As we inch ever closer to Bonnaroo 2023, more and more exciting announcements just keep coming our way. The latest news to grace Roovians is the anticipated 2023 SuperJam, which will be hosted by Cory Wong.
On this episode of The What Podcast, Brad, Barry, and Lord Taco break down everything they know about the upcoming SuperJam before pondering the hectic situation surrounding ambulance services for the event. Read the article from the Manchester Times here.
Later, the crew reminisce with a High Five Clip from the first-ever episode of The What Podcast. They run through the weekly discussions that led to the show's birth and how they came upon what they describe as a "terrible name" for the series.
You can also watch the full discussion via YouTube and while you're at it, do us a solid by liking, reviewing, and subscribing to The What Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Well, welcome back into the what podcast?
Barry Courter, the Boy Scout Barry Courter.
Russ Jackson, Lord Taco, Brad.
How's toward?
How's toward and toward lock?
Oh, toward lock goes back towards back.
If you're the Boy Scout, you need to become.
Stop.
You guys are killing me.
Stop.
The Boy Scout toward lock.
Oh, Brad Steiner here jumping back in for a minute before we play a really special moment.
High five this week as we get closer and closer to Bonnaroo.
So this week, Barry, we're going to jump back into where it all started because last week
was such an odd, I don't know, show.
Let's show you what it was supposed to be and how it was originally designed.
From episode one.
Thought it'd be a good idea to show just how far off the rails we've gone.
Just how far off in the last five years we have just completely derailed this entire
product.
We've got a couple of pieces of news.
We'll get to the high five clip here in a second.
Let's start with some news that you guys don't know yet.
But actually, Barry does know this, but taco toward Loco does not know this.
We are this close.
We got a yes, but we are this close, Lord, to booking the biggest guest we have ever
gotten on this show.
It has been our white whale for four years.
And Barry, you saw the email come through yesterday that it is an absolute go.
We just got to work on the timing in the next couple of weeks.
The biggest guest, the What Podcast has ever gotten.
And what was my response?
You didn't respond.
Be still my beating heart.
Be still my beating heart.
Barry actually died a little bit when he heard that.
I did die.
I'm going to go Chris Farley.
There's no question in my mind.
I won't be able to speak.
Yeah, well, taco, if if he died, we might as well call the Boy Scouts to come pick him
up.
That's in a giant can.
Call him up in.
Lay me in a can on a hill somewhere.
This is the last Boy Scout.
Very excited.
Very cornered.
The last Boy Scout.
Yes.
So sorry to everyone who listens to this show.
So we got that bit of news, some personal stuff.
Very excited about that.
I did want to start with I want to start with something that came through the Manchester
Times this week.
And I don't know, Barry, if you saw this, but it was actually kind of a concerning article.
But you're the person that can clarify from the Bonnaroo side of this.
And if you don't mind, I request that you reach out to at least anybody there that can
get us some background.
But the headline read this week, County this from the Manchester Times, Manchester Times,
of course, the paper of record of Manchester, Tennessee, County will not provide standing
ambulances for Bonnaroo.
Coffee County Ambulance Authority unanimously decided at the April 20th meeting to not enter
into a contract with the organization that provides medical services to Bonnaroo to provide
ambulances and crews needed for the festival to comply with state law.
The quote is our first obligation is with the citizens of Coffee County.
In a statement to the board, he goes on, according to the state's mass gathering law says, a
holding or assembly shall provide one license emergency vehicle stationed at the assembly
site per 50,000 attendees one ambulance for 50,000 people.
Wow, my concern is the chief guy in all of this, the ambulance authority guy.
My concern is we are contractually obligated and he could sue us if we do not keep an ambulance
out there.
That's according to Bonnaroo.
Actually, I don't know who Bonnaroo is.
Oh, that's EMF chief.
Okay.
EMS chief Michael Bonnaroo said, my concern is we are contractually obligated and could
sue us.
I don't know who he's talking about.
But anyway, if we could adequately staff for the citizens of Coffee County, I have no problem
putting an ambulance out there Bonnaroo.
This is not a financial decision.
This is because of staffing.
Even if they offered pay, we'd still have trouble with staffing.
All right.
So when I first read this, Barry, I had two thoughts.
Of course, the first one is this seems perilous.
But also there was a part of me that is like the town, the county rather of Manchester
has been playing hardball with Bonnaroo for the better part of 16, 20 months, trying to
get some tax money back from some of the hotel taxes that Bonnaroo because Bonnaroo didn't
happen during the COVID year.
I keep wondering every time that there's some sort of city government and Bonnaroo story,
I wonder if this is like some sort of hardball that they're playing.
I find it hard to believe that out of nowhere they have a staffing issue randomly for the
first time, I don't know, ever has this happened before.
And even if they're willing to pay, they just don't have human beings that can drive ambulances.
What do they do on a normal day?
What do they do on a normal weekend?
Thirdly, what does Bonnaroo do?
Wow.
I have not seen this.
Let me start there.
Yeah, your first instinct was mine that this is a saber rattling type of thing.
Thank you.
That's what I was trying to say.
Yeah, the last thing you said was it's a staffing, which may be legit.
I mean, you can't just find EMTs if it's not like we go next door and knock on the door.
Why not?
Couldn't somebody from the county over maybe that wants to make some overtime?
That's my thought.
But back to what you were saying, the city of Manchester and the county of Coffey have
been going at it for the last couple of years over taxes.
It was, you know, Bonnaroo was in the county and then the city annexed it, what, two, two
and a half years ago during the pandemic.
And so there was a lot of lost revenue that was supposed to be the, how it was supposed
to work.
They were supposed to get a percentage and I don't remember the number, you know, based
on the previous year's number.
And the previous year was zero because it didn't happen.
So I know they're having, you know, they're back and forth.
One ambulance per 50 sounds a little, you know.
Like you said, Russ, that was my thought.
Go to Nashville, go to Chattanooga.
You know, somebody will go up there for a couple hundred bucks an hour or whatever.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
That's interesting.
Having said that, I don't know the details.
So I need to definitely, that'll be a question I'll look at this week.
It's going to be a big background question that you asked.
So I'm going to read further through this article a little bit.
Two important details are stressed at the meeting.
Bonnaroo maintains fully equipped medical tents to provide on-site care of event staff
and guests.
The county will respond to 911 calls placed from Bonnaroo organizers.
The festival contracts not ask Coffee County EMS to go onto the grounds, nor does its employees
provide on-site treatment.
Unless there were a major event involving mass casualties, et cetera.
This is what they continue to say.
At Bonnaroo, there's a quote, at Bonnaroo, there should be two physicians working there.
Tents are designed to be acting as an ER.
It's not going to be a situation where there's not going to be a medical care.
I'm sorry.
It's not going to be a situation when there's not going to be medical care at Bonnaroo.
Medical care will be there.
Bonnaroo has medical, has full advanced life support capabilities.
They just do not have the staff to run multiple ambulances should they need them.
Seems strange.
Seems odd.
This is the first time in 17 years they have run into this problem, the article contains.
Like I said, I need to look into it more.
It's interesting that it became, it's such a story.
Back to the point that our original gut was, if you scroll later down in this article,
oh, they just end up talking about the strained relationship between the county and Bonnaroo,
which talks exactly about that tax issue that you mentioned.
This is a really good article that I like this Manchester Times guy.
He's really, really good.
If only we could get a newspaper writer taco, a part of the what podcast we might actually
be able to get somewhere here.
I'll look around.
I don't know.
I'll see if he's available.
Yeah, John Coughlet.
Yeah, John Coughlet, I think he's been around for a while, hasn't he?
I think it's the same guy.
If so, he's been very good.
He and I have communicated with emails.
He sent me notes when I've got something, not wrong, but something I didn't know about.
He's reached out if it is in fact the same guy.
Yeah, he's been all over it.
Let's link this article to the show just in case you want to read further about that.
But Barry, clarifying that would be very, very helpful.
The other piece of news that we got this week was the super jam.
Now, if you remember a few months ago, we had the organizers on who basically said,
they straight out said the artist that's going to be hosting the super jam was not on the
lineup currently.
That came true.
This week we got the news from Corey.
Corey Wong is going to be the super jam, I guess, officiator.
You're not talking to a Corey expert here.
I will be totally honest with you.
I've heard the name.
I'm certainly familiar enough with him that he just seems to have his hands in a lot of
different places, which means he's got a lot of friends and can bring a vast amount of
sound to a super jam.
What is exactly what you want?
You could go from rockabilly to some punk metal with this guy, it seems like.
So it could be a really fun super jam, a sneaky super jam, something that you're not, you
weren't really expecting to be the star of the night.
But it feels like it's got a little bit of, I don't know, for the first time, it's got
a little bit of energy, mainly because it's so unknown.
I don't really know what to expect.
We figured out what Jack Antonoff is going to bring with his show last year because they
basically told us this feels a little mysterious and kind of fun.
Yeah, I'm with you.
I've heard the name, didn't know a lot.
But when you look it up, it's like, oh, this makes perfect sense.
He's done projects with Wolfpack.
Damned everybody on the lineup.
Yeah, Chris Thiele, Billy Strings.
I mean, you know, pretty all over the place.
So that's what you want from a super jam or what I want anyway.
Yeah, the only one I've been with was BD.
Okay, boy, go ahead.
Go ahead, Brad.
Oh, my goodness.
It's not BD Wong.
It's Corey Wong.
No, it's not.
You can only have one because two wongs don't make a right.
Okay, he's played with Larry Carlton, who I love, Victor Wurten, Bela Fleck, Chromia
So.
I guess I'll go now.
Yes.
And scene.
Your job here is done.
And scene, exactly.
Now, I think it's a good pick.
Was it what I expected?
No, but I didn't know what I expected.
But I think it's a good one.
So we'll see.
We'll see what happens.
The problem with the super jam every year is, I don't think I've been to a super jam
that really even got me maybe in 10 years.
And I've been to a super jam that I've really, really loved.
Which one did I like?
Billy Idol, the one with Billy Idol and Britney was there singing.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was 2016.
I mean, it's been a long time.
Oh, well, that's less than 10.
But you like that was that.
I agree with you.
That was a big one.
I liked it.
I think the super jam is the bread and butter of Bonnaroo.
And I just kind of wish that it always had a little bit more oomph.
But then again, I can't really say that with too much authority because I always end up
skipping it.
I can't really talk about how much I like or dislike the super jam.
I'm sure it's great.
I just don't always I always end up finding something else to do.
Which you know, we've said this before.
The idea is what was so appealing for the first 10 years, where you never knew who might
show up on stage with with who.
And the super jam was like a bigger version of that.
And in some ways, as it has it become too not predictable, predictable, and it's unpredictable
in this or whatever, you know, I mean, it's it's sort of replaced this idea of, you know,
as we've talked about with the Foo Fighters and who who knows who's going to show up on
stage with them kind of ended with the police, if I remember right, we all thought that the
police set was going to be such a super jam, if you will.
And I remember talking to Stuart Copeland, and he was like, Yeah, this is what we need
to do.
And Sting wouldn't do it.
He wouldn't change a note.
And so I don't think I knew that story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Stuart Copeland was coming to Chattanooga and I was and he had just done the
But just to give a little background, the police did a reunion show, a few reunion shows
that year, one of them happened to be a Bonnaroo.
And for anybody that wasn't there, it was one of the lamest shows that you might will
have ever seen a Bonnaroo.
It had no energy.
It had no juice.
These guys had no they weren't they weren't even looking at each other on stage.
It was one of the moments where you're like, that was a big, big swing of this.
Check off my box.
But that was it.
Stuart Copeland had been there what the year before the year before with who I can't remember.
I'm sorry, I'm blanking but he'd been there as part of a it was there.
The oyster head.
Exactly.
Thank you.
It just came to me.
Yeah, which was an amazing set.
So the the thought leading up to the police thing was that, you know, it's going to be
this police jam.
This amazing set and Stuart was here in Chattanooga or maybe it was part of the Bonnaroo.
Maybe he was part of one of those those things where he did a lot of media.
And he just straight up said told me because I asked.
He's like Sting wouldn't budge a minute.
He wouldn't budge a note.
And so like to your point, Brad, it was it was the police.
It was great.
You know, if you're a police fan, it was note for note what you wanted to hear.
But it didn't it didn't it wasn't what we wanted.
I don't see the reason I stop here because I don't think I've ever heard that story.
You're telling me that they wanted to do Stuart wanted to do a super jam ish or bring at least
bring other guests onto the stage, you know, explore the songs, let the songs go where
they wanted to go kind of thing.
And Sting wasn't having it.
And I can't remember his exact quote, but it was something like you're not going to
change things mind or, you know, he's precious and he's going to do what he wants to do kind
of thing.
So is this an article that you're for the paper?
Yeah.
Interesting.
Fascinating.
Huh.
I did not know that.
But but to that point, watching back, especially the guerrillas set from the second weekend
of Coachella where, you know, Damon Auburn looks like he's having the most fun he's ever
had in his career.
He's got bad bunny showing up.
I'm surprised Rick Astley didn't show up on stage at some point.
You know, it seemed like he had everyone at the festival coming by and playing with him.
I think I'm more into that these days, you know, being at someone's set and having them
bring out, you know, random people instead of being at a big super jam and knowing somebody's
going to come out.
I don't know.
It's hard to explain.
I think I'm I think I'm kind of I think I'm kind of over it.
I think we're saying the same thing.
And I didn't know till I just said it.
But that was sort of the that police thing was kind of the end of it for me because they
haven't done that.
We have sat on here before where, you know, it feels like the sets are getting shorter
and shorter and they don't do the jams and they don't do the surprise.
Not like they used to.
And I don't know if it's because the industry has changed or what.
But I don't disagree with you that whatever it was 2016 set with Billy Idol and all that
was my favorite super jam.
The other ones have been like, OK, wasn't it more late night to wasn't that the super
jam was always always like last year it was always.
Yeah.
Midnight.
You mean?
Yeah.
Yes.
Before it was late night.
It was wander over and kind of basically kind of wander over and see who shows up on the
back porch type of thing.
That was the whole thing.
And now it's become a little bit formulaic maybe.
Yeah.
Well, also, let's be honest, talking out of both sides here a little bit.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
But also, to be honest, it's hard to do.
It's really, really hard to do.
You can't just like ask random artists who are pretty into their own methods like, come
on up, just play a few notes.
That didn't really happen like that anymore.
Oh, that's right.
I mean, that one we're talking about was and it was such a personal thing for me because
Billy Idol show was great.
Britney is a huge.
You're a huge fan, as we all know.
Larry Graham was on that stage.
Larry Graham basically invented the slap bass.
So it was not only great music, it was getting to see heroes.
And that's hard.
So yeah, I think you're right.
It is hard.
And I think that's, you know, Corey seems to be a good pick for that reason because
he's done this.
This is what he does.
He's used to putting these sort of things together.
And then but I think that you asked the thousand dollar question, will it move a ticket?
I don't think it will.
But we got news this week to back up Barry's point from a few weeks ago that tickets are
this close to being sold out.
We are getting closer and closer to the magical day where Bondur is back into the sellout
range, which is where I expected to be last year, which I was thinking about going back
to what you said at the beginning of the show kind of fixes the city county thing, doesn't
it?
When the numbers, when the money's there, everybody's quiet.
So Barry, it doesn't matter if the money's there.
If you still owe me money, you still owe me money.
Well, you know, but if you if you pay me, I'll be quiet and go away for now.
That's right.
Speaking, speaking of Barry, before we get into this high five, I want to just prepare
you because now that we're getting closer and closer to Bondur, it's pick season next
week.
We begin the process of revealing our twenty twenty three Bondur picks.
We start with the Mr. Barry Courter.
So if you have any suggestions for the last Boy Scout, hit him up at the what underscore
podcast on Twitter or what's your Twitter handle at last Boy Scout?
Very busy.
Very busy.
Let's give him some suggestions because you know, Dad has a I have one.
He's traveling down the same lane most of the time.
So I want to shock you.
Is it is it?
I mean, let's have a moment of silence for Barry's blue checkmark, too.
RIP, man.
I had just gotten verified on Twitter to know I had just gotten there.
Now nobody will ever know.
Now you know.
By the way, so Barry picks next week, starting our yearly tradition of our one in particular,
I'm very excited about.
But yeah, I can't wait.
I can't wait to hear it if it's going to be out there.
Very excited.
All right.
You want to jump into this week's high five where it all started the very first episode
of the what podcast, which I'm going to guess, Taka, or at least listen to episode of what
podcast ever.
Actually, it did pretty well.
Excluding last week's maybe.
Yeah.
Yeah.
OK.
I just thought, you know, after last week, like I said, went so far off the rails, we
might go back to the beginning.
And this is literally the very beginning, the very beginning.
Yeah.
And just to set this thing up, we've said it before, but we're hoping that there's some
new people listening.
Brad and I were sitting, we had lunch pretty regularly, at least two or three times a month.
Right.
It was once a week, Barry.
We had a stand.
It was once a week.
And we noticed that we were always talking about Bonnaroo year round.
And I think I said we should this upcoming one, we should do a Facebook Live is what
I said.
And you your face, you went, I got it.
And within, I don't know, Taco, you tell me, because you and I had not met at this point.
But within days, really, it was pretty quick.
I remember, I think it was a I went out with Brad and we ate crawfish or he ate crawfish.
And he said something like, yeah, we want to get this domain and website up and running
and like, yeah, within a day or two, it was like, all right, I got it.
Oh, oh, this one, Barry's fix, man.
I know my doorbell.
I just had my doorbell is ringing.
Sorry.
I was like, yeah, yeah, within days.
I mean, days you had we had the website domain.
You had it built.
I was within a week and Brad obviously is a radio guy within a week I was at the studio
and we were doing the show no more than two weeks.
And first of all, I want to you know, Brad knows what he was doing what he knows what
he is doing.
So it it came out, I think really it came out great.
It was surprising in that.
But it's also surprising how close I think we were to what we wanted to do.
And you'll hear that the I love the intro.
I've always loved that intro.
I love the new one with the repeat repeat, but I love that intro.
And it's just fun to go back.
It was actually 2018.
So it's almost we're in season six.
Believe it or not.
So anyway, it's five minutes.
The first episode season six and we've only been to two Bonnaroo since then together.
I know.
Yeah.
Russ is not in this episode because he was the worst part about this.
That's why it sucks.
And that's why we don't talk about it very much.
But yeah, it was before it was in the before times.
It was.
Well, it's weird because I don't even know how I ended up on the show.
I wasn't supposed to be a part of this.
Not on camera.
Not with you guys.
But I but I but I loved about the early taco days when tacos started showing up at first.
You were just sort of like that guy at the Tom Green show who just sat behind Tom with
holding coffee.
Yes.
I love that.
Yeah, I love that guy.
Just laughing.
It wasn't a guest.
It wasn't the guest that at the end of an hour and you had not said a word to us as
the best show you've ever done.
Remember?
I don't remember.
I remember the show.
I don't remember.
You didn't say a word.
He was like, I'm not supposed to.
I'm not I'm not the one that's supposed to be interviewing people.
What am I going to have?
Nailed it, buddy.
Nailed it.
Yeah.
You were there last week and it was funny.
It was great.
He'll be there next week.
Let's get into this week's high five and the next week Barry's picks.
All right.
On the What Podcast.
Journey through the stories that define the artists playing by the rules.
Who are they?
What are they?
What will you see?
The What.
Which bands?
This year?
That Matter.
With Brad Steiner and Barry Courter.
Don't I make it look easy?
Don't I make it look good?
Something we specialize in.
Just don't drink all my liquor.
Anderson Paak, more specifically Brandon Paak Anderson.
Did you know that's not even his name Anderson Paak?
Brandon Paak Anderson.
That's like if I called myself Steinbrater.
Is it Paak or Park?
Well, it was originally Park.
That's right.
It's actually Park.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is the What Podcast.
The What.
Hyper focusing on the bands that matter.
More precisely, which bands that matter this year.
Which bands this year that matter.
Something like that.
This, that, and the other.
It's that.
I love we're starting with Anderson Paak.
Really?
Do you?
I really do.
That's a surprise to me.
I didn't think that would be up your alley.
Well, it wasn't to be honest, but I think this year for me especially, the lineup is
about discovery and a little bit of trust.
We've gone, you and I, what, almost 30 times each.
Yeah.
I guess.
It's combined.
Oh my God.
Combined.
I'm more focused than the guys that put it together and Anderson is not somebody that
it was very familiar to me a couple weeks ago.
Now I like it quite a bit.
Now you like it a lot.
Yeah.
I'm looking forward to seeing the live show.
This is a podcast by Bonnarooians for Bonnarooians.
We want to take a deep dive into the artists that are playing.
Bonnaroo, we want to do each and every week, go through a specific artist catalog, go through
their bio, maybe introduce you to a new band.
Maybe you could even introduce us to a new band.
You could do that at thewhatpodcast.com.
We hope to catch some of that magic that these artists will bring to the farm, bottle it
and then expose it to you each week with a spotlight on the artists that will hopefully
make 2018 special.
And you talk about that trust that you have in the Bonnaroo people, whether or not the
lineup is for you or not for you, there's something probably you're going to discover.
And it's really odd to me that you just now discovered Anderson Paak, especially with
all the two Grammy Awards last year.
Yeah.
To be honest, I've relied on maybe my kids or some other people and they're all gone.
Oh, they're still with us though.
Well, I mean, yes, they're out of the house.
So yeah, I mean, there's so much music out there.
I can't keep up with all of it and I don't pretend that I do.
I have learned over the many years of going to Bonnaroo, you're there.
You really don't have much else to do.
You don't have anything else to do.
You might as well go discover a new great act.
Sure.
And here's just joining us who don't know who we are.
That's Barry Courter.
He writes for the Times Street Press and has for since the inception of newspapers.
From the beginning of newspapers, you were there.
Pretty much.
Yeah.
The first one rolled off with an ink press.
I'm Brad Steiner.
I do a radio show on a top 40 station in Chattanooga.
But our passion, no matter if Barry's writing about a recipe or if I'm playing Beyonce,
our passion is independent alternative music and nobody showcases it better than the foremost
festival and that's Bonnaroo.
So not only do we appreciate you, but we appreciate the Bonnaroo people for being so supportive
in this.
And because they're so supportive in this, they're giving us a pair of tickets to give
away to a podcast listener.
This our inaugural version of the What Podcast.
Somebody that listens to this podcast is going to win Bonnaroo tickets.
I'll tell you how to do that coming up a little bit later on the podcast.
But Anderson Paak, to me, I love him so much because everything that he writes, everything
that he performs, the way that he performs it, it all starts with that bio of his and
that bio of his is not only inspiring, but it's heartbreaking.
No question.
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