Here’s a look at Bonnaroo’s 4 PM press conference on Saturday, June 11
Photos by Kevin Yatarola
Daniel Lanois on playing Roo with Black Dub:
The good thing about an event like this is you get up on stage and you have a chance to deliver your music in a new way because we are essentially outside of the songs. We fancy ourselves improv artists and we respond to the events that we’re turning up for. So if the energy calls for an extended groove, an extended solo, no problem. We can provide that. And lucky for us, we’ve got Brian Blade on the drums, one of the great improv artists of our time.
Nicole Atkins on festival:
It’s exciting — we’re playing three times tomorrow. All during the day, all three sets — each an hour long. You, know I’m just trying to think Springsteen. A lot of matinees. But, yeah, we haven’t been here since 2008 so were really psyched.
The first time we played here in 2008 was the first time we’d ever played in front of a large crowd.
Jerry Greenfield on Bonnaroo Buzz:
I’m awestruck to be here and what an honor to be up here. Second year Ben & Jerry’s has been here with our Bonnaroo Buzz. It’s a coffee malt ice cream with a whiskey caramel swirl and fudge covered pieces of English Toffee. It’s a fair trade flavor. We use fair trade ingredients and pay fair trade farmers in developing countries a fair wage. It’s so nice to be connected with Bonnaroo with has such a mission of sustainability and environmental responsibility. So it’s a very nice fit for us.
One thing I’ve learned over 32 years is free ice cream is a good thing.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on why he’s at Roo:
For me, being from Harlem and inheriting legacy of Harlem men’s basketball team was really a way for me to pay homage to my community and the game that I love so much. I didn’t find out about team until I was in high school and did some research on them in ’89 after I retired from professional basketball and I wanted to do a movie on them but I had a hard time finding a form. So I wrote a book on the Harlem Renaissance and on the Harlem men’s basketball team. So that gave people an idea of what the story is about and so we raised money for the film and got it done.
Kareem on jazz:
The Harlem men’s basketball team started in 1922 and to this day the 1920s is known as the jazz age. Jazz really dominated the American musical taste at that time and the Harlem Rens played the game to the rhythm and the style of Harlem. They kind of went hand and hand.
Bill Cunnliffe wrote the score and performing on it, we have Herbie Hancock, will.i.am and Chuck D. It was all about trying to show the connection between all the musical forms and hip-hop and R&B are branches off of that root and I wanted to show that and I wanted to show that because the younger generation thinks that everything started in 1990 with Chuck D.’s band so we really have to do some educating.
Richie Furay on culture that’s grown around festivals:
Music just has such a place in peoples hearts that whenever there is an event they just want to gather and to have an opportunity to hear such a wide range of music — what are you gonna do? If it’s around your neighborhood, you’re gonna go.
Daniel Lanois on his process:
The laboratory is obviously a place of experimentation and a lot of my ideas are born there and I hope that never gets taken away from me. And the other end of the spectrum is when you finally get a chance to take it to the stage, there’s a resourcefulness that kicks in in that environment that doesn’t exist in the laboratory but I think they need to coexist for innovation to reach the stage. But at the stage we do have a responsibility that you only get one shot at it so it counts and you better communicate with your mates on stage. And I think there’s something really powerful about the spirit of the moment.
Jerry on if there was no Bonnaroo Buzz and people should only try one flavor:
You can’t do better than Cherry Garcia. It was a tie in with music, with the culture. It came about when we got an anonymous postcard from people who said they were big Ben & Jerry’s fans and big Dead fans and we want you to make a flavor called Cherry Garcia because it would be a hoot for the fans, plus Dead paraphernalia always sells. It’s still number one.
Kareem on Bonnaroo impressions:
Well I think it’s a great smorgasbord for musc fans but I’m not that far removed from the music world. My dad was a jazz musician and both my dad and mom sang. So we had music in the house and of course that was back in the 40s and 50s when Nat King Cole was a household name.
But music is a universal language and that really doesn’t change and it’s something that brings people together. And it brings all these people together and it’s brought America together many times so I’m all for what this is all about.
If I had my way I would have been Bud Powell but I didn’t practice the piano so I’ll just have to settle.
Stephen Stills on what “For What It’s Worth” means to him:
It’s been awfully good to me and I want to thank all these people that covered it and that helped but my children through college. [Laughs.]
Daniel Lanois in response:
Stephen, I have a question for you: That’s such an obscure title “For What It’s Worth” and to have such a great chorus — how did you get away with it?
Stills:
Repeat “There’s a man with a gun over there” or what about “What’s that sound?” That sounded like a million things.
But I don’t know, it was an era when trying to be obscure was kind of hip. And everything had a double meaning all of the time and there was always a little bit of pop culture in there. But the song stands on itself and Neil’s opening note is what everybody remembers the minute they hear it and it makes me jealous because it was a lot of trouble to make all these big riffs and big melodies and big hooks for the songs and you guys did it with two harmonics — ding, ding — [Laughs.] I only had a tile bathroom as a laboratory.
