Welcome back to the best hair in all of podcasts.

In what podcast?

Lord Taco, Barry Courter, I'm Brad.

Welcome back, welcome back to the show.

The show that won't go away.

Please God, go away.

How are you guys?

I'm doing great.

Doing great.

What is that going on behind you?

You're on the bus.

Taco, what's happening?

This is where I do the Twitch streams from.

Oh my God, we're inside of his homeland.

Barry.

There's going to be a little blue princess on that screen right behind him.

Keep watching.

A blue haired mom will pop out of a closet any moment now.

Hey Barry, do you know what's crazy?

How long have I known Taco?

I've never been to his house.

Wow.

That's a good one.

Is that crazy?

I've never been there either.

It's like Barry, you have to leave the state.

Yeah Barry, it's a different state.

You're not coming.

But of all those times, the only thing I think I did, they showed up to your driveway once.

I think that was about it.

I think so.

Yeah.

Did he meet you?

Did he come running out?

Did he come running out and meet you?

Yeah.

I actually went to Bryan Stone's house the other day and he wouldn't let me in.

He said, I'll be out.

Text me when you're here.

I'll come out.

Yeah.

Taco wouldn't let me in.

He sent one of his ladies out.

He sent one of the ladies out to get me.

And the thing about Brian's house is that the reason why he won't let you in is that

you know he's got some sort of body in there.

I mean he has got some sort of, I'm not saying he's Jeffrey Dahmer.

I know what you mean by body.

I think he's cutting up some sort of raccoon in there in some form or fashion.

I know what you mean by body.

Yep.

I've been in his garage.

That's the closest I've gotten.

I think I picked up parking.

Boy, all of that sounds really sexual.

Everything that you just said sounds very oddly.

I got in his garage and picked up this carpet.

That's what you mean by body.

There's somebody in there and he can't remember her name.

He doesn't want to have to try to introduce you.

He's like, I'd let you in, but I don't know her name.

I'd have to go through this whole thing again and I have no idea who this person is.

That's so good.

By the way, I'm wearing a jacket.

Let me take this jacket off.

Yeah, you're looking a little businessy.

Now you look like a priest.

Do you look like a priest?

What is that?

What?

It's a black shirt, Barry.

Is that okay?

It's like an off-duty priest.

It makes me nervous.

Put the jacket back on.

It makes me a little nervous.

Did you say an off-duty priest?

Yeah, at the end of the day type of thing.

I'm like, I'm going to go to the bathroom.

I'm going to go to the bathroom.

I'm going to go to the bathroom.

I'm going to go to the bathroom.

I'm nervous.

Okay, wait a second.

I know, but you are the Catholic one and you can tell me what's right or wrong, but is

a priest ever off duty?

No, technically no.

But when the collar loosens, they're kind of, that's about as close as they get to off

duty.

They get some off priest hours or they hit up the clubs and throw some dollar bills down.

Pop that collar.

Let's go off.

Get some beer and go cruising for babes guys.

Serving's over, time to go drink.

Totally different meaning for pop that collar.

Yeah.

I'm learning more about the Catholic faith as I live and breathe.

So I guess that's the show.

We'll talk to you guys next week.

Good talk as always.

Good seeing you guys.

So what do we have this week?

What do we want to explore?

What kind of topics do we want to dive into dad?

Well, by dad, I assume you mean me.

I think I'm kind of excited.

Who else would I be talking to?

I want, well, I don't know.

Has anybody else acquired the dad nickname in this room?

I'm willing to pass it on.

I'm actually excited.

I'm excited about next year's festival season.

We've had several conversations within what, the last 10 days and I think Russ and I and

you, I know you and I talked and then Russ and I talked and I think we have some pretty

cool plans in place and I'm ready to get ready for next year.

Wait, are you booking a festival?

What kind of plans are you talking about?

It's going to be on my front porch because I'm never leaving the house.

No.

So we have some ideas for the show that I'm pretty excited about.

We kind of launched one this week and well, the first question is, and it always is the

first question.

How does this affect me?

There's not a lot of work for you.

Oh my God.

Then I'm in.

That's why it's going to work.

Oh God.

I've never been happier in my life.

That's why the work's already done.

The work is already done.

And that's why it has a chance.

We don't have to rely on.

That's why it has a chance.

What we're going to do, we've been talking with the folks at Consequence and then among

ourselves and we've realized we've been doing this four years going on five and we have

a lot of great material in the bank.

And so what we're going to do is go back.

No money, but material.

Different kind of bank.

The cash.

Yeah.

Got it.

No money.

But we're going to go.

Somebody's bank is not.

Somebody's not.

But ours is.

But ours is.

We're going to go back and listen to some of our previous shows and pull clips and put

those out as bonus material on during sort of this quiet time.

I mean, let's be honest.

The big festivals are done.

The rumor mill will start up pretty soon and then in January typically we'll announce,

they will announce rather, we'll start getting festival lineups and that's kind of the beginning

of our next season.

But we thought we have all this material and it's all, I call it evergreen.

It's just as relevant today as it was when we did it with band interviews and industry

people interviews.

And so we're going to be maybe not our Bonnaroo picks.

Maybe that's not right.

No, no, or let's go back to my 2020 picks.

Yeah, we're not going to go back to that or, you know, who's on the lineup or who's not

on the lineup.

Those things won't.

But, but when we interview a band that is on, you know, a 2019 or a 2020 lineup, we

didn't necessarily talk about that year's festival.

We talked to the band about their music.

So it's still, still relevant.

So we're going to start putting that stuff out and we did it.

Like how much content are you talking?

How many, like how long are these little snippets going to be?

Two, three, four, five minutes.

I think five is probably a good number.

Well, you know, if it's five minutes, we could call it a high five.

See, I think that's a great idea.

See, call it the what podcast.

And you said I didn't have any responsibilities here whatsoever.

You're the idea guy.

You're a giver.

You know, if you, in fact, if you had, if you did two, maybe it's a five minute and

a five minute, you had 10 minutes segment.

You could call it a double high five, double high five.

See that's why you're the, that's why you're the man.

Cash your credit.

It will be cash your credit.

Yeah.

Show up, give the idea and disappear.

Yep.

Yeah.

You drop the idea.

Yep.

We got to do the work.

Bye bye.

We got to do the work.

Every weekend.

Yeah.

I'm excited.

My entire career has been my entire career.

And look at you.

Look at you.

Look where you are now.

No, I love that.

I love that idea.

Um, uh, the, uh, the other thing too, that I would like to chronicle probably is maybe,

you know, in the corner of the screen, you maybe give like a hair rating, you know, what

Barry is for that day out of, you know, out of a five, maybe Barry's a four.

And of course I would be a five.

Um, you know, yeah, it'd be, it'd be.

I was getting ready to say it'd be a whole lot like tacos, PBR ratings.

Never, never less than a four.

Never a five.

It's a four.

It's a four.

It's four out of five.

I mean, it's just PBR.

Okay.

Out of that, you know, that's a great point.

You know, you put one of these out last week, right?

And it was with Ashley caps, right?

Yep.

Okay.

So I'm sure taco, you listened to it.

You watched it out of five.

How many stars do you give that snippet?

That was a five.

Oh, wow.

I thought it'd be a four.

I thought they'd always be force.

It's not PBR.

No, it's even better than PBR.

How about that?

We still have you won an award.

How is there not some sort of like podcasting, you know, festival podcast award not, you

know, been given to us?

I mean, isn't there like the federal podcasting commission that could, you know, call us up

and be, you know what, we've, we've looked at every festival podcast.

There is a universe out there, but you have to pay to get in.

It's like $500 to enter.

Back to that money thing.

I think we deserve a blue ribbon.

We do.

Wow.

And you know what?

I mean, I think that every episode on the logo, we need to figure out if it's a blue

ribbon episode.

I love that.

Maybe it's a, you know, you have to tell us, you have to tell us if it's a good enough

episode.

Yeah, I'll review them.

I'll let you know my thoughts.

Okay.

And then maybe let us know if the episode is a baby or not.

Clarify just in case if it is a baby or not a baby.

Because sometimes in this digital world, I have no idea.

Boy, let's hope it's not a baby.

God, I always hope for no babies.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a whole mother.

You know, as talking though, I agree with him.

I thought the Ashley Capps episode was a five.

And I think it's relevant because he talks about the importance of Bonnaroo and what

it meant.

I mean, when we talked to him, this was in 2018.

But we kind of talked about the beginning of the festival 2003 and four and what it

meant.

And it's kind of funny.

You know, I had introduced you to him at Four Castle and, you know, you made a comment that

got a pretty great reaction from you.

You said, thank you for saving music.

I mean, I told him the truth.

Yeah.

Because if not for Bonnaroo, there would be a lot less bands with an opportunity.

You know, it rejuvenated the entire festival scene that would take over the next decade

and a half.

Yeah.

You know, you're starting to see it.

Not just the festival scene.

I think he and you make the point that people like us wouldn't know about certain bands

if it weren't for festivals.

Portugal the Man, I think, was the example.

And that's the truth.

You know, it became the festival scene created this attitude of I want to know what else

is I want to discover something that I don't know about.

And that's not where music was at the time.

And so I thought it was a great answer and a really good interview.

Well, I mean, I'll be totally honest.

I mean, I would never have fallen in love with Alabama Shakes the way that I fell in

love with them and Britney, if not for Bonnaroo.

No way I would have found Courtney Barnett.

No way I would have found Black Keys.

No way I would have found KG Elephants.

My morning jacket for me.

Sure.

Sure.

Those guys, they weren't getting a lot of radio airplay.

They're now huge.

I mean, imagine imagine them without the festival scene.

So, yeah, I thought it was an important conversation.

Yeah, you get in front of you get in front of a crowd that you never were able to get

in front of before.

Yeah, you know, and then it rejuvenate.

I'm sorry, rejuvenizes an industry like mine, who, you know, looks around and especially

at that time, we didn't have streaming numbers to go on.

We had to go by, you know, a lot of times, gut, a little bit of research and then ticket

sales, you know, who's selling tickets.

And if you if you think that, you know, at the time, Alabama Shakes is going to sell

a ticket and give me a break.

But then they get on a festival stage and all of a sudden they get exposed to a completely

new audience off to the races.

Yeah, I mean, look, I don't know.

It turns out I tend to bloviate just a tad bit on occasion.

So you're you could you could rightfully accuse me of maybe overstating it a bit.

But you know, I think that you understand the thread, the point that I was trying to

make.

Oh, I thought it was I thought it was spot on.

And Ashley's answer is is spot on and not to pat ourselves on the back, though.

That's exactly what we're doing.

We've had some great interviews with people within the industry that he you know, Ashley

being one of them.

There's a lot of other ones from artists to industry people.

And we just thought, man, we need to find a way to to get that back out there.

In a short way, you can listen to just five minutes.

And if you're interested, you can go back and listen to the whole thing.

We'll have links and all that sort of stuff.

So good.

Yeah.

Especially if you just found the show, if you just started listening, you know, exactly.

We do have a lot of content that we want to try to bring up and a lot of inside jokes

that you're going to have to catch up on because there's we have really hit the gas on the

inside jokes.

Yeah.

There's a whole vernacular to learn.

But it's fun.

And if you love festivals, it's we hope you love the show.

And again, to give Taco a bunch of credit, he's read he continues to tweak the website.

We've added some new things just this week, right?

I have a search now because we've got so many episodes that sometimes it's hard to remember

what we've gone back to talk about.

So search them up.

We've added some little timestamps to certain episodes that have timestamps.

Big time.

Oh, that is that's very clever.

Look at you.

The search features nice because I have no idea what we've done.

I have no earthly idea.

I mean, Barry brought up an interview earlier today.

It's like, I don't remember doing that.

Yeah, I know.

Me either.

Yeah.

We're up to like 130 something episodes.

Oh, God Almighty.

You're kidding me.

No, no.

Stop it.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

But neither one of you is that interesting that I want to hear.

We blew past our 100th episode to do anything special.

Correct.

Oh, man.

All right.

Well, wow.

Sort of like your Christmas present.

I can just do it.

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll hit the next 100.

How about that?

All right.

So outside of the we got a clip for today.

We're going to do a high five today.

Yeah, but I don't know what it will be yet.

Okay, good.

That's a good.

We're going to have one.

Well, we definitely have one.

I think I think Russ and I, Brad, you won't have to do anything.

So yeah, oh, God, just keep saying that.

And I think Russ and I, we're going to figure out how to what it's going to look like and

all that.

So we'll definitely have one for today.

And then we'll probably do these what for the rest of October and a little bit in the

November.

And then we are currently lining up pretty cool guests to kick off November.

Been talking with some of the folks over at Live Nation about some of the plans that they

have for next year.

And we're going to have some guests on our show that will announce some big changes that

they have in store.

What do you mean?

You're being you're being awfully vague.

I am being vague because they're still trying to work out the details.

But they are people at the folks at Live Nation, the people that put on Bonnaroo.

Some of the same people that we talked with from Moon River, the local Chattanooga Festival,

kind of Live Nation, C3AC Entertainment.

We had good experience with that.

And out of that, we've been having some conversations and they want to come on our show and talk

about some big changes that they have planned for next year.

And that also is part of the reason I'm kind of re-energized about the whole thing experience.

You know, I was thinking about it this week.

We talked about heading into 2022 Bonnaroo that this felt like a reboot kind of year

that because of the pandemic and all the different the economy, all the different things that

it just felt like this was a year that people who put on these kind of events were going

to take stock at the end and figure out what worked and what didn't work.

And I believe that is the case.

I think that's and I know I'm being vague, but I think I think that you're right.

Well, yeah, you are being vague.

But I think that you're right.

I just do.

I don't know if I'm as confident that it's going to get any better next year.

I do think that, you know, Bonnaroo is going to have a much better year and maybe Coachella

still be fantastic.

And, you know, the Wind We Are Youngs are still going to exist and pop up.

But I just I don't know if the the ground changes shifts all that much when it comes

to this kind of stuff.

You know, like the numbers, the big one, the fact that there are so many and they're all

going to change.

You know, I just think I don't think no, I think I think you're still going to lose a

lot of festivals.

And it's still a very, very hard to do.

In fact, weirdly enough, my company just announced a beach festival in Miami.

And I mean, I was just on the periphery of a lot of the planning of it with no real responsibilities

whatsoever.

Just like I like it.

And I show.

Yeah, I know.

It's perfect.

And and I watched how difficult it still was even to this day to find the right artists

at the right money.

Everybody is so booked and everybody is trying to get what they can.

And I'll be honest, it hasn't stopped even through the first of next year.

The first quarter of next year is just as busy and just as overloaded with five, six,

seven holds in some rooms.

I don't know.

I don't know if it lightens up and I don't know if it if it gets unclogged.

I just don't know.

I don't disagree with that.

It's a macro versus micro thing.

I guess I agree with you.

I think we'll probably lose a lot.

I think that the economy will fix that the market.

I guess what I'm thinking of is we have too many to begin with.

Correct.

What I'm thinking of is the ones that will survive are the ones that are taking a really

hard look at how they do things as it relates to the fan experience.

And the ones who figure it out and fix it are the ones that are going to survive.

I guess that's where I'm coming from.

We'll talk about that.

The reason we do this show is because we've all agreed that that's what we think Bonnaroo

has done well.

They look at things from a fan's perspective.

From what I'm hearing and what I'm gathering, they're taking a hard look at that and we'll

see if it works.

I mean, they're the ones who are asking people to camp in a field in Manchester, Tennessee.

You're asking a lot.

I think they're trying to figure out how to make that work and more appealing.

They're going to come on our show and talk about it.

Good.

They're welcome any time.

Those are any festival organizers that would like to come on and chat.

We'd love to have the content.

I promise you, you are going to be welcome here on the What Podcast.

Any and all festival coordinators, organizers, bookers, accountants, ticket takers, car parkers,

valets.

We'll take them all.

Just be funny.

Come on, be funny.

Just be funny and no hugging.

So there's another thing that I thought that we wanted to bring up.

Oh, yeah, but about your vagueness though, you're dancing around, you said changes.

What kind of changes are you speaking of?

Structure.

I don't think we're going to talk about lineup type of things at this point, but just how

it's organized from the fan's perspective.

So I don't want to get in, I don't think I can get into it any more than that because

there's still a lot being hashed out, but it will be significant.

I mean, you haven't said anything to me, but if I had to guess, I mean, I think that there

are probably three to half a dozen things that the normal Bonnarooian, even the guy that

didn't go, can probably go down the list and say, yeah, that's probably what they're going

to address next year.

I think that some of these are low hanging fruit that we can all probably assume are

going to be fixed.

Unless they're completely blind.

Yeah, I mean, what was the biggest topic last year?

I mean, I'll go ahead and what was the biggest chatter last year?

The second toll booth or the second entrance.

I bet that gets fixed.

I would be very comfortable in saying, I bet that gets fixed.

Yeah, by the way, what was the, did we talk about this or not?

How did you guys like the jam tracks?

We never used it because the word we got was it was just so awkward.

It was a singular loop and it was, so it was just a loop.

It was a hamster wheel.

Yeah, it was so...

Oh, you're talking about the loop around?

Around the camp area.

Got it.

Okay.

So if you got on at say, Plaza One, you had to go all the way around the 10 and it took,

you know, you could have walked it in that amount of time.

Really?

And it filled up, right?

I mean, Russ, you probably heard from more folks than I did.

I also think they didn't have enough vehicles to get everybody around.

So the wait times were a lot longer.

Yeah.

So, I mean...

Great in theory.

And it's something that can just get better.

Just get fixed.

Yeah.

Have them going two way.

I mean, there's all kinds of, you know, a lot of it is, some of that is probably related

if you remember to staffing.

You know, the numbers were so low, they didn't have the same number of volunteers and gates

and all of that.

So, you know...

In your opinion, and you're probably reading between the lines, in the conversations that

you've had, do you think that they know that...

Do they know a cause to why the numbers were down last year?

Do you think they know why?

I think they have theories, absolutely.

Okay.

Absolutely.

But...

Yeah, but...

Yeah, and quite...

Well, I mean...

Theories are one thing.

Do they know?

Well...

Everybody has theories.

I mean, you can theorize how you want to, but a company that big, they're not doing

dollars and cents based on theories.

I think they have a really good idea, yes.

Okay.

Yes.

And...

Well, if they do, the reason I ask is if they do, you know, that's an easy thing to identify

as something to be fixed.

Yes.

Yes.

And quite honestly, I think a lot of it...

I felt a lot of that, what you're asking, at our Moon River Festival, which...

What do you mean?

As we said in our last show, what, three, four weeks ago, when it rained out, they came

immediately and announced, we're going to give refunds, and then they gave them within

eight days, and they fixed that Sunday night thing.

Now, the Sunday night thing was partly because they had Drew Holcomb, who was the curator,

and it was a small town, it was a small event, but the thing that I took away from that was

they knew they needed to do right by the fans, and they did.

Yeah, and also, I'm sure they had a staff that was large enough to handle the size of

the festival, which wasn't that big to begin with, but the staff wasn't a concern.

And you know, to be fair, Bonnaroo kind of came...

I know it sounds crazy to say, I know I'm going to get blistered for this, but it kind

of snuck up on everybody.

If you're a company that is running 17 other festivals, 50 other different music venues,

and something's already been well-worn in the past, and it's been taken care of and

easy peasy for so many years, and then all of a sudden some new operators have it, and

then they look around the calendar like, oh, I guess we should...

That's now, huh?

And things get missed that way.

Yeah, there's a lot that happened in those two and a half years, and the word I got was

we learned.

And the other point is, I keep bringing up Moon River, but the other point is it's the

same people.

Maybe not the exact same 10, but three or four of the 10.

It's the same organizations.

It's kind of crazy to think that the same person that issued somebody a refund at Moon

River is probably the exact same person that issued a refund at Bonnaroo two years ago.

It's not like the job responsibilities changed that often.

Well, actually, in some ways, back to your earlier point from a minute ago, it kind of

did because they switched companies, and there was a lot of moving parts, and we were coming

in, yeah, so I think what I'm hearing and what I'm gathering is they sort of sat back,

said, we need to get a handle on this again, and what do we do, and how do we make this

right?

That's what I'm hearing.

I mean, I'm hearing positive stuff.

Well, I mean, that sounds positive.

Yeah, that's what I'm hearing.

Well, obviously, what is it?

The proof is in the tasting, so we'll see, but everything I'm hearing is...

I know everybody says it's in the pudding, but it's actually the tasting of the pudding.

You got to...

Anyway.

That's deep.

Lord Taka, put it on the board.

That's another one.

That's another one.

I just did not.

Write it down.

It's not just the proof's in the pudding.

It's the tasting of the pudding.

It's the tasting.

I mean, for a guy that has these sayings that really don't make any sense, the exquisite

level of detail you have placed on this specific one is kind of odd.

It's a little out of character.

The proof is in the tasting.

You want to know my favorite one?

That everybody says this wrong?

And I can't even remember it.

Good.

Nailed it.

I just went blank.

Okay.

I'll think of it.

Keep talking.

I'll think of it.

I mean, the one that will never...

It'll never get right.

You know, I've heard it now too many times.

You know, at the time when I first heard it, I said to myself, what did he just say?

But when our camp mate about seven years ago looked around, was explaining to us about

something he was fishing in a creek somewhere, and he looks like, I mean, it was assholes

elbows back there.

And I cocked my head and I said, it's a what?

I had never heard that before in my life.

And that spurred an entire weekend of us just making up ridiculous...

It's like wearing moon boots in the desert.

It became the most ridiculous analogy that you could make.

Hard as I've laughed in forever.

I've never heard that before in my life.

And you know, unfortunately at the time I was just trying to be a dick, but now I've

heard it so many times.

Yeah, it was funny.

Yeah.

The one I was trying to think of is have your cake and eat it too.

The actual saying is eat your cake and have it too.

Oh, that changes everything.

Oh my God.

It does.

Now I get it.

Now it makes sense.

You can't eat it and still have it, but you can have it and eat it.

It makes... think about it.

There you go.

Boy, you're blowing my mind.

I'm a giver.

I'm giving you guys something to...

He's blowing something.

All right.

I feel like there...

I really do feel like there was something else and I totally lost what it was.

Let's talk lineup just for a second because recently Dead and Company put out their summer

tour and they're booked on the weekend of Bonnaroo, so they're probably a no-go.

You know what?

They've already got dates.

I'm glad you brought that up.

I think too, I made some pretty forceful demands a couple of weeks ago and I'm going to be

0 for 1 because Rage Against Machine, that's not happening.

That dude's leg is not going to be ready in time for Bonnaroo.

Man, I'm stunned because your plea was passionate, logical, forceful.

I can't believe they didn't make the call right then and there.

I guess you're not going.

That's bad stuff.

That didn't work.

That's tough.

Yeah, so RIP, Brad, because I blew it.

I blew it 0 for 1.

You can't eat your cake and have it too, I guess.

Yeah, you can't break your leg and go to Bonnaroo too.

The other thing too was there's Rage, there's Dead and Company, and oh god, I thought there

was another one that came around this week.

Oh, that's what I was going to say.

You mentioned guests earlier today.

Man, do I think that I'm really close to maybe the biggest guest we've ever had on this show.

Don't tease.

I really shouldn't.

I shouldn't jinx it like this, but it's been said to me that it is such a sure thing.

By the way, whenever somebody in this industry tells you it's a totally sure thing, I never

buy it.

I totally think you're totally wrong.

It usually means he's going to get fired within the next four weeks, doesn't it?

Well, it usually means that I'm saying this is a totally sure thing, so you'll stop asking

me and I'll come up with an excuse why it won't work out later.

Yeah, I had it arranged, but somebody else screwed it up.

Yeah.

Man, it is going to be such a big get.

Taco what would be the one mom that could come on the show that you wouldn't be able

to talk to?

Like if there was a celebrity mom that was like, I just, I can't speak.

I'm so flummoxed.

There's no way that I could muster a word.

Yeah.

Are there celebrity moms?

I mean, Angelina Jolie is a celebrity.

Rachel Billson is a celebrity mom.

Well, they're celebrities who are moms.

Okay.

You know what I'm saying?

God, I'm just like trying to talk to me about engines.

We're splitting.

We're going to split hairs.

That's our new thing.

Right.

The point being is it's going to be so big.

Like I don't know if Barry will be able to muster words.

Don't tease me.

I'm counting on it.

It's going to be my Christmas, isn't it?

You know, I've got some really, really good gifts ready for you.

By the way, we talked about this earlier.

I have come up with an idea for tacos birthday slash Christmas and I've told Barry, Barry,

your thoughts.

How good is it?

It's a, it's a, it's a home run.

There might be tears.

Okay.

There might be tears.

Oh yeah.

There might be tears.

So, so years ago, years ago, I, uh, it took me, it took me about a year and a half before

I knew Russ's actual name.

I only ever knew him.

It's Lord taco.

And so, uh, one day for Christmas, I decided to, uh, look up how to be a Lord.

How do you actually get the, you know, thing of how do you really legally become a Lord?

So you have to own property in England to be a Lord.

You have to be crested by the government and, uh, own a piece of property.

So I went on one of these websites and I bought Russ a five foot by five foot plot of land

on Hogan Manor that he is officially just, you know, on the one caveat that he renounces

his American citizenship and he can then become the Lord of this piece of property and officially

be Lord Russ Jackson, hence Lord taco.

So yes, you are legally a Lord.

Should you want to say goodbye to your friends, family and country?

Now that gift was great.

See you Barry.

Barry, do you think this gift is better than the Lordship that he was?

Well, I would just say that that that gives people listening an idea of the bar because

that's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

So, um, yes, yes.

Wow.

Well, it's a tad more expensive.

It's a tad more expensive, but it will be worth it to watch Russ collapse into a, and

it will be a show thing.

It will be something that we can do with the show.

Absolutely.

So it's not just a benefit for, you know, Russ, but it's a benefit for you, the podcast

listener.

So, you know, if you want to make this dream happen, um, you can Venmo me because I desperately

need to fund this idea.

Why are you getting Venmo'd for my birthday?

Trust me, Russ, you'll be so, it'll be so worth it.

Yes, anything you can offer me at Brad Stinks on Venmo to make this birthday slash Christmas

present happen, um, would be appreciated.

It would have to be in the spring of next year.

I think it has to be in the spring of next year.

Okay.

You keep saying birthday slash Christmas.

Those are two different things and neither of them are in the spring.

I know that, but if I can present you this gift at Christmas for the spring, then it

would be,

I see.

Oh, okay.

It'll be a, it'll be a handwritten coupon.

Dear Russ, here's your gift.

It's like an IOU.

Okay guys, I have, I'm not trying to be Mr. New York all of a sudden, but in one show,

I have heard the word vehicle and coupon.

Coupon.

Well, how do you say it?

Vehicle and coupon.

Coupon.

Coupon.

Yeah, those are wrong.

Look at this idiot.

He doesn't know how to say vehicle.

All right, anything else?

Can't even, can't even say Calliope.

Okay.

I know.

Love it.

What else do you want to get into?

Anything else before we go?

No.

Before we get into the next high five.

Yeah, just.

Yeah, I'm excited.

I'm excited to see what it's going to be.

You and I.

Me too.

We'll all find out together.

We'll all find out together.

Go to the wetpodcast.com and oh, hey, there's merch.

There's merch there too.

We didn't even mention that.

We still have t-shirts.

Something we probably need to mention too.

We don't do a very good job of saying this, but rating and reviewing always really helps.

Absolutely.

You know, you know, it's, first off, if you have nothing nice to say, then I would just

say, you know, say anything.

But you know, a proper, I would say I prefer the five stars, but if you would like to go

the Lord Taco route and just give four, I'm okay with that.

Four stars is very respectable.

Can always improve.

I'm okay with the four stars.

Always room for improvement.

So yeah, if you rate and review, it helps.

And it turns out, and I was talking to somebody who does this for the company, but there's

a difference between just rating and reviewing.

Just rating is not good enough.

The rating almost is nice, but it really, it's the review that really hits the algorithm

better.

Right?

So if you have both of these things, then the algorithm sees the podcast and it populates

it in more places.

And the more places that we are populated and the higher we are in the level, that means

more Venmo money for me so that I can produce this A plus level Christmas present for us.

Make this happen.

It's all about me.

I'm trying to make it all about you.

Yes.

All right.

All right.

Let's get into this high five and we'll talk to you guys next week.

And for anybody that hasn't ever been to Bonnaroo, the thing that is remarkable is a couple of

years ago, five years ago or so, these things didn't exist.

So now you have something to do pretty much all day and all night.

And it becomes in and of itself its own, its own festival, its own individual thing, which

I gotta imagine can end up getting a little pricey.

At what point do you start saying, ah, we're just out of money?

We've given you a note.

Go ahead.

At the beginning.

About six months ago.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Because you guys really spare no expense.

And the reason I ask that, like you go to the House of Love, right?

A couple of years ago, the place has done phenomenally well.

You guys do not, it doesn't feel like you miss a detail.

And what I've always loved about Bonnaroo is that when you go to the user experience

inside the festival, you can't really find a place where they've missed a tiny detail.

And you guys really pay attention to those outside into the festival grounds or into

the campgrounds.

And I gotta imagine at some point you're like, well, how can we just do this for free?

Right?

And I think just arts and crafts are a way to making this work.

And that to me requires an amount of energy, bodies, human beings, hands, creativity that

can't all be done with just three or four people.

Right?

I mean, totally.

It's definitely a heavy lift.

We're very lucky that the Palomba and Clemen team, including Bobby, has some really, really

awesome relationships.

And so it's a balance.

Right?

Obviously we have a budget, but then we have a huge plethora of artists that are already

playing the festival that hopefully Bonnaroo is a little out of the way.

A lot of them are sticking around for the weekend and see these opportunities as something

exciting and different and a great marketing moment for them.

And so it's a little bit of both.

It's working with Bobby and their team to figure out how we can use their relationships

and people, artists on site that are reaching out to them that might want to do something

different or like, hey, we're going to be there all weekend is our way to get a little

bit of extra cash.

And then obviously some of it is just kind of going for the big ones and just seeing

if we can figure out a way to get them to understand what it is and do something different

than what they're normally used to doing.

I want to come back, Sophie, to the plazas and all of that.

But I want to ask Bob some of the same questions.

Is it Bobby or Bobby?

Which do you prefer?

Oh, either one's fine.

Bobby's fine.

OK, you got it, Robert.

I want to ask sort of the same question because I think these two things, the events, the

experiences in the plazas and the other stage and the EDM are two of the bigger changes

that we've seen in the last four or five, six years.

It's really thrown a breath of fresh air into the whole festival.

It made a huge difference.

And that's what I want to come back to.

But I want to let's get caught up with Bobby in the EDM stages.

What was what was your charge?

What was the mission that they said, go do this and do it?

Well, like Brad said, for free.

No, I'm sure they will.

You know, it's it's interesting because some of the most legendary and most talked about

sets out of honor in the last 10 years have been those from the electronic acts, you know,

pretty lights, you know, until six in the morning, dead mouse late night, face laughter

late night.

And some of those sets are are categorized as the most legendary performances of the

history of Bonnaroo.

So it was only natural to to kind of give that space its own area within center.

And the first three years of the booking the stage, it was it was very much an experiment

trying to figure out what the Bonnaroo audience was interested in.

And we didn't want to just assume that everyone liked the same thing.

So we booked a little bit of everything.

You know, we booked the first year probably, you know, an act out of every single sub genre

that we possibly could to take, you know, take the the crowds temperature.

But this year, I feel like we really zeroed in and it takes a lot of communication and

working in tandem with Brian and and Stephen and Sophie to really present a coherent offering.

You know, we can't do what we do without communication.

So you know, I need to know what's going on on the other side of the park just as much

as Brian and Steve need to know what's going on with the other stage.

So it's all it's all one unit moving towards the same goal.

So I'm not over there just looking on an island.

Another What Podcast high five to see more of this and more of our interviews with a

spectrum of artists, influencers, podcast people.

Go to the whatpodcast.com or the whatpodcast on Twitter.

Is it the whatpodcast or the what underscore podcast?

It's the what underscore podcast because somebody already took the name.

I'm sure he's good.

I'm sure he's getting a lot of mileage out of it.

They haven't posted since 2016.

See, he's so good.

So good.

All right.

Let's talk to you next week.

Bye.