Bonnaroo 2026 Dates & Location: Everything We Know About the Return

Yeah, I'll give you credit, Barry.

You were the first of the three of us.

May I, sorry, maybe you did too a little rust.

It certainly wasn't me who started to say,

you know, I feel like it's gonna happen.

Don't know why you're thinking that, Barry, but whatever.

I mean, I didn't have anything.

No, no, but your gut was telling you that.

I'm a glass half empty guy, shocking anybody out there.

And I was like, I'm not feeling this.

They're all in.

These are human beings that are doing this

and they love it as much as we do.

And that's what made me feel like it was coming back.

Welcome back to the What Podcast.

I'm Barry, that's Brian, that's Russ.

I'm so excited.

Why am I excited?

Because we're back.

We're coming back.

We're coming back.

We're back.

We're all coming back to the farm in June.

Remind me to come back to my annoyance

on the we're so back thing, or I could do it now too.

I don't know.

What do you think?

I don't even know what you're talking about.

I think I know what you're talking about.

I'll jump right off.

Sorry to anybody, because a few people on Twitter

were upset with me.

This is a Brad Parker thing.

He did it a ton.

And then a bunch of people did things last year

or earlier this year when the new,

when the 2025 lineup was announced.

And we were all over the moon excited.

And it was, we are so back.

And it was just, we are so back.

We're so back.

And it kept going and going.

And I was like, OK, that's fine.

And then we weren't back at all.

So it's a little annoying.

And so I'm just, I don't, can we get rid of the we're so back

thing and do something else?

I didn't even mean to lead you into that, but I'm so sad I did.

That's so funny.

I forgot to write it down.

You reminded me.

Oh, I feel so bad.

That's what happens when you do things like that.

That happened on Reddit again recently.

Somebody just posted, we're so back.

And it just kept going.

We're back.

We're back.

We're back.

Eventually, everybody's like, what are you talking about?

What is happening?

Oh, well, that was because they weren't sure about the news.

I was just like, can we retire?

We're so back.

Sorry, Barry.

I didn't mean to ambush them again.

No, I didn't mean to do that.

I really, when we started, when they hit 3, 2, 1, I was like,

ah, we're, I didn't mean to do that.

We're good.

We're good.

How is everybody?

I'm good.

How are you guys?

You have had a wonderful weekend.

I'm excited.

I'm excited because Bonnarooo is going

to be back on the farm in June in 2026.

Yeah, and it's the weirdest way they've

gone about doing it from so many news drops

and so much that read like, oh, god, well, it's probably,

I don't know.

All of a sudden, it's like people within the organization

that you guys know well from all the shows

and all over social media are just like, yeah, we're

going to be back for sure.

We're back.

We're back.

Is there an announcement?

No, but we are.

Yeah, there's no announcement yet.

There may be by the time this episode releases.

We don't know.

Yeah.

But there's some legalities here for sure.

Yeah, but a release is imminent.

There's an official thing coming out soon.

But yeah, basically, Cory on one of the discords,

I believe Festiverse just threw it up there.

Who is the marketing director?

Yeah, we have him on the show.

Friend of the show.

He just said, you might want to pencil

in June 11 through 14 for next year.

That's not being vague.

I mean, that's just saying exactly what's going on here.

You don't need the Sonny and Philadelphia thing

to put it all together.

Cory, you just told us.

Oh, by the way, you just told us.

Pencil it in.

And I don't want to play I Know Something You Don't,

but I've had enough conversations that are close enough to this

is not speculative.

This is happening.

This lines up exactly with what we've been hearing.

And it's very exciting.

And I'll let people get away with we're so back today.

Because we are, and we're very happy.

Look at me.

Thank you, Brian.

Look at me three weeks ago.

And look at me now.

It's funny you say I know something you don't.

That's funny.

We do know it's coming back.

But yeah, three weeks ago, it was doom and gloom.

Yeah, I'll give you credit, Barry.

You were the first of the three of us,

sorry, maybe you did too a little rust.

It certainly wasn't me, who started to say,

you know, I feel like it's going to happen.

I think you said it on the show.

I'm almost positive you did.

Yeah, I think you did.

Don't know why you're thinking that, Barry, but whatever.

I mean, I didn't have anything.

No, no, but your gut was telling you that.

I'm a glass half empty guy, shocking to anybody out there.

And I was like, I'm not feeling this.

You know what I'm...

I started to come around though.

You know what the tipping thing for me was,

and it wasn't me, somebody pointed out

that Live Nation survived COVID and a hurricane.

And who else can survive that?

The answer is basically nobody.

Nobody.

So, I mean, they're invested.

That and, and I want to say this,

I think I said on the show two weeks ago,

and let me think how I phrased it.

The people that are Live Nation,

the people that are C3 are Corey and Brad.

And I think I said, Ken Weinstein.

Ken is not part of C3 or Live Nation.

He owns Big Hazzle, but he's one of the original people.

He's an OG from day one.

Yeah, I want to make that clarification just for him.

It doesn't mean anything to anybody but him,

but they're all in.

These are human beings that are doing this

and they love it as much as we do.

And that's what made me feel like it was coming back

because they love it as much as we do.

So, that's it.

I'm just glad they didn't mess with the dates

or the location.

That was the only thing we kept saying.

It's gotta be June.

I don't think that was ever reality.

I don't either.

They put it on the survey.

Yeah, but once they listened to this show,

they knew good and well that we're not messing with this.

I'm only sort of kidding.

So, no, I'm very excited about it.

June is, June, the farm, Bon Rue, that's what it is.

And the reason I started to come around, Barry,

as I just spent countless time analyzing

throughout the weeks, the post weeks of our horrible weekend,

well, our pretty good weekend,

but horrible weekend for most people,

was that it's just too much infrastructure.

It's just too much investment to just be like,

this is the one.

Their insurance is covering, it would appear.

I do not know, this has not talked to anybody.

But their insurance appears to be very, very solid.

That no wonder about the policies going forward.

But, and I'm gonna give you an example as to why

one of these that is anecdotal

that might not have anything to do with anything.

I bought, and people are telling me this was me

giving bad luck, bad juju to the festival.

I bought what I wanted from the merch tent

a week before Bon Rue, because I was afraid I'd forget.

I always do.

And I, last year I had, I begged for you listeners

to send me a shirt I couldn't get, and it never happened

because these don't exist, they're so limited.

Oh yeah, you wanted that.

I know the shirt you wanted.

The soccer shirt with the rainbow.

And so the shirt that was on, that I wanted this year,

I was like, I'm just gonna buy it now.

A month later, I still don't have it.

And it's through the Shop app,

is there third party invoicing and tracking.

Shop app sucks, Bon Rue, use a different one.

Anywho, I can't figure out what happened to my package.

I got charged an hour ago, a month ago,

and it was over $100.

I'm not in a business economically to throw $100 away

and just not worry about it.

And so I didn't know what to do.

I thought maybe it got lost in the mail,

but I couldn't find out.

I eventually emailed and just said, here's what I'm doing.

I'm gonna go through my billing company

and I'm going to, which is Amex,

and I'm gonna dispute the charge,

which usually takes, I've done it before,

I've been on Amex for 20 years,

two weeks, three weeks, minimum.

I put in a dispute of the charge,

an hour later it says, you've been refunded.

Meaning to me, Bon Rue just has it set up.

If you want refunds, bing, bing, bing.

They're coming right back to you

because we're refunding anything and everything

at this point because it's probably following under

they're getting their insurance claims put together.

So if you're having any shipping issues,

which I have read on Reddit that some have,

you can go that option.

I don't suggest you do it if you think

you're actually getting your product.

But anyway, I think things are working out very, very nicely

and insurance is-

I've seen some of that and some of that,

I'm like, guys, reach out to Bon Rue themselves.

Don't try to do your business through Reddit.

Reach out to them.

I mean, I sound like a corporate shill there, but whatever.

A little, and I did reach out to Bon Rue through their,

and this is just through the merch section of the website.

This ain't C3, this isn't some,

the people we know within this ecosystem.

And I didn't get a quick response

and I don't have an AI version that answers questions

with invoice numbers and stuff.

Either all the way around, it was settled very, very well,

very satisfyingly and very quickly.

And then I bought the shirt again.

So send it this time, please.

And I do want to say, again,

if you had a horrible experience,

you had a horrible experience and I get it

and I don't blame you and I'm sorry.

I just, I keep hearing about, you know,

people flew across the country and didn't ever get in

and parked in the gas station across the street.

Oh my God, I can't even.

I'm so sorry.

Yeah, I mean, our buddy Kyle

that we just saw this past weekend, you know,

he didn't have a great experience getting out

and he's on the fence whether he's going back

to Bon Rue next year or not.

You know, he says, maybe I'll check out another festival.

It's totally valid if you're thinking that, you know,

maybe it's time to check something else out or, you know,

change your plans a little bit.

That's fine.

Hopefully he's been gone nine years.

Hopefully he comes back.

But yeah, I think I have a feeling.

I'm pretty sure.

EDM Kyle will, I don't know him well,

but I have a feeling you will be there.

You can't help yourself, Kyle.

I know it.

Can we jump in?

You want to jump in right there?

You got, you.

Yeah, let's talk about the weekend.

I'm done with the other.

That's all the news that we have about Bon Rue

is that it's apparently in June next year

and we will be there and we can't wait.

And if you're listening to this, hoping for more news,

we will have more news.

We will have Brad and Corey.

We will have whoever else you want.

As guests and we will,

they will answer every question that we can think of.

Yeah, looking forward to it.

They might, they might be, you know,

they're still waiting on Live Nation

to give green lights on a lot of these things,

but yeah, it'll be coming up soon.

I think Russ, you said it before we started recording.

They are dying to come on.

They are, yeah.

Yeah, they.

Yeah, we've heard as much from them

that they are ready to come on and talk about this.

We just gotta wait for everything to line up

and it'll happen.

Yeah, there's corporate things to happen,

but they can't wait to come on and talk about it

and we will have all of the questions that you guys have.

Yeah, maybe we'll do another live show.

Maybe we'll do some kind of Q&A.

We hadn't talked about that.

Yeah, we'll figure it out as we go.

Coming up today, we got Common John stuff

that Taco and Evan Bon Rue and others have done.

Looking forward to that.

Leftover from our, the little bit of Bon Rue

we all got to experience.

And I've got a question for Barry

involving British rock bands.

One now and one from a long time ago.

We'll get to that before we wrap up the segment.

But Taco, last year,

it was the time that it was Woodstock

25 year anniversary of Woodstock 99.

And we were gonna do a show on that.

But at that same weekend, you were up on a bluff

on Lookout Mountain here in Georgia side of things.

And you had some pictures of these planes coming in

and it was just kind of like,

you were like, yeah, there's some planes or something.

And we saw the pictures.

And the video was like, what the hell?

Brian and I were like, what the hell?

What the living?

And so, Russ is like, oh, by the way,

here's what I did today.

Anyway, so this is now something you're doing

on an annual basis.

And I actually did leave my house for once.

I finally showed up.

But tell us about it real quick, what it is again.

And who does it?

Well, we got to rewind a couple of weeks

because we've been off for two weeks.

Last weekend, July 4th, I was out too.

We went to Lindsay's, the other farm as we've called it.

It's where we've hosted several.

The Mini Rue in 21.

The Mini Rue's.

Either with a capital O, as in like the other.

Right.

Yeah, because they've got the other stage.

This is the other farm.

So we just did a big July 4th weekend at Lindsay's.

Several other Bonnarooians were there.

And we just had a great time there.

No planes there, but we just shut off some fireworks,

had some bonfires, sat in the creek.

Brian, I highly recommend you make that trip.

It's awesome.

I've heard about it.

Sounds good.

It's beautiful.

Great weekend.

So that was the previous weekend.

This weekend that we just got back from,

yes, we went up to Lookout Mountain.

My buddy Adam has had this property,

his family for generations.

I don't even know how long.

It's about 300 acres and I haven't seen half of it.

I mean, it's just all woods.

There's all kinds of trails, RV trails,

or ATV trails, bike trails.

There's a pond, there's a creek.

And it's on the bluff of a mountain, just on the side.

You can look out, literally on Lookout Mountain,

just down below at what's down there.

Chattanooga Valley.

Chattanooga Valley, yeah.

And it's beautiful.

And yeah, there's a clearing on the bluff

that they use as an airstrip.

It's the damndest thing I've ever seen in my life.

They fly these terrifyingly dangerous single-air,

I mean, they're dangerous.

Yeah, we're talking, yeah, very mechanical.

These are not jet engines.

Biplanes.

Well, yeah, basically single-passenger,

maybe two, depending on weight,

but very tiny planes, they just fly in.

Like if the oil goes bad, you might go down.

Yeah, yeah.

Or if Barry leans too far to the left.

Right, suddenly you're banking and yeah.

And we had about, what'd you say, Brian,

five or six planes that came in?

Well, I got there late and I thought they had already arrived

and I luckily got to see them take off.

You got to see them take off, yeah.

I really wanted to see that.

It was real, I did the, tried to do the Wayne's World thing,

stand under a rock and be like,

hey, it's going over my head.

I mean, it was wild.

I thought it was so cool.

And a helicopter landed too.

I had never seen a helicopter do that.

Yeah, it was just parked when I got there, yeah.

Yeah, well, it got there by landing.

It didn't just park there.

I just meant, I didn't see it do its thing.

Rest with the obvious.

But that wasn't all, we had fireworks.

We had a big dinner.

Couple local bands, we had, yeah, we had music.

Oh gosh, what was her name?

The first artist to play there.

What an amber.

It was Emerald, Fiddler.

Butler, Emerald Butler.

Butler, that's it.

Her social media handle is Emerald Fiddler,

but it's Emerald Butler.

She's great, yeah, she's a Fiddler, local Fiddler.

Oh, she was great, yeah.

She started kind of midday,

did a few covers and some songs there.

Then at the, not at the stage area, but at the cabin,

there was another band that we saw,

I'm trying to remember what they were called,

but they were from Stevenson, Alabama,

and they did a bunch of covers too.

Bunch of Skinnerd and Almond Brothers and stuff like that.

Yeah, they were doing some Almond, some Skinnerd.

They were cool.

And then I guess the headliner, so to speak,

was Planet, Buddies of Yours, Brian,

that's another local band.

Been playing for 20 plus years around here,

and they rock.

And when I saw that, I thought this thing

was more of a picking and grinning kind of thing,

like front porch picking thing.

I was like, Planet, man, they're loud.

They play rock music, like loud rock music.

But you said it went over well.

Went over great, yeah.

They played some original songs.

They've put out several albums.

They did a lot of covers.

They did some 311, Metallica, oh, who else?

They covered the cars.

They span several generations of music.

Radiohead, yeah, I thought they were quite good.

That strip, that just flat landing strip,

I mean, I don't know if they graded it one day

to make it that way, or if that's just, you know.

I don't know, I really don't.

God or whoever made it.

But it is perfect, and if it's not for planes,

and the kids are all riding their little four-wheelers.

Oh yeah, there's kids on four-wheelers.

There's golf carts, yeah, motorcycles,

two-wheelers, everything.

Oh, and rattlesnakes, rattlesnake.

Have you heard about this?

Oh yeah.

Okay, you should've told me.

Sorry, yeah, there was a, every now and then,

there's a rattlesnake that appears on the cliffs,

and they'll go out and just shoot it.

Okay, all right.

As one does.

Everybody take a step back, real quick.

So I go out to this exact spot he's talking about,

the furthest point of the cliff,

that's not too far, it's not like dropped straight down,

but it's still fall and you're in big trouble

kind of thing.

But it's a big enough rock,

and I'm feeling fine enough about it,

and I wanted to get the exact overhead.

And there's a guy, Benjamin, I think his name is,

maybe no, maybe don't, and he was like,

I was like, is it fine, am I good here?

And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally, man, totally.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, this, this, this,

kind of shouting across.

Just, you know, if you hear those,

watch out for those rattling, that rattling,

rattling or something, I'm like.

I'm sorry?

Yeah.

Rattling.

So at first I'm thinking, oh, and the plane flies ahead,

shh, shh, oh, it might be loud or something,

because we're talking from 25 feet away.

Come again with the rattle thing?

What are you talking about?

Oh yeah, rattlesnakes, man, they're everywhere.

I'm just, holy shit, what do you mean?

And he goes, oh yeah, yeah, there's one right over there.

We just shot his head off earlier.

Yep.

And I was, what are you talking about?

We walk over here, this thing looks like a python.

It is huge.

It was huge, yeah.

Dead on the rocks with his head shot off,

which is fine, kill the damn thing, I don't care.

I was, give me the shot of the plane,

get me off this bluff.

See, the point of all this to me is two things.

One, what a cool event, but,

Taco, I don't know what world you live in.

You surprise me every day, every day.

I don't even know who the people you hang out with are.

Careful about the rattlesnakes up there is all I'll tell you.

Yeah, it's, um.

Stay away from the bluff, I'm told you're just fine.

You go to that bluff.

Russ, the one who never speaks,

everybody's like, why didn't Russ talk anymore?

I'm like, well, he's.

I don't know.

He's organizing these big events all over the southeast.

Well, I didn't organize this.

This is, these are just Volkswagen people.

That's how I got involved.

Yeah, well, close enough.

Adam's been, you know, I've known him through Volkswagens.

I met Adam, I like those blade sunglasses he wears too.

Old school blades.

Interesting, I've known him.

If you're, I don't know what universe you're living in,

this is the coolest thing.

I mean, it's like James Bond.

Well, let me, sorry, I was trying to finish.

I've known Adam, I don't know, 20 something years.

One day he's like, hey, come up to my birthday one,

you know, next weekend.

It's, here's the address.

It's on the bluff on Lookout Mountain.

We'll, you know, bring the bus.

We'll have a good time.

I'm thinking, okay, we'll just go and camp out.

No, I get up there and like, you know, like you said,

it's on this. Planes are flying.

Yeah, it's amazing.

Planes are flying.

That was actually, I've heard there was planes.

I'd never seen one fly in until last year.

Was the first time I finally got to see one fly in.

So, yeah, so I've probably-

You dropped that on us last year.

You're like, oh, here's what I did yesterday.

That's what I'm saying.

That was the first time I actually seen a plane fly in.

Yeah.

It's really cool.

This is probably my eighth or ninth year

going to this thing.

And so, yeah, as long as they keep having it,

we'll be there.

And EDM Kyle was there.

He was there.

Yeah, so there's probably, I don't know,

a hundred people or so that are there just to camp.

And we're all along in the tree lines

on either side of this airstrip, basically.

And we've got to get as far over as we can

to make enough room for all these planes to come in.

It's like lining up to watch a parade.

Yeah, basically, yeah.

Leave the middle.

Get out of the middle part.

Here comes the parade, except it's a plane.

Yeah, so Kyle was there in his van again.

I was there in my bus.

And then most everyone else just has tents

or pull behind campers or RVs or whatever,

rooftop tents.

25 minutes from my house.

I was there for the afternoon and back in no time.

I enjoyed it.

Short drive.

Yeah, pretty good group of people.

Awesome.

All right, one last thing here

before we get to the common John stuff,

unless something pops into y'all's heads.

Barry, you're a Beatles guy.

Yes, I am.

All the old jokes that I hate the Beatles,

I knew by this point that those are not true,

but I don't share the fandom.

But I do love, but really liked,

I'll say love more now, the band Oasis.

And I did more in the 90s and mostly into the mid 2000s.

And this reunion tour is taking over social media algorithms

that you, I mean, you're not immersed in that,

like good for you, like a lot of us dummies.

It is consuming me.

These shows that are taking place in the UK right now,

of course, they're rabid there.

They're just, they look like some of the most amazing

rock concerts I've ever seen.

And they're playing five, seven dates, whatever it is,

and football stadiums here in America,

which led me to think I don't even wanna get tickets

to this stuff.

I don't wanna be in a football stadium.

Now I don't know what to do with myself.

I got our buddy Brad,

I said I'd never say his name again,

Brad Steiner, New York.

He's working for me, working on me,

getting a single to the East Rutherford New Jersey show.

And I'm just, I can't believe how immersed I am in this.

Your opinion, your thoughts,

you can start from the 90s and maybe it's changed.

Oasis versus the Beatles or the way

that they conducted themselves,

comparing themselves to the Beatles

or any of those kinds of things, your thoughts.

Oh, good Lord.

That's not even close, Brian.

I don't mean that you think that they're on par

with what they do, but I just mean your opinion of like,

do you think you hate them because of this

or you don't think it's good at all?

No, no, no, no.

It's also not your era or your generation of music either.

God, that's a loaded question.

I would almost go back to Pearl Jam.

I mean, your obsession with Pearl Jam

is close to mine with the Beatles.

Favorite, most important.

And I don't understand it

because I mean, I was having babies during Pearl Jam.

We've talked about this at Bonnaroo

when you told me you didn't like Pearl Jam.

And I was like, no, no, I don't dislike them.

You don't like them, but the Nirvana, Pearl Jam,

the movement, you didn't do anything for it.

Get it.

I mean, so I'm so old.

I just thought you were younger.

I don't know.

I was like, I thought you were younger.

I mean, like REM had this same vibe.

Everybody was convinced REM was the next Beatles.

And then it was Pearl Jam or Nirvana.

And then it was Pearl Jam.

And now then it was Oasis.

Believe it or not.

Oasis self-proclaimed that.

Oasis said that.

That's the difference, right?

So I mean, to your, here's the thing.

When you're 12, 13, 14, 15 years old,

and this is your band,

they're the greatest band in the entire history

of the universe.

What happened 25 years before doesn't matter.

That's correct.

And it doesn't matter.

And I don't mean to diminish that.

What's interesting, I ended up watching an interview

with Rick Beato with Jimmy Webb on YouTube.

And again, the Beatles came up

and he kept talking about Burt Bacharach and the Beatles

and Beethoven and the history of music.

They don't mention Oasis in those kinds of conversations.

Ever.

No, they don't.

No, they don't.

Ever.

No, they don't.

And so, I mean, you and I both know people who like,

oh, the Beatles are overrated.

They hate them.

And I'm like, oh, it's funny.

Good for you.

You know, whatever.

You're different.

My argument is your favorite band loves the Beatles.

And I don't care who you are.

Your favorite band loves the Beatles.

Fair.

Yeah, and I wasn't trying to mean that I want you

to compare, do you think Oasis was transitional

into popular music?

No, of course they weren't.

They just rode a ride of American and more so British

rock and roll at the time, very simplistic rock and roll.

The Tom Petty style of songwriting is more about melodic

to the same five chords.

No, they're not reinventing music.

They're not reinventing styles of music,

but the fandom across the globe is insane.

And it won't be that way here.

There'll be a little bit of it

because everybody's copycats of stuff.

I get it.

And I, you know what, to me-

Fanaticism is driving me wild.

I have to see this show.

Yeah, I get it.

When I see them, I think of the Kinks.

I think of Ray and Dave Davies.

That's a much underrated band.

The Kinks are so underrated and they would have been huge

had they not been banned from coming to the United States

because what, one of them got busted?

I don't remember the trajectory of all of them.

But they're so good.

They're so good.

And they used to fight on stage just like-

I guess my better question,

I should have asked it just more clearly from the jump,

was do you hate the Oasis

because of the way they've conducted themselves personally

for most of their lives?

No.

Because it's easy to do that.

And it's not unfair.

So I was, I'm, here's the better question

that I don't have an answer for.

Why do I not like the Rolling Stones?

It's because of the Beatles.

It's because you had to pick-

That rocker-

You had to pick.

You had to pick.

And the Rolling-

That's funny.

The Rolling Stones are great, but they're not the Beatles.

I get that.

To put in another generation and era,

why do I not like the band FISH?

Well, because it's FISH and PANIC, FISH and PANIC.

And I picked PANIC 25 years ago.

Right.

Isn't that funny?

Yeah, it's not that I don't like FISH.

It's just that I, well, I guess I don't like them.

I mean, I just, I just, this morning,

Ruby Tuesday came up on a TV show I was watching

and it was like all of a sudden hit,

hit, you know, cancel and blared it from the stereo.

I like the Rolling Stones, but they're not the Beatles.

So, no, I don't dislike, but I did do this

and I'm, and I will admit it.

I'm that guy who my high school years

hated whatever band was popular.

Well, yeah.

That's every, yeah, that was me too.

I hated ACDC.

Excessively, yes.

To a stupid degree. Because it was popular.

I can't stand, I still don't like the Arena Rockers,

the Bon Jovi's and the whatever,

but I couldn't stand ACDC because all the, you know,

the kids liked it and my classmates.

They were freaking great.

I love ACDC.

This is the problem for people who think

they can out think every room they're in.

I think that's all of us at times.

I didn't say, oh, you like that?

It sucks.

Yeah, I was into the Dead Kennedys and the, you know,

whatever.

Same for me.

I hated corn because I hated the kids

that wore the corn shorts in school, you know?

Oh my God, corn is, they rock so hard.

I didn't like corn either because of the Jinkos

and the people I didn't like that one.

Exactly.

Like that stuff.

But they put on one of the best tent shows

at Bonnarooo last year, you know?

That's my favorite.

Yeah, now I'm all in.

Now I'm trying to absorb it all.

I mean, even disco, you know, even whatever.

Now it's just like, okay, I get it.

You weren't supposed to like disco.

That was like anti what you would have been into.

Oh, a hundred percent of me.

And like I said, I'm into Dead Kennedys.

I mean, like too drunk to fuck, you know?

I mean, I'm not talking about, you know?

So.

All right.

Questions in question.

I have got, it's Labor Day weekend.

I will quit my job.

I will go homeless.

I'll lose the house.

I'll do whatever it takes.

I've got to see this Oasis show in New York.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I get it.

And again, it's an age thing.

I liked them.

I like them.

They just didn't, you know, like Pearl Jam.

That wasn't my vibe.

I was raising babies.

Well, the final point that I already made

a little bit though is, is that the hype machine

and the social media platforms and the way these videos

are being put together and packaged out there,

this has got to be blowing the minds of every record exec,

even the band themselves, that the whole globe is,

or much of the globe of certain age people,

middle-aged 40-ish people, acting like this

is the greatest band ever.

And they're not.

They're not even sort of the greatest band ever,

but there's this nostalgia that's taking over

that I find fascinating, and it's sucked me in completely.

I'll give you three words.

Bay City Rollers, they were the next Beatles.

They were massive.

You don't even know who they are.

I'm about to say, it sounds like the band in

a, say by the bell.

Bay City Rollers, S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y.

That was Bayside.

They were supposed to be the next Beatles.

Bayside High School, yeah, but the band

was the band.

Zack Attack was the band name, yeah.

I'll give you the batters, R-E-M.

R-E-M, when I was a freshman in college,

was the, they were Oasis.

I remember this, yeah.

They were massive.

And they were difficult, difficult people.

Well, yeah, it gives you mumbled,

that was the funny thing, was Murmur.

Murmur, the album, Murmur, was recalled Mumble.

Stipe never got over being the way he is.

Anyway, nobody talks about them anymore.

You don't even remember R-E-M,

but they were supposed to be the next Beatles.

I'm a big R-E-M fan.

Yeah, I love R-E-M.

You could not escape R-E-M.

They were playing on every radio station,

no matter what.

They were massive.

They were the next Beatles.

They were number one, you know,

like the Rolling Stone, best bands ever, number one.

Now I don't even think they cracked.

I wonder, actually, somebody was talking about this

on some other algorithm of mine,

what American band could do a big reunion

that might hit as hard as Oasis is over there?

Gotta be R-E-M.

Could R-E-M do that?

They could spark a knock.

They were just on with somebody.

Stipe has said, we are not doing reunion tours.

He said that for about 15 years now,

but he's also, you know, Stipe.

Yeah, yeah, he is his own, he's an artist.

I love him, and I'll make fun of the guy all day long.

Big, handy sleeves.

I love the long sleeves.

Yeah, whatever.

You wanna hear good songs?

Not tonight.

All right, so we're gonna leave you guys today

with a couple of interviews that Russ did in advance,

actually, Russ, you did these shows, what,

before Bonnarooo even happened, really?

You were up there early?

Not me, it was me and Evan Bonnarooo

we did these interviews.

You and Evan Bonnarooo did these Monday,

or were they both Tuesday and then Wednesday?

No, there was a Monday interview and a Tuesday interview,

because I went into Manchester on Monday,

went to Common John, and ended up talking with Bull,

who is there, I think they're marketing and social media,

but he's been with the company forever.

He talked at length about the history of Common John

is very much intertwined with Bonnarooo.

I mean, it's basically, he'll tell the story,

but so he gets into that.

And then Tuesday, I slept in the parking lot at Common John,

woke up the next morning, and then we did this interview

with LeBron, who was their head brewer,

and Derek, who does their art for their cans.

And they talked about specifically this collaboration

with Camp Retaroo this year,

the nuclear fusion was what it was called.

It was a beer that they was inspired with, King Gizzard.

Of course, all of this was long before we knew

that Bonnarooo was gonna get canceled,

so there's a lot of excitement for this year

and stuff like that in this interview, which you'll hear,

but I still think it turned out great.

So that's what we got.

And then also, we were off last week.

If you missed it, we ran the live podcast

that we did at PlanetRoo also before it was canceled.

So we're just kind of going through our catalog,

I guess, of stuff we did get.

Yeah, this is what we love doing.

We loved going up there and doing interviews

and working, as we call it, work,

where we interview people that are involved in the festival.

And Brian, this is what I love about this,

is Russ went up on Monday.

Yeah.

Monday.

And now I'm glad I did, since I basically

still got a full week out of it.

Yeah.

So that he could interview the guys at Common John

and then sleep in the parking lot.

And I don't know why that's funny.

No, no, no.

This was all Evan's idea, was to do the interview.

I was just going to go to Common John and drink beer.

That was all my plan.

OK.

But Evan was coming into town, too.

And he hit me up.

And he was like, hey, what if we talked to Common John?

And I thought it was a great idea.

And so he kind of was instrumental in getting

this set up.

And it went really well.

And so thanks to Evan.

Appreciate him for basically being

a correspondent on this this season, I guess,

because he's helped us out so much.

And I was trying to make light of it.

And I shouldn't.

But this is exactly the kind of thing

that is so great about the show and this festival,

is a guy like Evan comes down New York, right?

New Jersey.

New Jersey.

Comes down to hang out with you.

He knows people at Common John hang out.

You guys do this.

You do these amazing interviews.

The Common John people are the ones that created the beer,

the cans that we've highlighted the last couple of years that

are so cool.

I've tried to explain Bonnarooo and why it means so much

and why we care.

This is the kind of thing.

I mean, this is why.

It's not just because we got to go see a band

that we care about.

I mean, it's because of this extra level

of stuff that happens surrounding it.

And I don't mean to make light, Russ, that you're

sleeping in a parking lot, because you would do that.

But it's funny.

It's funny to me.

But you did it because they were glad you were there.

And you got to hang out with the guys who make the beer

and did two interviews.

And we're getting ready to share those.

And that will illustrate how much those people care.

I mean, it's a very much.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's so cool.

All right.

Anything else?

We're going to share both of these back to back.

Right?

Who again?

Who are we talking to?

First up is Bull, who does their marketing.

I don't know his government name, but that's what he said he went by.

Good enough for me.

Good enough.

And we did this interview in the back where they actually

brew the beer.

Between two tanks is what Evan was calling this one,

because we were right there in between where they brew it.

And then the second interview is with LeBron, who is their brewer,

and Derek, who does the artwork on the cans.

They came up with this beer, this collaboration, this concept,

and they threw it together.

Here we go.

Cool.

Let's do it.

So we're sitting here at Common John Brewery with Bull.

Bull, yeah.

Good to meet you.

Also known as John?

Yeah, no, yeah, but only my parole officer.

He knows that.

OK, all right.

That's it.

We won't.

Yeah.

You're not the John, though, right?

No, no, no, no, no.

You're not the Common John.

No, John, it's everybody.

Common John, it's everybody.

It's a whole gamut.

We're all John.

Nice.

So I've always said, you know, Bonnarooo, we love the music,

but to me, the real headliner is the beer.

Unless it was you with Pabst.

My bad, you're wearing that hat.

Sorry, a little too close to home.

A little too soon.

Too soon.

Sorry about that.

No, but we're here where the beer is made.

Look at all these tanks.

Doesn't get any more local than this.

This is super local, yeah.

It's still my favorite line and all whenever people walk in

and go like, I only drink domestic.

Do you have something domestic?

Like, they don't get any more domestic than this, right?

That's true, yeah.

Between two tanks.

Welcome to between two tanks.

Yeah.

Nice.

I see what you did there.

Well done, Andy.

Well done.

So do you want to kind of take us through the history of Common

John?

Well, I mean, where do you guys want me to start at?

Like, just sort of the story, et cetera, et cetera?

An hour and a half.

Well, I mean, I sort of know the owner.

So we can stay here as long as we want.

You know, you're sleeping in the parking lot.

Yeah, I was going to ask.

Yeah, is it all right if I sleep in the parking lot?

We should've got this thing going, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, OK.

So we got all night.

Yeah, well, no.

So Common John, it was founded by a local family

right here in Manchester.

And again, local people were all local.

The main premise of the story, LeBron Haggard,

one of the owners, him and some buddies,

they started getting together about, shoot,

about 15 years ago now in the garage at his house.

His wife brought him a homebrew kit for Christmas

or a birthday or something.

Anyway, so some buddies just started getting together

and brewing in the garage.

They did that for about seven, eight odd years,

started winning competitions.

And then he was an engineer at Bridgestone for a while.

OK.

And then he sort of got tired of it and decided to go on.

And then his aunt, who's more like his sister,

partnered up with him.

And then they took it from the garage to the community.

But again, family owned, operated, no big investors.

It's just people risking their mortgage for a dream.

Yeah, that's really beautiful.

Well, I mean, it depends on who you ask.

And delicious.

Yeah.

So how long has this been going?

How many years have you been open?

We'll celebrate our fifth year in business this year.

OK.

Five years.

If you've made it this far, I mean,

I feel like that's a pretty good sign.

We've been very blessed.

Well received within the community.

It being a small town, it was sort of give or take.

We still have a long road to go in regards

to educating our community that they understand a restaurant

and they understand a bar.

Yeah.

A brewery that sort of fits in the middle.

We still have a long way to go to educate.

But again, we've been well received

by a lot of people in the locals.

Right.

Being a town that has a lot of transplants.

So again, we've been very blessed.

Yeah.

Well, I just had the wings and they were great.

So, you know, Ali and them, they cook with love.

Yeah.

And I hear you've got good breakfast.

So again, I mean, like I said, Ali, everything around here,

we try to do it to the best of our ability.

You know, because again, I mean, we

want everybody to have the best experience from the beer

to the environment to the down to the burrito.

So part of the reason we're here is

because you're open special for the Bonnarooo community tonight.

And we know that you guys have been doing a beer for the...

I know you did one last year.

And that was awesome.

Partnership, I think, with Camp Retoroo are the ones that...

That's correct.

OK.

And we've had Kevin Barnes on with Camp Retoroo

to talk us through their side of how they got the beer started.

So it's nice to be here and hear the other side of it.

Well, and again, you know, and that's sort of like that

is a LeBron.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a LeBron passion thing.

But yeah, this is the second year.

Last year, of course, Pretty Lights was playing.

So the beer was themed around it.

Always go with that hazy IPA.

It was extremely well received.

Yeah.

Very lucky there.

And then the one we've got this year, the Nuclear Fusion, so far.

Yeah, I was more trying to say that you're really

embracing kind of the Bonnarooo community because you're

open, you're not usually open on...

I mean, it's a Monday night and you're not even usually open.

Well, again, here's what's so awesome.

So the story of Common John where it got its name, right?

LeBron was trying to figure out a name.

And a local band won the opportunity to play at Bonnarooo.

So LeBron went out there to see him while he's trying to figure out

what to call the brewery.

And when Jesse and them got up with Creature Comfort on stage

at Bonnarooo, one of the songs he sung was,

the lyric goes, it's been decided by the priest.

I'm just a common John digging holes in the dirt.

LeBron's father was an excavator.

That's what he did.

He ran, he pushed dirt his entire life.

And LeBron had literally made the statement to his wife.

He goes, I'm done with corporate America.

I'm done with Bridgestone.

I just want to go home and dig holes in the dirt with my old man.

So he is at Bonnarooo listening to a local band that's playing this song,

call the lawyer, said, is common John available?

And so Bonnarooo plays a very special role,

not just because of our love for music and meeting other people.

And plus, how cool is it that 100,000 people come in our backyard

once a year?

Yeah, how poetic for that to come together.

It all come to play at Bonnarooo.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah, that's pretty neat.

Do you want to maybe talk about your personal history?

We were off camera kind of talking about your,

you have a history of production.

You're helping us set up our gear here.

Yeah, you seem to know more about it than me, which is great.

So we have an opening.

Well, again, that's what this again, because of our success,

this place takes up majority of my time, which wasn't supposed to.

Well, the way I got the way I got in was I was lucky enough

I was in the industry for a little bit, never made it big or anything,

but just very blessed to be a part because I'm from Manchester.

OK, come back here, LeBron.

I was putting on some little small shows, bringing in some writers

from Nashville and all around and things like that.

And because when you're in music, you're addicted to it.

Yes. Once you start doing it, you can never stop. Right.

Yeah, we know. Yeah.

I know. Like once you start, you're addicted to it.

So anyway, I was putting on a little show and I called it crafted

because I wanted, you know, we're in the middle of, you know,

distilleries and all that other stuff.

And just so happens that LeBron was open a brewery.

We talked and he was like, look, all I want is is a little taproom.

Seats about 50 people.

And I want just music in the corner on the weekend because I was done.

I was burned out.

I didn't want to do big things anymore.

And now just last weekend, we did a festival where we had

over 500 people here and I got another one at the end of June where that.

So, oh, yeah, I saw that on your Instagram and all that. Yeah.

And you can help with that, too, with the marketing and the

doing some of the social media.

Yeah, yeah, that's another, you know, again, just sort of when you're in it,

when you're in entertainment, you become a bit of a jack of all trades.

Master of none.

You know, I'm just good enough to where people need me,

but don't have to pay me a lot.

You know, I'm saying that's a sweet spot.

Oh, yes. Yeah.

I walked in at the perfect time.

Yeah. You know, perfect.

I think that's probably all three of us.

Yeah, I can relate to that.

Yeah. Well, I've been impressed.

I mean, I, you know, I've always said because I've come to Bonnarooo.

This will be, I guess, my sixth year.

Fifth. But other than the Wal-Mart and the Waffle House,

I've never spent any other time in Manchester.

So I wanted to come early, first of all, and get some like local flavor.

And, you know, this seems like the place that's happening here.

Well, and again, like you're talking about

three years ago, we started open up because we're not open on Monday or Tuesday.

But, you know, the root people started coming in was like, you know what?

We love to meet new people.

And, you know, just it's a great opportunity for us

to introduce our brand and our beer.

Absolutely. All over the world.

And so started to open up, you know, just sort of a place

for the people that come early to hang out other than the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Yeah. And I've personally been here the past three or four years.

Yeah. Monday and Tuesday morning.

Well, I mean, and what's all two cents on, you know, as

your worldly people, you know?

Yeah. Well, he is. I know about me.

Well, it's cool to have a place to hang and that's welcoming

because, you know, not every place or, you know, that has one hundred thousand

a little town having one hundred thousand people isn't always the most

welcoming place like that.

So having such a awesome embrace and, you know, you have a

a band playing on stage, too.

So like you guys are a Bonnarooo beer.

So you guys are totally leaning into it. Yeah.

Anytime you can hear WAP Acoustic.

Yeah. We came here at the right time.

Yeah. Now, I was impressed because we came in and it's it's busy,

like in a good way, like there's people everywhere.

People ordering drinks, food.

You've got music.

Everybody's talking, laughing, having a good time.

This is this is a great way to come into it.

I get off and kick it off. Yeah.

And what's fun is, is sort of a couple of years ago, right after,

you know, the world opened back up from Covid.

So everybody was excited.

They were coming back. Well, Rue rained out.

So they shut it down because it was flooded out.

So we put on this thing.

I had a friend call me.

And so it was me and two other a holes.

We put on this thing called the other fest to try to.

Right. Right. Yeah.

And that was like with Andy Frasco.

That's Andy Frasco and Big Something.

So you're the head factor in that.

So that was, yeah, me.

That was you. Yeah. OK. It's over. Yeah.

Ryan. Yeah. I had one guy call me and he was like, it was like, hey, look,

I want to make a festival for all the people that are here for Rue

that have nowhere to go.

I was like, all right, who's in it?

He was like me and you and Josh.

And I was like, all right.

So let's accommodate 2000 people.

Yeah. So yeah.

But it worked out well.

And from that, we decided, you know, we'd continue on doing music and hanging out.

And that's great. Yeah.

I was here for that Andy Frasco concert.

That was great.

How much time have you spent in Bonnaroo itself?

Oh, my gosh. Me.

I mean, since it was itch, you could on up, you know.

And again, I was very blessed.

Like I had relationships in the industry.

So to hang out earlier, you know,

it was a little bit more flexible.

You know, you could be backstage and, you know, artists pass and some other stuff.

But I mean, gosh, I'll put it this way.

There's not one less Claypool show I haven't seen.

If that was the perspective for you.

Yeah. Right. Right.

I was there when Les got the key to the city, you know?

And so that's it.

And even how it's evolved, you know, it's becoming more of what

it is.

And we already know, you know, it's becoming a little bit more

where their headliners are a little bit more top 40 isc and less jam band.

Absolutely. Yeah.

But what I find so cool about that is for one weekend,

what one ticket would cost you, Olivia Rodrigo, right?

I'm taking my daughter to see Olivia Rodrigo Saturday.

I was going to cost us like two grand to go see her in Ohio.

Yes. You know what I'm saying?

Unless and that we can see her on the stage right here in my backyard.

You know what I'm saying?

So it's like it's a steal.

It's a steal. It is.

For what? So the changes it's going through, you know, because again,

I was here when, you know, I mean, Elton John was in Manchester, Tennessee.

Yeah. On this stage.

You know, all my heart is right.

Yeah. Right on the other side of the interstate, you know?

So we've sort of shifted that a little bit to where, you know,

and like we're making jokes about Kanye earlier.

Yeah. Right.

So but but again, you know, it's like however it goes,

you know, in regards to festivals, it's it's just a phenomenal weekend

that we got right here in our backyard.

You know? Yeah, we agree.

We were talking a little bit earlier before we hit record.

And you were mentioning like Ichikoo and going way back.

And I was like, OK, so you get it because, yeah, this is the stuff,

you know, you said Ashley Caps, we had him on early, early on.

And that's kind of what turned the wheels for us.

Like, there's a lot of history here and there's a lot beyond just the music,

the community, stuff like this.

Oh, the passion. Yeah.

The passion for the local, you know, even with the the whole recycle,

you know, and all that movement side and all the different little facets within it.

You know, and then even how the facets begin to grow.

Like we were sitting outside with a young man tonight

and he has the third largest camping group.

So it's a group of 150 people that plan their entire year

to come and hang out with these people.

And they've got a dome planned and, you know, a bunch of stuff.

It's just it's just so it's I don't I don't know.

I think you have two multi hundred people groups.

I was going to say you actually have.

Because mine is a hundred going on a hundred.

Oh, that's another which group we are.

I'm with the Roobus. You're with the Roobus.

Yeah, great people.

I work here with my friends and all that Roobus.

You guys come through here. Yeah.

Two years ago, three years ago. Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah, great. Oh, OK. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah.

They'll be in tomorrow. OK. Yeah.

And we might actually end up here because the opening time for Rue

went from noon to 2 p.m.

Yeah, we just might have an extra time to kill. Yeah.

Mara, you're welcome with open arms.

Well, yeah.

And yeah, I was just talking to somebody that's here from Boston.

You know, that's I can't imagine driving this far, but, you know,

I met people from all over the world. Absolutely.

You know, again, like I said, I mean, it the

the Ruveans, the the sort of culture.

And I remember, you know, whenever it was first starting,

you know, the whole jam band thing and how it started by Panic and all those guys.

And it was it was interesting.

It was a bunch of jam band music, but it was all like Mercedes and BMW.

And then you saw the line up, the ticket price and like, oh, well,

those are the people that can drive nine hours and afford it.

Yeah. And you know, well, when we talked to Ashley Caps,

he said that was on purpose.

They chose he chose the jam band lineup because those people will come in camp.

They'll drive from all over the country.

They already do it, you know, to follow fish and all these other big names.

And now they have a place to sleep. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, and that's what's so cool, you know, is like those are the guys

who built it because you had a lot of those fans that

even as they got older with families, they built their entire family vacations

around where those bands were touring, you know, so I mean, phenomenal, phenomenal.

And even the bands in the beginning, you know, they got so many, you know,

Jurassic five got brought back out.

And like I said, like just me as a Les Claypool fan

to see Les reinvent himself every two years just for the stage, you know, I mean.

Yeah, I'm jealous. Yeah.

What was it five years ago where him and one of Lenin's

Lenin's youngest son, the Claypool.

The Llanos. Yes.

The Llanos Claypool.

Delirium. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

I mean, again, like I said, like if Claypool, it doesn't matter.

I will rearrange it.

Well, now with the Brewery and having a child, you know, it's a little bit different.

Yeah, it changes a little bit.

But I took her out there and we're going to get back to a place

where I'll be able to play around a little bit more.

I mean, it's good to be busy. It is.

Yeah. Again, we're blessed.

That's all that's all I have to say.

You know, we've been we've been very, very blessed.

Again, we work very hard.

Everything from the beer to the experience to the environment.

We think a lot and push everything from the independent side.

The majority, 90 percent of the music here, the artists that's up on stage,

they can do 50 percent of the set with original music

when artists come through, you know.

So it's like we work really hard to cultivate specific relationships

with people looking for specific experiences

and just been very well rewarded for cultivating that environment.

And that's awesome. Well, you have any artists you're looking forward to see?

Yes. This weekend. Oh, this weekend.

Yeah. Oh, I mean, well, Olivia Rodriguez.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's your number one.

Well, that's your daughter's number one.

Yeah. And you know, and there's other, you know, there's others on the lineup

because that's because again, you know, I we're actually opening

our second location in Pulaski.

And so this whole two months, right, has been back and forth with me.

A lot of work. I thought that I was going to be in Pulaski.

And then so I was making arrangements for my daughter to go out.

So I literally just learned two weeks ago

that I'm going to be able to take her myself to, you know,

but I'm only in that window of 10.

And again, you know, I'm I'm old and I've seen tons of shows.

So I don't know if you all got kids or anything.

But now with me, it's just about standing back with her and watching her experience.

So it's like once I knew Olivia Rodrigo was there, that's really all I care.

Team Olivia. Yes.

I look at you. I think Olivia Rodriguez.

Yeah, that's 100 percent.

You know, but yeah, like I said, you know, it's like I wish

and I wish I had dug in more.

And I used to be one of those guys, you know, that noticed a little

like when Cade's Yellowfoot come in and all that, because they were produced

in Nashville and they blew up out of there and Paramore and all those guys,

you know, like any time where I know somebody or Scott

Register or those guys whenever I knew them back in the day.

And so anytime I used to see those artists up and coming,

I really when I was more in the loop, if you will. Right.

But I'm really sort of out of the loop and I just sort of more.

I'm trying to book like I give you an example.

We just booked a band called the Creek, the Creekers,

and they're blowing up on TikTok right now.

And so like that's who I'm going after.

Right. Yeah. We got the cold stairs coming through.

You know, they got over 300000 monthly listeners.

Sam Groh has over a half million.

So it's like I've been living in this world of going after artists

that we can afford and trying to convince them to play here.

And then once I get them to the door, hopefully I can get them addicted to us

and then build those relationships. Yeah. Keep them coming.

So that's sort of I live in that world of those guys who are on the

who are on the cusp. Yeah.

And and so like Whiskey Meyers, we tried to get Whiskey Meyers. Yeah.

Yeah. Whiskey Meyers, they just played at Avondale.

And we were trying my best to book them right here.

And then we couldn't close the deal.

But then that year they played Bonnarooo and then they played the Caverns.

Then Nolan Taylor.

We were in negotiations with Nolan Nolan right whenever he blew up

on West Virginia radio with Oliver Anthony and all that. Oh, yeah.

And then Nolan ended up playing at the Real Birds Festival

and then went on and then the Caverns.

And so it was funny.

Again, a great roost story with somebody.

We'd been in negotiations with Nolan and he had blown up.

So, you know, the manager, we were playing email tag back and forth.

But there was like three weeks in between.

And so LeBron was like, I'm going to be in the front row when Nolan is on stage.

Yeah, LeBron was in the front row.

They had the Common John hats on and they'll stand there. He goes, Hey,

I've been talking to you guys. Yeah, you have been talking.

So, man, that's awesome.

You know, again, I wish I knew more about the lineup and paid more attention to it.

So but again, Olivia Rodriguez there, I don't know if you've heard.

Really, it's all that matters. Yeah, me too.

Yeah. Well, I think since you said I can sleep here tonight,

I think I'll get another beer.

Well, again, if I was you, I would recommend the Universal Sound

or award winning double IPA.

So and again, the nuclear fusion, that's a hazy, you know, so hazy, juicy.

Have you all had that yet? No.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You had that. Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah. I was hoping to pick up some cans of that, too.

Oh, man. Yeah. And the people who pour that into a glass,

they're ready for a unique experience.

That's fun. Well, you drank it.

Yeah, it's a fun one.

It's a fun one for multiple senses.

Yeah, right. Well, and, you know, just you mentioned the beer.

That's actually going to be on tap in Bonnarooo, right? 100 percent.

And yes, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And again, last year.

Oh, my gosh, the one that we had last year.

I don't think that it lasted three hours.

That sounds right.

I think people could we're trying really hard to get their hands on it.

I got a few cans early just because I wanted some to keep.

And I'm glad I did because I got on my mantle and my. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, again, you know, if you didn't know,

we actually won an award through DigiCAN for that design.

Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. We won first place in.

So DigiCAN, they were looking at different stuff

to submit for the best can design by a digital printing. Oh, OK.

And so DigiDesign submitted our can from last year and it won first place.

Well, that was a great can design.

Yeah, that's part of why I wanted one to keep just the can is so nice.

Well, you said awards. Have you ever won a blue ribbon?

I had a blue ribbon cow because I know one brewery that has gotten a blue ribbon.

See what you did. Yeah.

I see what you did there.

So, you know what? No, no, we got some medals up on the wall.

I don't I don't think there's any blue ribbons.

No blue ribbons. Interesting.

You know what?

We've got to put that on the list.

You got to get a blue ribbon.

It said you had some ways to go.

Yeah. We have a long way to go.

You know, it's a long way to go.

You know, it's so refreshing to be humbled right here on live on a podcast.

I had to do it. I've got kind of a reputation.

It's kind of his thing.

It's kind of my thing. No, no, no.

You know what? If I was going to be humbled, it would be here.

Well, I tell you what, this is the Strait of Nero, which is the I think it's a lager.

It's kind of like a PBR.

I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

Yeah. Well, and, you know, talking about the beer, LeBron being from here.

Yeah, that was a very important thing to him.

Because being from a small urban or small, small area,

everybody lives off of Miller Lite, Michelol.

Exactly. Yes.

So one of the things that was really, really crucial

when LeBron was creating the beers, if you'll notice.

And again, the word gateway has a bad, you know, tone with it.

But if you'll notice, it walks you up the gambit.

Right from, you know, a light lager to the Vienna.

And then we normally have our Mexican lager on there, which is that for.

OK, you start to walk on up where it's a little bit more boldness, a little bit more.

So maybe I need to move on up is what you're saying.

Hey, you you, sir, know blue ribbon award winning beers.

So who am I to tell you what you're going for?

Well, I'm I'm ready to start a journey.

So I'm here to take you on one.

Absolutely. Well, thank you.

Well, Bull, thank you so much.

This has been great. Yeah.

Ben Keller. So if you're coming through, manage our Banner,

you got to come to come to come to come and John, please do.

So well, and again, thank you guys so much for your support.

Thank you guys so much for taking time to get to know and learn more about us.

And thank you guys so much for spreading the word.

It literally means the world to us to have people that appreciate festivals,

music and independent craft beer.

And we only exist because of guys like you.

And so thank you all so much. Cheers.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate it.

All right. We're back here at common, John.

Actually, I never left. I stayed the night.

And we've been drinking beer here all night. All night.

Yeah. But we're here.

We got LeBron and Derek with common John, right? Yeah.

And we're going to talk about this year's beer, the nuclear fusion. Awesome.

Yeah. So this is the second year we've done the collab with Camp Rederoo.

So I think it started as a Reddit camping group in the group camping at Bonnarooo

prior to us last year. They were partnered with Pontoon.

I remember they were closed and then reopened.

But they came to us in that intermediary and we've we jumped on board doing it.

And yeah, kind of cool thing.

Last year's was Rainbows and Waterfalls.

The one of the things we do here at the brewery is we always like to try

to incorporate music. So our our brewery name, the majority of our

of our beer names are actually song related.

So when we talked to them last year, we're like, we got to pick somebody.

One of the headliners.

It was pretty lights, I guess, does really like.

Yeah. So one of the one of the Camp Rederoo guys came up

with with Rainbows and Waterfalls name.

Last year's was a peach week trying to go over something pretty light.

Interesting fact there.

He designed both that label and the one this year

that that beer can last year won an international design award.

I forget the name of it.

Yeah, it was a printing.

I don't remember running on metal products.

That was a pretty cool thing because it was it was kind of a global award.

But yeah, this year we kind of pivoted.

We've got one of the headliners this year is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

Yes, yes.

I haven't seen them yet.

They played at the Caverns, I feel like back a year or two.

Yeah, I think they did. Yeah, I haven't seen them either.

I haven't got to see them, but I think they're doing a residency this year.

And three sets, three nights.

Yeah, they brought it up again.

I think Mike Stunson was the one that came up with the name,

but kicked around some ideas.

One of their songs is Nuclear Fusion.

So we're like, that's awesome because it kind of kind of ties in with the whole,

you know, psychedelic kind of, you know, out there.

You know, we like kind of being kind of kind of cool with the with our kind of one

off stuff. And we're like, that'd be a perfect name for beer.

So then we're like, let's do a let's do a hazy, a lighter hazy IPA.

And then this year at our Brewers Conference,

we met a company called Abstracts and they do

cannabis inspired terpenes.

So they have different strains of cannabis that they actually do the aroma terpenes.

When you drink this beer, especially out of a if you pour it into a glass,

you get a very, very big pop of that dank pineapple express kind of aroma.

There is no THC or CBD in it.

Just to say a lot of people are questioning that, but we promise it is a federally approved.

We are not allowed to use THC or CBD in beer.

So, yeah, it is federally approved.

There's also it's really cool because it's it's got to if you were to drink it out of the can,

you'll get a lot more than mango in the pineapple versus pouring it in a glass

where you'll smell the that dankness more out of it.

So I don't recommend people trying it just drinking straight out of the can.

Normally, I'm I'm like, no, you got to pour that into a glass.

But this is one that if you want to go to the lighter side

and just really taste all the fruit parts of it, try drinking it out of the can.

Do you want to tell us a little bit about the design of the can?

Oh, sure. I'm a disclaimer there. I will say this.

If anybody's questioning about the abstracts, please go look them up.

All their stuff's clearly listed on there.

I went look myself even this morning at some other flavors for maybe possible mix ups.

But yeah, abstracts with an X.

And then the other flavor was Sky Farm, which is also one of their products as well.

The mango in there. So please go look those up.

Very cool stuff. As far as the can.

So the direction taken, Mike suggested he had a vision, he said.

And he said, I want to go psychedelic in the in the style of the King

is it in a lizard wizard look and feel.

So obviously there was there had to be a lizard

nuclear fusion, the name.

So it had to give off this like radiation feel.

He wanted it to be at a dusk.

He wanted some some tents for like the camping element.

He wanted the stage in it with the crowd roaring.

And he wanted to try to incorporate the arch and the Ferris wheel.

And then, of course, there's the radiate positivity, which is an alien.

So I mean, I feel like we got just about all of it.

It's pretty much now that everything is on there.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I got the mic up to my mouth.

The it's pretty cool to look at the can and all the detail, you know,

even one of the things that we do and you'll catch us because we like to hang out at Bonereux.

We've got a totem with a common John head on it, but you can actually see in the crowd.

Oh, wow.

Somebody told him with common John head.

But yeah, those this is definitely one of those kind of things.

I highly suggest you grabbing it and keeping it because we won't be doing this again.

It's a completely a one off that we do every year.

And the cans have been I think they've kind of even since the pontoon days

have kind of been a collector's deal.

Yeah, I know.

We try to get one every year and at least just hold on to it.

And so I've got a few from previous years and I picked up some last night.

So we know we know you guys are legit Bonereux people when it says Happy Rue on the top.

That's something you can't you can't fake that.

That's right.

Absolutely.

I had it on there last year from that mistake.

So now you have a little bit of a feed.

Yeah, that's that's going to be a mainstay, I think,

because I mean, that's the first thing you see.

You look at the can is like, oh, it's popping out.

What's oh, happy root.

There you go.

Yeah, it's right there at the top.

You can't mistake it for any other beer.

Yeah.

Also, we've part of this is pretty cool for us is actually being able to use the

Bonereux elements, you know, the Bonereux name and logos and stuff.

Right.

We got approval last year.

Permissioned.

Right.

Yeah.

So that that's partly through, you know, everything that

Camp Red Rue does is sanctioned through Bonereux.

They've got the 1030 slot on Friday for the craft beer exchanges on schedule.

We'll be there.

And another thing we do is part of we've got to figure out the timing, but this year will be

part of what we do is donate part of the profit back to the Bonereux works fund,

which does a lot of stuff in Manchester, Coffee County and surrounding areas as far as charitable

work.

So I think we're going to be after looking at about 2500 bucks is it will be donated

to the Bonereux works.

So it's a good thing for us from a standpoint of kind of getting our name out there.

But we we try to give back every time we can.

We throw fundraisers here all the time.

So we just thought it was a perfect thing to do is by them allowing us to do this and

put their name on our can helps us.

So why not help them in return?

Yeah.

What a great partnership.

Yeah.

Do we understand that you guys are going to have beer in the brewery's tent?

We heard that you have to go right after this.

Go run and drop it off.

Right.

So we don't you know, most of the big stuff is kind of controlled with the, you know,

the big bigger beer companies.

They do have a craft beer tent.

I'm not for sure what they've called it.

Brews, Brews, Brews, Brews, Brews, Brews, Brews, different things.

Different names.

But it's off to the right hand side of which stage.

I forget there's another stage over there.

There's the affinity over there now.

Yeah, that's the new stage.

That's the new one.

Yeah.

So we'll be, they'll be pouring both the nuclear fusion and our Heathen Child Vienna

lager.

So it's kind of it's an amber lager.

Pretty easy drinking.

Five and a half percent.

Five point six percent to be exact.

But it really good, you know, not you're just, you know, flavorless light beer.

It's got good flavor.

That's just one of our most popular beers that we have.

And then also at I'm not for sure exactly where, but throughout

Centero they'll be that I think they call them their premium boost.

They'll be selling Heathen Child and cans as well.

And then at the craft beer exchange, we'll be giving, we'll be giving away some cans

that they've cut it back this year to an hour.

But I think we ran out in 10 minutes last year.

So yeah, I got there 30 minutes late and they were all gone.

I was like, you're kidding me.

So what do you mean if you've come over for the craft beer exchange?

I don't know if this gets out there before then on Friday, but

Might not.

I don't know.

We'll see how the week goes.

We'll also be we'll bring a keg of keg over to to be pouring samples and stuff while we're there.

I'll be camped right over there.

Well, we got to thank you guys for being so accommodating.

I don't think I can name another brewery that's open at eight o'clock

in the morning on Tuesday for breakfast.

Well, we're usually closed Monday and Tuesday, but with, you know, since

last year, year before they started letting people in earlier.

So we're like, we need to, we need to be open because it gives people a place to come.

Just like today, a couple of customers I talked to were like,

I were waiting to go in.

They've delayed us going in because of the rain.

So we're looking for somewhere to hang out.

And it's like, that's exactly what we did.

But yeah, even after that, though, even though we're closed Monday and Tuesday,

we're open Wednesday through Saturday at 8 a.m. and 10 on Sunday for breakfast.

So yeah, I woke up, came in and had a sausage biscuit for breakfast.

It was great.

He lives here now, by the way.

We'll be putting him to work.

Oh, well, thank you so much.

We love the beer and thanks for having us here and talking to us about it.

So yeah, happy.

Happy.

All right. That's a lot of fun.

Again, that was done before Bonnarooo was canceled.

That was done the week of it was before Bonnarooo even started.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bonnarooo even started.

Just wanted basically when you guys are seeing this,

we're trying to catch up with any news, all the news, whatever.

We're also trying to give you whatever content that we recorded during the event.

So if something happens, you know, maybe we'll jump in and update it.

But that's what we have so far.

We don't know anything more than what you guys and when we do, we will share it with you.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

And I highly recommend you go check out Common John if you're in Manchester for Bonnarooo

or any other time of the year.

Great brewery, great restaurant.