The What Podcast
Noah Kahan Told Us This Before He Was A Bonnaroo Headliner
Season 9, Episode 20
Published May 13, 2026
https://thewhatpodcast.com/episode/noah-kahan-told-us-this-before-he-was-a-bonnaroo-headliner

If I told you that we were going to be on stage live at Bonnaroo, would you believe it?

No. If we hadn't done it before, for sure. I still can't believe we did it last year,

but we're doing it again this year. We're going to be on the house stage Thursday at four o'clock,

right? Inside Planet Roo.

Yeah, for whatever reason they ask us back. Can't even believe it. But we're going to be

on stage at the house stage, inside Planet Roo, four o'clock on Thursday. There will be nothing

else, no music going on. You can come in, get out of the sun. You can come see us. You can hug and

howdy with Russ and Brian and me. And we've got stuff to give away. We're going to give away

a goodie pack. We don't know what's going to be in it from the lunchbox guys.

And our friend David Bruce has promised to give away another I Am Bonnaroo original photo. So

how can you beat that? I know it's going to be great. Come see us. We love to see everybody

that listens and watches us every week. So come hug and howdy with us on Thursday at 4 p.m. on

the house stage at Bonnaroo. Welcome back to the What Podcast. I'm Barry. That's Russ. How are you?

Doing great. And no Brian this week. He's out of town again.

No Brian this week. He decided to go see his girlfriend and to celebrate things and to make

it a total Brian type of weekend. He had a tooth pulled before he left. So that's how he rolls.

I don't know. He had the wisdom teeth removed and I had that done and I was out for like a week.

So I don't know.

Incapacitated.

Yeah.

I was completely.

The idea of getting that done and then hopping on a plane is unreal.

And going cross country. It's not like he went to Atlanta.

Yeah. This isn't just a quick layover. This is across the country.

God love him. But no he's not with us. And for you guys who reached out this past week,

we apologize for missing a show. Quite honestly we thought we had some information coming from

the Bonnaroo folks. And so we put things on hold so that we could have it and it didn't quite happen.

So not blaming them. Not blaming us. Just explaining to you guys why we missed a week.

We apologize. But we're back.

That's just how it works sometimes.

Things work the way they do. They did announce the Super Jam lineup.

And we're going to talk about that in a minute.

Later in the show we've got Trevor and Miguel from Wooks Haven.

A couple of guys who attended their first Bonnaroo in 2024.

And then loved it so much they came back last year.

And of course like everyone else went home early.

But immediately decided they were coming back.

And they wanted to come up with some way to engage and share and involve the community.

So we're going to talk about what they've got going.

Yeah. I was surprised to hear their first year was only 2024.

Because the way they've been talking it, they sound like they've been going for years.

I think that just shows that they just get it.

It just clicks with them. And of course they want to come back.

So I think that's awesome.

But yeah. Really surprised that it doesn't matter if you've been going one year, 10 years, every year.

It's all the same.

I'm so glad to hear you say that.

Because I've been really thinking that same thing this week.

And we talk about it a little bit with them.

But I just want to stress to people, especially if you've never been or you've been once.

Or you've been a couple of times.

There are so many different ways to do Bonnaroo.

It's hard to describe to people.

And I've had people kind of get on me a little bit.

Because I choose to do it a certain way.

One year was the Hug and Howdy tour for me.

Where I was really focused on just making sure that I had face-to-face time with people that have become friends.

Because of this show.

It wasn't about going to a particular show show.

A performance.

It was more about seeing people that I've become friends with.

And I did it and loved it.

And it was perfect.

And it was awesome.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Other year.

Yeah. Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Well, it's like you say.

There is no wrong way.

We get criticized.

You see people criticize other people.

Like when the one-day tickets came out.

You had a lot of people saying, oh, we don't want people to be here for one day.

You're supposed to camp the whole weekend.

Well, not everyone is up for that.

And if you do you, man.

You do you.

If a one-day ticket is your way in.

If two-day, that's all you can do.

Great.

So like you said, there's no wrong way to do it.

Make it your own.

And have a good time.

And how many times have we heard from people who say like,

my favorite moment was that evening in camp when we all sat around and played a game or whatever.

Or walked across or the guys next door started playing music and we just had a little party.

Or there's so many different ways.

So the point is, come with that attitude.

You don't know what's going to happen.

Be open to whatever might happen.

And those are the moments that you're going to take back home with you.

That's it for me.

You know, it's so much fun.

And there's so many different things.

Centeroo is its own thing.

Outeroo is its own thing.

Where in the woods is its own thing.

I mean, you could literally hang out in just any one of those places and have an absolute blast.

And not have any idea what Russ's weekend was like.

Yeah, that's another good point.

Because I think especially you and me and Brian and really everyone in our camp,

we hardly ever go do the same thing all the time.

We don't know where everyone is most of the time.

We always disperse and kind of spread out.

Usually we'll come in and of course we're at camp together.

And we'll usually go to one or two shows together.

But other than that, we'll see you.

Yeah.

And you know, yeah.

Even like our friends at the Veeelans, Tara and Joe and Kai and Stratton.

Stratton came last year first.

He's what, 13?

He'll be 14 or whatever.

Yeah, that sounds right.

They, Kai's old enough now.

They might go together.

They might not.

They might go their separate ways.

Husband and his wives is my point.

She might want to go see something that he doesn't want to see.

And that's exactly the way it's supposed to be.

All right.

We continue to dial into what we consider, Russ and I and Brian,

a really cool thing for us.

We are going to do again, we've been invited to do a panel discussion as part of the event.

On Thursday, four o'clock on the Howe stage inside Planet Roo.

For those of you who don't know, Bonnaroo partners with a whole bunch of nonprofits

throughout the week that do all kinds of cool things.

And they are all centered in Planet Roo.

And we this year are going to have several of them come up on stage with us to kind of

talk about their mission and everything.

So it's a way to brag on them and to get you guys involved the way it's going to lay out

this year because it's of the Thursday, how they've redone everything.

Nothing will be happening.

I think what, Santa Roo will open about a couple hours before?

I think it opens around noon Thursday.

It's that early?

But there's no music until later that night.

That's correct.

There's stuff going on in Santa Roo, but you won't miss any bands for anything,

which is interesting.

So we're unopposed.

And yeah, I think we can reveal this.

The name, the title, I guess, is Bonnaroo Amplified, Where Music Meets Mission.

And it's like, just like you said, it's all about all the nonprofit things they partner with and

show off.

The house stage, Planet Roo is all part of that.

So I think we're going to have some guests.

We're going to have some giveaways.

What else?

That's right.

It's going to be a big time.

We've got some stuff to give away, including a photo from our friend David Bruce.

I am Bonnaroo.

And some swag from, what's it called?

I can't even think of it right now.

Lunchbox.

Lunchbox.

I keep thinking of skins.

Well, that's part of it is that there's a special Bonnaroo skin that they designed for this year

that goes on the outside of the hydration pack.

So you'll get a Bonnaroo branded themed hydration pack.

Very cool.

And of course, we'll hang out either before and after if you want to come up and hug and howdy.

And we'd love to see you.

That was so much fun last year.

That was a blast doing that.

It was almost overwhelming just the amount of people.

I couldn't believe how many people showed up last year.

So this year, it's going to be incredible.

Well, yeah, I was thinking after reading some of the Discord things,

you might have to have your own security team.

So we need to talk about who can help you out with that.

But that's going to be a lot of fun.

And that literally will be the kickoff.

In my mind, now things are officially kicked off and then we'll wander over to the wet stage

and watch music for the rest of the night and officially get things going.

So pretty exciting.

Pretty exciting.

Like you said, we missed last week.

We were waiting on this Outeroo schedule, which with our luck is going to drop the instant we

hit stop on the...

As soon as we hang up.

As soon as we hang up here at this point.

Hey, it's the editor here.

Just as we talked about, the Outeroo lineup did come out right after we recorded yesterday.

So go check that out.

Lots of good stuff on there, including the beer exchange making its return.

We will have a special guest on soon to talk about the Outeroo lineup and much more.

So back to the episode.

So it may be out by the time you listen to this,

but we were hoping that would come out so we could kind of see all the other stuff listed on there.

But we did get the Super Jam lineup, right?

Right.

Absolutely.

And I don't know if you've been listening to...

I kind of did a deep dive when it came out.

It came out what?

Wednesday?

So Thursday and Friday I've been listening.

What is it?

Esoterica.

I can't think of a better word to describe what this might be.

Yeah.

The Alchemy of Pop, which is an interesting title.

Yeah.

Kesha is the one, the main presenter.

She's the one heading all this up.

And they announced some names on here.

Blanchelle, Chromio, Dull Water Gap, Group Love, who I don't think was on the lineup before, right?

That's kind of a new addition.

Think so.

I think you're right.

Yeah.

Margot Price, Mountain Grass Unit, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Wyatt Flores, and more.

So the Super Jam is happening Saturday night.

So it's a mix.

You've got some Alt Rock, some...

I don't want to quite say bluegrass, but Americana for sure in some of this.

And then of course Kesha.

I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

And it really...

When I started listening, I sort of did the mix.

Just play me, let the algorithms pick.

I probably...

I'm not going to lie to you and say I'm going to be the one in the back of the room singing every word.

But I know there will be a lot of people who will be.

And I kind of want to see what the mix is going to be like.

Me too.

And to be honest, I don't know that I've ever really attended an entire Super Jam.

All the years that I've gone, it seems like there was always a conflict or something else going on.

And I've done walk-bys, but to actually sit down and be there for a whole Super Jam, I think would be...

Yeah, that's a good point.

The only one I have, and it was amazing to me, was Jim James and Brittany Howard and Larry Graham,

who literally invented the slap bass or the funk bass kind of technique.

So I wanted to see him.

That one was pretty amazing.

Billy Idol came over, which was...

I mean, just think about that.

Just all those names.

So that's the fun part.

That's part of why you want to go is you don't know everyone that's going to be

stepping out on stage, who they're going to bring out.

Absolutely.

A lot of fun.

So we got that.

At the end of the show, we're going to play a little clip from an old episode of ours,

because it matters.

Noah Cahn, who is going to be headlining Sunday at Bonnaroo this year, has a new album out,

but he was also the musical guest on Saturday Night Live this past week.

Yes, he was.

And did a great job.

Yep.

So the timing...

Isn't it funny?

It's almost like they knew.

It's almost like Bonnaroo had a clue that some of this stuff might be lining up.

Yeah.

Striking when it's fresh, because his new album just came out.

He's hitting SNL.

I think he just did a tiny desk.

So yeah, this is all leading up.

But we got to see Noah Cahn, or at least got to interview him, back in 2023.

This was before he was headliner status.

He was on the lineup.

I'm still amazed that he agreed to sit down and talk with us.

If you remember, too, we kind of went on a stretch of interviews where mental health

was a big topic.

He was very open about his own issues during our conversation.

I mean, I was extremely open about it.

And then not long after that, we had Jim James on, who talked about his issues.

So I mean, it was...

I'm trying to remember who else, but there were...

Seems like there were three or four interviews that we did.

There were several.

But they were pretty close together.

You could tell there was a common thread talking about that.

And yeah, he was really open with us.

And that was part of what he was talking about was...

He'd been to therapy, and at first you show up and you just kind of just

say what you think they want to hear.

But then he figured out, okay, this is not really working.

But when I finally do actually be honest, things change.

It helps.

The way he translated that to his presence on stage and how he felt like

that helped him be more honest with his audience, too, I think was pretty cool.

Just a great way to put it.

Really nice guy.

And then of course he shows up on the farm in the tent.

And it's one of the biggest crowds for a tent show that I can remember.

Yeah, you could not get close.

That tent was packed.

I'd never seen that many people show up for a tent show.

I think he's going to be a perfect Sunday night closer.

I do, too.

Some people were like, oh, really?

But now you see with the new album, the Saturday Night Live.

The new album, yeah, I just watched the Saturday Night Live set.

And it's him with a full band.

Really got me excited for this Sunday night closeout performance.

I think it's going to be great.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, here we go with Miguel and Trevor and Wooks Haven.

And again, I think part of the reason we wanted to have them on

because to me, they're just representative.

They're one of hundreds.

And that is not to diminish what they're doing.

It's just to kind of illustrate what Bonnaroo does and what makes it different.

Is that you got people like this who've been there, what, one year?

One year, point, 1.2.

Whatever you want to break.

Two years, yeah.

And they're so committed that they've come up with their own way of sharing

and bringing in community.

And I think that's pretty cool.

So here's our interview with them.

And then we'll be right back.

Hey, so there they are.

There's Trevor and there's Miguel.

These guys represent just one part of what makes Bonnaroo so special, right?

Yes, sir.

This idea that it's a community and we all want to make it better for each other.

And we all try to figure out what we can do not only for ourselves,

but for other people.

So how are you guys?

Doing great, man.

Doing great on this lovely Mother's Day today.

Where are you coming from?

Where's home?

We're down in Mobile, Alabama.

Yep, right on the coast.

Not too far.

Old Mardi Gras.

Yeah.

That's right.

Oh, yes.

Tell us a little bit.

We always like to hear sort of the origin stories.

How many years you guys been going?

How did you find Bonnaroo?

That kind of thing.

I'll answer that one.

We started going to Bonnaroo back in 2024.

We found out through a local friend of mine that does nonprofits about

volunteering and working for festivals.

So we had volunteered for Hangout.

We found out the way to volunteer for Bonnaroo,

especially which had a better lineup that year seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers

and Joe Russo's almost dead.

We were very excited to head to Bonnaroo and we came.

2024 was great.

We decided, oh, 2025, we'll be back,

especially when that lineup drop last year old Mutteroo lineup.

And while we were there volunteering and then during what we know as Mutteroo,

we kind of just saw that great just spirit of community and value among Bonnaroo

around among Bonnaroo on that Friday night when despite everything that had

already happened throughout that day, we were having renegade sets.

We were having people partying.

We just still had that spirit of joy and we're like,

why not emulate this for the entire week next year?

– You've got something planned for this year, but the volunteer thing I want to ask,

because we've had a couple of guests on who have done volunteer,

including our own St. Paul in the Broken Bones, Paul,

whose experience is one of my all-time favorite What Podcast moments

when the guy peed on his back.

And if you haven't heard that, you need to go back.

It's one of my all-time favorite What Podcast moments.

So if you guys can go back and listen to that.

But talk about the volunteering.

And I know it was brief.

It was brief, but how was that going for you guys?

Was it something you would recommend?

– Oh, 100%.

– 100%.

– Me personally, I really...

– What was your job?

– Oh, we did a...

Well, we started off during...

Well, your first year volunteering, you are 100% going to be doing

during-show volunteer jobs.

So we did a lot of really just picking up around the farm,

making sure trash was where it needed to be, separating, recycling.

– Watching it set halfway between it.

– Yeah.

But after your first year, you can actually start getting pre-show and doing toll booths.

Mainly just toll booths, because you get insane lines coming in,

this year would be Wednesday, and especially Thursday.

But you can also get positioned at Centro, just as a vibe leader,

just high-fiving people as they come in, especially on High Five Friday.

– I'm sorry, did you say a vibe leader?

That's an actual title?

– No, I wish.

That's what I've become myself as.

– Well, it's funny you say that, because whether you know it or not,

that is sort of the front line.

That's kind of, you know, for us coming in,

who've been sitting in a car for hours or whatever,

to get that high five and have a smiling face,

and somebody said, you know, saying, happy Roo, it's huge.

Is that something that you guys brought with you, or do they kind of...

Is that part of the onboarding, as they say?

Do they, you know, do they hype it up?

– They definitely encourage it.

Some people still have some trouble trying to figure out that, figure out doing that.

And it's just, honestly, it's just for the vibe shift of,

oh, you have security flipping your car, screaming at you to open your center console,

to happy Roo, we're so happy you're here.

It's just the ultimate shift of, okay, we're leaving reality and coming to Bonnaroo right now.

We're back on the farm, we're back where we're happy.

– Yeah, for the first minute and a half while they're getting their car flipped.

– That's where it is, leaving the reality and the mind shift.

That's what I'm... I'll be honest with you guys,

I don't know what happened this week, but all of a sudden that's where my brain is.

Maybe it's because we're a month, but all of a sudden I'm ready.

I'm starting to pack my car, I'm starting to walk in,

I'm starting to get really hyped about everything.

– I'm sure Miguel is starting to get annoyed with how much I've been talking about Bonnaroo

these last couple weeks, dude.

– Nah, it's good. It's reminding me to pack my van.

– Yeah.

– Yeah, nice.

– Yeah, heads up, make sure everything fits in your car before you leave.

– Absolutely, yeah.

– For sure. All right, so you guys, after last year, call it whatever we want,

Mud-a-Roo, Bum-a-Roo, whatever.

You've been planning ever since on how to make 2026 a great experience,

so tell me what you got planned.

– So we have a couple of events planned that's just looking to make it special.

Well, a couple of things that we're doing is we're starting our own Bonnaroo Blackout Bingo card

where we're going to put out daily things,

where daily experiences that just make an overall Roo experience.

Because we've been seeing some people where it's like, oh,

you have to go see this set, go see this set,

where you can do that at any festival, but what festival can it be?

Go eat a slice of spicy pie while reading some really obscure graffiti on a porta potty

in Plaza 9, or just going around and meeting,

just go around, go to the Roo bus, go sign the Roo bus, go take a picture with it.

Just all stuff that makes Bonnaroo special.

We're trying to just make it where you can leave Bonnaroo having that full Roovian experience

that you can't get at Coachella, you can't get it at Forest,

you can't get it at Hulaween.

It's just something you can only get at Bonnaroo.

And then Trevor could explain more about our candy poker situation we have going on too.

– Well, I've had my own Bonnaroo Blackout moment,

but I think I had a different Bonnaroo Blackout than what you described.

– I was just thinking about that candy poker moment.

I knew her.

She was a stripper back in the day.

– I think we all have that experience, right?

But I was inspired by, I saw a couple of videos of a candy roulette at EDC in Vegas, right?

Where people would, it'd be like a couple different colors on a table.

Everybody put down a piece of candy and they'd roll the roulette ball

and whoever's color it landed on got the whole pot, right?

So I kind of just took that idea and, well, I don't own a roulette wheel.

So I decided the best way to do it is just regular two-card poker.

And I had some family come down from Mississippi.

My cousin Trey came down and every time that he comes down,

he card sharks me out of about $50, which he uses to drive back to Mississippi.

So just trying to incorporate some things that I enjoy.

Into Bonnaroo.

So basically instead of chips, you'll just put down candy.

So you can raise candy, you can call and whoever wins gets the pot.

– Everybody can experience Bonnaroo in completely different ways.

I was really thinking about that this week,

especially after the Super Jam lineup came out.

And we'll talk about that a little bit later.

But I mean, I've been doing this since the beginning basically,

and no two years are the same.

It's funny to hear people and some people have sort of gotten on to me

who have been listening to the show because I choose to do it my own way.

Like leaving early one year for whatever reason,

or not going to see this show or that show.

The idea of going to see every show possible is one way to do it.

The idea of not leaving your camp is another way to do it,

which sounds crazy to people.

Enjoying all the different things that are now in Outeroo,

which didn't exist like it does today,

didn't exist that way a decade or so ago or 15 years ago.

There's no right or wrong.

There's no right way, there's no wrong way.

What you take home is what you take home, I guess.

And I don't know what I mean by that other than

that's just the way Bonnaroo is, right?

I mean, that's the beauty of it.

I would definitely agree with you.

Right, most definitely.

I think the mistake, if there is one,

and I think back when my kids were going 07, 08, 09,

especially and even later, my daughter went with some friends

and her friends spent literally 10 months stressing,

not stressing, planning, planning.

They would have nightly meetings, right?

They were talking about what they were buying,

what they were bringing, who's bringing what,

how they were going to do this, who was on their lineup.

It was fun.

It was a lot of fun for them.

And that's one way to do it.

And then of course they get there and it's all blown up

kind of thing as we say on here all the time.

I think that's the only caution that I would ever have

is if you make a list and you're determined

that it's got to be, you got to follow it 100%,

it ain't going to happen.

It's like, once you get here, just let it happen, right?

Go with it.

Yeah.

You got to go with the flow, Bonnaroo.

Yeah.

So you planning on doing these things every night, all day?

To that end, I mean, you can over plan yourselves

right out of a good time.

Exactly.

So what do you guys planning to do?

Well, I think the main thing when it comes to like the

blackout cards and another thing that we have going on,

which is we're doing a Wooks treasure hunt.

Hiding a little couple goody bags around the farm,

using some of the old Bonnaroo postcards from last year.

A lot of it's kind of hands off.

We're encouraging people to come and hang out.

We've got tons of chairs, shaded places for people to

relax and meet up with people.

But a lot of it's going to be, hey, we're going to be back

at the Haven after this set, come and hang out.

We're going to go to this set over here.

We're going to be hanging out in group camping.

We're trying to make sure that we're still getting to

enjoy the festival a little bit, you know?

Yeah, for sure.

So we're basically just kind of flying by the seat of our

pants.

We're going to be posting updates to our Instagram.

When we'll be there, when we're planning on doing

everything, trying to make sure that everybody isn't

stressed about missing out on something because they're

hanging out at House of Yes or enjoying a renegade set

or something like that.

What is your Instagram?

Shout it out while you're mentioning it.

We are Wooks, W-O-O-K-S underscore Haven.

H-A-V-E-N.

And how many, when you say we, how many are there?

Just the two of you or are there more?

So there's me, Miguel, McKenzie, Sy, Joseph, Abby,

and Christian.

That's everybody who will kind of be, I guess, hosting

the Haven.

We're all going to be camping in the same spot.

Our actual campsite.

Yeah.

Were all of you there last year?

Is it the same group?

Everybody but Christian.

Christian was supposed to be able to come, but he

ended up having something come up and had to drop out

last second.

But he's riding with me this year, so I'm going to

make sure he makes it to the farm this year.

So again, this is to me, you guys only really two

years, right?

One year and a year and a half.

Like a year and a half.

Yeah.

So for those people who are new, what is it about

Bonnaroo that gets into your skin like this that

causes you to love it as much as I do?

And I've been going forever.

So it's hard to explain to people.

I'm guessing you're like me.

The reason we do this podcast is because I talk

about it so much people want me to shut the hell

up around the clock and I'm guessing you're the

same.

So what is it about this festival?

So what we really got the feeling from it is because

as I mentioned earlier, back in 2024, we did

Hangout Fest.

That was our first ever music festival and then we

did Bonnaroo and doing that shift of going from

festival on the beach that's filled with a lot of

frat bros and just a lot of not kind people.

And then going to Bonnaroo where everybody's

smiling.

Everybody's giving you hugs, high fives.

Everybody's just talking to you.

It's just that ultimate shift of positivity, the

shift of belonging in the environment that comes

with Bonnaroo.

And that's why we always tell people it's like it

will be the best week of your life.

It's adult summer camp where you get to have fun

all week.

My first year, we didn't really know what we were

doing.

Our tent consisted of a 10 by 10 pop up with tarps

on the side.

And I was camping on like an old army cot and it

was so hot in that thing.

I ended up sleeping outside the entire week.

But people were so kind, so willing to give us

tips and feed us.

Give us a free beer every now and again.

It's just, it's a community like no other.

And I wanted to find a way to give back to that

community who has already given me so much.

And kind of encourage that community aspect between

other people.

Ross, we've been doing this since 2018.

It always amazes me that we talk about a music

festival and music almost never comes up.

Unless we bring it up.

So true.

Yeah.

Who are you guys looking forward to seeing?

Definitely Daft Punk at two o'clock.

Sorry, that's an inside joke.

I'm very much, most of my two most excited people

is Blues Traveler and Trombone Shorty for the

week.

Okay.

Good choice.

Yeah.

Love the jam, love the jazz.

It's going to be great.

Nice.

And Reefs to Soul.

Reefs to Soul is going to be amazing.

Yep.

Have you, I assume then you planned your,

for all your events around those?

You're not going to.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Right.

We're definitely trying to get sneak stuff in

between and like the undercard late night stuff

before sunrise.

Like, cause nobody else wants to see us to meet

Miss Gorgon City two years in a year, two years

in a row either.

You're not volunteering?

It was just one time?

Oh no, we still volunteer.

We do it.

We just do everything on Tuesday and Wednesday now.

Yep.

Okay.

All right.

Nice.

All right.

What else?

What else do we need to know?

Trevor, I didn't really get a, who is, I mean,

you said Daft Punk and good luck with that by the way.

A boy can dream.

Yeah.

Let me know.

I'll be there with you.

Yeah.

Who else are you looking forward to seeing?

Obviously Skrillex, dude.

I grew up listening to him.

I mean, he's a completely different person now

from the guy I used to listen to coming out

of middle school.

So I mean, it's always been something that I wanted

to do before I died with C Skrillex and, you know,

I see this as that opportunity.

Last year, I mean, not to belabor, but it was a bummer.

Bummer, yeah.

What was the, how long was the decision making,

we're going back?

Were you angry, bummed, mad, never doing it again

or we're going back?

It would, you know, on that Friday or Saturday

when you're driving home, we're going back.

Tell me, tell me the time.

Yeah.

So I can at least speak for myself and my wife.

We were always wanting to come back.

We didn't want to leave the farm at all, you know,

that Saturday morning.

And really it was more like not questioning,

are we going to go back?

We were questioning, is Live Nation going to bring this

back next year after everything that happened.

And like, you know, we still have the fear right now

with the blue dot fever among all of the Live Nation

ticket master sales, people canceling concerts left

and right, like summer camp just got canceled.

I know summer camp being canceled was just in the news

the past two days.

Do you see it?

So it just felt that ultimate fear is like, you know,

will this Bonnaroo had been the last Bonnaroo?

That was more the fear not whether or not we were

going back because as long as it's being held on a farm

somewhere, we're going to be there.

Yeah, it was never a question for me if I'm going to come

back, it was always, is it going to be here?

I mean, I absolutely love Bonnaroo.

I love what it represents and I love all the people

who come there.

So, I mean, as long as it's happening, I'll be there

whether I'm, you know, 25 or 96.

So I'll be a rave.

I can tell you, you can say that now, but at 62,

it hurts a little bit more.

So, hey, we ran into the 80 year old couple last year

and grandma was just covered wrist to thought,

wrist to shoulder and candy.

I'm like, yeah, that's going to be me in 80 years

right there just rocking around the farm.

No, I'm trying to make a joke.

It is my favorite thing all year long.

There's no question about it.

And I was just thinking this morning, I am more excited

this year than I have been in for a long, long time.

And I don't know why.

And it's not the lineup.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with the lineup.

There's a lot of things that I'm excited about.

But I'm so looking forward to it.

So cool.

I have that same feeling.

It's almost like as if we've had to wait two years

for a Bonnaroo.

Like we've had to wait since 2024 to go back.

Yeah, that's about, yeah.

Literally a one day, one and a half days last year

just didn't, you know, scratch that itch.

Didn't cut it, right.

So it's like, you know, the people in 2022

waiting since 2019 at this point.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was tough too.

Yeah, I remember that.

Mm-hmm.

All right, guys, anything else?

Anything that I haven't asked?

Any other details?

Give us the, where can people find you online again?

And do you know yet whereabouts you're camping?

Where can they find you?

That kind of thing.

We're going to be just above group camping,

up in crew camping.

You can find us at wooks underscore haven.

And if I had to say anything else, you know,

just come hang out.

We're hoping to just be a place where people can feel safe

and just hang out and be themselves

and make new friends, which I think, you know,

is a big part of Bonnaroo.

Just meeting like-minded Rubians

and having friends for life, you know.

So my final thing is you definitely look out for our flags.

We'll have flags for ordering about four or five of them to come in.

So we'll be around the farm.

Just come look at us, come say hey.

And my last thing is just because all,

we still see a lot of the negativity going around the social media,

like the loophole page in the Bonnaroo subreddits is

just be happy.

Stay off that.

Yeah.

Just be happy.

Like I have advice to everybody.

Just be happy we're coming back to the farm.

It's going to be a great Bonnaroo.

As literally, as long as it doesn't get rained out again,

it's going to be a great Bonnaroo.

And even last year when it got rained out,

that Friday night showed it could still be great.

So just come in with a positive mindset.

You get what you put out.

You get what you put in.

So just come ready to have a great week of fun on the farm.

Yeah.

So there you go.

I think you hit nailed it.

You're kind of surprised that they've only been

going for a short while and already they're fully bought in.

I could have sworn they were going to say,

we've been going since 2015 or whatever.

But yeah, pretty short, short amount of time.

And they're from Mobile.

They know how to party down in Mobile.

Yes, they do.

I'm pretty sure they kind of invented it.

Some might argue.

Yeah, like you mentioned, that is the birthplace of Mardi Gras.

Of course, we associate that with New Orleans now.

But yeah, it really did start in Mobile.

So that was fun.

Thanks to those guys.

I look forward to seeing them in a month.

As we mentioned at the start of the show,

we're going to show you the little bit,

relive a brief part of our interview with Noah Cahn.

We might play a few of those clips for the next couple of weeks,

just because we can, because it was a great interview.

Yeah, we have quite a back catalog.

And it turns out some of these names have gone on to do very well.

We've also got an interview back in the day with Tyrone from Rufus du Sol.

Of course, they're headliner now.

Yep.

Yep.

We've, it's been fun.

All right.

So here we go with Noah, and we will be back next week.

Brian should be back if he survives.

I still can't believe he did it.

We haven't heard from him.

I don't know if that's good or bad.

I don't know.

Whatever.

But we will be back.

We will be doing weekly shows until Bonnaroo.

I don't know what we're going to do at Bonnaroo yet,

other than our panel discussion.

I haven't even started booking interviews yet, but we will have some.

We're going to be starting that soon, right?

Because that's sort of in the works.

We're going to start reaching out and seeing who we can actually get on the farm to interview.

I know there's a few that you want.

There's a few that I want.

So we'll see how that goes.

I will say I've been in touch with Flip Turn because we were supposed to talk to them last year.

Of course, BFFs.

Speaking of people we've interviewed, they're great friends of ours and have a long history with

interviewing them.

Like you said, we lined that up last year and of course it didn't happen.

So we got to get that done.

And of course, Friday with the beer exchange is going to be another opportunity.

Yeah, there's so much I'm looking forward to.

All right, guys.

I'm excited.

I think it's time to start going to the store and putting the goodie bags together.

Yeah, I've already started shopping a little bit.

I got a new pair of shoes.

I'm trying to break in, get those worn in for Bonnaroo.

I'm trying to walk more, get my steps in.

Oh, I've been doing that.

Good.

Drink more water.

Put my-

All of the above.

Time to get the water in the freezer.

Start hard freezing it, doing all that stuff.

I will say thanks again to Brad Parker last year.

The coconut water.

Good tip.

Been hitting that pretty hard.

So, all right.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you all for your continuing to send us tips too, by the way, from our contest.

Yeah, they're still coming in, which is amazing.

Good stuff.

Yeah.

All right.

One thing, you might want to put a couple of bucks away to help pay for gas.

Sorry to end on a sour note, but you might plan ahead for that.

Yeah, it's going to be, especially if you're driving from a long way away, it's going to be bad.

It's going to hurt.

All right, guys.

Thank you.

Being this part of the zeitgeist, does it feel weird?

I don't know.

It feels weird.

I don't know.

It feels cool to have a lot of people listening to the music and extrapolating their own details

from it and putting it into their own lives and then seeing people form a community around

the music is what it's all about.

I've been doing this for six years.

Even when I was playing shows for 300 people, less than that, I still saw this amazing sense

of community in the audience and among the fans.

I still see that same community as the fan base grows.

I think that's so cool.

Being able to feel like you're creating something that's creating positivity and letting people

vent their feelings to each other and creating conversations around mental health and therapy.

That's so cool.

So if I can be part of it, I don't know what part of the zeitgeist I'm in, but if I'm doing

anything and people are hearing the music and taking away their own challenges themselves

and finding ways to deal with it, then I'm happy.

Well, you mentioned music is therapy.

The way that you write is so, I don't know, you're so introspective.

It feels like it's coming straight from your life.

How much of it is therapy for you to put some of this out?

Yeah, I mean, it all every song has parts in the unit and every song is helpful for me to

figure out what I'm feeling.

Sometimes I'll write things down.

I don't even know how I was feeling it.

Then I read the words like, Jesus Christ, I'm depressed right now.

Or, you know, like I am sad and this is sad.

And it's cool to be able to figure yourself out through songwriting.

So it's always been a way for me to process my emotions.

I also go to therapy every week, which is really helpful and allows me to kind of have

some clarity and let me look at what I want to write about next within myself.

And yeah, I think what's mostly therapy for me is seeing other people feel better about

it and feel like I'm making a positive impact on people's lives, which is just so cool and

should be the goal of any artist.

And that's been what's been the most healing for me is seeing people find happiness in the music.

I was just saying that we have talked to people before who've said, I wrote a song,

you know, whatever that I never maybe intended to be public.

It was just for me.

And then it went public and they were shocked and surprised that it resonated with anybody else.

Was there a point in your life where, you know, I'm guessing you might have been similar.

I mean, I don't think anybody sits down and says, I'm going to write this song because

it's going to resonate with, you know, a million people or a hundred million.

But at some point you have to make that transition where,

you know, you wrote it just for you, but now you realize it hits with other people.

Was there a point for you?

For sure. Yeah.

I think it started like the first time that I started writing songs about anxiety and

depression was just because I was feeling such an overwhelming sense of these things in my life.

And then I started putting songs out because to be honest, I had writer's block and they're

the only songs that I had written.

I was like, you know what?

These songs need, I don't have a lot of other songs.

These are the ones that are about sadness and the things I'm going through.

And the response was so cool and so supportive from everybody, you know, down to the label,

down to my family, but definitely to the fans as well that it inspired me to keep doing it.

And I always say like when I was younger and I felt like there was no one else in the world

that understood what I was feeling.

And I heard a Paul Simon lyric or a Kat Stevens lyric.

And for one minute, I felt like someone had figured me out and that someone knew what I

was going through and I felt like I wasn't alone.

And so when I sit down to write, I do try to be as vulnerable as possible.

And I never think like, oh, this song is going to come out.

But I think, man, if I could provide that little lifeline for some kid somewhere that I got when

I was in seventh grade, that I'm doing something important and the vulnerability is worth it.

But, you know, I don't make music.

I make music for me, but I really do also make it for the fans.

I think I'm not writing songs to cater to the fans, but they seem to like when I talk

about myself and I try to do that for them.