With 86 days to Bonnaroo, prep season is officially here. In this week's shorter check-in, Barry and Russ walk through the early steps every Roo camper should be taking now: from pulling out gear, checking tents and fans, and buying non-perishables a little at a time, to coordinating with your group so nobody shows up without poles, stakes, or the essentials.
We also break down the Live Nation settlement with the DOJ, and how it might (or might not) affect events like Bonnaroo. Plus a little vinyl talk, and some making fun of Bryan.
Listen to this week's episode here or watch it on YouTube. As always, subscribe to The What Podcast wherever you get podcasts for weekly updates on Bonnaroo and festival news!
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86 Days to Bonnaroo, Start Your Prep Now
What kind of prep should we be doing at 86 Days In?
I've started, it's funny you say that,
because I had the cold sweats this morning
thinking about June in Manchester.
You know, it's never too early to start pulling stuff out,
setting it aside, making your pile in the corner.
Welcome back to the What Podcast.
This could be one of the shortest episodes we've ever done.
Every time you say that, it ends up being an hour plus.
That's what I was getting ready to say.
Every time we lead with that,
it ends up being one of the longest that we ever have.
I'm Barry, that's Rust.
How are you doing?
You're not in the bus?
You're not camping this weekend?
No, just in the basement, just like you.
It's a gorgeous weekend here.
It's what, mid-March?
It's spring break, which is so strange.
My kids are on their way to Florida to stay with my daughter.
They're not in Florida, St. Simon's Island.
I keep thinking of it as Florida.
That's basically Florida.
Typically, spring break in the Catholic community is after Easter,
but for some reason it's this week.
Whatever.
Doesn't mean anything to anybody but them, right?
Speaking of traveling, you notice Bryan Stone is not with us today.
Nice segue.
Yeah, where did he go?
He got on a plane yesterday and flew out to Washington State, correct?
Yep.
Is that where he's going?
Well, since he's not here, we can talk about him.
So did you happen to see the tweet that he made the other day?
Which one?
Well, he has got a local podcast, Stone On Air,
and he put out an episode last week,
and this is what he wrote to promote it.
He said, to the 20 fucking people who will see this post,
here's a podcast you won't listen to.
Fuck you.
Guy has a way with words, doesn't he?
He's a poet.
He's a words myth.
I know it.
Yeah, he really knows how to promote and get people excited about content.
And that episode was about a local issue,
and he ended it with basically, fuck you, go to hell,
which, you know, how to influence, you know,
how to make friends and influence people.
That's our guy.
He's winning people over.
Yep.
That's our guy.
And prior to that, I don't know if you listened,
but after, you know, last week.
I started it.
Last week's episode with us, which went, what, an hour and a half?
We had Caleb, who was great.
An hour and 20 minutes, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, he went and did another two hours and something
with a local podcaster, Clint Powell,
during which he spent a lot of time talking about how much he hates podcasting
and what a waste of time it is.
So, God love him.
Yeah, maybe it's time for a break.
I'm glad he's getting some time off.
Why do we keep him around?
I don't know.
I really don't either.
But anyways, if you looked at the calendar,
we are in mid-March, and it's 86 days to Bonnarooo.
If you're listening on Wednesday when this comes out, 86 days.
Hard to believe.
What kind of prep should we be doing at 86 days in, can you think of?
That's a great question.
That's what I was going to ask you.
It's about time to start going through stuff for me.
That's what I was thinking, yeah.
Kind of pull the piles out, so to speak.
Make sure the pillows are clean, the sheets are clean,
the tent doesn't have holes in it.
It's all in place.
Maybe even start thinking about what I'm going to take new this year.
Last year, you brought a fan, a water-cooled fan.
The year before, I brought a battery-powered fan.
Game changers, correct?
I agree.
And I'll be bringing the fan again.
Mine is a battery-powered fan like yours, but it also has a misting option.
You set it on top of a five-gallon bucket,
and it draws in water and just gives a nice gentle mist.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable, yeah.
It's funny you say that because I had the cold sweats this morning
thinking about June in Manchester and thinking about how hot it actually is.
It's time to start thinking about it.
If you're like me and you just moved,
you might not have any idea where your stuff is.
Mine's all in the garage somewhere.
I still got to go through and organize.
It's never too early to start pulling stuff out, setting it aside,
making your pile in the corner.
One of the things, and I give Sharla from the Real Roobus
a lot of the credit for this.
We've gathered tips over the years,
everything from freezing the water bottles and using that as your ice cooler,
making sure you have medicines,
and making sure if you have to bring medicines,
this is a Bryan Stone, make sure they're in the actual containers.
Their prescription, yes, they need to be in the bottle.
They will throw them away.
Or even just over the counter, just needs to be
so that they can tell what you're bringing in.
They are not going to play, they're not going to talk to you about it,
they're not going to have a conversation, they're going to throw it away.
So make sure it's properly labeled.
But Sharla, and I love this tip, start now buying the non-perishables.
Start now buying whatever so that you're not hit all at once
in late May or early June with a big bill.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Especially stuff that's non-perishable, like you said, it's not going to spoil.
Every week when you go to the grocery store, just pick up an extra
thing of-
Yeah, whatever.
Whatever.
Toilet paper, paper towels, plates, the little things.
And also if you're going with a group, now is the time to start talking.
Now is the time to-
Yeah, I was going to mention that too.
What are you bringing for us?
Get your group chats fired up.
Yeah, exactly.
Start coordinating, start planning.
You don't want to wait until the last minute and then figure out,
oh, I thought he was bringing this or that.
Yeah, there's no point in both of us bringing a mister
if you're going to bring one.
Yeah, and hopefully I get to use it.
You know, of course we never got to use it last year because, you know, it was canceled.
But I definitely think it'll come in handy.
All those kinds of things.
What are the others?
That games, you know, we've always talked about, don't bring a swimming pool,
though some people do.
Some people bring charcoal in a grill.
I wouldn't.
It's so hot.
I wouldn't.
Yeah, you know, meals, kind of food things, you can do that later.
But the other stuff you can start piling up and just put it all in a place where you can see it.
Because if you're like me, you're going to be nervous and you're going to be like,
did I buy that already?
Yes.
Now I can see it.
Exactly.
Yeah, that's probably the biggest thing, right?
That and coordinating that what you just said is I thought you got it and oh, hey, I forgot.
You know, we've all heard the stories of I brought the tent,
but you were supposed to bring the tent poles and you forgot.
And now basically we don't have a tent, you know, or a hammer or, you know, whatever.
So now's a good time.
It's quick.
It's sooner than you think.
It is.
And you want to be prepared, of course, but don't stress out too much.
Because if you do forget something, and you probably will, we always forget something,
your neighbors will provide.
It usually works out to where everybody has what they need.
And along those lines, start thinking about what it is you want to bring from
your location that you can share with your neighbors.
Whatever it is.
I mean, have we ever brought moon pies?
I don't think anybody's ever brought moon pies.
I don't think so.
Would that be gross, wouldn't it?
Yeah, I'm just thinking about that sitting in the hot sun.
Yeah.
I'll go get all gooey and...
Obviously I'm mentioning moon pies because they started here in Chattanooga.
It's a Chattanooga institution, yeah.
But I wouldn't bring those for people.
No, that's disgusting.
Only if you didn't like them.
Yeah, exactly.
A gooey moon pie.
It's a good point though, because you meet a lot of people from all over the place.
It's good to have a little hometown representation.
Just something to share as a memento or something.
Yeah, like Caleb last week, the trinkets, the doodads, the I Spy stuff.
Start doing those now.
Think about what you're going to bring and share.
That's become a huge thing.
He was great, wasn't he?
He was so much fun.
Watching that episode again.
Yeah, he was a lot of fun.
I just think he represents so well.
Everything about the festival and what it means, all of that.
So a lot of fun.
All right, we had a little bit of news this week.
We don't dive too much into the politics of stuff typically, but obviously the big talk
in our universe this week is Live Nation and the lawsuit.
Man, first, are you surprised?
Are you at all surprised by the word that came out?
Not really, given the political climate we are in.
But I'll just go through what happened if you're not up on news.
The Department of Justice, remember this started in 2024.
I think if I remember right, what kicked it off was Taylor Swift's new tour.
Tickets went on sale through Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster crashed.
People couldn't get tickets.
We've always known that this Live Nation Ticketmaster conglomerate is a huge monopoly.
There's really no room for competition.
If you want to sell tickets, you have to go through Ticketmaster.
When that didn't work, then you realize, okay, well, we really have no alternative.
I don't know if that's exactly what did it, but that timeline accelerated.
Right there, the Department of Justice on the federal government sued and
really was seeking to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
That case had been in the works for a couple years and it really just started.
The trial was beginning and then out of nowhere, they announced this settlement.
Not too surprised, but also kind of disappointed because we were hoping for more.
I mean, the cynic is the reason it became news because it crashed the entire
universe and people couldn't get tickets.
But it was basically when political people and their kids couldn't get tickets,
then they got involved.
My kid couldn't get tickets to see Tay-Tay and so now we're going to look into it.
Do not mess with the Swifties.
Yeah, that is the cynical part of it.
The reality is we've all kind of known that they're double dipping, triple dipping.
Oh, yeah, 100%.
No doubt.
The details on this settlement.
So Live Nation is going to pay about, if every state joins, which they probably not,
which we'll get to that, but they're going to pay around 280 million in fees.
NEVA pointed out, National Independent Venue Association pointed out,
that's about equivalent to four days of their revenue for 2025.
That sounds like a Tuesday.
That's like me getting in trouble and then being told I have to pay a dollar.
Yeah.
Okay, here you go.
You got me.
Slap on the peepee.
Yeah, exactly.
They are going to sell off about 13 amphitheaters that they own because that's part of it is they
own the venues, they own the artists and they own the ticket system.
But 13 amphitheaters across the country is really a drop in the bucket for them.
Yeah.
They are supposed to allow up to 50% of ticket sales to go through other platforms besides
Ticketmaster, so they have to open up a little bit.
We'll see how that goes.
And then service fees have to be capped at 15%.
Here's where it gets weird.
C3 is part of Live Nation.
C3 is the, I think I have this right.
I can never figure it all out.
They're the organization C3 Presents is the organization that runs Bonnarooo.
We are friends with several of those people that work for them.
Tuba, Corey, Brad Parker when he was there, they are all part of C3.
I can remember, you can remember when we brought up Live Nation slash Ticketmaster slash C3
and Brad Parker was very quick to say, they've been nothing but great to work with.
Right.
And I think you and I have pointed out, especially after last year with the cancellation,
we would not have Bonnarooo 2026 if it were not for Live Nation and C3 and the money that they have.
I agree.
And that's not defending Live Nation or anything.
It's just pointing out the truth.
A lot of festivals we've seen have dried up and folded.
Locally, our own municipal theaters, the Tivoli Memorial Auditorium and even the smaller venues,
a lot of the acts that are booked are because of Live Nation, C3, AC Entertainment, which is also
part of.
So it's a multi-headed animal that brings a lot of bonuses, a lot of pluses.
But yeah, this ticketing thing is, especially after the news came out with two guys talking about
what was the, we're stealing a blind or...
Yeah, this was a, USA Today reported this.
So some of the documents have been unsealed from the lawsuit and the trial.
And one of them was a slack conversation between two Live Nation employees.
This is in 2022.
They were talking back and forth, calling the customers so stupid.
And they were talking about robbing them blind on things like VIP parking.
It was in reference directly to a Kid Rock concert.
So you can't really blame them, I guess.
But it's still not a good look.
It's not a good look when you're defending it.
It's not.
And if Brian were here, because I've heard him say this many, many times,
he probably buys more tickets than you and I do, or I do anyway.
And it's, if you don't want to buy it, don't buy it type of thing.
It's capitalism.
So I get that.
But also the just robbing people blind is not right.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you can say if you don't like it, don't buy it.
Then I agree.
But in a lot of cases, if there's a band you want to see,
and it's through Live Nation, you don't have any other option.
If you're dead set on seeing that band.
We are also lucky that we do have a local independent venue that you can support.
We have the Caverns right here an hour down the road from us.
That's independent.
It's owned.
All the money spent there stays in Grundy County, Tennessee.
So if you really don't want to support Live Nation, there are options.
And some pretty good ones.
What do you think's going to happen?
Well, for Bonnarooo, I don't think much is going to change in the short term.
You know, we should also point out Live Nation, well, Ticketmaster doesn't sell
Bonnarooo tickets, but they go through Frontgate.
But Frontgate is also owned by Live Nation.
Everywhere you turn, it's Live Nation.
All the tentacles.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's, even though this was a settlement from the federal government,
a lot of states, including Tennessee, are moving forward with lawsuits of their own
for state charges.
Tennessee is one of those.
The attorney general, Jonathan Skermetti, I think is his name.
He said he's going to continue the fight and the state will not be satisfied until
Live Nation's relationship with Ticketmaster is deeply altered.
Which is no small thing because, you know, you think Tennessee, oh, out there, you know,
but Nashville is part of Tennessee.
Yeah.
Big thing, Tennessee is kind of a music capital.
It is a music capital.
Nashville, you've got Memphis, you know, there's lots of bluegrass.
There's music all over the state.
So I think they do have a little muscle.
Yeah, it is a big deal.
Also, remember, Tennessee, a couple of years ago, passed a Ticket Transparency Act that
forces online sellers to disclose all fees up front.
So when you go online and buy a ticket, you know, they have to show you all the fees
right then and there instead of hitting them up with you after checkout.
So, you know, it'd be interesting to see if these states can get together and kind of
pull another lawsuit since the federal government has failed to do anything meaningful.
Right.
So that's the big news.
We'll see where it goes.
I mean, it feels squirrely.
It is squirrely.
We know it.
That's why I ask it, are you surprised?
None of this should be news to anybody.
We've all known this was happening.
It's just kind of one of those, what are you going to do about it?
Right.
Yeah.
And, you know, like I said, I don't think it's going to change anything for Bonnarooo,
at least in the immediate future.
But, you know, it's something to keep on the radar since all this is ties back to Live Nation.
Long and short of it.
But we're big fans.
C3, we're big fans.
Corey, we're big fans of all you guys.
But stop, you know, get your hands out of my pocket.
Yes.
Yeah.
And, you know, from what I can tell, yes, Live Nation owns C3,
but they more or less keep them kind of just to run like they've always run, you know.
That's what they've told us and I have no reason to doubt it.
Do what you're doing.
Yeah.
And we'll support you.
And thankfully.
Thankfully, yeah.
C3 exists on a, you know, they're in a column on a ledger somewhere
that just happens to be in Live Nation's pocket.
But they more or less just say, you know, yeah, keep doing what you're doing.
And it's, you know, C3 has been a very successful company.
I've had a lot of fun still doing the look through my vinyl collection
per your homework challenge.
I had another sort of thought because I was going through my albums.
Do you remember the first record you actually bought, either a single or an album?
Well, I'm not as old as you, so I really didn't start out with records.
But I do remember, I think the first cassette tape that I bought
and that was Weird Al in 3D.
I think I brought that last year because Weird Al's playing Shakenese.
And it's relevant again since he's playing Bonnarooo.
I think, you know, but that was probably the first album that I bought.
And then CDs kind of came out and I got into those.
I don't really remember the first CD I got.
But so I really didn't start with records like you would have.
But later on, I started to acquire records, of course, as almost kind of a novelty at first.
Like Brian said, we didn't even have record players.
We just thought it's cool.
But it was neat because you're used to on a CD, you know,
they shrink down the artwork and the minor notes.
But, you know, when you get a record, it's got a beautiful giant gatefold.
You know, a lot of times full color pages and just beautiful artwork and photos.
First 45 that I bought, I was probably 9 or 10 years old,
was the Bee Gees Jive Talking with Knights on Broadway on the other side.
And the first full length was Elton John's Greatest Hits.
And I bought it at the Eckerd's Drugstore.
Yeah, not even a record shop.
I mentioned that because I found it the other day.
Just randomly pulled it out.
So anyway, that's a lot of fun.
That's been a fun exercise.
Just trying to go back through and listen and think.
Yeah.
And yeah, speaking of records, Records Tour Day is coming up here next month.
Next month.
And I think we're going to plan a special episode.
All right, well, let's not belabor this.
If you don't have any other news, that's pretty much what I have.
Brian, like we said, is literally across the country with Beth, HiBeth.
She is kind of a development.
I don't know if I mentioned to you, she's, you know, trying to get into a couple of other festivals
as a photographer on our behalf, which I think is a great idea.
So we will literally be nationwide.
So I hope that works out.
So I think that's cool.
Yeah.
Well, hopefully hear from Brian again next week.
And yeah, other than that, this is just kind of a weekly check-in for you and I.
Yep.
All right.
Start getting prep for Bonnaroo.
Get your stuff out.
Get your group chats going.
And yeah, so.
Absolutely.
What did you say?
86 days, something like that?
86 days if you listen on our website.
86 days if you listen on Wednesday.
And you know, it just counts down from there.
So start to make your list.
Start putting, start going to the store, start getting stuff together.
Do it now.
10 bucks here, 10 bucks there.
So it's not all of a sudden a whole lot of money all at once.
Otherwise, yeah, you go to the store and you, you know, get a whole shopping cart full of
stuff and then, you know, it's hundreds of dollars that you spent.
So yeah, a little bit here, a little bit there, and you can just keep it in the cabinet.
The Walmart, the dollar aisle with the shampoos and the soaps and the deodorants and the
monkey butt.
Oh yeah.
You know.
Not just food, yeah.
All kinds of toiletries and stuff like that.
Get that stuff right now.
It'll keep.
And then you'll have it.
So all right.
Good stuff.
See you guys next week.
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Bonnaroo Changed My Life: The Yearbook Guy's Story
