The What Podcast Is Rock Dead? The Bonnaroo Music Census and Remembering Ozzy Osbourne Season 8, Episode 31 Published July 30, 2025 https://thewhatpodcast.com/episode/is-rock-dead-the-bonnaroo-music-census-and-remembering-ozzy-osbourne I wish it still had comedy like it used to. I wish it still had jam bands like it used to. People don't want to seem to accept that the world has moved on. I think it's a chance for them to get a handle on everything and figure out what people actually want. Oh, I think we're still open-minded at Bonnaroo and I think people, even if they don't get what they want, will quickly shift. Have you given any thought to who needs to be on the lineup next year for Bonnaroo? Welcome back to The What Podcast. This is Barry. That's Brian. You'll notice that we are sans russe. We are without taco. Another camping trip. Yeah, where is he? Like Kentucky or some crazy, unbelievable event. Some kind of cool backdrop of something or other. I don't know, but he's living his best summer life of camping this summer. He's kind of sneaky that way, isn't he? Yeah. You don't think about it, but then he's doing something amazing all the time. Like I'm going to be gone this weekend and then there's like the most majestic thing you've ever seen. Exactly. Well, good for him. So we have lots to talk about, but nothing earth shattering that I know of. Do you? I mean, I don't have anything. The dog days of summer here, Barry, in the South anyway. God almighty, isn't that the truth? Yeah, we're going to another heatwave down here. It'd be perfect Bonnaroo weather. 95 degrees. Can you imagine if we were doing it this week? 108 degrees. I can't imagine because we've done it. I know. I'll take it over a rain soaked, canceled event every day. Thank you very much. Everybody asks which one? And I'm like, not water. I'll take the heat over water anytime. Oh, I've gotten so acclimated to the summers in the South. That doesn't bother me that much. I don't like it, but it doesn't bother me that much. I'll take it over even just a little bit of rain. I mean, a little rain, I guess, but overall, yeah, but burn me up. Make it a dust bowl before you make it a slot vest every time. So we did get what we got another census, another survey. What are your initial thoughts? This one is a little more detailed. It's a little bit. I enjoyed the way it was worded slightly better. I made a few notes. We'll go through it here in a minute. One thing I'll ask you, because I can't remember. They've always, Bonnaroo has always done a good job of these polling and this data collection, but boy, they're doing it a lot this year. And even before we had all the issues and the problems from the festival itself, I don't know if they picked it up more this year, but it can't hurt. It doesn't hurt to get information until I think occasionally, maybe it can if you get a little too much information, but overall, I think it's a good thing. No, I think it's great. And Brad said when he was on the panel with us that they actually listen and we've seen that, right? I mean, you and I agree. We're both cynical people. We tend to see these and think, oh, that's a nice stroke and thank you for asking. And then you've already made up your mind and we're never going to see the actual results. Or it's a nice way to gather additional email addresses. That's kind of the thing I've always made the stupid joke about. Right. It is certainly, that is just a joke. It is information that they value and that they use. By all accounts, I believe that. I do believe that. And to get me to believe that is difficult. Yeah. And the thing that sort of jumped out at me is that again, it's very EDM heavy. There's very little rock, which hurts you and me both. But there is no rock. I mean, even in the questions, I'm like, what's my answer? I would like to say rock, but I mean, who's out there? Well, when we get into it here in just a few minutes more specifically, I'll give you a few of my answers on that. But yeah, this is a recurring kind of content topic that I've wanted to do on different podcasts over the last couple of years. Rock and roll is dead. It is dead as a popular music genre. It does not sell tickets. It's not dead for you and me. It's not dead for a large swath of the music listening population, but as a relevant to societal importance overall, it's just not moving the needle. And Bonnaroo knows that and they need to program accordingly. The good news with the way Bonnaroo does things, they keep things so diverse. I think the consensus I hope will continue to let them believe they need to do that. Because that's even on a festival lineup like this year, which I loved, it had plenty of rock on it. It was just mid tier. But that's what we're getting more and more people who are understanding that or loving the idea of a good mid card, a mid and upper mid tier. And a lot of people, like many of us have talked about on here over the years, we don't care who the headliners are. Give me a Post Malone that I don't generally, he's closer to rock, but that I don't really like and I'll go check it out. And that'll be where a lot of my discovery comes from sometimes. Olivia Rodrigo or Rodrigo, whatever her name is, I would have been there right in front of the stage or as close as I could get out in that one field. I don't listen to her. I don't know the first song by her. So a lot of my music discovery comes from that top line sometimes. Well, let me ask you that because I got that feeling somewhat through the question. And I think that's one of the things they're asking is, do people want it more fine, narrowed or do we like it this way? That's one of the things I felt from that questionnaire is do the majority of people want it more narrowed, smaller lanes or do we like it broad? I have a feeling that maybe it's just 50 plus one, but maybe there's a majority that want it more curated to what they exactly like. That's a good, that's the word, curated. When I was young, 20s, late 20s, I didn't want a bunch of stuff I didn't know. I wanted jam and rock and that's where the festival's roots were and that's what I wanted. So if you ask me then, 08, 05, 11, I said, would you like it to be more diverse or more of what you want? I think I would have said, I want more of what I want. And I have a feeling a lot of the EDM pop music lovers probably want more of that. I think with EDM, that's very true. I mean, right now they live in their own world and there ain't another thing going on except for EDM. And I'm not meaning to be a jerk about it. I get it because I was a jam band guy like this. If you said you want less jam bands or more, I'd say, can you book every one of them? Then I would have been happier. I have a feeling that might be the case with the youth of today because that's how the youth of my past was. No, I agree. And so how do you, all right, you and me, we're in the room. It's you and me, we're booking this. How are we going to, what are we going to do? Do we piss off the Brian and the Barrys and the RV guys that want legacy acts? The big money guys that want to hear the police and the music of their youth. Having said what you just said too, because I think a lot of people that go are like us, I want to go see Olivia. I want to see something that's not in my normal wheelhouse because that's where I'm going to go do it is at Bonnaroo. To me, that's always been the appeal. So how do you dance that line? Well, yeah, that's a good question. And because of the unique nature of the festival, I mean, they can kind of do it all. And they do do it all. I mean, it's odd because you find, and I've gone in different eras of my life of what mattered to me more. I mean, someone sees a top line and they don't see a headline or they like, they immediately say, many will just be like, that festival sucks. Like many people, especially who aren't going, will just are interested in the festival verse and they'll see those headlines. Oh boy, that festival is awful. Or how many times has Hozier got a headline or something like that? And I tend to not think of it that way anymore, but it wasn't that long ago that I did. And so how do you balance that? That's another version of the question you just asked. I think that's going to be a little bit the theme of the show and maybe ongoing is in your mid 40s, I'm in early 60s. And that's, we're going to go a lot of ways later, but along these lines, you're 100% right. If I was 20 years old, I mean, it's my way or no way. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're, you're an old people music. I don't want, I don't want anything that I don't like or anything that I don't understand. I don't want, you know, that's lame. I'm cool. I like what I like and what I like is the coolest thing going. So why wouldn't you do it? That's, but that's, that's an immature, youthful way to look at it. And I don't mean to use immature pejoratively, but no, but that's one of the things that I've loved about this festival is it's sort of mind expanding. That's, I mean, we all agree. That's what we love, right? You're going to go see somebody you've never heard of and probably didn't like. And, and we're open-minded to it, but it kind of feels, I don't know. I don't know if this EDM thing feels like it's gotta be what you just said, my way or no way. Are you feeling that or are we still open-minded at, at Bonnaroo? Oh, I think we're still open-minded at Bonnaroo. And I think people, even if they don't get what they want, will quickly, quickly shift because they do understand what's going on. And I do think there's, even though right now it's really trendy to hate on Live Nation and I'm, I'm not ever going to get anybody on to anybody who wants to do that, even though we've discussed on here that without Live Nation, there is no Bonnaroo. So you kind of got to balance that out, but I think people get it. I think, I think people get it quickly. I think, I think most people who go, who are ever considering going to go back, get it immediately. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Almost immediately. You think I'm never doing this again or whoa, this is different. And now all of a sudden, even the most stubborn person could quickly have their mind change and be like, hold on, this is what we get to do. This is the environment I get to live in for three to four days. I can be okay with things I wasn't sure I was going to be okay with before. And that's a unique thing to this festival. Like so many things we talk about on here. I don't think you're going to get that at Lollapalooza and these city festivals as much. I think people go there with the idea I'm doing this, this, this, and this, and they do basically this, this, this, and this. And they don't see, they don't learn a lot. There's not a lot of discovery. And for me early in the years, for maybe a decade, 12, 13 years of the festival, I wasn't all that interested in music discovery because I thought I was smarter than everybody else and already knew all the good music. Right. I look back at oh wait, especially the late aughts because I was starting to push 30 years old. And so I was, I was changing in a lot of ways. And I looked back at those, those lineups and I'm like, I didn't go see any of this stuff. It wasn't stuff that I'd never heard of at that time. It was just stuff that I wasn't familiar with and I didn't care about as much. And I think people are understanding that quicker. I don't think it's taken them 10 years. Like it took me 10 years to figure it out. Yeah. And part of that is, is because of the nature of it. You're not in such a hurry. If that's the right word, you don't have to hurry to go see your favorite band. You're there, you have all day long. And so you can kind of take your time and, and take it all in. And hopefully you're with people who have the same mindset. So, and especially after you understand you can't see everything. That's the thing that people need to learn quickly. And I think people do. And one of the questions, which we will, I guess we're starting to get into it now, but was, do you want more time between, between sets? That was an interesting one. I didn't see that question coming. And that's the one that I stopped and thought the longest about. What are your thoughts? I don't remember what I put on that one. Cause I didn't, I didn't write a note on that one. I think it's fine. I'm sure I just put the way that it is because if you, if you, if you make it more time between sets and you change the conversation you guys had, long before I was on regularly years ago, where the kind of the, the, the opening up the doors of how the festivals put together the lanes and the way that's crowd control and all those things. If, if you, if you rearrange how you schedule things and then now, oh, well there's downtime, there's more downtime to make sure people can get around. Well, now you've, you've, you've thrown that whole formula out the window because you're that's, you, you can't control crowd as much that way. Or the crowd is just going to be what you were trying to get away from where it bottlenecks and becomes a problem. You want people to have conflicts. You want people to be at Noah con over here and the person over here at, uh, we'll just say the lumineers on the what stage while Noah con would be on maybe the, the 10th stage. I'm just making stuff up here. You want people as, as, from their formula that they've described, you want people to be conflicted. You want people to not know which one to go to. So many go here and this many go here. The average guy and gal listening and wanting to see both might not care about that. It might get angry by that, but I think once it's described and you understand why they do it, it's easy for people to, to at least be okay with it. There, yeah, there, there is a science to that. That's the thing to, to illustrate your point. There is a science to what they do. They don't just randomly book this one on that stage and that one on that stage. It's crowd control, logistics, making it work. I don't have a whole lot of examples of where I just got totally just mind torn on where I want to be, but the, this is not a great example. It was only when it comes in my mind was in 2011 when, uh, Buffalo Springfield had their reunited show and I'm a big Neil Young guy and a Steven Stills guy. So I was, had to see this. This was a, regardless of, of how many people care about that band, which isn't that many. It was, it was great. It was a, it was a one, this is a never before in this era and never again. And I had to see it. And then going on on the, uh, what with 30 minutes left of the Springfield show was the black keys. And I'm like, what the hell do I do? I, I've never seen the black keys. They were hot, hot, hot in 11. And I missed the black keys because I couldn't walk away from Neil Young, but that's, that's kind of the, I don't know how much crossover there is between a Neil Young show or a Buffalo Springfield show and black keys, but that's the only one that comes to my mind. Let's take a minute. Let's take a break actually. And let's come back. It's a good time to take a break and we'll come back. Cause I got a question I want to ask you kind of go back to the announcement last week about some of the chair and then I got some of these notes on the census and we'll do that. Yeah, let's take a break. All right. So we've had a good week, um, to think about the announcement, uh, that Bonnaroo is back and some of the changes. Have you had any, any new thoughts? Um, I mean, I know we were pretty disappointed that Thursday appears to be gone. Um, and that we will not be coming in on Tuesday. I don't have as much a problem and that the numbers will be down. Uh, I think we've kind of heard unofficially maybe in that 55 to 60,000 people range. Um, and maybe we'll get some numbers from, you know, Brad and Corey when they come on, um, which is, doesn't, it's so hard to say this. It doesn't really mean anything to people when you're there because it's still going to feel crowded. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter if it's 60 or 80, it's going to feel crowded, especially if they change the logistics around which they have correct. Um, the Thursday thing, here's my, my point. The more I think about it, it just means that they're going to rearrange things. There might be more happening in center, Rue less happening in outer Rue. And I don't mean whatever you're doing in your camp. Everybody can still create their own camp event. Uh, their, their events, all of that stuff should still happen. Um, I think what I mean is that Bonnaroo itself, C3 will probably be doing fewer sanction things out there. Um, if that's the right word. Yeah. But that doesn't mean you can't do what you were planning on doing and having all the cool stuff going on. Yeah. You want to bring a little palette of some sort, a little like elevated thing and then throw an acoustic guitar guy on there and a microphone and a small PA. You can do that. Do your thing. No one's telling you, you can't do that. Um, but to answer the question of, uh, have my thoughts changed? Not really. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm just, I was happy. I'm happy that this is resolved quickly. I thought there was a chance it would be November before we found anything out or, or I'm just making up a month, but later in the year I had the way they worded things, it sounded so like we're going to talk about it, but I don't know. And, and then it quickly shifted. So I'm happy about it, but I've just become, and I'm going to do a breakdown of, of Thursday for the show, uh, the history of Thursday, sometime here in the off season and go very in depth on the, on every Thursday. And who had a, you know, kind of a springboard out of that Thursday into big time stardom, because that's happened countless times. Alabama shakes are the quick one that come to my head. Courtney, Courtney Barnett was for me and for many others, I'm not sure of her. Alabama shakes had a much bigger trajectory, but I want to look at that, but I will not get over easily that, that Thursday is not a thing. I like it's, it's all part of my, uh, midlife growing, uh, old borderline crisis, uh, change of things. I want to get places early and I want to leave them early. I want to get there as quick as I can, not Tuesday, but I want to get there early and I want to get out of here. The quicker I get there, the quicker I can leave. I kind of make that joke every time I go, go to dinner. Well, if we get there quick, then we can leave quicker. Yeah. It's a progressive insurance commercial. I still think there's, I think there are things coming. There are announcements coming on Thursday. It's not like we're just going to be asked to sit in our camp until whatever the big party is on the what I think there's stuff coming. No, but in the last few, in the last two years specifically, and I kind of gave Brad Parker a little bit of, uh, a little bit of hell about when they were like, well, we're not sure if we're going to do what stage anymore. I'm like, yes, you're going to, it was a big success. This is American capitalism at the end of the day. You don't take away, you add unless you have circumstances that change, which in this case we do the last two years building up from pretty lights. And then that Luke Holmes show was a huge success. Right. That was the best Thursday Bonnaroo's ever had the last two years. Anyway, I think those two combined are the, are the best Thursdays Bonnaroo's ever had. And I feel like if this last, if the two months ago festival month and a half ago, festival went off well, Thursday would have been just as big and just as, as loaded and maybe even more because it's proving to be a day that people really like. Yeah. Um, yeah, I don't disagree. I, I, I think they are taking this opportunity to sort of rethink and remold and, and not in a negative way. I mean, that's, I want to emphasize that. I think some people are thinking this is like a, like a bad, I think it's a great thing. I think it's a chance for them to get a handle on everything and, and figure out what people actually want. It's a good version of what COVID did. It's a good ver because COVID made people pivot in every walk of life because they had to, this is a different version of that. Pivots have to happen from legalities to insurance premiums, to everything that we don't have that we're not privy to that information right now. But those are things that are making them have to make tough decisions that they wouldn't have made otherwise. And this, with the Thursday, last thought on the Thursday, it's just a weekend. I mean, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, gone. I mean, we blink. The jokes are, oh, the weekends, like a lunch break, you know, weekends over before I can even get it started in our regular work life. And if it's just Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the person who's running late, the person who has a bad first day, boom, now you only have a day and a half barely and you got to get out of here. Thursday was, I just felt like that great way to settle in and it doesn't really matter what happens. And then we've all had a great time, especially the Tuesday and Wednesday crazies. You know, you really had a nice time and now the real event is here. It's like the best warmup band. That's kind of how it was for me. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. Like I said, it was for the decade was a move-in day. You got there, you got your stuff set up and then you wandered in and you wandered the grounds and then music started. I think it still is a move-in day for a lot of people and it still will be. And I think it'll still facilitate that well. I agree. Yeah. If the weather's even close to good, it's still going to be a good move-in day. And you know what? They can do that, get the same kind of reaction from most people and save what? $800,000? Yeah. No, that's, we're saying the same Tuesday and Wednesday thing had become its own thing, I guess is what I'm, you and I didn't go. Russ did obviously and loved it. A lot of other people did and had a whole event around it. It was like a separate thing. And the biggest question from that will be, and I can't wait to ask it with Brad Parker, whoever else, is the traffic flow. Yeah, that was one of the biggest reasons for doing that. And what is the contingency plan now for that? So we'll talk about that down the road rather than speculate on it now. But that's the biggest question for me on that. And I also, I think it's worth noting from what I'm hearing is this is not necessarily, and I think you even said it last week, this doesn't mean it's permanent. This is, again, it feels like a reset year. They'll figure it out and we'll see. I mean, they may end up back to that because it made sense and it worked. So we will see. So. Well, I've got a few things here on the census I'd like to notes wise I took as I took it. It was 13 questions, which is far better than the first one, which was a measly five. That first one, Bonarizara, that thing was a waste. The second was a little bit better. I like this one better too. But sometimes again, the questioning kind of irritates me because I'm a polling data collection cynic like we were just kind of talking about before. But so the very top was pick three. What do you want more of? Well, predictably rock Americana, indie rock. That's what I picked. Classic rock would have been one more that I would have considered. But I went with those three. What I didn't like about just a quick to answer possibility question, there was I didn't word the questions out completely, but just headliners. Do you want what do you prefer legacy or pop? I think they put the hottest. I want the hottest out there now. I can't answer that question in one or the other. Like that's not it. I mean, don't even ask me that way. You want legacy or pop? Hold on. Can we talk about this for a while? Like there's some nuance there. I understand why they do it, but I don't like questions like that. I'm interested in. All right. Go back 20 minutes ago, 15 minutes ago when we started that gets to that. That's to me. And I did the same thing you did. That's a 40 year old answer versus a 20 year old answer. Right? I know they can know how old I am by just, you know, the algorithm can tell them, but it doesn't ask how old you are before you take these. That's the answer. They know. Yeah. Yeah. 20 year old. I want to leg it. They had legacies last year, right? Well, that's see, that's a breakdown of societal interaction that bothers me when I was 20. I wanted to hear whoever I was into 60s, 70s music like crazy. So you're talking to me. We're going to talk about that in a minute. I didn't want that to dominate the landscape, but I want it. If it was hot, I hated it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, in 2003, Neil Young on Friday night on the what stage is one of the greatest shows of my life. 2003 I'm 23 watching them. I get it. At that point he would have been 60, I guess, you know, so, um, roughly I couldn't have been more excited when Tom Petty was there in oh six when they first started doing this it's four, uh, five, four or five years in and I'm 26. And oh my God, Tom Petty's here. It does seem to be a little bit of a youthful cult, a shift, cultural shift on that. And, um, you know, Stevie Nicks, well, was it 2003 that James Brown was there? And I only know that because we saw it during the COVID years when they did the, you know, the highlight that might've been one of the best shows I think I've ever seen on video. I think it was four. Was it four? My God, I wish I'd say, and I've seen him three times. James Brown, David, crushed that show. Yeah. Dave Byrne was there. That was a big time. People. Yeah. And 20 year olds listening to this are like James who? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, two more that don't, don't matter as much, but this one, I'm curious to what you, what you think on this. It asked about the comedy. Would you, would you be more likely to attend if they brought comedy back? Uh, you want my thoughts on it first, or do you want to, I will go first to me. That's a broader, uh, point. Um, we've sat on here. The comedy tent to me was awesome because it had air conditioning. You couldn't get in it. The line was, I mean, you had to start yesterday to get in, but it so created the, uh, uh, Bonnaroo ethos to me. It was like, they got comedy. Nobody else did nobody has nobody. They have a newspaper. They have comedy. They have, I mean, that was a radio station. Exactly. To me, that was the, and it wasn't just, I mean, um, it was legit. I mean, I'd never heard of, uh, fly to the concords. Yeah. I walked in there and sat in the air conditioning and watched fly to the concert. I thought my life is changed. Yeah, that's good. So I wasn't there for that, but yeah, that's good stuff. It was unbelievable. And then a couple of years later, Conan O'Brien was there and he was so big. They put a screen out in the area between the, he was EMC of the whole event. Basically that's kind of what they called him. He was, uh, that was 2010. I think Chris Rock was there. Oh, wait on the, what on the, what he was so funny. I said it at Bonnaroo. I said it, I said it at Bonnaroo. He said everybody's worried about if Obama wins, he need to be a word about if Michelle Obama wins. He need to be worried about a black woman in the white house, not a black. It was hilarious. I said it at Bonnaroo. Uh, triumph, the insult. I mean, yes. Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, they started doing that early too. That was like, oh, five, I think was maybe the first year they did that. This first year I saw comedy there and I only saw two or three because of what you just said, right? Lines wrapped around the world to get in there, which was part of what I didn't like about it. And that never seemed to get all that alleviated. But the question was, are you more likely to attend because of the comedy acts? And I put no, no, because I, I don't think they need to do, I would not, I would not prefer them bring. I think that was a fun era. And I, and right now comedy is in a, in a weird place. And I don't want to get too far off the road here down a, you know, a dirt gravel road from where we're trying to stay on here, but there, you know, there's, it is a really polarizing place. It's not, it's not the place where people can just let go completely, listen to a bunch of dumb jokes and then go home. It gets real polarized and we got a whole new kind of like Theo von, he's great. He's fine. I don't, the people who have you ever been to a Theo von show that ain't Bonnaroo, right? Sitting in those seats with the, sorry everybody, but the, the mass audience that he has that 80% of them would even consider going to Bonnaroo. That's not Bonnaroo. Shane Gillis, one of the biggest guys going right now. Right. That ain't Bonnaroo. Nate, Nate Bargazzi. Ain't nobody going to Bonnaroo to see Nate Bargazzi. He's on another different. I don't mean to put him with those guys, but he's the huge. So yeah, exactly. But those guys are a little more politically polarizing. And so I don't know. I just, I feel like that was a awesome idea that they squeezed all the juice out of that idea. And I would, I would not prefer some of the questions. Tell me if you think this are, are because of people being like, it's not like it used to be. I wish it still had that, you know, is that, is that a question? Is that, I wish it still had comedy like it used to. I wish it still had jam bands like it used to. People don't want to seem to accept that the world has moved on type of thing. Yeah. It's like with rock and roll. I mean, there are, I mean, which, okay. You and I both want a rock band. Which one? Tom Petty's dead. I know. It's not what I have to choose from. I mean, it's true. I mean, there's Neil Young and who, yeah. And Neil barely keeping it together these days too. So you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I do. I think every generation has that set grows into that same thing. Oh yeah. It's changed and it's not what it used to be. And whether that's on a this much level or this much level. And I think we all just got to learn to figure out how to get over that. Cause it's never, whatever it is, whatever you're talking about today that isn't like it used to be. Well, well, I don't know. There are a few things where I'm not, won't go down that road either, but generally speaking, it's not going to ever be like it used to be. And I am, I am conditioned to be fine with that. We're going to go deeper into that here in a minute. Cause I'm in, but so yeah, finish. I want to hear your last thoughts on the question. Well, yeah, we'll do that here shortly because there's only one more note I made. Oh, and it's not even, it's not interesting enough that that's covers most of it. But the final one was write-ins write in what you want, which I always think is pretty much a worthless part of a survey, but I just put grateful dead family and or tribute bands covers something like that, because the grateful dead is still one of the hottest properties in America right now in any capacity, whether it's people who barely were old enough to know who, you know, any Bob Weir even is long after Jerry Garcia died or people who've been doing this for 40 or 50 years. If you're playing grateful dead style music, people want to hear it. And so I would, I would love them to have, even if it's the drag birth of the drag show, the bluegrass drag stuff. So that was my one write-in was just grateful dead anything, grateful dead family, grateful dead covers, tributes, those kinds of things. What were your thoughts on the list? I thought the list was interesting and I'm trying to pull it up. I thought they, the fact that they gave such specifics. Oh, the long actual pick bands list. Yeah. And I kind of felt like I'm reading it and I'm thinking, okay, these are legit, you know, I mean, are these the ones they're going after? How much, how much do I want to read into? I thought I'm fine with that question because it gives people, first of all, it was multiple choices. So any of these that have many, many, many choices, I think those are better polling questions, but I don't think it means a whole lot. I've clicked widespread panic and that's it. I'm a big panic fan and I didn't click on anything else. And panic was the backbone of this. If we're going to talk about the way it used to be was the backbone of this festival for about five solid years. And then came back two or three years after that, I, I'd be willing to bet panics played there more than anybody and they haven't been there in forever. And I've thought them on a Thursday night on the what, which we don't know if we're going to get Thursdays anymore like that would have been the most perfect way to start an EDM filled pop filled weekend, a bro country weekend with the legacy, the, the real Bon Rue legacy act. If you want to use it within the ethos of the festival widespread panic. So I click, I clicked or filled in the dot widespread panic. And that was all I put no other options on that. One more question for you. And then we're going to take a break and I will come back and I want to revisit the Beatles versus Oasis thing. And we'll get to Ozzy too for a minute. Passing a posse. Yeah. And Chuck Mangione. I was never a big, I didn't like new jazz. Were you a big Chuck Mangione in that whole- I need to be reminded who that is. I'm sorry. I can't think of his hit. You'd know it if you heard it. He was massive in the eighties. That new jazz, whatever it was. During the break, I'll catch myself. We'll look it up. But the, for, and this is a weird question. Let me see if I can ask it correctly. The rain sending us home last month, in some ways seems to have scared people into thinking that Bonnaroo was near its end. Am I overstating that? I thought it was because of the rain or prior. Were you thinking that Friday morning? No. Because I wasn't. Because the crowd was great. Everything was, I thought it was getting ready to be one of the best weekends of my life in recent years. Yeah, I know. I have a- You know what I'm saying? I have a story that I go back and look at, like a story on my Instagram of that morning when we were on the back of a golf cart and I had a good shot of the back of the witch stage and then do some MJ Linderman as a background song and then knew I was going to see him in a few hours and I look back at that and then I look at the next story and it's 10 hours later in a mud pit getting my car going home. So no, no. I started that Friday like, here we go. Well, yeah. That's my point, I guess, is like, we, you know, some of us, especially veterans or new people are looking back like this was horrible. This is the end when Friday morning, this was going to be the best weekend ever. So- Quick thought before we break is that it's simple for me. Nothing lasts forever. And when I just use the basic facts of the last five, six years and then start to think about and not being qualified to talk about insurance companies and policies and payments and A&R guys and executives saying, why are we dumping all this money into this stupid farm in Tennessee, some guy out in LA or whatever. And I start putting all those, that like anxiety-ridden kind of thoughts in my head and I'm thinking this, maybe this is it. I mean, just because nothing lasts forever and in capitalistic America, if you're not making money, then you, you close shop. That's why I went there. That's all the only reason. No, I guess what I'm saying is like, I've seen some things like I told you the lineup wasn't very good and blah, blah. I'm like, what? No, you're making stuff up. That's too much of a comment section. Yeah. You're imparting stuff that doesn't exist. All right. Let's take a break and let's come back and I want to revisit the Beatles versus Oasis thing and, and, and talk about that. All right. We're back. A couple of weeks ago, I guess, Brian, you asked me a question that is a great question. It comes up a lot. The Oasis thing, the Oasis phenomenon. You were just telling me off air before we got on that Oasis just played what? Over in Europe yesterday or this weekend? They had a long run. They did. They started in Cardiff and then they went to Manchester for a five night run, which is kind of their home base. And then London proper is where they're at now. So that's, that's the bigger shows of the, of the first, well, I don't know. I guess it depends on how you look at it, but yeah, they're at Wembley and they just wrapped that up probably in the last day or two. And the, the visuals of this, I mean, you know, the, the European kind of bounce and shake the place and rock. It's almost like a soccer crowd is, is, is pretty fascinating to see, but yeah, they are, I mean, they are losing it over there. So I had a couple of friends ask me a similar question to sort of look back nostalgic to what sort of music influenced my life growing up. Again, I'm in my early sixties, year in your mid forties. And we made the point when you asked me sort of to compare the Oasis and the Beatles, the Beatles, I think most people would agree is sort of the, the measure there, the baseline, you know, our, is this band better or good or the new or whatever of modern American music? They, they, they're the, the, the, they, they're the beginning of the conversation starts there and maybe Elvis and them. And then it goes from there. Fair enough. And so it made me think a lot of things cause you and I are rock and roll guys. Um, and it reminded me, and I'm going to promise you probably never given this a thought, but Alabama, when they came around the country band, Alabama, country band, Alabama was massive. And everyone was comparing them to the Beatles. And then, Oh yeah. And then Garth Brooks. Oh yeah. Yeah. And now Taylor Swift. And so, I mean, um, my point, I guess what I was thinking is it depends on where you are. Right. I'm, you made the, you just made the face that I did too. When I thought about it this morning, I was like, yeah, Alabama people actually think Alabama, you know, was a mate and they were, they sold a, I had it written down. I think they had 21 consecutive number one singles on the country charts. Um, so country, country music was not, I mean, that, that was probably, they might've been a big part of the shifting to where country music is now. I'll give them that. That's where I'm going with this. I'll give them that. That's where I'm going with this is like, you've got record sales is one thing. Number one singles is another thing. Moving the needle is, I guess to me where the argument takes shape. And they might've moved the needle more than I realized. Like it wasn't David Allen Coe who was doing music back then too. But, um, so they were the, the murals and the George Jones and, you know, those guys were, um, they weren't selling records. And so I remember headlines is country music dead. And then all of a sudden here comes Alabama in like 1979, early seventies, I guess, uh, saved it. And then again, they kind of retired in 79 ish and the headlines again were country music's dead. And then here comes Garth and, you know, friend in low places, literally pulled country music out of the doldrums. If somebody wanted to say, and we're talking about like the most important artists of generations, I mean, Garth Brooks is right there, right, there, but Alabama might've been the precursor to that. Oh, there's no question. And I never would've thought about that in a hundred million years. That was my point. I know you wouldn't. And, and, and so when people make fun of Taylor Swift, I'm kind of in that same boat. It's the new era of earth. I couldn't name a single Taylor Swift song right now, but she literally, I mean, she's her own economic universe. She's so massive and I have nothing but good things to say about her. My music. I love Taylor Swift. I think she's awesome. Couldn't tell you a song either, but except for, you know, it's me, it's me. I'm the problem. It's me, which is a great, it's like my theme song. So, I mean, we kind of made the point when we were talking about, it depends on whether you're 13 or 16 at the time, you know, whether they're the most important, but I can't tell you that Alabama moved the needle and changed music. I mean, it's saved a genre, saved radio stations, but did anybody start changing how they performed? I mean, maybe a little bit. I mean, they kind of lead to the bro country type of thing. Yeah, it totally leans into that or leads into that. Right. Beatles changed the world. Oasis. In their own country, in that side of the, in Europe, there was some of that, but not nearly, but no, it's preposterous to say they're even on the, I believe a, a comparison discussion with, with the Beatles. I think maybe the, maybe I didn't get my point across as well a few weeks ago is that maybe I was, as you being a big Beatles guy your whole life, did Oasis just irritate you beyond belief because of their weird attitudes and their ass hole-ish attitudes. Oh, I thought it was funny. I thought the same with the clash and the sex pistol. I think it's great. I thought it was hysterical, but a lot of people were like, how dare you even bring the Beatles into this conversation? But if you get them in more a, a, um, a measured interview, the Beatles mean everything in the world to them. Yeah. Like this was never a, uh, we're disrespecting the Beatles there. I mean, they'll go on and talk about their favorite Beatles or songs. I mean, they, that's their favorite band of all time. And there's a bit of an homage played in their music. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, look, the clash phono beatium Beatlemania is bit in the dust. I mean, even when I heard that, I was like, you probably that's funny. It's clever. You don't mean it, you know, but maybe it has, but, um, I would say so of the artists that have moved the needle, if we're saying it that way. And I'm not a, I don't dislike them, but they didn't do it for me. Cause again, I'm, I was having kids Nirvana certainly did. Oh, as far as, yeah. I mean, there's very few in my generation that can claim this kind of thing. Yeah. And, um, and, and, and Nirvana's the one like that. That was a moment of changing of styles and it changed everybody's approach to music. I mean, it completely single-handedly destroyed the glam rock era of the eighties that lasted a good amount of time. That wasn't like a two year thing that was going on most of the decade. And you'll talk, there's great docs for the eighties guys, skid row and some of those bands. Uh, that's the only one that pops in my head now, but we'll be like, are like that goddamn Nirvana. We're supposed to go on tour on an album we released last year, or like six months ago, and we're about to hit the road. And all of a sudden, no one's showing up. No one wants to hear our music. And six months ago, we were the biggest act in the world. Yeah. That's how quickly they destroyed, uh, or, or not destroyed, just reinvented what popular rock and roll music was going to be. It's the closest thing that can be like Beatles-esque in my lifetime. I agree. I agree. And, and, um, I mean, I was into punk, you know, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, but they weren't, I mean, in, in a smaller way, smaller sub genre, they were doing the same thing, but Nirvana was the upper level. Everybody that, um, you just mentioned and so many more, almost all those Seattle bands specifically, but many others across the country from Chicago and, um, where Smashing Pumpkins are from and Stunt Little Pallets or wherever they're from, uh, they all cite almost the same influences, all that punk. They were all punk kids. Yeah. And, and I've never been much into punk. It wasn't quite my era. And they took punk and turned it into feedback driven, three chord progression, loud garage rock that just took off. And it comes from the, the origins come from punk music. Yeah. And, and finally, uh, that was exactly what the Beatles did. That's what's so weird. As big as the Beatles are, they were a punk band basically in the, in the late fifties and early sixties. Um, obviously became different, you know, in the late sixties with all the studio stuff, but they were just a rock and roll band that would fight you in a minute. It's back in the day, their trajectory, their story, their hit. I don't even know it as well as I should. I'm sad, I'm sad to say, but it is wild. They did so much in such a small, small time, not even a decade, right? And they were like 27, 28 years old when they broke up. Yeah. Think about that. So yeah, I was about to say that, that I didn't know where you're going with that, but I knew it wasn't that old. I would have guessed more like 30, but yeah, John Lennon was 40 in 1980. I know that. Yeah, no, they were, uh, 27 when they did, I think the white album. I mean, Ringo is the oldest, but yeah, breaking up when you're 27, 28, having changed the universe. And I was just having this conversation with somebody just the other day of that with the Beatles. The thing with me, when I would not, when I would just show my lack of fandom was more of, you know, I get kind of hung up on the, the boy band era of theirs, the kind of love me do era is eight days a week era. And I just like, that is some of the dumbest music I've ever heard. I get it. No, I completely get it. But I, I, I've always tried to make the difference. You don't have to like the music cause I get it. I mean, you're, why would you at 40, you're listening to Pearl Jam. I mean, why would love me do strike a note with you? I get it. Yeah. Uh, but when people say like they were overrated and they're terrible and all that, I'm like, no, come on now, use your brain. Now when they made the transition, you know, more into the late sixties, magical mystery and those kinds of things, that's more my speed, certainly more my speed. And then, you know, John Lennon's, you know, imagine and jealous guy. And some of those, I mean, those are my favorite Beatles songs and they're not Beatles songs. Yeah. Right. Right. I get it. Um, anyway, I just thought it was interesting when I started thinking about like Alabama, again, not my wheelhouse, Garth Brooks, not my wheelhouse, but they were massive. Uh, so is it, you know, is it record sales type of thing? I mean, look, if we're going to do that, let's throw kiss in there. Yeah. I mean, kiss sells, you know, has how many tons they're awful. Yeah. But I love them. But they had it, you know, they had their era of what they did differently. But I, and for a few minutes that did split spin into the glam rock era. All those guys were fit, were, were kiss guys, but it didn't, I wouldn't put that on the same trajectory of changing rock and roll forever, but maybe I'm discounting that too much. Maybe I am. Yeah. It's certainly a shift and you can point to who created the shift. And that might be kind of what we're talking about. Cause after a while, I mean, the Beatles, that's so primitive of, of, of music time, rock and roll music. I mean, that it's just, it's, it's in its creation. Right. We're now talking about stuff 40 years later where rock and roll has gone through five different shifts and there's only so many times you can reinvent a bar chord. Yeah. With distortion on it. And after a while now that's why rock and roll is falling off that you can't, you can only make rock and roll so many ways. Which goes back to, or brings me back to the question on the survey. Do you want legacy or new? And that's kind of part of all why I was thinking about all this, you know, which band right now, I mean, who's, who are the acts right now that are moving those needles, you know, um, legacy wise, you mean, or just whatever that are new that are going to be legacy in five or 10 years, maybe, you know, I miss, I miss, no, I didn't ask the question very well, but that's what I'm trying to think is like, well, the answer is I don't know. I know nobody does. And it's such a short shelf life. Yeah. That's another thing. That's another thing. When it looking back at these, I mean, we, most Bonne Rouvians do this look back at old, uh, lineups and it's just a fun exercise. And it's a, it's wild. How many bands have that blip? Never see them again. That's why it's so funny to me when I hear people say the lineup socks. It's not what it used to be. I'm like, what are you talking about? You know, and again, that's, yeah, that's the, that's the advantage of age. Like I looked at 2017 the other day, cause one of my favorite years for a lot of reasons that don't have anything to do with the lineup, but plenty of it did have to do with the lineup and a band called car seat headrest. Any of you guys remember that band? I was so obsessed with them that summer and I went through that show and I rocked out. It looked kind of like a European crowd and under, under that tent, they have a big following at the moment. It was, it was just big bouncy crowd and, um, haven't heard of them in five years. I know. So it's so funny. Arcade fire was massive, massive. And we were kind of interested that they were coming back this year. Little bit. That's my point. That's the thing again. What happens when you get old? Um, all right, man, what else? Uh, well on the way out, I guess speaking of, um, some of the greats from, uh, Europe, we should talk about Ozzie for a few minutes. All right. What a, what a loss. Um, where were you as a black Sabbath fan, um, growing up? Uh, again, when I was in high school, when they were, uh, ACDC, all of that, I hated them because all the stoners in school loved them. And so I was into the Ramones and, you know, I was the anti guy, whatever. Was that a, was that a little bit of a, of a, of a, that era's goth movement, maybe a little bit with black Sabbath? Yeah. Yeah. Black t-shirts. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The devil worship, and, and, um, I mean, I kind of, I liked it. I liked it. Um, I didn't hate that one as much as some, I'd like Fogelberg. That was, uh, Jimmy Buffett and Fogelberg were they the devil as far as I was concerned back then. I got a sauce spot for Fogelberg, but anyway. Yeah. Ozzie, you know, I liked, but I, uh, now I just love it. I just, it's just fun. But what I, what interesting to me was watching all the news reports. He gets a lot of credit and there wasn't a lot of mention of his wife. She was the genius behind Ozzie in the 21st century. She certainly was all of it. Pretty not. Yeah. I mean, the band was amazing. They were great. Um, but again, he got that Prince of darkness. They were not the devil. I mean, that's, that's so funny. Everybody wants to label them as like this. They sang some of the most practical music I ever heard most of the time. Like have you ever read the lyrics to war pigs? I mean, you could write that today. Exactly. Exactly. So nobody would say this is devilish. They'd be like, no, what a, what a poet. Plus I don't know if you've ever actually been in a room with my brother, Bob, but they look identical. Oh, my brother Bob used to get, people would stop him in bars all the time. They really identical, but yeah, no, that's a huge loss. Um, it's really, really cool that they did that concert two weeks, three weeks ago, right? They knew somebody knew somebody knew that. Yeah, I saw a version. I had no interest in watching it because I'm not a huge fan. I'm a, I'll, I'll, I'll give you my fandom here in just a second, but I, uh, where, where it came and went, but I, uh, I watched some of the clips, but didn't really have an interest in watching the whole show. Um, but I did see a mama I'm coming home and it was after he, after he passed. And so it had extra emotion to it and boy, he was struggling, but he was still doing pretty good for a guy with Parkinson's and, and, and his age. And he was doing pretty good. He couldn't hit those, the fire in her eyes. They couldn't quite hit that, but everybody's crying and that's such a sweet song. And I was kind of like, Oh my God. It's horrible. Uh, but speaking to that song and that album, um, of course, because everything's starts for me in the early nineties, cause I'm 11, 12 years old, that no, uh, no, uh, no more tears album still to this day, one of my favorites from the nineties front to back. I'll listen to it any, any, any, any time. And that was my discovery of Ozzy. And then went back into the, uh, I'd never liked the 80s stuff. Cause I never liked any of the eighties, almost any eighties music. And I liked some of the black Sabbath, but not, but not as much. And the thing with Ozzy, there's two things that bothered me with him. And I kind of, I kind of stopped paying attention to him for 25, 30 years. I wish I didn't, but I did. And two of them are first is I get really irritated with these constant retirement tours. Anybody who does this stuff. I'm like, even the dead right now, the dead are doing this and it's annoying me and I love the dead, but the no more tour, no more tears tour was called no more tours in 1992. I'm 12. He's retiring when I'm 12. Yeah. Then there's the retirement socks tour in 1997. Then there's Oz Fest, which I, I'm, I wish I made it to never did. Um, but I'd give you that cause that's not an Ozzy, uh, tour officially. So I'd give you that. And then there's a no more tours too in, in 2018. Like, how do you get this so wrong that 16 years ago you're still doing? So that annoyed me. And then the thing that annoyed me the most, that absolutely ridiculous MTV show, that show sucked so bad and it was played up to, it was all, it was the, the beginning of, or the middle of when real world starts this reality TV garbage and road rules in the nineties and MTV, and everybody's losing and loving this stuff. And then we've moved on to families. Now we moved on to bigger, different quote reality, um, scenarios and, and show concepts and the Osbournes clearly a massive hit that I believe Sharon is the main reason why, but Ozzy wasn't that belligerent, but Ozzy was not that out of it. Ozzy was together for the, he was playing that dumb, that, that dumb character. And it, I was like, you're better than this Ozzy. I can't, I can't watch this crap. There was a clip. I saw it again the other day, but I, I, I remember it from 20 years ago. I used to be more of a Cubs fan of the family from Chicago. He sings, take me out to the ball game and it's ooh. It's like Ozzy, you got one of the best voices of a generation of, of five generations sing the song. No, he's playing up to the empty. I guarantee it. Sharon said, Hey, all is he, all is he singing like an idiot. And he did it. And I was like, you know what? I'm done with Ozzy Osborne. And that's, and that's, that's why I never paid attention to the guy. And probably why I put her in the same category as Jean Simmons. I mean, with kiss, I mean, it's, it was all about the money. Yeah. And she, you're right. I mean, she killed it. And quickly, before I forget the first night at Wembley Oasis, a four night run or however many night run it is, that was this past weekend. Uh, they have, and they probably did it every night. I don't know, but they, when they played live forever, this beautiful, um, and their, their stage setup is just phenomenal. And, uh, they had this big picture of Ozzy when he was very young, probably like 22, 23 looked, I mean, just such a good looking guy. And they had that up with some great graphics of their song live forever. And so I thought that was a nice touch, but, uh, yeah, I mean, I like Ozzy, but for those couple of reasons. Yeah. And I was looking up where you were talking about the, uh, retirement tours. It's basically the, I mean, the sex pistols, their last one was the filthy Luger, Luger, which is just the money. That's why we're doing it. That's what it, it's, you know, we've got bills to pay. I'm not mad. I'm not, I mean, the who, the who, I know they all do it. The who is about to have another one, which is just, uh, Roger and, and, um, yeah, cause they fired Zach. Yeah. Roger and Pete firing Zach. Yeah. Roger and Pete. And so it's like, really your first one. I mean, maybe Barry helped me on this. I think they might've said we're last, we're not touring anymore in like 79 or 81. Yeah. Hope I die before I get old. Yeah. Okay. Just stop it already, but I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it. And I love the who's I'm not hating. Yeah. I don't think they expect to live this long. That's part of it. And then the bills come, you know what that I think I'll learn to appreciate the more my life goes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's revisit this. We'll be doing the, uh, you know, the retirement tour of the what podcast again in 30 years, but quickly because I wrote this down and where I'm giving a little bit more leeway to a band I like is the Grateful Dead and the dead, the, the, the 21st century version of the dead 2015, they do fairly well, make a big to do about it, play these massive shows, sell all the pay-per-views. We all get together, have a big time, watch all the shows eight months later, dead in companies, a band with John Mayer. I'm like, this is why is John Mayer in the John Mayer's and shouldn't be in this band. Of course, 10 years later, I love John Mayer. Uh, and then 20, uh, 2023, they have the final tour, the fi we're, we're not touring anymore. I went to the show, thought, okay, I'm done with the dead. That's okay. I've got all I ever needed out of the, out of the 21st century dead. A year later, the sphere run for a year and a half. I know that's not a tour. It's a technicality. Of course I went to that too. And then now they're doing the Golden Gate park in two weeks as I don't know if they're calling it final. So everybody, so many legacy acts do this. I just can't help but be a little annoyed by it. Have you, and I'm, this is way out of left field, but not really. Have you given any thought to who needs to be on the lineup next year for Bonnaroo? Do you care? I have, I have not. Um, I have not. I, I don't usually do that a whole lot because that's just, man, I'm so far out of that, that kind of even guessing game. Uh, you know, once upon a time, not all that long ago, when I was still doing music radio, I would go through and look at anybody who might be able to play and then see where their tour schedule goes and you know, kind of crisscross that. I don't have any real reason to do that for, um, you know, for a job like that anymore. So I really don't. And I've also gotten to be, you know, we were all the, you know, from all those years, get it, give it to me early. I got to get it now. I got to get it now. And now I've kind of grown into the love. I just want to be there when it gets dropped like everybody else. I want to be surprised. I don't want to know anything. I'm kind of not just me personally or you personally, I'm just like, and maybe we need to think about this and talk about it in another show is what we think the lineup needs to look like to be successful. And maybe where some of the percentages of the genres and that kind of stuff. And I know our boy, Daniel wants Tame Impala. Got to have Tame and apparently we got to have all EDM. So he's going to have a stroke if we don't get Tame Impala in this. And I like Tame Impala. So I'd be fine with that. Um, that's kind of my point is that what is, what is, what are the acts now that are the zeitgeist or whatever, or what will they be next year? I haven't given any thought. I haven't either. My first thought is I had, they might do a little bit of a 2021, um, from 2020 to 2021, where they tried their best to recreate that 2020 lineup. I mean, they didn't try to get it exactly, but they, they attempted to make it similar. I have a feeling there's a chance they might try to try to piece together, but I don't even know about that. I'm making that up as we talk. Yeah, it's a, it's not a good question. It's a sitting around drinking a beer type of question. It's not necessarily one you and I need to be doing right now. Pass that over here to me. Let's talk about this. Right, right. Right. Yeah. All right, man. Uh, anything else? Well, that gets through the list here and, um, yeah, we got some phone calls in the, uh, in, in the, in the, uh, can over here as we call it, that we'll run here soon enough. And, um, plenty of things coming up as we, as we continue to navigate this scorching hot south, southern summer. But, uh, no, I got up about everything we need for today. I think, I think so too. Uh, again, typically we thought this might be a quick 20 minute, 30 minute show and we're a little over an hour or so. Actually, let me do this real quick. Cause this has been sitting on my desk for a month. Okay. Drink this coffee. It's not this coffee, but I forgot as we did show and tell, Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Shortly after I totally forgot this and I feel even worse because I don't remember your name. Might've been a Brent or a Brad or a B word. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I can't remember. We were talking Pearl Jam and everything else and I couldn't go to the coffee exchange and he brought me this from Alabama. Yeah. It was very cool. Coffee that is called called coffee. So, um, I've already long drank it and, um, that was just one of the cooler things ever because I really, really wanted to go to this, but it was at Thursday at noon and we had work to do around two and it was not going to make sense for me and, um, unsolicited and, and just out of the kindness of his heart, dude, bro, thank you. This was great stuff. I am a coffee guy these days and I love it. So thank you. Nice. I'm glad you got that in. Yeah. It took me a month. It took me five weeks to remember it's been sitting on this desk the whole time. All right. Thanks guys. All right, Barry. See you and see you guys later.