stops with corporate hoes. And I say hoes as a non-discriminate, non-genitorial thing, because I'm telling you, corporate is out there pouring out product. If you buy a 12 pack, they will give you swag. Yes. And I remember in 2018, Pabst Food Deliverance was at the Walmart doing tie-dye tops and things like that. And I was like, fuck, I want one of those. So I went inside and I was like, all right, I'm a high alcohol guy. And I realized that the Walmart had PBR at like twice the alcohol percentage. And I was like, 12 pack for a tie-dye top. Yeah, they give out the headbands and wristbands. Yes, I got all that. Bon and Veeve, we still use their coolers they gave us in 2016. Murphy's Pearl. They're all wearable until swag gets involved. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will limbo, I will shimmy and limbo under any pole for your free smoothie. It's amazing what people will do. No cap. No, no, like I have shamans later. Yeah, so Kevin from Camp Ritteroo, also unimportant from Camp Ritteroo is better. The two most unimportant. Kevin's the better house. The better house. Kevin does the good legwork. No, man, I have to play your hype man a little bit. There's like a fair group of people that come to Bonner every year who don't get paid by Live Nation or AC Entertainment, who work their tail off to make things happen. And Kevin is definitely one of those people. I appreciate the sentiments. Same to you. We were. You know what's funny? We didn't get paid. I don't care about that. We were talking about this last night or this morning or whatever. You know when you go to Bonner or a big camping festival, you inevitably come across one of those kitty sized pools and it has a sign that says give one take one. That concept reaches out to so much more than just random junk that you find in that kitty pool. Like everybody contributes something to the festival, whether it be Kevin making Red Roo happen or Mitchell just being Mitchell. We had a similar sign on our mailbox this past year. We got lollipops and necklaces. Yeah, we got stickers and we've got a couple cigarettes, maybe some roofing nails. We got no beer. Now you guys have a different experience back there like Valhalla. We see a little bit different. OK, let me put it this way. The general admission RV section is probably the most demographically diverse area that you will see in all of Bonneroo. You've got, I talked about this on Reddit last week, you've got us weirdos in the rewus. You've got like the couples that are like in their 30s or whatever that have like a class C RV. They're kind of bougie it up a little bit. You've got these wizard wooks in like schoolies way older than ours that just sit there and drink beer all day and never even go to a live show. They have ninth level drugs. You've got like people like Lindsey's dad with an RV the size of a house that are just kind to everyone. And it's just a little bit. And you've got college kids that all pull in to rent an RV or borrow one from somebody that's got one. It's a little bit of everything. So last year when we found one of those pools out in front of the rewus, which we didn't even put it there, somebody put that there and thought that would be a good spot. And I'm like, you know what? I agree. That is a great thing. I got like a military MRE to eat, some glow sticks. Those things will stay. Are you thankful for the MRE? Everybody out there, do not go into MREs with a positive attitude. I thought it was cool. I've never had one. I tell you, I lived off those things in the desert. And these things will sustain you. And that's the best compliment I can give. It's funny. I got to do a rewind real quick because the What Podcasts when they came to Camp Rutteroo in 19 and did the live podcast during our craft beer exchange, one of the funniest comments that Brad made was talking to Barry about the morning routines. He was talking about the Donate Brand. If I remember going back to the rewind. If you're eating MREs, you don't have to worry about that because nothing's going to come out. Fiber's built into the equation. I might be adding MRE to my list. I'm telling you, I lived off those things and they mess up your digestive tract. If you're barely tuning in, Pedialyte and MREs, you'll get by. That's a top tip right there. Unlegitimately, if you're just tuning in, Pedialyte, MREs, you're not going to thank yourself, but you'll be thankful. Hey, we still have not introduced probably the sweetest out of our whole group over here. I don't know about that. Yes, yes, yes. I'm Chloe. I help out at the Bonnarooaster. Can I swear on here? Hell yeah. I do Shaday at festivals. Yeah. That's me. The idea that everyone would gather is amazing to me. Probably shouldn't be because we've all talked year round, which is the whole reason we both have podcasts and you guys do what you do. It's a year round thing. What's really special about this group of individuals or representatives from the Bonnarooaster or the Watt podcast and Lindsay hosting this get together and his property is that the people that you meet here, even those that are here that are not associated specifically with Camp Ritteroo or any of our specific groups, it's the concept of what Bonnaroo really encompasses. It's the radiating positivity, but also being able to see people outside of festival. We've been sitting around all morning talking about our love for music or love for vinyl. It's kind of common denominator. It's kind of funny that I met some of the individuals I don't know personally. They're like, oh, we heard you on the Watt podcast last year. We came to the beer exchange. It's kind of cool that you just meet these people that you really have not officially met and you get to know them and it's just it's what embodies this group. And I think that's something that I think we all try to do. And that's kind of the point of these kind of get togethers. I think it really you know, you say that it really shows that the true Bonnaroo Bonnaroovian code. I mean, the folks that we've had out here, you know, we we had a good time last night. There's not all you did. I was the last one to sleep. I'm just going to go ahead and throw that out there for everybody. It was four thirty two a.m. Yeah. Nobody was having a bad time. And there's not a speck of trash out here. Yeah. No, no, no. The outside screams of nature became I entered screams and went to sleep and it was beautiful. It's the cleanest porta potty I've ever seen. A treat. He came in after me. I was going to come back. It's like, you know, seriously, leave it for the next guy. That's the whole thing. Yeah. Respect the farm. I mean, the thing that we have learned through our podcast and your podcast and the RooHamm guys is doesn't matter. What does it matter where you live? We all feel the same thing. Right. I mean, it really I think being around other individuals that energizes you as well. Right. Like when you when you have these really deep conversations about music and stuff like that, it makes you love it more. And being that you get to be around like minded people, because we all know when we're in our individual spaces, there's not always the like minded people around. And you have to navigate those waters. So it's really nice to be in the common denominator of really connecting. In the past year, I think me personally, that's what I've come to miss the most. Like I do miss going to these epic live shows that you see on the what stage. But what I really miss is us just BS and it's just talking about just funny stuff or deep stuff, whatever it may be, you know, good vibes or good vibes. But also having that commonality, like you said, to share. It's not just, you know, you might have liked the Tame show last night. You maybe didn't, but it didn't matter. There's going to be another one. I get that you liked it, you know, I'm not going to, you know, you know, try to harsh on you for liking something. It's like, cool, good for you. Can't wait for the next one. Well, you know, example of it, we were sitting here right before you showed up going through the lineup day by day from the bottom line and ignoring the top two lines. Just in that discovery with a group of like eight people in there, who this is good. OK, yeah, this is going to be a drive by. But yes, I absolutely want to see this band. There's like six of us with completely different tastes. And then all of a sudden we're like, oh, what is that? That's yummy. I don't know. We're going to that. Yeah, I'm not looking for towards the triage that happens every year when they tell me what actually is going to happen. And I have to decide between my love and my love. I'm going to have this set and have that set. They already knew my vibe and damn them for splitting it. How do they know every year? That's a great point. It's we all sit around with your list and we do it, I guess, because my co-host likes picking on some people in our camp. But for the most part, people are like, you know, cool. All right. I get your reasons for wanting to see this band that I think is terrible. So I'm going to let you know, maybe I'll go check them out. And that's a different really is a different vibe than what I grew up with, to be honest with you. It was more I'm cooler than you because, you know, I like these guys. I think it's a thing. It's not the thing. My favorite part about Bonnaroo though is he showed me something. I meet somebody random and they tell me their passion. I'm like, I've heard about these folks and I have a glance re understanding of them. But holy shit, how many funnel cakes have you eaten? Never enough. And I feel like I need to come ride a sugar high over here with you at this band. And I do that often. And honestly, that's like my favorite parts of experiencing. You know, it's always music Christmas. I've had so many people since I have not been ashamed of my obsession. I've had so many people come to me and say, hey, man, I kind of want to come to the pit for Tame Apollo with you. It's funny. I can see I can see that and everybody's going to end you. And I have no shame in that either being like their biggest hype man because like they kind of started as a joke because like for people that haven't followed it, they accidentally or I don't know, they leaked the line. They've leaked it before. It's officially came out. And my wife, Sharla, my lovely co-host of our podcast, she went and listened to a few songs and she was like, you know, I really think you want to listen to this. So good. I got like just two songs in. I'm like, oh, my God. Why did I not know these people before? And I put the plug out now. I sent them an email. I would love to interview them. Yes, yes. Gakumoyo flavor of like that just jazz riff rock. Good shit. Yeah. You came to me a couple of years ago and there was a band out of Japan that you were just that you were advocating hard for them. Kikugaku Moyo. They are Japanese psych folk funk. And if you heard words that you liked in there, just fucking tune in. I purposely dragged like 20 people out of bed on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. at Bonnaroo in 2019 because their show was at 11 a.m. And it's like you want to be in the pit. You wake up. Good for you. I'm telling you right. I went to bed at 7 a.m. that day. My asshole lover and neighbor convinced tried to convince me to like sleep at the stage with a blanket. So I'd be there first and my my gullible ass for a second was like I would be ahead of the game. But I immediately knew that like, no, I'm I'm frangible. I need to sleep and come back. I love that energy, though, like when you're like this band is someone you have to see and I'm dragging you with me whether you want to do that. That's how that's how I ended up at John Prine. I was like, oh, joyful that I went. You know what I mean? But it's like you have to trust your people because it's like we have different tastes. But I know I like you. So like I'm probably going to like the music you like. Aren't you glad that we made it to that show? Thrilled. It's one of my favorites. Yeah, that's another thing I really like. As we were talking about 19, like legitimately, I'm starting around as we were talking about the kind of connection here is like that's the other thing I really enjoyed talking about the Bonnaroovian code and the time of the music is you get to hear people with different musical selections. But you also get to hear kind of the deeper part of it of what why that music means to them. Honestly, all the things we that we've done myself and Mitchell joins you guys in Chattanooga. You guys came to our beer exchange myself and Daniel. I mean, we've done different things and just things like this. You get to really connect with people on a deeper level, which is really enjoyable. Kind of the difference between like a city fest like Lollapalooza or Voodoo and a camping festival like ours or Firefly or something like that, because those connections that you are able to make become your tastemakers. Yeah, like if we're all like just joking around at Camp Red Roo and he tells me I got to go see this like Japanese funk jazz, whatever. And I'm like, I hear how enthusiastic he is. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I mean, somebody's passionate. I need to figure out what the passion is. Call them be the blow it out. Yeah, we went to Voodoo down in New Orleans and you just don't have that experience. It was a hassle to get from the hotel out to the park where they held that. And aside from like waiting in line, you don't get the chance to talk to that many other people. You kind of just stay with your crew and those kind of new discoveries don't happen. Well, we know Barry doesn't like traffic. Oh, well, yeah, you would not like it. He doesn't like to. There's other people in there. Makes me sweat. Yeah, there's definitely I mean, we've had the conversation with different people along the way. It's like City Fest and Camping Fest are a totally different base. And the City Fest can be fun because, you know, you deal with the ordinances from the cities and stuff like that. There's some great music there, but I've always really enjoyed camping festivals. You know, not not only the stumble back to camp is easier, but you don't have to. But I sometimes get pinball neighbors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the immersion. Yeah. It's the immersion into it. Like they always say you're there. What else are you going to do? I'm forced to live this other person's life and I'm happy to be there. I'm really interested to go try some of these other epic experiences that are like that where it's like camping. Like I've never been to Electric Forest. I would love to do that. The problem has always been that it's the weekend after Bonner and I'm trashed. And one of these days I would really love to go experience the anarchy that is Burning Man. I'm honestly a little intimidated. I want to see it. That's like a bucket list thing. I'm curious of how you and Lindsay came up with this idea or Lindsay, I don't know whose brainchild it was. This is what the third one we got the sequel. We had the Speakeasy Roo, which was the first one that was on the original June Bonner Roo 2020 weekend. And then it became Mini Roo last September on the second Bonner Roo weekend. And then so this is Speakeasy Roo, or Mini Roo, the sequel. We can't even decide what we want to call it. We'll figure it out down the road. The first time, the second, third. So we camped next to Daniel. We were like three spots down and just kind of met each other and had known each other kind of through social media a little bit. I was a peon compared to him. And when we found out that Bonner Roo wasn't going to happen. First we cried. Yeah. Yes. Crocodile tears. First step is the remorse stage. And then I think we talked about it a lot on earlier. And I think we talked about it on an earlier podcast, but it was just like, dude, we've got to do something. We've got to see if we can get together, if we can find a way to do it in a socially distanced. We're still in the midst of a response. In June, we didn't know what was going on still. And so I was like, we talked about it. Well, I think we could make it happen. Let's invite some of our friends, the close ones that we've met at Bonneroo and maybe some of their close friends and just see what happens. And sure enough, it happened. And then it was like, OK, we've got to do it in September. And OK, we've got to do it again in June. And it's just kind of evolved into a nice close group of friends, even folks I don't know, never met before, that have absolutely shown me great color, just great people. I'm happy to be new to that. And I just want to say, fully inoculated, ready for open mouth kiss and string. Yes, sir. Me too. I mean, I'm vaccinated. I kind of wax the bus. We didn't show up for the first two, but now that we're fully vaccinated, we're happy to be back in the part of things. And I just want to throw that addendum on there because I've been afraid of the air for the past year. And shout out to anybody else that has built agoraphobia in the short term. I love you. It's going to be OK. Yeah, the music is great, too, because you guys have some local artists that have played and some local musicians. So I've been privileged to bring down a Huntsville band the three times that we've done this. And Huntsville isn't like the best place for music. Like, we aren't really known for that. Well, we're known more for like, you know, as being the rocket city where NASA and Redstone Arsenal is. But we do have a great up and coming scene. The first time I brought one of my favorite bands, Seeds, they're kind of like a EDM funk band, kind of similar to like Cherub or Grizz or something like that. Second time. Yeah. Second time we brought in Dim Dam Dogs, kind of like a surfer rock. And this time I brought in a band that I really think is about to hit it big. Oh, man. They were so good. She was. Yeah. Wanda out of Huntsville. She started doing her solo thing and then now they're three piece. And maybe I'm not given the best description. Maybe I'm not giving her enough credit. But I kind of consider it to be the female Mac DeMarco, kind of like low key stoner music just to have on in the background. But she also goes a little bit more rocky and punky sometimes. But I expect some tortilla frisbees. Yeah, I always expect. And then to kind of balance that out. I mean, if I don't catch one. And so to kind of balance that out, I had some musician friends here locally in southern middle Tennessee. We had a difference with the tea last time. To give you guys an idea, our stage is a 20 foot junked up work trailer with some lights on it. And we had a five piece band on that trailer. It was five. It was ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag. And then we had 20 pounds of pressure. We've had a national recording artist, Lee Gibson, has come out and played for us twice now. And then I think tonight we have a band called What? Yes. And Barry, I'm so excited for you to hear them. I told him about the whole thing. I told him earlier, if Greta Van Fleet is Led Zeppelin, these kids, are they still in high school? They had one who I think was a junior last year. Yeah. So I think he's going to be a senior this coming year. If Greta is Zeppelin, then these kids are Pink Floyd. Yeah. I think if they keep developing and if they can get in front of the right people, they could potentially have the same trajectory. Very, very cool sound. And then we've had some some very good DJs and EDM artists from Nashville come down. We had this kid, Jay Hennettix, last night. He's fantastic. Young guy. When he started off, it was sort of a back to back with another DJ. And now I think he's really finding this really rich house sound. And then even, you know, Sean's son, DJ Flock. Yeah, that was a great, great set. His first touch of turntables was June last year. Yeah. You would not have thought it like transition. Great. Like I love EDM and DJing is not easy to do. It's not. I mean, I've dabbled in it just as a kind of a hobby in production. It's not. It's not. It's not easy to do. And you would have not thought that he he sounded like a grizzled veteran. And yeah, I mean, I would love to see him. Mixing is not so hard to do, but coming up with original stuff in a software suite like Alton, that's tough. And he picked that up fairly quickly. Yeah. His first original song last night, Omi, which was just phenomenal. It's you know, for us, they go to shows and what we enjoy about like a set, right? You know, some of the biggest artists, they take you to the hills and valleys, right? Yeah. That's how his kind of was. He picked the right music for the right time. Played to the small crowd that was here and it just kept the energy and people were dancing. And we were right in front of him dancing and trying to hype him up. It was it was great. And I guess then tonight we're closing down with with DJ Snow. I think he's played Reteru. He's got a lot of fun. I think he's played the Roo Bus party. He opened for Repeat Repeat that year. Yes. Yeah, I think he played the Calliope or Calliope or at one point. Calliope. Nickelodeon. A pulling cart with the piano. I have a question and I hope I ask it right. And it just occurred to me. We all are so excited about Bonnaroo and we get excited every year. And and I know we look at the list and we say that I can't wait to see that act. But do you guys go with an actual expectation? No. You know what I mean? You're probably why I'm thinking of it. You're so excited about Tame Impala. Me, you know, I could list a few a few people. Do you you know what I mean? There's that you can you can go with such an expectation. And then it not get there. But what I want to what seems to me about Bonnaroo is my only expectation is once I get there and my 10 is set up and I've opened that first beer. I really don't care what happens. You didn't do that in the right order. You open the first beer and then you set the tent up. Yeah, I hate somebody that tells me ten first. I don't know where you can't because I just I'm nervous. I'm afraid they're going to you know, we don't have you on the list. I have an answer to this, but you go first, Mitchell. My favorite part about Bonnaroo in terms of the experience of it is I purposely write out what my schedule for the day preference is. What I've done triage and I've listened to a bunch of YouTube videos and I figured out where I want to hopefully draw my attention to. But I'm a gadfly, so I don't have control of where I'm going to go. And I bring this list of people and I'm like, I'll be here at five. I'm like, why wouldn't you be here? Yeah. And then and then and then I hear what they're here is and I'm like, Why would I be here? And then it just it kind of hurt. I've asked Ashley caps the same thing. They see an AC entertainment. He's like, yeah, I got a list, but I never go. The music Christmas. I make my list just like everybody else. I play by my hair. My first. I have like three that I'm there. So going into what you're six or seven now, first couple years, it was listing. It was I got to see Muffin and says, I got to go see this person. And I typically do see that one to there's been a couple of years where the lineup wasn't as ecstatic about where I was like, well, I'll just go. I think in the last at least three years, I've got rid of that routine. I have gone and just gone with the flow. Now there are people that I want to see and I'm excited to see, but I think I stopped doing the routine. I stopped doing the planning because I know, like Mitchell said, once you do the planning, like we were talking about previously, you start to talk to people in camping like, oh, man, the Bible's like so good last night. And then you go hang out with them and go see what their show they're going to because you don't have a necessary schedule to get a five p.m. firm becomes a five p.m. Yeah. I guess there's the pregame where there is the expectation, but that's almost the fun. Yeah. Going through. Yeah. Yeah. And then when you get there. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I think that's what I'm asking. You know, I'm a pretty list, pretty list making guy. And, you know, I know my my top tier that are there must sees. And then since I really dig into those bottom two, three lines of the of the of the lineup and we'll take a band, Low Cut Connie from a couple of years. Yeah, great. I've listened to a couple of songs together. Great. We'll make sure we go see him. Absolutely exceeded my expectations because of the show they put on that was just phenomenal. Warren treaty for me. Yeah, it was just a pathway between Davy and Mavis Staples. And now, I mean, yeah, we were talking about that. Yeah, they're friends. We're talking about that metal band killing the faith. Well, 15 or what it was the high school killing the faith. I just don't like that metal kids like from New York. They were borrowed their own like Stephen. Yeah. Yeah. And then they went on the tour after that. So I'm sorry. So that's the Pete. I'm announcing. I'm not cutting. I know. And then I have to come back. Special thing. The booze is so hot up. So very happy you're talking about. I feel like I've gone through different phases of this. I'm up on a career like the first couple of years. I had a very set schedule. I'm going to this and then this and then this. But then the more that I went, the more that I would see these impromptu things happen that you just couldn't possibly have planned. I've talked about this before, but one of my favorites ever was I thought I was just going to walk by Rufus do so when you're within a giant inflatable unicorn the size of a house goes by. I don't like. No, this is where the party is. I'm not wearing a flaming lips. I've gone to bed. Yeah. I looked down. There's a guy in a bus. Yeah. No, I was like, I got out of bed. You mentioned what same for me, like I said before, like I'm just absolutely obsessed. But that's a very personal thing. Right. Like I really latched on to currents at a very good time in my life when I needed something like that, that where I listened to Kevin's lyrics and I was like, oh, this is somebody that at one point at least went through the same things that I'm going through. And combined with like the trippy psych rock sound, it really became very personal to me. So now that they're coming back around and I've had almost over two years to look forward to this. I mean, I know I'm putting a lot of expectations, but I've seen his show twice before. So I know I'm not putting too much expectations on this. It means a lot to me personally to be in the pit to have that take up my whole field of vision and listen to this new record that I've not heard played live. That's a whole other ball game. Like I couldn't even. Yeah, I couldn't even get it. I mean, we've talked about, you know, one of our nut butter campers, Brian Stone, Brad picks on him something horrible. The one year he all did Pearl Jam was there. He literally sat in his car all day long. He wasn't there 10 minutes came walking back. It sucks. He missed everything else. Everything else just because of that. And he was so focused in this expectation. And I mentioned it to pick on him because he's an easy, easy target. I would do it if he was here. But I guess I've been here. I invited him. I'm guessing I'm thinking of some of the first timers too. You know, we're all experienced. There is that. Make a list. Yeah, got to do that. You know, it's not a bad idea to make the list. I think it's part of the fun. Try if it's, you know, if it's somebody on your bucket list, but be open. Yeah, it's definitely fun. I mean, I know on some of the years that I wasn't ecstatic about the lineup. 18, 18, 18. I've had some really good years where I don't know if this sounds strange at all because we've talked about how music means to us personally and kind of the high and lows and kind of why we connect to certain music. I've had a couple of years where I didn't set those expectations and my day or days was like a complete journey. It was like one show got me in my feels, which then to continue that euphoria, I found our walk by this other one that touched my soul in some way, which then led into somebody I knew I was going to go see, which kept me on that same level. So it really took me on a really weird journey. So yeah, like you're saying for first timers, that is the one thing I will always tell first timers is we're talking about expectations like wonder, like I love that quote like not all who wonder or loss like that is the perfect thing at Bonnaroo sometimes is you go see the people that you want to go see, but let your soul wander through those fields because there's something magical about your day when you get to the end of the day and you're at Kaliope at the end of the night. I've had such the greatest thing we have a friend of ours, James Gabrielson shout out. He has some of those and he will on his Facebook, he will list out who he went and saw. And that is kind of one of those situations where somebody like that I always enjoy seeing what he saw because we may be on a different path. But we know that complete journey through the day because it wasn't planned. You know, some of it was not planned. It's funny that we kind of joking around about 18 not being that great to line up. But we were talking about this earlier. 18 was one of the most fun years I can remember because of the community. That was just that was the year that we had repeat repeat play the little makeshift stage right outside the bus store right here. And the year that a bunch of us did a joke pizza party at jungle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Made a lot of great friends that you that was a lot of big connection. And 18 you say you weren't you weren't excited about the lineup. I personally was not excited about the top parts of the lineup. And so I went I went digging. We went mining, looked for some stuff, found some cool stuff that we kind of like the sound. We had that journey where we went to those shows. It was one of the best years for me. Just new discovery of music. Someone on Reddit almost every year does the Lord's work breaks down by genre. And I just go explore genres I like in the music I like pro tip to the out there P before the podcast. Thanks from experience halfway through experience or hey we're bringing in somebody else here. Yeah, welcome. We're talking about expectations. Okay, you meet next scene. Let's put her on the spot. Charlotte, who do you think you might be expecting to be a great show with this year, expecting to be a great show. Yeah, I am do mocked our shout out. She got me in on that. Yeah. What grabbed you about it. Because that grab the attention. Yeah, obviously, but it's, you know, like a world music. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, sure. I love that concept. We love. I mean, maybe this makes us seem silly, but we love me just because she has kind of the same kind of personality. Yeah, I'm curious to hear like, so you're an industry guy. So who are you excited. You guys have talked about. So you guys have broken down a lineup one of a couple of your last episodes, but I want to hear. Is there anybody that you want to. You're really excited to see. I want to see food fighters because I haven't. You're gonna I mean, Dave, you gotta see. And I said, I think growl is the best representative of rock and roll. Yeah. To the true kind of a he bridges it all the bridges. Yeah. But growl gets it. Yeah. And taco and I have talked about I want to see. What did you think when you saw them right before it hit the fan last year. Yeah, I don't think I didn't go with you. Yeah, I'm done messed up. Yeah. I mean, that was that was their own material. We saw them just do a whole show of theirs that bottom. They're not doing their show. What year was it that they played on Thursday and bar was that that was 2019. That's my 19 19. Yeah, they were there. Yeah. I'm trying to remember who else is. Let me check. This is to me is a walk by. Oh, you're going to pick a fight with the lady across from you. We fuck it up to the tempo. I'm going to go see. I'm not sure I'll stay for the whole show. Oh, I mean, I'm not rage for you. I'll raise. Yeah, I take your indifference. I don't know. I'm almost curious to if there's a I think high energy is still going to be your show. But 2020 such a momentum climb right guys. So now we're in 2021 and we're you know have some other artists that are I won't say they're bigger than Liz because I don't want to make her seem lower but I want to. The trajectory is different. So I wonder if that affects the whole time. Yeah. Now I'm just curious. I mean, they said that they really try to plan the lineup based on how these you know, very moment thing. Yeah, she won a Grammy. Right. Yeah, like I mean that was I mean she had such a trajectory right and now she hasn't put out a hit this year. Yeah. Well, not to say I mean sometimes there's sides between but if you take her down a bump on the lineup as opposed to being like top build last year. What kind of conversation is that with their publicity time you know I want I want to say this is a throwback to the what podcast go back two years ago and they purposely asked me who do you think is going to be at 2020 Bonnaroo and I said Lizzo and Orville. You did I remember that. Yeah, and legitimately they were and they still are for 2021 because she's the first female. Nobody can nobody can put on a cowboy. Oh my god. Imagine doing a vision doing goth country. Yes. That's a good. You must have missed the Midland show those boys were nice. Yeah, but I think some people only know Midland for like that one kind of big song that's recognizable. So I got a question for everybody I was listening to you guys the other day and you were talking about how Clint Black is a great headliner over at Austin. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Number one. Yes. Yeah, he looked it up and it was 60. Now the obvious answer is Dolly so let's just take that out of the equation. Yeah, was Dolly ever on the table. We all clearly want that. We all love Dolly. Is if George Strait, excuse me, if he can be the one that could be the perfect headliner over at Austin, if it's not Dolly who is it at Bonnaroo that could be the great headliner country artist which they should have I think being that close to Nashville. You know, Dixie chicks, you know, the chicks together in a good old country. I may get some flack. I may get some flack for this but I really enjoyed the conversation that Bradenberry had about the break in the mold or kind of breaking the cup there for the country artists, and I do enjoy country. And I was thinking about this I'm like who would be so George Strait, undoubtedly the king of the king of culture right you can't you can't doubt that. So, my thought is a little different because I think if Bonnaroo goes country. They don't do George Strait, they, unfortunately, I don't think they do Dolly, which I think I think that because of the demographic. I think they go somebody not legacy, they go someone like, look, Brian. Hear me out, hear me out, hear me out, hear me out because the reason why. But I'm going to say they're going to go top 40 country. I think Garth would be a great plug. I don't think Garth, I don't think Garth show would work well at Bonnaroo from someone who's seen that show. I would go to a Christian concert. I think I want to hear this well, why would he not work because I would have disagreed with I don't think he would work just because of his interaction and the, you know, from seeing the show with the pivoting stage and the way he works that he's on all sides. I don't think he necessarily works at Bonnaroo but I think someone like Eric Churchman. I think if he got out in the crowd, he would be out in the crowd. If he could fly from the stage back to the sound booth would be wonderful. So my thing when I was talking about the top 40 guys, does a Garth Brooks, does his fan base stay for the whole weekend? No. So you're bringing in somebody that doesn't bring in fans. But what about Eric Church? I think Eric Church would be almost perfect. Okay, I got one and y'all are going to laugh and throw me out the bus. No, no, it's your bus. Kenny Chesney. Oh! But that's not a fan thing. Bro, he's from East Tennessee. His songs are like Jimmy Buffett-ish. They're like true music and he literally has a song about Bonnaroo. I could drink and sing along to that. And he's one of those perfect artists that bridges that older crowd and newer crowd. That's not a fan thing. I mean that's the baseline of a lot of these interactions. I can drink and sing along to that. And that's the only reason I would say like a top 40 person like a Luke Bryan because I think to sell tickets, which if you put someone on the top line, you gotta use those tickets. But if they put John Pride on there and people didn't fucking bite on that angle, that's what blows me away. All of us in this bus, I think, went to John Pride. That's why I mentioned in the discussion, Brandy and Kelsie. And they're sort of that cross over. Yeah, they're that cross over for the demographic. I like his idea of the Dixie Chicks because I think fans would stick with them. The Chicks. Freedom Fries. I think there's like this new crop of more Americana style country artists that would... Sturgle. Yeah, like Sturgle or Luke Combs, Jason Isbell. Jason Isbell is gonna be good. Don't get me started. I will be there and just I will be at the back of the pit on the rail with a beer in each hand melting my face. Yeah. Will you like hold me like a baby? But the only thing I don't like about the country artists aspect of it is I don't know if it'll happen for Bonnaroo. Just because there are so many other country festivals like Pilgrimage. Well, I think your question nailed it. Do they stay? What's the rest of the way look like? Yeah, because there's nothing unless they go to the Opry on Thursday. But I love the Opry! I have more people in my soul! But then does everybody scatter on Friday? But see Barry, they've made lanes for country before as well. But I mean if you've watched the Opry, that's literally what it is. I liked it, but I'm interested. They've made lanes. I know, I got it. Exactly. Midland, we had Sturgle, we had several other country artists. There is a lane in there that if you find it, you can spend all weekend in country. Yeah, I don't know if you'd have to, but I mean does that specific headliner bring in that lane? It depends. I wonder Pete, if we couldn't hook them with John Prine, I just feel like countries, it's under delivered and under sold at Bonnaroo. That's why nobody below 30 showed up. They missed a great show. That was incredible. That was amazing. Yeah, and he was so happy to be there. Oh yeah. I see Brandy come out. That dance at the end when he danced off the stage. Brandy came out for John and Odessa. And Hoosier. And Hoosier! She was the fucking queen. I think that they did. I really think to talk to kind of, I won't say in the conversation of country, but the best way to bring it together, Super Jam. Yes! Do a Super Jam. I think you can solve some of that. A new Nashville alt country Super Jam. So all those kind of artists that we just mentioned. Sturgill, Jason, all those. It's the same way with like doing like the bluegrass, right? The bluegrass Super Jam, but doing a country Super Jam because that way you're not putting a headliner up there to try to draw money with and you still get to fulfill the... Can I put an ear bug out there? Put Brittany Howard in front of a bluegrass jam. Did Brad call you? That would be amazing. Because the Super Jam is like in the past like they did an R&B one, right? And then they did... Grizz was my favorite. Brittany Howard. Sylvia and Esso. What do we think? That was 2014. That was my favorite. What do you guys feel about the Sylvia and Esso? I don't even know what that's going to be. Super Jam. They haven't announced what it's going to be. With. What does that mean? Yeah, with. With. Who's it going to be with? I think it's going to be really good. With somebody. All right. Anything else? We have talked about a lot. I think they covered a lot of it. Mitchell still has a beer left and I don't have any. Oh no, I've got to wrap this. He's working on it. There's several beers after this recording. Well, I want to thank you all for coming out. Like I said earlier, this whole thing was just a plot, entertain, bury. We finally got it out here. So I feel like it's mission accomplished. I think it's now time for me to get embarrassing. I'm excited for you to see what and DJ Catlow and DJ Snow tonight. We're going to get you with it. Cheers everybody. Cheers. Music. You.
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