The What Podcast
Catching Up with I am Bonnaroo Creator David Bruce
Season 6, Episode 25
Published October 4, 2023
https://beta.thewhatpodcast.com/episode/i-am-bonnaroo-david-bruce-and-the-bonnaroo-yearbook-project

The Bonnarooo Music and Arts Festival.

For people who know, you know that it's all about live music,

hundreds of acts.

It's about community.

It's about people getting together and radiating positivity.

It's also about a journey.

This has been a journey for me since at least 2007.

It's been a journey for my partner on the What Podcast Russ

since at least 2018.

And we have a special guest today, David Bruce, better known

as I am Bonnarooo.

His journey is about what Bonnarooo is all about.

This is a guy who came on a whim in 2011 and this last year

had his photographs displayed in an amazing format and he also

has a new project which the Bonnarooo people came up with

along with him called the Bonnarooo yearbook.

Russ, I can't think of a better example and there are hundreds

of them and that's the point I really want to emphasize.

It's not like this is an outlier, right?

There are hundreds of examples.

Oh, yeah, of people who Bonnarooo has become a huge part of their

lives for many, many reasons.

But David's is is a great example of this random thing that

he thought he would go to and then the Bonnarooo people reached

out and said, hey, we've been paying attention to what you're

doing.

We love it.

How can we help make it better?

Right?

Yeah, and you pretty much hear that.

And you pretty much he needs no introduction.

I mean, if you listen to this show, if you go to Bonnarooo,

you probably know David or at least his work.

You've seen probably the photographs that he posts.

I am Bonnarooo on Instagram.

And so we're very fortunate to have him come on and talk with

us about what he was able to do and it's nice to actually

talk about Bonnarooo again.

You know, we've been spent the last few weeks.

We've talked about Moon River, which we just had here in

Chattanooga.

You know, Brad went to Riot Fest.

We're kind of branching out to other festivals, but you know

what the show was kind of formed over was Bonnarooo and it's

always nice to get back to talking to it.

Even in we're at now in October and we're talking about a

festival that happened in June.

Yeah, that's a great point.

And it's big and it's big again.

We we talk about it here in the show.

It's because it's become this year-round conversation, right?

Yeah, and it's funny.

We talked last last week with Brad is this the are we at the

end of a season or the beginning of a season and I I don't know

y'all you guys seem to want to have those definitions endpoints

and starting points more than I do because to me it never

end.

I mean, it's just continuous.

It really doesn't matter.

Yeah, it's it's a year-round thing.

It never ends.

Yeah, you're just like me where you probably at least once a

day you think of Bonnarooo or at least something reminds you

of something that happened to Bonnarooo or you talk to somebody

that you met from Bonnarooo and so it's it's just so woven into

the fabric, you know of everything that we do pretty much.

Yes, it's almost become a part of us.

And again, David, it's like David said, yeah, he said it's

made him a better person not to give away the right the interview,

but yeah, you'll hear him talk about that.

So again, he's you know, he lives in New York, but I consider

him a friend.

I know you do.

I mean, there's so many people that are now parts of our lives

that that don't live near us, you know, but I think of them

as being close friends because of this festival and this

community.

So again, it's the journey and it's the friendships and the

shared experiences and just cool people.

I mean, let's just be honest.

It's just cool people.

It is cool people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's what keeps us coming back and thinking about it

and talking about it is, you know, the lineup comes out and

you know, you know, it's going to be great.

But yeah, for me, I don't care what the line of who they

announce, you know, I'm going back to to hang out with you

and people like David and just see all these people that

we talked to year round.

You know, it almost is like a homecoming thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, how great is it this last year when we were there

we're walking out of what one of the I guess the media area

and oh hey, there's David Bruce.

I think you said, oh hey, there's David and then he yeah,

he came back to camp and then he followed us to do one

of the interviews with one of the bands and shoot photographs.

I mean, how cool is that to have this guy who's such a

great photographer join us, you know, to be a part of taking

these pictures.

He and I mentioned Nate Gale, Nate is so great to do that.

He's done it for years and years, but we're so lucky to

have people like that.

But that's just that those sort of random things like, you

know, oh hey, you want to take a picture?

Okay, cool.

You know, works for us.

Exactly.

All right.

So here we go.

Here's our interview a visit with David Bruce.

I am Bonnarooo Russ is going to include a lot of links and

not just do his work, but also his websites and what he's

doing.

So check it out.

Please.

Yeah, please do.

And this is one you almost want to if you listen to the podcast

on Spotify or anything, you know, you might want to check

over on YouTube because we're going to have a lot of pictures

of what he's talking about and stuff.

So this is almost more of a visual episode just as it is

one to listen to.

Sure.

Good point.

All right.

So that's it.

Enjoy and see you guys soon.

And we are back for another episode of the what podcast.

Thank you all for listening.

Thank you all for watching.

Thank you all for finding us.

Whatever it is you're doing.

I'm Barry to the on your screen there and the PBR hat is Russ

or as we like to call him Lord Taco.

We have a very special guest as we always do.

We have David Bruce with us.

You might know him as I am Bonnarooo and thank you David for

joining us.

We are so excited to talk about this.

I'm going to call this sort of a journey episode because to me

this episode is all about the Bonnarooo journey and you'll you

guys will understand what I mean as we get into this but what

I'm so excited to talk about this how we met when we met where

it's gone for you for us.

It's incredible, right?

Yeah, I think there's a lot of people that are regulars at the

farm that can sort of relate to this because absolutely people

go there.

They make connections.

They make new friends and you know, they start calling them

family.

You know, it's like your extended family.

So yeah, for sure.

Let me see if I can set the table if you will and you guys

please jump in and correct me if I get dates wrong or names

wrong or the story wrong or whatever.

But I started I went to the first one 2002 for the first day

didn't attend.

I covered it for the Times Free Press chatting to the Times

Free Press as a reporter realized immediately what a cool

thing and kind of wish that I was there but also didn't want

to camp and to be quite honest was not a big jam band fan.

So it wasn't totally my scene flashback to 2007.

The paper said hey, we need you to start going regularly and

I said, okay and so started going.

I've been going ever since 2007 our co-host Brad Steiner who

is not here as you will see Brad lives in New York and has

a whole lot of things on his plate.

He's a radio guy.

And so this year kind of not always with us but he and I

were having lunch regularly after that we started hanging

out quite a bit and realized we were talking about Bonnarooo

all the time year-round and we were about to go to the 2018 Bonnarooo

which that's correct.

Yeah, he's been there since the beginning as well kind of he

missed a few early on like I did but has been every year

since but realized we were talking about it all the time

and realized we should probably do a show.

He came up with the idea for a podcast.

He reached out to some guy named Lord Taco who I'd not met

who I'd never heard of Taco at that time stood for what tweeting

and communicating online which was what a random name you

plucked out of nowhere, right?

I mean, yeah, well there was a bunch of us.

There was a Dr.

Taco and a Mr.

Taco and Commander Taco and so I just picked Lord Taco just

literally for no reason it was available.

Yeah, you certainly didn't think it was ever going to show

up on a podcast, right?

No, if people are going to call me that in real life, I probably

would have put a little more thought into the name.

But so Brad left.

I mean we he left the lunch and like the next day he said

what I have a website.

We have a podcast.

I have a guy who's building it for us.

It's Lord Taco and we're going to do this show for two

months three months leading up to the 2018 Bonnarooo and that

was it.

That was that was our thought and we reached out to AC

Entertainment, which was the co-founder of Bonnarooo just so

we could be legit, you know and and said here's what we're

going to do and they were like we love the idea.

You can't use Bonnarooo and anything any of your graphics,

but we love the idea.

So that's sort of where it started.

We've been doing this ever since somewhere along the line.

I don't remember what year it was David to you when we when

we met and sort of reached out was it 19?

That sounds about right.

Yeah, I mean I first met Russ ironically enough at a speakeasy

mini-roo the first year that Bonnarooo was canceled because

of COVID.

Okay, that's right.

Yeah, so I went I was you know, all dressed for the party and

had no place to go. So I impulsively ended up going down

to to Lindsay's farm, which is about 30 minutes from where

Bonnarooo is held every year.

He invited a bunch of people down.

I grabbed my camera gear some film met some fantastic people

down there who none of I had ever met before true Ruvians.

You know, Russ was one of those people and we started chatting

and it's kind of like I had a conversation with him there.

I believe before I actually even realized to you know, he was

Lord taco, even though I was fully aware of Lord taco.

So that's kind of where that's that's kind of where I think I

came into, you know, the fold with you folks.

Yeah, so that was the inception of that.

So yeah, and yeah for me.

I mean, like you said, I had never been to Bonnarooo 2018 was

my first year you guys had gone nearly every year.

Of course us living so close in Chattanooga.

I've always heard of Bonnarooo known people that gone just had

never gone for whatever reason.

I've had the bus 20 years and you know, that's one of the most

frequently asked questions when people see it and want to talk

they're like, oh, I bet you take it to Bonnarooo and I'm like

now I've never been and then it started to become a question

of why haven't I been what's you know, so it was on my radar

and I was thinking about going and then when you know, Brad

approached and that said can we get a website and the podcast?

I said sure can I get a ticket and that was basically the

agreement was that was my payment was to set all this up.

I got a ticket to go and of course we all thought this was

a one-off, you know, we'll do this for the year and then

I'll be it but heck what six years later, we're still doing

it. Yeah, David you mentioned the the mini-roo and that's

that's part of this journey.

You mentioned Lindsay.

Like I said Brad and I talked about we realized we were

talking about Bonnarooo year-round.

We have met he and I I knew Brad because of our jobs prior

but it was at Bonnarooo where we really met and hung out and

became friends and then we started Camp Nut Butter which

is named because his wife Hillary is a vegan vegetarian

and makes her own nut butter and quite frankly nut butter

is a funny word.

So I said that's what we should you know, I just randomly

said let's see you guys next year at Camp Nut Butter.

Well, it's we now have a sign we I mean it was a whole

thing right?

So it's it the people that were there we we had like 28

people one year at its at its biggest that I remember and

these are people that you know, I would see once a year but

they were like you said David they became family.

Yeah, some were from Chattanooga some not you mentioned

again going back the mini-roo when the when we had the

pandemic had many roos all over the place and Lindsay who

Russ and I saw earlier this month at Moon River as we have

every year for the last couple of years one of the great

Bonnarooo people Sharla and Daniel and they have they have

some really cool stuff in the works from the roo bus the

real roo bus.

These are people that we talked to year-round these are Chloe,

you know, Liesl people that have become friends because of

Bonnarooo Parker.

Yeah Parker and Reed.

It's just an amazing community.

And so I wanted to sort of set that table as to why we're

here how we got here and and introduce David your project

bring everybody up to speed as to how you got to Bonnarooo

and then we'll sort of go from there because you had a

project at Bonnarooo this last year that I again everything

about your story and our story to me is what Bonnarooo is all

about for people who who are listening you guys know, I

mean, there's nobody listening who's not been who doesn't

understand but it's so much more than just a series of

concerts, right?

I mean the live music is great.

Oh for sure, but it's so much more and it's this community

and the things that have come out of it.

I mean, I never imagined we'd be doing this.

I can only imagine you never thought you would be taking the

do an I am Bonnarooo project like you are so bring people

up to speed if you don't mind.

Sure.

But before I do that just just to sort of comment on something

that you said one of one of the things that I learned this

year specifically in the whole process with talking with folks

from Bonnarooo who had never communicated with before is you

know, they're they are truly interested in the Bonnarooo

community and it's apparent, you know that that's how they're

really growing the Bonnarooo experience.

I mean, I'm sure that if you talk with Daniel and Charlotte

from the Roobus they would sort of say that's true as well

too.

And I mean if you if you look at all of the things they've done

in the Plaza this year, they're really making Bonnarooo an

expanded experience that goes beyond just the music which is

great because you know a lot of people that they go to Bonnarooo

regularly say, you know, it's it's great to hear the lineup.

I look forward to seeing the bands.

I want to see I look forward to learning about artists that

I've never heard of before but they're really going for the

Bonnarooo experience and I think to me it's become obvious that

the people who are sort of driving the Bonnarooo bus totally

get that and they're they're really capitalizing on that and

I think that's one of the reasons why you know, we've seen

this year all of the outer roo experiences.

I mean it has a name now they have all of these different

plazas and they really sort of put that into hard overdrive

this year, you know, and luckily for me I got to be a small

part of that, you know, but so I digress but to get back to

your your last question to try to summarize it.

I first went to Bonnarooo in 2011.

It was an impulsive decision.

My daughter who at the time was a freshman in college sent

my wife a message and said I'm going to go to this music

festival in Tennessee this year.

She sent me a text.

I was at work and she said, what do you know about a festival

called Bonnarooo in Tennessee?

I said it's a world-class music festival.

Why?

And she said because Madison our daughter is thinking about

going and I told her that I was wow.

I said, I think that's great.

I'm actually envious of that.

So what happened was her roommate's dad at the time who

lives in Long Island.

I live in upstate New York.

Had also told his daughter that he was kind of envious that

she was going and she suggested well, why don't you get

together with Madison's dad and you guys can go to Bonnarooo

together.

So my first trip to Bonnarooo was with somebody who I didn't

know who, you know, who I got to know really well on a thousand

mile journey down there.

We still send each other Christmas cards every year.

I think 2011 was the only year that he's been but what a great

experience, you know, and I mean, I think that's part of

the Bonnarooo experiences is the journey there.

It's definitely making connections with people.

It's it's, you know, those memories and those stories that

don't leave you that that stick and last, you know, so, you

know, fast forward to now.

I haven't missed a Bonnarooo the first time I went to Bonnarooo

in 2011.

I decided to bring a camera and a few rolls of film because

you know, I'm a photographer and just kind of shoot what was

going on down there and I didn't I didn't really have any

expectation of what it was going to be like and you know, so

and we went me and Joe the guy that I went down there with in

2011 when we just showed up massively unprepared.

I mean our tent neighbors must have just been pointing and

laughing at us, you know, so I went down with a few rolls of

film.

I brought a vintage film camera because I sort of envisioned

it being a little bit like Woodstock and I kind of wanted

to capture that Woodstock essence.

Let me interrupt a little bit when you say that for a lot of

people they think camera they think their phone.

Yeah, did you was it black and white that first year or did

you bring color film or I mean 120?

No, it was you bring.

So I brought a I brought a 1969 to be very specific Nikon film

camera 35 millimeter film camera because you know what I when

I thought about how I wanted those images to possibly look I

was thinking of the original Woodstock Festival.

I was thinking of ironically enough Vietnam.

So you did have wanted that you had you did have a little bit

of a vision.

I mean it was accidental and I think it's important to this

narrative, but you did have a little bit of vision going in

so I'd for sure.

Okay, cool.

And you know, the thing of it is is the best laid plans that

that whole saying especially when you're walking into a

scenario that you're not that you're not really that familiar

with.

I could have shot those those half a dozen rolls of film that

I brought with me in the first half a day.

I was at Bonnarooo.

I was there and I was I was like a kid walking around at Disney

World for the first time.

It was a visual feast.

I had to pace myself.

I had to try to source some additional film and just try to

get through the weekend that way.

So, you know, so if you think about 2011 going down with five

or six rolls of film and a camera now I travel down there

with two primary cameras a backup camera and 45 rolls of

film literally.

That's what I did this year and it's not just it's not just

black and white.

It's black and white and color.

Okay, and you know, I was a portrait photographer and my

philosophy is is unless color plays a role in making a photo

better.

It's a distraction.

So that's why I typically shot everything in black and white

and I still shoot black and white but then you know, I

started it kind of dawned on me after a few years that you

know Bonnarooo was such a colorful place and the people

are so colorful that I was kind of missing.

I was missing a little a little bit of that ingredient by just

shooting black and white.

So now I shoot pretty much equally black and white and

color film there.

Yeah, there is a difference between because you know most

people now one click in Photoshop in a color photo becomes

black and white.

Yeah, but you're actually using black and white film that

yeah does not process any color.

What what's the difference between that and just clicking

a button like is the film does it you know, yeah, richer is

100% and you know that the images that you see on my Instagram

social feed are all low res and they're jpeg.

So they're truncated.

So where you really notice the difference between a high

quality digital image and a high quality film image is in

the print in the large print.

I'm not saying that one is better.

They just look and feel different.

So to answer your question black and white film has a very

specific grain structure.

I love grain the more green the better and it's in it's you

know, the image is actually captured by silver particles

on film color film is a little bit different.

I mean, I've shot color images that I've converted to black

and white because I just thought the image was better in black

and white or grayscale.

But when you look at those you can still tell that even though

it kind of looks like a film image that was converted from

color to black and white it from a print standpoint the two

images still look very different.

Yeah, that's that's what I was getting at because I would say

there's a huge generation of people now who've never shot on

a film camera, you know, digital photography is the only

thing they know.

So that's a pretty neat pretty neat distinction.

That's exactly right.

That's why I asked it is our phones take really nice photos

and we all can be really good photographers and capture a

great image.

But when you see a professional who knows what he's doing,

it's a huge difference and yeah, yeah, it's there.

There's there's definitely a difference in, you know, I see

in the digital world that a lot more of the filters are sort

of adding grain and you know dust speckles and trying to

replicate the look and feel of film, which I think is very

cool.

Yeah, because to me it means that that you know, people still

want to see that kind of imagery, you know, but anyway,

so we're getting into the into the weeds here.

So the so yeah, so you realize pretty quickly that this was

a treasure trove, right?

You realized you had an opportunity to do something really

cool with this festival, right? Definitely 100% and so, you

know, after I went the second year and was a little bit more

prepared.

I had said to my wife, you know, would be really cool is

if I could turn this into like a five-year project because

now it's not just, you know, some photos that I shot now.

Now it's a body of work and if I could do it for five years,

then that's kind of an accomplishment, you know, it's

it's sort of like an opus, I guess, but I once I got into it,

I just I couldn't stop doing it.

It just kept growing and the more the more I went the more

I shot the more feedback that I got from people that I still

get from people that just kept the wind in my sails.

I just it just kept going and kept going.

So then I set my sight on a 10-year mark.

I'm like, I'm going to I'm going to do this for 10 consecutive

years because that's for me personally, that's an accomplishment.

And of course, the 10th year was the COVID Roo that never

happened, you know, and that's how I ended up down at Lindsey's

farm.

So yeah, and essentially I did shoot Bonnarooians.

And you reached out to us at one point.

Thankfully, I guess you met Russ and reached out and we had

you on the show and talked about the great photos and what

you were doing and your project and then I remember you reached

out and very humbly kind of said, you know, is there any way

you can hook me up with the folks at at Bonnaroo and get

you more access?

I don't think you were asking for anything crazy or anything

like that.

And they were receptive and then you started for folks who, you

know, been part of this show for a while, you've seen David's

work.

One of the great parts about this whole festival is we started

with the show getting access to artists and getting interviews

and just kind of randomly write.

David, I mean, I don't know.

It's not like it's a formal thing.

You met us backstage and we got to do some interviews with some

really cool artists and you were like, do you mind if I take

photographs of these artists?

And I can't know that would be awesome.

So I mean churches was that was one of my favorite interviews

ever and you were there.

I mean, we looked right, Russ.

We look like we knew what we were doing, right?

We come walking in with all of our equipment and we got a

professional for two of them.

Actually, Nate Gale also has been so kind to shoot artists

for us and and you David.

So we get these amazing like we walked in with a whole crew.

Yeah, it looked like we know what we're doing.

They had.

Yeah, but it's so ironically enough and I again, I don't

want to digress, but I was actually watching churches live

performance at Glastonbury from this year last night.

So and you know to to see them on that stage, you know across

the Great Pond in that capacity just doing their things.

I'm literally sitting there saying myself.

I remember when I was with the what podcast guys sitting a

small trailer with these three people and it was just it was

it was literally literally surreal.

Wow, it was so cool.

It was very cool.

And yeah, you anyway.

So again trying to tell this story sort of as tightly as I

can or we can so you went your first five years six years by

yourself took all these photographs, right?

I mean in their huge format.

I remember you we would I remember asking you to send us

a copy and I mean, it's it's a big big digital format.

These are not again, I feel like we're going to have to

send you a copy of the photo.

So you're very serious about it.

And so you did that and then tell us about this this last

year because again the and this is the part of the journey and

I heard you say that earlier.

This has been a journey the whole Bonnarooo experience for

so many people is a journey and it is evolved and developed

and again for people to see.

Again for people who don't know or new to it.

It's just so much more than a list of bands who are performing.

There's all these things that are happening behind the scenes

year-round whatever just like we're talking about.

So when did you when did they reach out to you or tell that

story because you came to our camp this last year on was it

Sunday morning or Saturday Sunday morning?

I think it was the last day.

It was Sunday morning.

You came and and we're telling telling us about this project

that you had at Bonnarooo and I really want to get into that

because it's so cool and it illustrates not just your

journey, but it illustrates Bonnarooo's as you kind of

alluded to earlier their acceptance of all these things

like this and their willingness to say there's a lot of cool

stuff happening like with the Roobus and the beer exchange

and the parachute people and there are so many cool things

that people are doing that are part of this experience that

are not they're not on the program so to speak though.

Some of these things are yeah, but anyway, tell us about that

how that happened and how it evolved and what you did.

Okay, so how it happened and there's a there's a lot of

details and I'm going to try to consolidate it for you a

little bit, but so it was February.

It was sometime in February of this year and you know at that

point everything's kind of radio silent from from Bonnarooo

for the obvious reasons, you know, they're in between things

and I got a random email one day from somebody from Bonnarooo

and said they basically said hey, we're wondering if you

might be interested in and possibly a collaboration this

year.

It was literally just like that and I had to read it like

three or four times because I mean, obviously that's a

rhetorical question, you know, so I simply responded.

Absolutely, you know, and they so I got an email back probably

the next day.

That's okay.

Great at this point.

Maybe we should try to do a FaceTime or a zoom meeting so

that we can finally, you know, meet you and meet us and we

can kind of get to know each other and so many words and I'm

like perfect.

Just let me know when so another day or so goes by and they

said are you available next Wednesday at 11 o'clock and I

said, yes, I am.

So still I had no idea what was going on.

I had to I had a week to think about it.

I was trying not to overthink it.

It could have been something that I wasn't maybe interested

in doing or it could have been something great.

I really had no idea, you know.

So the zoom meeting was was me and two people from Bonnarooo

actually one of the people was was from C3 presents who is

based out of Austin who organizes a lot of festivals

Bonnarooo being one of them and the second person that was on

that zoom was Cory and I'm sure he probably wouldn't mind me

mentioning his name.

You guys have had Cory on the show.

We're going to have him on here in a couple weeks very soon.

So yeah, I literally looked at him when I saw him pop up in

the zoom window and I said I know you from the what podcast

and he just started laughing.

But but so anyways, so that the first zoom conversation was

fairly brief.

It was kind of like hey nice to meet you and it was it was

kind of like just so you know, we love your project.

We've been following it for years for me.

That was a massive win right there and they said we

would like to collab.

We'd like to collaborate with you somehow don't know how you

feel about that and don't even really know what that would

possibly look like.

So in a sense, do you have any ideas?

Maybe we can come up with some some ideas together.

So I was totally unprepared for that because going into it.

I thought they sort of had an idea or a vision for what this

collaboration would be.

So I kind of thought about it for a second and I said well,

I said in a in a perfect world.

I said, you know one year I went on the farm and I saw some

Danny clinch photos Danny clinch is a legendary concert

photographer and they had a few of his photos just wheat

pasted on some of the barricades throughout center.

I thought that was really cool.

I mean, I literally said wow, this is this is fantastic and

I told them that and I said so I guess kind of a dream of

mine might be that I could walk into center or Bonnarooo at

some point and see one of my images some of my images

displayed somehow.

I said that that would be a major accomplishment for me,

you know, and without hesitating they said we can do that.

I was like wow great and then they talked and they said well,

we'll reach out to this person who manages all of those

things at Bonnarooo and we'll get back to you and we'll let

you know what that looks like.

But maybe we could do like 12 to 18 photos and I'm like that

would be that would be incredible.

Honestly, so another week or so went by and they came back

and they said yeah, we're going to do that.

Can can we possibly have maybe around 30 images and I said

yes, you can.

So without going to that so there was days in between kind

of very great communication.

But every time they asked for something I'm like, absolutely.

Thank you so much that that actually grew into over a

hundred high resolution images by the time it was all said

and done which they used at the rest stop Plaza and you know,

I'll talk more more about that but I didn't even really know

what that was going to look like until I till I showed up.

I didn't know how those photos were going to be used.

They could have just cherry picked their favorite 15 out

of the hundred that I sent and use those.

I had no idea what it was going to be.

But as far as the yearbook thing goes what had happened in

one of these conversations is I impulsively sent them an email

and I said hey listen, I said maybe for 2024 down the road.

I had this idea of doing a photo shoot of you know, some

poor a portrait session of the Bonnarooians kind of make

it look a little bit like a red carpet event and I and I

mocked up one of my previous photos with a with a made-up

blurb for the person in the photo and said hey my first

year at Bonnarooo is this and my favorite part of Bonnarooo

is this and I said and this is how this could possibly

look and one of those folks in the the five people that

this email chain had grown into you said this is a pretty

cool idea.

We'll talk about it and we'll get back to you and I'm like

awesome.

Another week or so goes by and they asked if I was they sent

a message and said are you available to do another zoom

meeting next Tuesday at 1 o'clock and I said yes I am and

this was with a whole different group of people and I thought

at that point we were still talking about the photo

installation that I had been working on with them and what

I realized was they wanted to sort of hit the ground running

with this project that became the the Bonnaroo yearbook

series and they kind of came up with the name the yearbook

series with the idea that it would be something that would

continue from from one year to the next.

So at that point I'm pretty excited because now I'm like

they're not just talking about a one-off for 2024 or even

2023.

They're talking about this possibly growing into a regular

thing and you know, I had said to them I said I think that

folks would really dig this.

I think it's another way to engage people there, but not

only there during the festival but to keep people engaged

after the festival by just trickling these things out as

we go along.

They said yeah, we think that's that's a great idea.

Let's do it.

So that's truncating a pretty long story about how the

yearbook series became and that sort of was started running

parallel before Bonnaroo this year with the whole photo

installation thing that I was doing and that's what the

whole initial conversation was about.

So, I mean all I really had to do was they asked all I had

to do is sort of put out an idea that I had.

They liked it and it became a true collaboration because

they named the project.

They gave the space the project of space and not only that

but after Bonnaroo this year, they put me in contact with

the person who is their lead graphic designer and that

individual came up with the color scheme that I use for all

of the yearbook posts, sent me the font, which is a licensed

font by the way.

They actually they actually paid a typographer in like

Switzerland or Germany to design their Bonnaroo font.

And if you look at it is very unique.

It has the Bonnaroo logo sort of built into the to the O's

and zeros and stuff.

So, you know, so from that standpoint, it definitely

became a true collaboration, you know.

See, I hope people who if you're still with us, you

understand when I said this is the journey.

That's what we were going to talk about on this show is

wow.

Wow.

I remember when you were sitting with us on that Sunday

morning and it was a brief conversation.

But I mean, I remember thinking this is going to be a great

podcast episode or multiple ones because what a journey,

right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Halfway through that conversation.

I was wishing we had a record recording.

It's like this is a this is a great story.

Yeah, I thought the same.

Where's the camera?

Where's the recorder?

Yeah.

I mean, there's so much about it.

It illustrates the Bonnarooo Bonnarooo's willingness to do

cool things, right?

I mean, that's the thing.

I remember walking in that very first day in 2002 thinking

this is a different event.

You know, these guys are willing to and trying to do cool

things for the fans and for themselves, right?

It wasn't I've said it since we started this show.

I never felt like they had their hand in my wallet.

It wasn't about a money grab.

It was about doing cool stuff, right?

Yeah.

This is I mean, you know, David, you come from New York on

a whim because your daughter's coming.

You come with a guy you've never met before and you thought

this is a cool thing and look where it's it's come.

So tell us I remember your yearbook series.

Tell us about the family.

I think that you shot.

I think it was a husband and wife and maybe a child or maybe

it was just a husband and wife, but he he had a particular

request as to how he wanted to be photographed, right?

Yeah, that that that was a standout for me.

I had a lot of standouts.

I mean, I was I was thrilled with the turnout from the

people on the enthusiasm.

One of the things that I had mentioned real quick to the

folks in the zoom call is is I really want the yearbook series

to showcase the diversity of the Bonnarooo community.

I'm hoping it's not, you know, one or two kinds of people that

show up for it and it's truly a diverse photo series and I'm

only about halfway through it to be perfectly honest with you.

I shot a lot, but I'm sorry to answer your question.

So this this guy and his I can't remember if his wife of wife

or his girlfriend showed up and as I'm getting ready to take

their photo, he says to me, do you mind if I get naked for

my photo?

And I said I'd be disappointed if you didn't, you know, so he

did and meanwhile my buddy Scott who's helping me out with

this who is essential to me, you know, getting getting through

this every day was had a whole line of people who had showed

up for their for the time slot that were waiting to get their

photo taken.

There was probably 15 people in the line at the time and this

this dude literally just dropped everything except for the

hat.

He was wearing he got naked and I took him and his wife's

photo in front of a line full of people.

I asked him to hold her fan in front of you know, his mid

section to because I'm like there's no way that I'll ever

be able to show these on socials or there's no way Bonnarooo

will ever share them if you're full on naked.

So he did that and that ended up being the shot that I used

but yeah, he had like one of the Japanese fans, right?

You said fan.

Yeah, one of those what are they call those those pop fans

or something like that what their technical term is but yeah,

that's funny.

But yeah, just one of one of my great stories that I got from

from shooting that series of share, you know, so the other

thing you said and and and it gave me chills to hear you talk

about it and you mentioned Danny Glinch who is terrific.

So what was it like for you to walk in and see your photographs?

It was the the where in the woods right?

They were they were on the fence area.

Yeah leading in.

Yeah, what was that like man?

I can't even imagine.

I wow. So what happened was we we entered Bonnarooo in an area

that we've never entered before this year because we were camping

in a vendor camping area.

They gave us directions on how to get there and when we got

to the security check-in point, we were met by a person in

a golf cart who sort of chaperoned as to where we needed to

be.

So as we actually start getting into the Bonnarooo grounds on

the farm start seeing the tents we start driving down the

dirt road that basically goes right past where in the woods

and then all of sudden we came up to this chain-link fence

that had all of the photos just displayed and we're literally

driving to where we were going to be camping and that was

that was the first time I saw that it was the first time I

realized exactly how all of those images that I sent to them

were being used because I still really had no idea but there

was over a hundred large format images mounted on that chain-

link fence that they printed nine 12 foot long vinyl panels

and just decorated the outside of that that fence that that

led into the rest stop and I got chills.

I just did it again.

Probably I even had tears welled up in my eyes because I

never would have you know, even before I got the email in

February I wasn't close to ending this project but you

know, I was getting to the point where it's like, okay,

it's kind of plateauing a little bit.

It's sort of status quo.

What's next?

You know, what do I do?

That's anything different to try to grow this a little bit

and then boom I get that email in February and then to see

that come to fruition in June the way that it did was just

that's like wow.

Okay.

I'm definitely not I'm not done here yet, you know along

those lines.

What do you know the idea is ask for it reach for the moon.

What's your idea?

What do you want to do?

I mean the yearbook thing you want to continue.

I assume you're going to continue your your photographs.

Is there something else and you know, maybe you can't talk

about it yet.

I don't I don't even know.

I haven't asked I haven't asked you yet.

But is there something else you want to do?

Not really, you know, well, I don't want to say not really

there's there's lots I want to do.

I mean, I definitely want to continue with the yearbook

series because I think that now people actually see what

it's what it is.

It's going to generate even more interest and I think that

if I do it again this year, I mean, I was told that I would

be doing it this year.

I don't want to take that for granted.

But I think that you know, I'll probably have a little bit

of a different space and things like that.

But I mean, you know, when it's all said and done, I'd

love to do a book and one of the reasons why I haven't

really started compiling that yet is because I'm not done

with the project yet, you know, but at some point.

I definitely want to I want to do a book that's going to

sort of be the whole I am Bonnarooo sort of story.

And I think that I don't know probably not from a printed

standpoint, but I think Bonnarooo is definitely going to

be doing something with the yearbook series photos as well,

whether it's an online thing or or whatever.

But you know, one of the things that you said is to people

is ask, you know, if you have an idea, if you think nobody

that you're sending emails or messages into the abyss to

the folks at Bonnarooo, just put it out there.

And even if you don't get a response doesn't mean that

they're not paying attention and they're not listening

because that's that's truly my my personal experience with

them. And what I found out afterwards is that they had

been paying attention all along.

Yeah, we've we found the same, you know, that I mean, you

remember Russ, I'll never I mean, there have been so many

incidents, but you remember when we asked to interview

Steven and Brian, the guys who booked the the artists and

actually what I had reached out to Ted Heining and said,

I'd like to interview you.

And he said, now you don't want to talk to me.

How about you talk to the guys who actually booked the

artists? And I'm like, are you kidding?

That's an option.

And then yeah, we had no idea.

No idea. And then I, you know, I slept on it overnight.

And I thought they're there just in Knoxville.

They're an hour and a half away.

Why don't we go up there?

And they said, come on, you know, so the the that that I'm

glad you mentioned that again, David, because that sort of

thing is I think why this festival is so different.

If somebody has a good idea, they're willing to at least

listen and see if it can't work.

And I mean, yes, you know, let's be honest.

It's it's great for them because it's free labor.

I mean, you know, at the very basic, you know, they get for,

you know, free stuff and it's cool.

Yeah, but not everybody does that.

You know, not everybody is willing to say absolutely do it

run with it.

Yeah. So that's really cool.

You know, and the thing of it is, is I had multiple zoom

meetings with these folks and at the end of every one of them,

they said, okay, great.

Is there anything else that you know, you need from us?

And every time I was never prepared for that and I and to

be honest with you, I never asked.

I was just so grateful to be to be doing that.

I never asked for anything.

You know, I mean, this project for me is never I've never made

a dollar from this project.

It's a labor of love.

Matter of fact, it's cost me thousands of dollars.

Understand, don't we?

We process.

We understand.

So it's not a money thing.

It's totally a passion project for me.

And you want to know something?

My reward for that is them paying attention and them sort

of, you know, helping me sort of show the work and they're

doing that on a they're doing that on a grand a grandiose

scale.

Well, I think I can speak for Russ and Brad.

I mean for us to be able to go online and see your photo of

churches and brist and Moroni and whoever else, you know,

you're there shooting.

It's just it's it's a wow.

It's a wow.

I can't believe we got to do that.

That was really cool type of thing.

So and I did want to ask just because I mean, it's a kind of

a personal thing.

But what is your wife and daughter think of this now?

Not like your wife doesn't go.

My wife doesn't go but she 100% sees the passion that I have

for it.

And so she's like, it's your thing.

Go have a great time, you know, and for me, you know, it's

a week.

I'm gone for a week sometimes not this last time and she

gets it.

So, you know, give her a little shout out.

I assume she's very supportive.

Like my wife.

Yeah, you know, I don't maybe it's maybe it's the name Kelly

because both of our wives names are Kelly but I can tell you

that my project wouldn't be what it is right now without my

wife support and that's that's the only way that I can sort

of summarize that she is she has never been to Bonnarooo.

She has no desire to go to Bonnarooo.

It's not her thing.

She is this project's largest fan and I can say that and so

is my daughter and so are my two sons both both of my sons

were music industry majors.

They both been to Bonnarooo with me.

My daughter by the way showed up as a surprise on Father's

Day while I was doing the yearbook shoot said she wasn't

going to be there because she had a work commitment which

was true and she showed up and surprised me while I was doing

the yearbook thing on Father's Day.

Nice.

Wow.

See incredible very cool.

All right.

What have we anything I haven't asked about I this was everything

that I thought it would be right?

What am I missing?

Yeah, I want to go back to that.

You mentioned the 2020 year when Bonnarooo was canceled and

that was going to be your 10 year anniversary of this thing

and you know, we we kind of both showed up at this mini

group out in Winchester, Tennessee.

You know, I think your experience is kind of similar mine.

I didn't know anyone I knew Daniel and Sharla and I get a

text with an address and just says show up this weekend and

I'm thinking okay, there's there's no Bonnarooo.

So we might as well try this.

So, you know, hop in the car and drive out to very very rural

Tennessee.

Beautiful.

Not and don't know anybody don't know what I'm going to

show up at had never met Lindsay before and you know,

it's his property and what there was maybe 50 of us that

kind of just showed up and of course by the end of the weekend

we were all, you know, really close and that's kind of where

this friendship started was, you know, since there was no

Bonnarooo we were forced to try these different, you know,

kind of last-minute alternative camping plans and all that.

Yeah, and and I think that definitely had an impact on how

we've kind of evolved as far as just because you know, like

we, you know, there's a bunch of people I met there including

you that we talk almost every day.

Hmm.

Was that the year you came you came to my house?

David was that the same year was it the next I think that

was 2021 because we did two of these mini-rules.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it actually if I could take a minute to talk about both

of those things.

Yeah.

What I you know, one of my one of my interest in going to

the first mini-rue was because I really wanted to see if the

Bonnarooo spirit thrived and survived outside of the farm on

those four days and it did and then some it was fantastic.

I pulled in there like Russ said I knew nobody.

No one knew had no idea what to expect by the time I was out

of my car.

I had a few people walking over and asking me if I needed

help setting up my tent. Russ and I got to know each other.

We ended up doing a second trip during another cancelled

Bonnarooo thing.

I'm texting him like hey, are you going down to Lindsay's

farm?

And he's like, yes, I am.

So I'm driving down the thousand-mile journey by myself.

I get a message from Ross saying hey Mark Rubelay pronouncing

his name wrong.

I'm sure is going to be playing in Chattanooga.

He was supposed to be on Bonnarooo's lineup that year.

He said we're going to go see him in Chattanooga.

Are you interested in going?

I'm like, yes, I'm interested in going.

So, you know, that was a great thing that I got to do with

with Russ, you know, during another year that Bonnarooo was

cancelled.

We jumped in the bus.

We came to your house.

It was the first time I met you and Brad you were an amazing

host. Definitely a highlight for me that weekend.

Got to meet you guys.

We had a couple of beers on your porch.

Yeah, it was just a fantastic journey.

It was literally just another chapter to the whole Bonnarooo

journey for me personally, you know, and the thing is, yeah,

that's it's not just us.

I mean, that's that's what is so amazing is it's not like

there's just these 50 people or 10 people that have these

experience.

There's thousands of them that have similar experiences, right?

That's what makes this thing so special.

100%.

Yeah.

And I mean, there's there's a bunch of people they're going

to listen to the podcast that'll hear that part of it if

it doesn't get edited out and they're going to be like I can

relate to that.

Yeah, and honestly, I'll be honest with you guys and I'm

not I'm not just trying to throw some sunshine your way,

but you know, if I didn't know you I would still listen to

the podcast because when you listen to the podcast, it's

like sitting there being part of a conversation with people

that, you know, when you're talking about things that you

know, some commonality you understand the Bonnarooo

experience because you've been there.

So it feels like you're just part of a conversation with

some friends in a room.

So that that's the beauty of the what podcast, you know,

it's like nothing else.

I know of I mean, I you know, I have we all have hobbies and

passions and and and whatever but I don't know anything else

like this and it's very cool and and I'm so happy for you.

David it that Sunday morning with you and rice were sitting

there and I I think we had a couple other campmates who I

could just see in their faces like really what I mean, that

is so cool.

You know, it's yeah, it's like I said, it's it's this journey

that we've all been on and can't wait to see what happens

next.

I mean, I don't know how else to put it right.

Yeah, you and me both because for me personally, I had going

into the new year.

I had no idea that I thought I was going to go into another

year reaching out to somebody that I've never met before

asking for photo credentials so that I could get my camera

gear into center a lot a lot of people just you know, the

message me and they'll be like, hey, how do I get a how do I

get photo credentials for to shoot Bonnarooo and my response

is that's a good question because up until this point I've

had to try to figure that out every year, you know, yeah.

So yeah, and and you know to be clear, it's because some

people are going to be thinking that you're not shooting

bands and I don't know why I feel like we need to say that

you're you know, because that's that's when people think photo

they think you're going to be shooting the bands.

That's not your interest and not what you're after and you're

interested in the experience and there's plenty of that to

photograph.

So all right.

Oh, it's yeah, David.

Thank you so much for giving up your time and for what you're

doing and for being a friend to us and to this show and I

just think it's awesome.

And I like I said, there's dozens and dozens of similar

stories about people who have found Bonnarooo and it become

an adventure and a journey and it's I mean, it's it's changed

my life.

There's no question about it and I wouldn't know Russ.

I wouldn't know Brad really.

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't know you David without Bonnarooo

and I'm better for it.

So very cool.

100% all right.

Yeah, I've said to a number of people in the past that I don't

think I was a bad person before Bonnarooo.

I don't want to suggest that but it's I've definitely become

a better better rounded person because of the Bonnarooo

experience for sure.

I mean, it's cause and effect, you know, yeah, just be cool,

man.

I mean, that's that's the thing, right?

Just be cool.

Cool.

Yeah, just relax.

All right.

All right.

See this this glass right here.

It says calm the fuck down.

You probably can't read that.

That's that's that's the Monterey.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Rush, you know, I love you.

Good to see you guys.

David.

Thank you.

I can't wait to see you.

Thank you.

Yeah, this summer and and I know we'll talk.

Yeah.

Yeah, looking forward to spending some quality time with

you guys on the farm again.

If not, if not before somehow, if not sooner.

Yeah.

Yeah, like like you said that Sunday when the

three of us were just kind of sitting at camp just telling

stories and talking.

I mean, that's what this that's what we wanted to bring

to the show and that kind of it's nice to revisit that.

So I'm definitely looking forward to next year.

All right.

Yeah, I'm honored guys.

Thanks.

Appreciate you.

All right.

So there you go.

David Bruce.

What a great guy.

What a good friend.

I mean, you know, when people ask me, do you know somebody

my my sort of dividing line, if you will, is have they been

to my house?

David Bruce has been to my house.

So he's a friend.

I consider him a very close friend and and I absolutely

respect what he does.

Me too.

Yeah, can't wait to see what he does for next year.

Maybe he can get a chance to come down to Chattanooga

for Moon River.

That'd be cool, too.

Seriously.

Can you imagine driving up on a golf cart and seeing your

photographs 12 feet?

Big on the fence of honor.

I know that that that's got to be just mind blowing.

Really cool.

All right, guys.

Thank you all.

Have a great day.

Have a great week.

Have a great life.