The What Podcast
CaveFest 2025: Exploring the Underground Magic of The Caverns
Season 8, Episode 41
Published October 15, 2025
https://thewhatpodcast.com/episode/cavefest-2025-exploring-the-underground-magic-of-the-caverns

And welcome everybody we're back with the what podcast live at or recorded live to tape as I

Like to say in the new age of the world of media

It's the what podcast at the caverns. My name is Brian. This is Beth Thorpe

You have if you're a regular listener and watcher recently

I'm in the bus. Yeah, you're in the bus. And then Lord taco as well

Thank you for joining the show Sandsbury quarter

He's texting us in the group text that he is experiencing FOMO. He's got a lot of FOMO

He wishes he was here and we do too. Yeah, and I had I had almost the same thing when you guys were in shaky knees

I mean actually I totally had it but oh you did

But I got to listen to a bunch of bluegrass because I love it so much and then we got another bluegrass festival in

And then now I'm here, but I want to say

Cave me and Beth have been talking about this cave fest

This is this is not a bluegrass festival to me

There's a lot of stuff going on here that doesn't have any bluegrass to it at all

It's just a festival that has a lot of bluegrass added. There's bluegrass on the lineup for sure, but this is not a bluegrass

Yeah, I was curious cuz centric thing. Yeah, it feels like it because if you don't know any better

But it's just a fabulous place you guys know that we

Gush over this and I know the cynic would be like well, it's down the road. You know, they're your friends and

And you know, of course you're gonna say that

Guys, I'm saying east of the message east of the Mississippi. You're not gonna find

Much of anything like this

Yeah, I mean we joke that it's our second favorite place in the world first. Of course is Bonnaroo, but no, this is legit

I mean, we really love coming here. It's yeah, it's not a joke. It's for real. This place is it's fabulous and

You know, I know it hurts for Bonnaroo people who are still and when all of us are

Crushed by weather and lots of out events have had this all year

Best weather in the history of the world. This is a great weekend. Yeah right now

Absolutely gorgeous hot well warm

sunshine day

Boy, it gets chilly that fire last night

That was that was big time. We had a big fire last night. He was the fire start to

You prodigy fans

Beth coming from

Washington State for this just short weekend. I'm so happy to have you here. Thank you

We went on the cave tour. There are multiple multiple caves here. We'll get to that here in just a minute

We'll talk about a couple things here on the front end. This is basically the show this week

we don't know how we're gonna get together and do anything other than this and

As far as I'm concerned, this is a good of a studio and a good of a setting to do such a thing

Um, I looked at Bonnaroo's Twitter today. I was just curious when the last time they

tweeted July 24th

Wow, and this is October that's how long it's been since there's been anything from Bonnaroo

I don't know what that means. It probably means nothing except for

Bonnaroo for a while last couple of years had really gotten into this almost NFL

National Football League style

Approach to releasing information a lot a lot of events companies people do this

It's just it's just to keep to keep the discourse going yeah to keep people interested

Mm-hmm. Sometimes you can overkill because you don't have much

Bonnaroo's usually got something and they usually they usually keep it in pockets and

This is a long time for the for the the account to go dark. It's a long time to be silent. Yeah

Yeah, I don't think it means anything good bad right or wrong. It's just what's happening

And I'm guessing with some structural changes within management

They're probably just like let's just all shut up for a while and and figure out what we're doing next year

Yeah

I was gonna say if even if they're quiet on the front end in the back end

There is a lot of things happening behind the scenes a lot of restructuring. We have a new director

Yeah, lots of things are changing for next year. So I don't think it's bad that it's silent

No, and I I wonder I wonder I wonder wonder and there's you know rumors everywhere and that's what the Internet's best at

But I wonder if if if a lot of this has to do at all with an earlier-than-usual

Lineup release and I've been wondering this for a couple of months now because that well if nothing else Coachella, you know

We're so early. Yeah, so early and you know when your rivals which I know they're not really rivals

But they're in industry business. They they are competitive

I wonder if that if that'll follow usually we're looking at the first week of January

For a lineup release you'll blink your eyes. You'll wake up, you know in a week and a half and it'll be January

Oh, yeah, that's like tomorrow. So I wonder if we get it in December this year. I have no idea. No nothing

Yeah, I'm making things up and just wandering out loud because it Coachella sold out in in a snap minutes

Yeah, it's it's it's a complete sellout already. So

We're all waiting just like everybody else is on this and yeah, we have no information

So we're just guessing just like everyone else is at this point just having fun doing it. Yeah

Speaking of festivals. I was just looking through

Festival his his timeline to see what was just that's

The latest on anything in the last week or two is just festivals going on. Were you aware of this nine-inch nails?

Festival no, you mentioned this earlier and I had not heard of this

I

Don't know much except it's been canceled already

so in the in the last couple years of seems like

Half of everything doesn't end up happening. Yeah

Trent Reznor nine-inch nails put together this one day festival for Los Angeles in November

I don't know where I miss this

Other than I try to stay away from the headlines of all of our lives and therefore I miss a lot of things

But it was some kind of experimental not necessarily screening of films

But it from what I could quickly tell through just some some some quick googling was it's a film music hybrid

It involved John Carpenter

Danny Elfman. Mm-hmm both of doing scores and film producers and makers

Christine is cap and you're the carpenter. Excuse me the Stephen King Christine. Yes

Elfman's done a lot of scores weird science

Peewees playhouse. Oh, yeah, Danny Elfman's done a lot. Yeah and Tim Burton

Kind of stuff that kind of thing. So a bunch of weirdos altogether Trent and these guys doing something a little different

And so I've it intrigues me except boom just like that

And

They canceled it so I don't know hadn't I first of all is like how have I not heard of this second of all Wow

It's in a month. So, I don't know. Yeah, it's pretty bad when the first time you hear about an event like that

It's just can't yeah. Okay. All right. Now I have a feeling it might be a more of a West Coast thing

That's why we didn't hear a lot of it. It's a one-day deal one-off thing

So, I don't know just all that trance been busy because nine-inch nails does the score for the new Tron movie?

That's out now I think really yeah, I did not know that it also been busy because of this big this big tour

They've been on yeah with noise. Yeah, and they're doing a lot of we mentioned it briefly

We were talking 90s and Sal Jax a little while back

They're doing reworked versions of a lot of these songs from the early stuff from downward spiral from broken

Okay, a lot of those kinds of things. So

That looks amazing. We'd love to get to one of those that's selling out the nothing canceled there

But this thing out of nowhere, so I was I was surprised. Yeah

To hear that well speaking of tours that just came out of nowhere. Yeah, it was announced last week

That rush is going back out

You know the trio Neil Pirte passed away

Five years ago and that pretty much did it for the band, you know, he was their drummer songwriter

Big part of it they and forgive my ignorance. I mean, I know rush. Yeah, but not not deep

They've always been a three piece right always been a three piece. Yeah

Yeah, you've got Alex Lyson plays guitar

Getty Lee he sings he plays bass

He plays keyboards and then Neil Pirte was the drummer and then big-time songwriter too. So

But they have found a German lady. Her name is Annika Neely's I think

She apparently can play drums just as good. So they're going out on tour. They're only doing like seven cities

This is not a big massive tour. They're coming nowhere here. Is it North American?

It's North American and Canadian which makes sense because they're Canadian band

But they are playing now it's up to four four dates at Madison Square Garden in New York City

Well, you know who to get a hold of about hold up on that one

I've already reached out to our buddy Brad just to see putting out feelers already

You never know with that guy never know

Struck out at first, but you know, he's got a lot of different angles. He can work

This is gonna be you know, late July early August

But if he can somehow come through with a ticket, I'll find my way up to New York City

How many dates are you thinking that's on that or cities?

Should I say is it you said it's for it at Madison Square Garden?

Garden they're doing like Chicago Los Angeles a couple of big just basically big stops and no chance of them to come through the Bonnaroo

I didn't think that would happen anyways, but

You know, I'm big rush guy I know y'all don't really care that much but well a lot of a lot of

Classic rock what we would call classic rock music got ruined for me

20 and 10 years ago in classic rock radio and when you hear spirit of radio

Yeah, that's every other day. Yeah for a decade and

Whatever other you know regulars in this in the in the classic rock. Oh, they definitely have

Classic rock. Oh, they definitely have their share of overplayed radio songs. I don't need to hear those anymore

Well, it's like yes. I mean how many times can you hear roundabout? Yeah, exactly

Yeah, but they've got tons of our say do you know and and there's no new music, you know

but this is they're gonna do this just as a tribute to Neil pretty much and

You know it was I was reading it was Paul McCartney that kind of convinced them to go on tour and you know

Because they haven't they haven't done this and their last tour was 2015

Hmm, so, you know, they haven't been on the road and forever and they're just feeling inspired

Especially with a new drummer that's that can kind of fill in. Well, we'll see I've seen them

96 saw them in Atlanta

2012 saw them in Nashville

So I figured that was it. I figured I'd never see him again, but well chance they're at the age that the next show

Could be the last for that you know that you have the opportunity

Oh, yeah, I pretty much think this is gonna be it. They're gonna hit these cities and then they're done

I think this is just kind of a one-time thing

So if there's a chance at all, I feel like I got to get up there and see it. All right

Well, I know Brad sometimes hate watches everything we do. Yeah. Hey Brad

Hook our buddy up

Well, if he can get you to see Pearl Jam at Madison Square Garden and

Sit there and play on his phone while you're enjoying the concert. Yeah, he can do the same for me. So we'll see

Yeah, the the Oasis dream fell apart. Oh, that's right

But but but I had gone to Brad's well a couple of times

So I there's only so many times I can I can do that one. Well, I haven't asked for anything in a long time

So we'll see

well

Not a lot to get to from a news perspective a handful of things I want to talk about though and

the first one is

First of all, we were me and Beth on it

Won't bore everybody with the story, but we were driving around middle, Tennessee on Friday as we in preparation for

Cave Fest this weekend and we were listening to one on one five fantasy. Well formally fantasy radio

rooster radio

In Manchester that was home

for many years to radio Bonnaroo and

First of all, it's a great radio station. So good work guys, but Taylor Swift comes on

So we start chit chatting about Taylor for a few minutes. Mm-hmm

Well, that's the biggest news story in music her new record new music. She does have a new album have have

How much has been sampled of the new Taylor Swift album from anybody here Savannah even off-camera?

She

She's shaking her head or not in her head that it's bad. I have heard zero

I had no idea what it sounds like to until I heard it on on the station and then bad

I haven't listened to it yet because last year Spotify made her my number one person

And I'm not about this because she wasn't my number one person

So I haven't listened to her at all on Spotify because I'm trying to track and see what I actually listen to

So I'm afraid to listen to it on Spotify, but I want to watch it on it's almost like listen when YouTube

YouTube release that album and then showed up on everybody's iPhone. Yeah, whatever that sucks

It's like because you listen to Taylor Swift once. Yeah, Spotify puts it at the very top. Yeah, you like Taylor Swift. Here you go

Yeah, goddamn algorithm, and I do like Taylor Taylor Swift. That's the thing

it's not that I don't like her but well it seems to be it seems to me that the

Trend right now. I'm not saying your opinion over there Savannah doesn't count

The one person who's listened to the album

This is what they say

Anybody hear what they said yet

They whoever that is

It seems to be just shedding all over this album is what you're supposed to do

Do you think that that's what?

Because it's

But the song we heard

Sounded like a Taylor Swift song to me. It's pretty good

You know those memes or those videos where you you know

It says this is what you think it's saying, you know, they think it sounds like and this is what it sounds like to me

That kind of thing. Yeah, I don't know what her music is supposed to sound like other than the big hits and most of the times

I like them

but one of these and we're gonna pull the audio and and and we'll have a lot of things to

See on on this week show if you're an audio only

Doesn't mean the show is gonna be any better but that's what we're gonna try anyway and I ran across this thing where her song

actually romantic

It it doesn't do us any good here talking about it right this moment, but we'll add this in and you'll hear it here a moment

that she has a song that the the the chord progression to open is

Is

Pixies, where is my mind? Oh, so you haven't seen this blurb anywhere somebody it's just in last week

I bet it might hear more but if you just google that song quickly, that's that's what most people have been talking about the last

few days and

I was first heard it and I was like a little bit a little bit

I guess and then someone dropped it on top and it do

It's the same song except it's not

The same song it is sort of the same progression. So I always find this an interesting debate conversation about

What is and isn't sampling what is and isn't plagiarism?

It's called and I've watched several videos on this. I double-checked here to make sure I get it the word, right?

Interlation

Enter inter relation the insertion of something of a different nature

Into something else is the exact definition of it, but there's if you quickly Google in

Interrelation versus plagiarism like that's the it'll it'll fill out the the Google search for you

It's a very very very fine line between this inter relation word and straight-up plagiarism. Yeah

Yeah, I could see that I don't know but we'll play it and you'll hear it and you'll it's unmistakable

The Wood Brothers were just in

Chattanooga for our IBM IBM a that's right Friday headliners and I hadn't listened to the Wood Brothers

since

mid-2000s when I was just branching out into all the

the jam bands of what new new to me jam bands bands that might

Be in that orbit whether they were a jam band or not and the Wood Brothers are not a jam band

But they were in that in that circuit in the orbit and so when they went out before the show in Chattanooga while you guys

Were at shaky knees. Yeah, I I quickly

Went back and and and tried to refresh my memory on some songs in the first one luckiest man

You guys know the song luckiest man. If you don't you'll hear it. You'd be like, oh, yeah that song

It's say it ain't so from Weezer

It is say it ain't so as soon as it started playing I was like

Were they covering say it ain't so on the first song on the list what's going on here?

I mean, that's how noticeable it was to me immediately

But it's not the same song at all. It's the melody changes it but it's that same four chord progression and I just wonder

What are where are we at this point in the in the world of sampling too?

and not that not that that's new but with EDM culture and and

You know turntable mixing that I don't have all the jargon to speak to

All these different styles of music and what I essentially think is noise making sometimes

But that happens a lot. So I don't know Beth your thoughts

Well, we were talking also about dope lemon who dope lemon was going to be a Bonnaroo and I got to see

him in

Seattle and he shot the show as a matter of fact

Yeah, there's one song and I can't think of what the song title is because I didn't

Plan this but there's one song where the riff from Layla shows up partway through and it's really

unmistakable that it's the riff from Clapton's Layla and

We were talking about that we were talking about Radiohead and the Hollies how

sued for that

There's a something else I need to go down Cree. Yeah, I hadn't heard this either until just like a month ago the

Creep the biggest song. Yeah that nobody cares about anymore. Right?

It is absolutely a Holly song. Yeah, how did I go all these years? I never I mean, I know the Hollies

I actually like the Hollies for music from that era. Yeah, and and I loved Radiohead for a while and maybe we'll snitch

You know can snip that some of this in here a little bit. We'll see. I don't know maybe this is a lot of copyright

We got to try

Research this on your own

Taking down quickly, but I don't find it to be like well, of course, I don't I'm a big Oasis fan

They've been ripping off music their whole life

Yeah, and and I don't think of it as as plagiarism or ripping off bands. They're one of the I

Think it's cigarettes and alcohol from Oasis. They're

it's it's very similar to T-Rex Bang-a-Gong and

Nolan one of his interviews once someone who was like said something like, you know, that sounds like T-Rex like oh, yeah

I've never heard Bang-a-Gong from T-Rex before like he knew he knew exactly what he was doing

Yeah, and if it gets to a legality you give somebody a songwriting credit and then you move along

Yeah, I think a lot of plagiarism from a legal standpoint comes down to intent. Yeah, that's really hard to play

Plagiarism is more of a malicious act. Yes, exactly. Yeah, like I've got this here

I I just wrote, you know a film script that I just copied off the internet. That's plagiarism. So it

But there's but the definition wording is not much different with some of these other words

So I just I thought that was interesting on top of the fact that Taylor Swift's fans or

Somewhat fans on the fence fans are like this album sucks and I wonder too

Is it because all the rest of them are so good?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, she's a lot Beth, you know her music well, I mean

Yeah, I I mean I think there might be some backlash because she's happy she's in a good relationship now

So, you know a woman songwriter female songwriter who is now happy

Her music must suck now because she doesn't have the angst from all of these

I don't think that's unfair. There's something to that. I mean a lot of the best

songs written in the history of the world have come out of

misery

Yes

Yeah, and that's the real question is can you write happy and and doing songs about how

Great your life is pisses people off sometimes. Yeah

Just I mean people are just mad that people have good lives period. Mm-hmm

How dare you write a song about it? Yeah

That's an interesting psychological now angle to that

And anybody who has massive success

You're kind of waiting for them to fail at the next thing right the errors tour was one of the biggest things ever

So, you know the never-ending errors tour finally finally ended

Yeah, and you can never live up to that. So of course, it's gonna be count me in the night

You know, I know what the pushback is in the tired of the the Taylor Swift NFL

Kelsey

Her boyfriend Travis Travis Travis whatever. Yeah, count me in the there's one that's a little tired of that whole storyline

I just kind of like watching sports the all the stories annoying me a little bit

But I'm not a hater on the music at all never have been

Especially that I've gotten in more into pop music in my older age. I mean, I can't like Chappell-roan's

Style and then tell you Taylor Swift sucks. I know it's not the same thing, but it's it's pop music

I think also with a lot of her longtime fans

They don't like the new albums that it takes a while for the new album to grow on people and of course

Savannah's actually listened to it. So I trust Savannah a little bit more on this but

Yeah, but Savannah's a professional hater

I just feel like this seems to happen a lot with her albums that her albums are all so different that

It's not what people are expecting and so it takes a while for them to grow on people. Well, I

Just thought it was wild how that pixie song I thought oh here goes another one. That's just okay

It sounds a little bit like it

Sounds exactly like it. I'm gonna check that out. I don't know what that means, but I hope it sells a hundred trillion albums cuz

Cuz I like I like Taylor Swift. I absolutely do what I forgot to mention

so best hat new from the 2025

Collection and then I finally wore my this got the it's the 2025, you know

I got one day a ru sure the Bonnaroo shirt. Yeah, like that finally came

I don't remember how much I talked about on the show months ago

But I had submitted there was a lot of problems with shipping right after

the disaster

Which I gave and everybody I hope gave a lot of a lot of extra patience with yeah

A lot of unexpected online orders every well what happened was is I ordered this shirt and that hat and

Before the festival so I've been told I'm a curse because of this. Oh, it's your fault by her actually

Yeah, you don't ever buy the shirt before the show because then the show might not happen

This doesn't have oh flat but flash up a picture. It does not have the bands on the back. It just has the year

Okay

I can't remember. Oh, it's true. It doesn't have the band. Yeah, I think so. Okay. So anyway, I don't know what that means just

Looks like buying the t-shirt of the World Series winner before the World Series exactly

Anyway, that's how I did it be well because you guys know we talked about this a while back

I'm on on still on a search for that soccer style

I know rainbow colored striped

2024 shirt. Yes, and it sold out and to their credit which I do like this other than I couldn't get one is

It was a limited run. Can't get it. Yeah, please please contract Brian and send him a shirt

Hit me up from eBay they're selling one for a hundred and fifty bucks

I was actually I was kind of hoping somebody would give me one

But I will pay you but less than a hundred and fifty dollars

I don't need that much but because of that because of my disappointment of missing out on that shirt

That's why I want to make sure you that didn't go through that disappointment again found the one

I like I bought advanced. Well, it never came it never showed up. Oh

and I

Couldn't track it down right? There's third-party shipping and all that shop calm and all that stuff

so there's there's a lot of hands and all that and so I

I

Send a through Bonnaroo

To their credit. I think that was in refund time and I think it was just let maybe even like AI

Generated all refund requests except just like no questions asked. We don't want to deal with it. And so I just said refund

please and

It was immediately just okay done like no questions asked. No anything. Here's your money. You move along

Yeah, then I ordered them again and then they came through so new gear

And that leads us to what has been the most fun thing so far this weekend

I mean, we're just halfway through this thing. We got Sam Bush tonight. Yeah. Yeah, you were in a caverns head

Did you pick that up this weekend to picked it up today? Nice

We got leftover salmon

Sunday night. That's right. Also

To my you know point that this is not a strictly bluegrass

Festival. Yeah, leftover salmon is jam grass all day long barely, you know grass lots of drums lots of keys

And last night we saw cowpoke they are just a straight-up country and Western band

I'm glad you remember the name because I didn't cowpoke

I remember emphasis on the and Western because they were in full Western gear. They all looked amazing

They were dressed all alike. Yeah with the cowboy hats and they were like Western Ken Western Ken dolls

Or like the Scooby-Doo character that wears the thing. Yeah

Yeah, like the bandana around the neck. Yeah

it's it was a silly a stamp thing I've ever seen in some respects and

one of the more just well put together musical acts I've seen at the same time I was like this is

Ridiculous, but it's really good

Yeah

And not back it up with the music and they did they did they killed it mm-hmm that that was at the

Kind of like warm-up early early entry kind of portion of it

Yeah

But what Beth and I did which will be the majority of what we talk about here for the for the rest of the show

Today is the cave tours here now. Yeah, I want to hear about this

yeah, so and when if you are audio only a lot of we'll have a little bit of video and and and

Visual to show here. It's pretty impressive and it does it shows well

Through the shots we took during this this tour today and

In my old age I would have made fun of people for this 20 years ago, but a guided tour

I'm a big fan. You love a guided to

Like I mean you just make the story up

I

Was in the Yucatan being told all about the Mayans and all this stuff like that makes so much sense

Of course this is all true

And this is the guy that doesn't believe you I won't believe if you tell me that it's you know

Sonny outside until I look and there I'm listening to ancient history. I'm like oh my god. That's incredible

That's probably not true first of all but

But so I really really enjoy that and we had a we had a nice

A guide it was just a small tiniest amount of us four of us including two children which were

Behaved six including two two two six including two children. Yeah, I saw the kids like oh no. Yeah, I was

They were great though be screaming and running around no they were they were they were great

and it was nice to have that small size, but

It

Most people that even just been here for a single show because there's a two different versions here you can come here for the single show

That's a lot more traditional like going to a regular show except for when you walk in to see the show

You're in a cave, and then you leave but everything else is typical

parking boost security like none of that's that out of the out of the ordinary

And then they have the festival set up where they have the amphitheater and that's much more of a Bonnaroo vibe

Yeah, and it is a very very scaled-down

Simpler version of the same kind of vibe as you can hear people starting

Yeah, and I'm sorry if you can hear over the those are any background we have neighbors who are belting out

this sounds like a cover of a

skinner

I think it's like a remix

It's freebird yeah, I could have done without freebird by

Last night they were going deep on Skinner

Really deep on Skinner, and I don't know how much they can hear me, but they can come over and join the show if they'd like

These guys had a great mix of music

But they are Gen Z and Gen Z worldviews

And they are wild

They come together wildly

It was kind of like and drunk

I was like I grew I think I agree with every angle y'all are taken

But Jesus Christ you're taking a weird way to get everywhere

So but they're good enough neighbors, so

Anywho what we're talking about the cave the cave back to the tour the children were not bad. Where was I children were great?

but

So we go we check out this case so most people that come here don't know that there's there's two other monster

massive sized caves the cave that is the music venue is actually quite small and

Yeah, the

Just visually with no lights going and no show

Yes, it's neat because you're in a cave, but

Okay, that's it

Pretty much and it was you know it is a natural cave

But they had to excavate a lot of that to get the stage and everything set up

Yeah, and so but when it's lit up and the show's going and they got it. It's a really it's really really cool

But if you're just looking at a room, that's a big cave. You know it there's no tour

No, you just stand there like okay. I'm in a cave here. It is okay. Let's go mm-hmm

well, there's two more and

The third one is more of involved with like

It says bring your your your trash clothes like we'll put some knee pads and a hard hat on you like you're

Crawling you're it's like it's an adventure tour. It's called yeah. I'm not ready for that yet

but this one is

What I would say is would be the more popular and I think definitely the more popular one is the just the big cave tour

And this thing is

Amazing and it's huge and it's it's it's no crawling around. I mean I'd say

Seven feet high yeah seven or eight feet seven or eight

some places where all the

the different car you know the way though the

erosion over the hundred million years or ten thousand or whatever the years

There it could be higher and lower, but overall you're walking all through here the the property owners

Which are all the street names you'll see Charlie Roberts Road is the main road in so Roberts family that goes

But their family goes back to the 1800s late 1800s, and it was it was a party

Space yeah, and

would just

The family would and before they Todd Mayo the owner of the joint which I'll get to here in a minute

Before they built the actual easy walk into entrance they show you the entrance

It's just this hole in the ground looks like it's a well. That's you know Goonies style. Yeah

You climb down and you end up in this

You know in this big cave, and there's some carvings in there of their their names and some years one year goes back to

1930 Wow and

The Robert's where I was born that was before you were born and you're old

Barry was born barely

So there's there's all that in there, but now

You know I don't know how long ago, but probably quite some time these lands are protected

You can't go in there and and carve your name in them

Yeah, I don't know if they haul you out off the jail or whatever

But you're you're not by law allowed to do that so it's cool to see some of those

That that leftover from the old family when they were here

but a couple things

Seashells in the ceiling yeah, there's seashells

Embedded in the ceiling yeah, these are seashells. I mean they're basically fossils from when the oceans were I

Don't know

I mean I guess I believe all the continents were once upon a time altogether they were pangea

I mean I feel like I believe that they sure looks like it

What if they told you on a tour would you then believe it?

But I have wondered in the past anywho over the years when that's happened

Some of those seashells are you can still see and there's not many

you can still see in some of the

The ceiling

For lack of a better way of putting it a lot of different fossils that she was taught our guide was talking about

You're trying to find I mean I even had to look up what?

Cephalopod there were cephalopod this is why I needed you because I need jargon

Well, she said she was looking for a cephalopod fossil what the hell is that yeah, she was saying something about how?

the octopus used to have more of a beak and then the beak was absorbed more into the octopus and

she's been looking for the

cephalopod octopus fossil in all of these stories

You should guide a tour yeah, you could be wrong

Remember talking about that so yeah, I guess

100 million years ago things like that were happening so but I had to look up a fossil when I think of fossils

I think of like just dinosaur dinosaur yeah like fossils equal dinosaur bones. Mm-hmm. That's not

That's not what fossils exactly are in the definition

past geographic geographical ages

Preserved remains of all kinds so you can find a lot of that kind of stuff

Not that you're allowed to go in there start digging around for shit or anything like that

The stalactites which was start with their select tights. I think still ag mites

Yes, and then they turn into columns

Yeah, so one is from the ceiling one is from I think still ag tights come down from the ceiling and still ag mites

Come up in the ground lucky for you guys if I can't print Wikipedia

I just write it down on a piece of paper

still ag tights from the ceiling still ag mites from the floor and then over the course of

100 trillion years or whatever it is they grow together

Yes, and create what they call columns columns, which is a pretty pedestrian name

but that's actually what they're called so there's a couple of those columns formed and

And they're neat and then they show where okay and

300 hundred trillion years these will connect or whatever so there's a

very interesting stuff to look at

What else that I want to touch from there I guess that's basically about it

What what what do you remember from it that you that stuck out to you?

Our guys name was Michaela shout out to Michaela she was great. She has a better memory. I've already asked four times

But then after

Todd came and did a tour so there was a giant tour right after ours. Yes

Thank you. So we're leaving and you guys

Hopefully listen and watch every single second of everything we do. I know you do. I'm sure they do. Thank you for that, by the way

Yeah, thank you

So we talked to Todd last year

Inside the cave and that was the first time I had met him

I think Barry goes back with him a little bit further. It was the first time I admit him

Yeah, it's cool of a guys you're gonna run into and so where we get back from the the the tour which is it's

45 minutes to an hour not long at all. It disappears in no time

Just it's also very cool. Very comfortable. The lighting is beautiful

They have they flip the lights on and on as you go through so back behind just pitch black the whole way and it's just

It lights up as you go through

and

So we get out we go back up to the to the main area now, which is the Cavern Tavern, by the way

Which is a new thing here at the yeah

I want to check that out too if you want to watch the ballgame right now everybody's watching the Tennessee Arkansas game

Yeah, I think that's what most Arkansas. Yeah, most of our camp is at the Tavern right now. Yeah

So and then Alabama game was on earlier, so that's really cool big TVs up in there you can get drinks and

that's also where the meeting points a gift shop and the meeting point for the for the tours and we get up there we're

done and

Not sure what we're gonna do with our day yet

It's still morning and then I I'm hearing what sounds like Todd's voice and you know, he you know guy got talks guys

Yeah, plenty to say recognizable personality and voice. Yes. I mean he can't wait

He's animated he can't I mean

It's I don't think the guy ever gets in a bad mood and if he does

Boy, he hides it and doesn't ever let anybody see it

And so I see Todd so I'm like I wanted to say hi to him haven't talked to him since we were here

So I mean I just hey Brian what nice to see you and we start chatting it up for a few minutes

And I'm like, what are you doing? I'm about to take a tour down

You're you're taking a tour you're the tour guy

Yeah, you're leading the tour for the for the for the cave. I think what is everything. All right? Are you hiring?

Are you short on staff?

Like what's going on here? And of course surprise should be none of us. No, I just like to do it

The guy owns the place and he stops in on the weekends for fun and does cave tours

He is an author of the caveman Chronicles he did write a book

Yeah, which you should check out if you're interested at all. Yeah, I still don't know what it's about, but I don't know how to read

Just Wikipedia

Printed Wikipedia pages and then pretend like I know all about it, but

I just thought that was wild and that is and and

And he had a big group. So I thought I'd go with that

Big group so it can get up to what would you you you saw some of the second part of it?

It almost seemed like 30 or 40 people if that's possible. They had to really cram them in there, but we got lucky

Yeah, yeah, I would have loved to be the brown Todd not 40 people and time

Yeah, I was wondering if we would see Todd this weekend. I didn't expect him to be giving cave to me

You didn't expect him to be here to work. No, I figured he'd be you know out here with us

Enjoy my guess is he's already at home

He came to work for the day probably went home, yeah

But I thought that was wild and so we will have some video too that I did ask they do ask you not to

Not to do video when you're down there just many pictures as you want, but not good not to do video

Just to preserve some of the surprise. All right. Well, I snuck a little in so you'll see it. Okay, I

Asked afterwards. I don't tell Todd

I asked for forgiveness not permission. Okay, and

Man, it was so cool. So it

We're talking 20 25 bucks. I'm like that. So yeah, if you guys are here

That is something I would highly recommend go do a cave tour come to Caverns. See a show get a shirt do a cave tour

And what else is up on the in our near future as far as fun things? Oh gosh

I have this was it for me. I mean end of the year

I didn't really have anything look to look forward to really

I've got four posters on my fridge of lineups that I yeah, you're yearly

Or X through them as you're done. Yeah, or as they get canceled or as they can yeah. So for me it was a

Cave jam which we were here for in May. Yeah, I was here for about four hours for the day

Then Bonnaroo then shaky knees and now cave fest

Those are my four posters that I'd put up on the fridge. That's all I've got for the rest of the year

What is coming up? What else what is next? I guess it's for everybody in the

Well a lot of Bonnaroo isn't I everybody nothing but a lot of Bonnaroo vians Halloween

Yeah, we should mention that

Halloween I guess shocking news. I don't like Halloween. So it sounds too much like it's on a lot about it

Yeah, cuz it's fun. So you don't like

Halloween Halloween's for children. I thought but anyway

Yeah, there's a bunch of Bonnaroo vians headed down there. I know

Daniel is going down there a bunch, you know big crew from the rew bus and who Daniel is here

By the way, we should also shout out some of our neighbors because we're not here

We're sitting right across from the church boners

Yeah, Rick and Sean and a bunch of other people there Josh and I won't remember all their names

Yeah large contingent of church boners here, yeah, they've got the the church lady

Dana Carvey, yes, I got a live church lady. They got the

So as their as their their flag flag, they got their flag flying

We've also got well Beth is here, of course

And then our buddies from Nashville Jerry Brad and national.com

And and Mike who will be here pretty soon

Yeah, he's gonna show up right at the last minute we're packing up the lead

So, you know, we came down here with a pretty big group. We just kind of all merged into one big

Party here. So this has been great

Yeah, whole weekend here kind of make up for what we missed at Bonnaroo as far as just the camping

Little bit of a do-over in a sense to get a weekend

You know, it does it's just it's got it's got a lot of the same vibes. It's it's I mean, I

don't want to go too far out here and expose the secrets, but

Another thing about this this venue is it's just so chill

I mean Bonnaroo is as far as security and procedures and

rules and

Within center and within campgrounds and getting in and out

I mean for a good reason it needs to be pretty strict and it needs to be pretty not really

Budging on a lot of the stuff. I mean we got 80,000 here

I can't let you know, you know, we got to keep a tight ship here and they run a tight ship, but

Boy, it's like they're your friends. I mean it really is the people who work here. It's almost sometimes

It's like yeah, we can make an exception. I'm like, are you sure?

I'm not used to that very friendly. Yeah, and you know, whatever you think of live nation or live nation run events

This is not like this. This is an independently owned and run and staffed festival and I think that makes a big difference

I'm really glad you said that

Because I just I'm just fearful of the day that this that Todd

You know retires if that happens to be the case down the road

Man but or whatever the case maybe and and it gets sold to a bigger

Outfit which would be of course I bet he's already had offers. Oh live nation wants this now

Yeah, live nation wants to ruin this now. Yeah, I don't I don't agree with everybody that live nation ruins everything

I think they move ruin most things not everything and they are a necessary evil to certain things like

really really huge international

size events sure

And so without live nation Bonnaroo can't survive and so I I

Fully appreciate and respect and understand that

But I also get every one of you that hates their guts and hopes that yes for the worst for them

I'm in the middle. I don't wish the worst for them, but they they are they annoy me a lot

Yeah, but if you're one of these that you absolutely do not want to give one more dollar to live nation. Here's your spot

Here's your spot. This is an independently owned every every dollar you spin here stays here. I mean everyone here is a local

It's locally owned locally run

Yeah, and and I mean I know this sounds like a big fat commercial for the caverns. It kind of is well

it's

pricing is is

so reasonable

You need bags of ice you need

Firewood

Ricks of firewood is that what you call those ricks racks Rick's not a Rick. This is just a bundle bundles

Rick would be like a big amount. Yeah, but or Rick from church boners or Rick from church

Anywho, yeah not much money for any of these essentials that that make camping, you know

No, no enjoyable even food like they've got a bunch of food trucks in there

It's all pretty reasonably reasonably priced and you bring anything you want just like Bonnaroo

Except it's even easier. Yeah, then yeah in that I'm not gonna go any more detail than that

But it is just as chill and as simple as anything you do

so yeah, if you're in the southeast and there's any reason you want to talk yourself into coming here and

Bonnaroo is your thing which clearly it is

This is this is your place and and you know that your money is going to a community

I mean everybody who works here lives around here and

There ain't a lot of work around here

This is a the the the city

Within well, I don't know about Pelham because that's what it

Pelham is is the is where the like the address is yes. This is Grundy County, Tennessee

It's unincorporated in a lot of ways like there's not a student

There's not a city body of like a County Commission or a city council. There's like 400 people within

30 miles that live right around in here. Yeah, you're not gonna leave and go hit the Walmart. There's no Walmart. Yeah

The closest Walmart's gonna be Bonnaroo Manchester. Yeah

There's a Mexican restaurant that we that's where we met up because that's the only other place in town. It's not a Mexican restaurant

It's a building that you can get some tacos in and sit around and enjoy yourself, but it's not what you're thinking

Yeah, not what you're thinking. So he's putting a ton of people to work here and

Again, not live nation. So yeah, I just I was I was floored when Todd

was was conducting that that

that guided tour and I I bet it was as

Information loaded of a tour as you're possible. I'm sure if he's do if he's doing it

He's dropping a ton of info cuz he knows everything here. She you were there when it started

It was almost like he was like on it like a sermon style up above everybody before we go down

Yeah, anything profound said there. Oh, yes from a hundred million years ago

Two things I remember is how well, I don't remember exactly how much remember how much dirt

They had to get out of the cave to make it a music venue, but I don't remember how much but it was tons

It's a lot. They had to pull out tons of dirt. I mean it's in that on our show

Yeah

And then he was talking about how they were kayaking in the cave a couple weeks before they started

Doing shows here. So that's how much water was getting in or they could kayak he had to hire like water

Flow experts on how to divert. Yeah, what did he say? I think he said yeah, they hire a lot of ists. Yes

Yes, yeah a bunch of other ists

That's probably one he goes back to the well on that yeah

Yeah, it is still fascinating to me when you see that cave any cave hole in the ground anywhere

It's not flooded out all the time, especially when Tennessee gets deluged with with

with rain and thunderstorms like we get but

So far that's not been a problem here and they've I didn't realize he bought this place in 2017 and

It was okay. Yeah, we were trying to figure out which year it was exactly

He part the purchase the murder and I think a lot of work from to go from just purchase to

Opening he told us I don't know if you remember Russ

I'm not gonna say it but he told us how much he bought this land for I think I do remember and I was like

I think he told us I could have come up with that amount. I know it's not as much as you think

Yeah, but then he said but I put that much gravel in the next day. Yeah. Yeah

Just the land itself. Well, you know

There's not there's nothing out here. So the land itself isn't all that valuable until you do all that work and put all the and yeah

Yeah, it's impressive stuff and really enjoyed it. So I think that's about all I've got for you

I've pulled everything out of my brain

Barely working I am in festival mode a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna go to work. I'm gonna shoot some shows

Gonna shoot some shows tonight shooting for Nashville. I'm out of my job Nashville calm and

And for us. Yeah

Thanks for listening watching and then and being a part of this whole thing and

Wait, we don't know when but it won't be long and we'll be talking lineups stick around

Yeah, cuz the lineup is around the corner and we'll be hitting the ground running right there

So yeah, thanks for listening and thank you. Thank you Beth for joining us Beth joining us. Thank you Savannah

Thank you for our being our intern Taylor Swift expert. Yeah, Taylor Swift expert

Thanks for subscribing. Thanks for listening every week. We appreciate it. Yeah, and we'll see you next time. See you guys