The What Podcast
Speakeasy-Roo with Roo Bus and Special Guests
Season 3, Episode 20
Published June 23, 2020
https://beta.thewhatpodcast.com/episode/speakeasy-roo-with-roo-bus-and-special-guests

Hey Brad and Barry, this is Jesse from New Jersey. I want to take you back all

the way to 2010. This summer would have been my 10th Bonnarooo. I only missed one

in between all these years but in 2010 it was my first Bonnarooo and my favorite

musical memory of all time was seeing the flaming lips my first year at Bonnarooo.

I may have eaten some some magic mushrooms for my first time and we were

seeing the flaming lips and they were covering Dark Side of the Moon by Pink

Floyd and I was in the crowd and it was the most amazing experience and I

remember this so vividly as they were playing the song Money. Some guy standing

in front of me just lifted into the air a crispy fresh hundred dollar bill and

he took out a lighter and he lit it on fire and I just stood there and my brain

just exploded. Hope you guys are doing well. Missing Bonnarooo right now. Keep

spreading the positivity. You guys are the best.

Well it's a great day on the farm but not that farm. We're actually in Tennessee and

we're drinking beer and there's music. We're on a farm and there's music and

there's campsites. There are campsites. And you got a PBR and your bus. PBR. The bus is here.

Your bus is here. Finally in the same place. In the same place. Where could we be? We are at a

secret speakeasy room that we kind of put together over the past month and I

am very sorry to anyone who couldn't be here. We had kind of like a capacity but

we have a lot of people that you may know from Bonnarooo here today. Let's

start with this buddy sitting with me. Happy fucking Roo everybody. My name is

Kyle. You may know me on Twitter as Bonnarooian. Happy to be here

celebrating the Bonnarooo weekend. I'm so glad you're here. And also next up I'm

Lindsey with Roo Fitness and some of you guys may know us from our Roo

Fitness Facebook page and Instagram. Yeah you heard Lord Taco slash Roo us

with the bus earlier. He's sitting across from me but also we have another special

guest. You have probably seen his work before. David Bruce from the I am Bonnarooo

photo project. So it's a privilege to be here man. Dude no it's a privilege to

have you here. So I'm humbled. Yeah I mean I feel like you probably have a better

Instagram account about Bonnarooo than Bonnarooo does honestly. Well that's

that's a great compliment. I've heard that before so you know that's a

fantastic compliment though. Like to me? I know at this point I'm posting more

than Bonnarooo. Oh to me like the top two Bonnarooo photographers are you and

Brian. Yeah Brian Hensley is this last name? Yeah. I love how Brian can capture kind of like the

scene at a show or like from above the Ferris wheel but you do a good job David

of capturing like people experiencing Bonnarooo and experiencing a show. I

appreciate it. I actually met Brian last year for the first time and he gave me a

ride on the golf cart from one end of the tent city to the next. So yeah he's a

he's a very cool guy. He's legit. That's a favor that can save your life on the

farm if it's in the middle of the day. Oh absolutely. Yeah yeah I actually needed to

get to Roo Rides to get into town and he's the guy that hooked me up so that

was good. That's cool. So this was an impromptu thing we didn't necessarily

plan on recording a deal here today at our little mini Roo. I guess we can talk

a little bit about it now that you'll be hearing about this after the fact. And a

lot of this was the brainchild of Lindsay over here because we are on his

property. You put together your own Bonnarooo this weekend. You want to

talk a little bit about where this came from and everything? Yeah honestly you

know Daniel it started off with you and I in a little bit of what are we going

to do now when Roo postponed and I said well I've got this little slice of thing

that I own. A slice of heaven. Yeah and it's got some creek on it and it's got

some really nice features and is sort of a decent place to come hang out so I

guess you and I tried to you know found a couple of musicians who were just

dying to play after being locked up for for COVID-19. Boy I bet that was tough to

find. I actually had a couple that were like hey can I come play and which

was really awesome and so we sort of just you know coordinated watching what

the state was doing for opening and with the with the COVID-19 stuff and when it

kind of looked like we were going to be able to have a gathering of people we

knew we had the space out here where we could all have our own social distancing

and still get together and enjoy a Bonnarooo feel and some music. And I know you

know I was a little anxious about this Lindsay when we were putting this

together you know because I've been a little a little worried of the COVID

cooties and everything as well but we knew that you know for two reasons we

were gonna have to put a cap on it you know one for like just because it's not

that huge of a space it's like maybe like a hundredth of the size of the

real farm. Oh yeah it's yeah not even the size of one of the plazas. Yeah oh

yeah and we wanted to also you know be responsible make sure everybody had

space to you know be comfortable and keep the the six feet rule and everything

and you know I feel like we've done it this has gone off great like when you do

something like this you never really can tell the future and know how it's gonna

go but like we're about to go into night two of our music here on Lindsay's farm

and I feel like we've got a hit. Yeah it actually turned into something a lot

better than I expected it to. I think for me you know this I was going into my

ninth Bonnarooo not getting to spend time with with my Bonnarooo friends was was

really really depressing and you know actually we've all been cooped up it's

been really nice I think for everybody's psyche to to step out and and just see

some people and sort of have a good time and and be outside of our house you know.

Because that's why you go to Bonnarooo right in the music for one but also to

go see your friends. To have that here it's definitely helping a lot. I mean

we were joking around earlier today and last night of course we're not getting

to see the big acts that we would wanted to have seen but like hanging out in a

campground with you know funky music with crazy lights in the trees with our

friends like this is almost just as good. Yeah trading beers, trading stories. Yeah it's

been a lot like an extended campground you know you stumble upon that party in

a campground it's been a lot like that is what it felt like. Yeah just like that.

Yeah everybody still says happy room. Yeah so Kyle you're just up the road in

yeah I'm up in Murfreesboro. You made the short drive down here and I know you and I

are on the same wavelength we didn't want you to go by without something

going on like what have you been doing yourself to keep your spirits up the

past week or so? Not looking not looking at social media yeah exercising just

trying to keep my mind off of this week for sure. It was helpful knowing we had

this coming up. Yes yeah I'm very appreciative I'm very thankful for this

but yet just trying not to think about it not looking at the lineup not looking

about like playing would have could have should have I'm just trying to be

optimistic about September mm-hmm so I just for the most part wasn't thinking

about it like I'm already planning for 2021 yeah same 364 363 days left. What do

you think David how are you feeling right now are you like keeping guarded

about September or you just ready to punt till next year? Well I guess I'm

holding out hopes but I don't honestly really think it's gonna happen I don't

really know it makes sense that it wouldn't happen yeah but I'm very

grateful for this because you know selfishly speaking and by no means is

this all about me but this was gonna be my 10th year anniversary which was gonna

be that's really special yeah I was gonna have you know people there that

I've been to the festival with for over the last 10 years and you know the

bottoms kind of falling out on it but I'm grateful for this it definitely feels

like Bonnarooo and I'm grateful to have some fresh additions for the I Am Bonnarooo

project. That's cool yeah so I was joking with some people last night there was a guy on a

megaphone that was shouting like happy mini-roo or quarantine-roo whatever you

call it I'm like dude there's not a Bonnarooo happening anywhere else this is

Bonnarooo for now yeah I talk about since you I got a taco when I talk about

podcast stuff it just kind of instinctually happens everyone's yeah I was

telling you guys when you're doing a lot of broadcasts the other day I said

something along the lines of like well you know to that point the people that

run Bonnarooo were being like really silent the people that own the trademark

were being kind of quiet but the community is being that the community

that owns itself is louder than ever yeah it's absolutely true I mean they

were eerily quiet and I guess we kind of called them out and then I don't know if

they listened and then posted something or if that's coincidence but yeah but

it's yeah the fan community has definitely kept this alive yeah for sure

it would not be the same. Lindsay you and Celia who's here we should have got her

on the horror over here maybe we should go talk to her later you were real

involved in the fan community keeping everything going with like Roo Fitness

like what has been your guys thoughts like keeping community stuff going past

couple months well you know the Roo Fitness group is all about you know

health and wellness and staying fit for the marathon that is Bonnarooo and you

know we do we have a virtual 5k where we all kind of ran our own 5k in our own

area and then got together on an Instagram live afterwards and and and

had a good time but you know I think really it's just hey let's let's have a

goal to work for which for me right now it's a September Roo I'm gonna work

toward it and if it happens I'm ready if it doesn't then I'm that much farther to

be ready for 2021 absolutely I know the same yeah prepare

thyself right yeah yeah we often forget about that part of the code that's the

first code yeah I feel like prepare thyself has been a code thing for

Bonnaroovians the past couple of months because like we've been prepared for like

not only you know a pandemic but also like prepared for like the mindfulness

that this is requiring um Kyle you joke that you've been hiding from social media

because you didn't want to see what would have been happening or whatever but

like I had been looking the past couple of days and I had seen so many Bonnaroovians

having like backyard Bonnaroo's yeah they just get a big speaker make a makeshift

orange you wouldn't believe how many people are actually celebrating their

birthday this weekend along with yeah it's just it's such a it's the perfect

excuse to get your friends together and throw in your festival rave attire and

just have a good time throw some good tunes like I'm just thinking of it now

because I see a sticker hanging here in the bus with us the guy that runs the

Bonnarooo 365 account he's doing a really cool thing this weekend or he's doing

homeroom yeah I saw last night Friday night he had streamed Sir Paul McCartney

he's got a lot of he's got like ten years of just film that he's gonna

release on Twitch or his Instagram live he's really doing God's work right now

hi there everyone we we know we're calling a little late this is Victoria

Michael we're in New Orleans so hi Brad we know you're not too far away and we

just wanted to say that happy Bonnarooo we missed everyone so much this weekend

immensely can't wait till we can all get back together on the farm and and I

really live it up but you know Bonnarooo did happen this weekend we we know we

felt all the magic we were able to celebrate at home and put up the

tapestries and have a show and I think thanks to Bonnarooo 365 live streams

we felt like we were there and great coming back through all the history of

Bonnarooo and just breathe you know being able to experience it you know you know

again you know even if it wasn't at home and so no we thank you for everything

that y'all been doing you know with the Bonnarooo with what podcast and you know

we're excited to see everybody again we'll go meet y'all and can't nut butter

next year can't wait and see y'all very soon on the farm

Happy Rooms! Happy Rooms! Much love!

Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky. I know this love of mine will never die alone.

Okay we're back we would have been interrupted by the same thing at Bonnarooo

by like random DJs like in the campgrounds or whatever and I'm glad

that we paused because Celia is with us now from Refinis. Hey what's up fam? How

have you been doing? Pretty pretty good you know I'm just hanging in there

hanging on this beautiful beautiful field with all you people. Oh well we appreciate that.

We were talking a little bit with Lindsey about how we put this together

and everything and I remember I messaged you with kind of like an idea of what we

were doing down here and you were just like what okay yes let me in yeah this

was this was a pretty pretty sweet sweet idea and you know I've been telling you

and Lindsey all weekend just how grateful that I am I know everyone else

are just for this entire weekend just bringing the community together and just

really letting us live this Bonnarooo lifestyle when we couldn't really have

it right now. Well we were talking a little bit about this before you came in

like it can be tough at times when something we love you know you have to

admit is corporately owned and you know it's their job to you know make money

off of it but still there's the community that kind of owns itself right

and so many things have been happening online the past week with people like

sharing old memories and doing stuff like home roof and 365 and you know we

did the fun 5k last week and so many other people are doing things from home

or whatever it reminds you that the community is probably the strongest

thing about it. It's so much more than a place it's definitely a people yeah yeah

for sure yeah. Kyle weren't you telling me a story that you went somewhere and

somebody noticed your Bonnarooo bandana? Yeah on my way down here I'm driving

through Winchester Tennessee and I'm at the Kroger grass station and this nice

kind woman must have been like as old as our mother and she she notices my

Bonnarooo bandana like from last year radiate positivity you know it's it's

just a slang it's just a term you know it's just a saying but she recognized it

and she she pulled away her Kroger apron I saw her big fat Bonnarooo logo

the definition of Southern hospitality she's like oh my gosh and she put up her

hand against the glass and so we high-fived it was on Friday it was just

you know everybody down here just knows it's a vibe like it's just every year

like black work and every Bonnarooo bandana has a story like that when you've run into

another in the wild you know I was just so organic just so random just a complete

stranger and just nothing but love yeah exactly I feel like that's gonna be even

stronger now that you know how we're missing each other a little bit you know

the old saying is absence makes the heart grow fonder you know when we see

each other all again on the farm you know the real farm like it's just gonna

be so bittersweet it's gonna be amazing you know I've had many conversations just

on social media with all my Bonnarooo friends it just you know the the vibe it

can definitely get low at times because we miss everybody we miss the vibe we

miss everything but just really reiterating the fact that when we do get

back to the farm that first hug that we give everybody the first time over what

almost two years that we would go back at least a year and a half a year and a

half it's gonna be phenomenal that first Bonnarooo hug on the farm yeah I'm not

letting go first yeah I'll never let go Jack. There is room for two people in that damn door.

So part two is something I want to talk about one thing that we've been doing that's been fun at our

little speak easy Bonnarooo is sharing some of our old favorite stories you know

last night we were up till 2 a.m. sharing stories or whatever so let's talk a little bit about

lineup first let's go around the room and everybody tell your favorite act

you've ever seen at Bonnarooo and the one that you would have loved to have seen

this year and taco you're with the show that does the lineup so why

don't we start with you I have this year's lineup I brought it with me just

to cry a little bit so your favorite ever and then what you would have seen

this year they've never probably either pawned in 2018 my man yeah last year to

say you know probably are tied yeah this year there's so much this year

oyster head I can't even I can't even read this now I'm too shook I can't see this paper from all the tears on it

I know yeah Primus I don't know it's yeah all of us all I mean every single day

there was can you imagine in a universe where Corona didn't happen but the

current social situation did happen how lit that run the drill show would be oh

it would be really fire yeah oh my gosh I don't mean to be petty but I hope it's

raining in the parallel universe so what's your favorite show ever then

favorite show ever definitely she can now Rogers 2018 I was in the blood pit

for that and that dude is a heat maker he there's no way that you can not

listen to music not listen to anything that he's ever put his hands on he's a

big influence on modern music today biggest miss for this year Jack Black

and tenacious do that well Jack Black can you imagine getting him to party on

the farm you know he would have been one of the guys that's out in Canada yeah I

think he was there maybe ten years ago in 2010 yeah yeah so he's oh he's long

overdue after that DJ Mel shout out to DJ Mel no Obama's DJ yeah yeah he DJed

Barack Obama's inauguration 2016 and he's the official DJ for the University

of Texas Longhorns men's football and basketball team he's got a he's got a

very impressive resume if you catch him you'll find him in the silent disco

we have Obama come like MC wait I think his daughter's uh like in the festival

season yeah well then he can't come because he would embarrass her favorite

ever than what you would have seen this year favorite ever definitely 2013's

Paul McCartney oh my gosh it was just magical the entire time and especially

we started singing hey dude can we just reminisce that moment and feel that

moment again I guess we all there no time are you weren't there were you I

wasn't oh it was remarkable so many people were just crying and laughing

hugging and crying and just the vibe run the entire farm was just so magical

that answer almost doesn't count because that's like yeah yeah I actually was

gonna say Paul McCartney yeah I was gonna say pretty much the exact same

thing yeah it was to see a beetle and oh yeah you know well so I went to see him

because he was a beetle but I wasn't really expecting what he did I mean to

hear 85,000 people sing that song and let it be I mean I had tears in my eyes

I had goosebumps it was it was an incredible moment for so many of us that

like there's a lot of the current generation of Bonnarooians that that

was their first year so we were so incredibly spoiled that on night two of

our first Bonnaroo we got like Paul McCartney singing that for us yeah and this

year you know this year this lineup was what's fat for me I mean it was just too

staggering but I have to say right out of the gate without even really looking

at this and it has everything to do with what's going on and the fact that they

just dropped an incredible album that would be rummageable yeah I mean for whatever it's worth

Pitchfork gave their record you know you got to take that those kind of

reviews from them with a grain of salt that's pretty solid I think our compatriots on the

Info Reborn would have everyone know that Pitchfork is full of it anyway

well you know I love I love them when I love them yeah I hate them when I hate them but you know I think

this one they got right mm-hmm that's just a great album and the time is right for it now

have you listened to some of the lyrics like in detail on you run the jewels it's like they saw the

future because they would have had to have recorded that like months ago and they actually dropped that

album a little bit early and obviously they did it for a reason so just an incredible record and

considering everything that's going on that would have been a bang of a sure thing I keep thinking about how what was happening in the country in like 67 68 69 kind of

core relates in many ways to what's happening right now and you know music was one of the empowering

things back then it's kind of how Woodstock even came to be exactly so I feel like run the jewels is in a big way doing the same thing right now with that new album sure

I can make that correlation you have the anti-war you have a lot of the doors a lot of those yeah invasions

fans and then yeah us I mean right now situation or yeah absolutely I can see RTJ using their platform you know Lizzo is doing the same thing and none of us mentioned Lizzo but that would have been an incredible show like I feel like her message of like positivity in so many ways would have spoke so well to our particular audience and would have spoke to 2020 and its dumpster fire in general you know yeah all right so I guess I'll go last

like my like Paul of course is like one of the best like favorite old shows but like I said this so many times I'll say one more time like Friday now 2016 was like the best night of my life going bouncing from m83 to LCD sound system back to tame yeah that I I'm not going to talk into too much detail on this podcast about that and why it was so fun but if you were there you know nothing you know you know like 2016 was like a low attendance year but there was just like some kind of feeling on the farm that you had a blast

like it hasn't been there ever you know since that year or before like it's hard to describe unless you were there yeah and then for this year you guys know me I mean you can take one while I guess who I was all I'm not trying to think too far ahead of it but I know I'll get to see Tame and Paula one of these days again so I'm not too broken up about it and you know in general I'm not too broken up that we're not in Manchester right now we made our own little slice of the farm here and near Winchester Tennessee we're not in Manchester we're in

Winchester in some kind of Chester yeah yeah yeah still close enough to the farm

where we could still swing by I mean it's starting to be sunset on a farm in

Tennessee on the second weekend in June and we're about to have music yeah and

I'm with some of my best friends and favorite people so I'm this is good enough

for me man David and I actually stopped by the farm this past weekend oh yeah

sounds about that it was like running through your empty high school the

traffic you could hear like some of the vehicles from the highway it was like

roars from concerts past yeah it was it was kind of eerie it was spooky we we

walked around Planet Roo I actually got up on top of the what stage I planted

flowers inside of Planet Roo oh yeah performed a little bit of B&E up the

fence you're playing with some flowers no it was I only spent maybe 45 minutes

there but David we ran into each other what a coincidence our lucky stars just

happened to line up we ran into each other as you were on your way out I was

on my way in you said you spent like two hours there for two hours yeah and you

brought three cameras with you yeah you know it was sir I mean to say it was

surreal doesn't even doesn't even cut it and you know in similar to what you said

I mean I literally sat up on the what stage I've never been on the stage of

course before looking out at that empty field and just reflected on how many

iconic people I saw exactly where I was sitting just playing to an I see I'm

getting goosebumps to me like I was I was standing where Elton John's piano was

yeah yeah think about how many shows that have been in that spot like the

last show the Beastie Boys ever performed yeah like Lionel Richie Elton

John Billy Joel I mean just in front of JZ see wonder like so many yeah Haley

Williams Florence oh my god yeah yeah yeah I've been up there too we we kind of

took a very respectful walk a couple years ago in October like 2015 or

something like that and I went on top of the what stage and it's like it's like

again we joke about parallel universe that's what it's like when you get there

because everything seems so much smaller it seems like just a small pasture

instead of a thing that holds a hundred thousand people there's no way 80 to

100,000 people can fit in there I don't believe it just like the hill yeah he'll

never move all right guys I think we're about to jump into not to our music here

on our little speakeasy Bonnarooo here but any other thoughts before we cut

outs yeah my wife is good man and I appreciate you guys putting this

together it's been fantastic yeah I agree yeah I really had no idea what to

expect I got an address from you all the details I was like bring back and I was

like all right I guess I'm going to this thing and yeah this has been amazing

Brad Barry you missed it you blew a big chance he should have come from New

Orleans he should have definitely come from New Orleans he's trying to get you

to come to New Orleans trying to get me down there he should have been up here

and Barry should have come up here too at least for the day even if he didn't

can well he's a news man we need that now more than ever yeah he had to work

today unfortunately but I know they would both love to be here

Colin your last thoughts I'm really thankful that this is going down thanks

for setting this up oh no yeah I can't take any credit this is Lindsey's thing

this is his little plot he put all this together and welcome to seeing here so

we have to wish him a happy birthday and make sure that we leave no trace and

respect his farm yeah silly anything it's just been great so far and even just

making brand new connections that we probably never would have made even on

the farm that we made here it's been phenomenal

absolutely yeah it's man it's charged my battery in the same way that like the

real bar would have I mean yeah we'll find out what happens in September or

next June but I feel so much better knowing the community is really stronger

than ever yeah it's gonna get us through you know yeah yeah all right well thanks

everybody Russ anything you want to sign off from the from the what I'll just have

to say goodbye for Brad and Barry okay it's really the first time that we had

an episode and they're not here oh one last thing before we sign off I got to

give a big props to we talked about bar in 365 put together hungry yeah you

make props to the parachute people yeah we're doing a lot of things right now

Ron and and all the rest of that crew are doing some streams this week and I

feel like they have been for the past you know half decade one of the prime

leaders of the barnard community to you know not just do the thing with the

Rue shoot but promote positivity and inclusiveness and just love in general

and I feel like they have set up the community to have been prepared for this

a little hiccup and to stay positive throughout it and yeah we've been doing

this yeah yeah it's not normal or this is it this is normal this is yeah I'm

gonna give them a big props isn't anything new for us and that goes I mean

there's so many different little commute there's camp red rude there's routine

clan there's trying to go to bed what let's name them off who am I missing

there's bar and Chris yeah yeah there was a bar with ball a couple years ago

that was pretty cool yeah I mean there's I'm sure there's somebody we're missing

but like all this stuff is what is keeping the community strong it's what

keeps bar and bar I guarantee you there aren't as many like groups that are

going to like Coachella or hangout festival or blasted variant no yeah

with that haven't made two or three different podcasts Rue ham guys that's

another one I should you know yeah yeah they've been steady they've been very

consistent they're on top of it yeah sure can't fantasmagoria yeah yeah yeah

absolutely yeah I just listen nothing but love for all them I mean no yes man

like I'm glad that we got to see a lot of our friends here this weekend on

our little like miniature boundary that we've put together but I'm man I think I

speak for everybody we all want everybody together in one place again

and it's gonna happen September or June next year that's gonna happen

all right so you wouldn't know what I think on that note let's go start some

music and let's go out there and radio positive

Brad Berry taco it's Parker from a Rue ham and you know favorite memory of the

world wish we were hanging on the farm together but besides listening to your

show to get me through a backroom job in retail probably my favorite memory is

coming or waking up one morning and finding our only case of beer which was

hams by the way to be just boiling hot after leaving them in the sun so you

know Bonnarooo does what Bonnarooo does I wish we were hanging this weekend

instead of working but we'll catch you next year and Brad eventually will chat

about hams on Instagram live together happy Rue y'all