Kevin Lyman on the Warped Tour from Inception to Popularity to Rebirth

We catch up with Kevin Lyman of Warped Tour as the famous annual punk/ska pilgrimage ramps up for a comeback this year. Kevin reflects on the work that makes live music feel electric and talks about everything from surviving the Altadena wildfires to building festivals where fans discover bands, crowd-surf, and feel genuinely understood.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Kevin Lyman’s Warped Tour return and international expansion
• Altadena wildfire survival and how rebuilding really looks
• Why a new generation is showing up to concerts
• What changed in festival logistics, liability, and paperwork
• Keeping ticket prices affordable and using sponsors for value
• The Warped Tour mix of genres, diversity, and fan discovery
• Backstage chaos stories from human cannonballs to tour bus antics

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Transcript

Welcome To Behind The Scenes

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I'll gas it right. Uh looking at you. Yes, and of course, when that music hits, that's what we do right there. What's going on, everybody? Of course, it is behind the scene. Everything that you think you know about the music industry, my friends, you do not. I, of course, am Guns, joined by Dickie Barrett and Sully Sullivan. Coming at you. What's up, fellas? I learn something every time we do this show.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

You do? Yeah, already? Oh, yeah, because seconds into it, you've already learned something. No, not today, but yet. Actually. Oh. But like seriously, because people think it's one thing and it's another thing. Yeah. I mean, all the fun's happening in the same room, by the way. Either you're facing this way or you're facing this way.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

Because everything else looks like a afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Yeah. The backstage and everything.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

How did your recent shows go, would you say, up north? I think we killed it. What do you think? I think Solomon?

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

I think we did.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

I was going to pretend I wasn't there, but I've got a woman. I wanted to sell it. I've got such a wild card, or uh, what's it called? I gotta I gotta joke. I've got an advantage. He walks on stage. We have in the lather, and then they completely lose it when Dickie walks on it.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

It is true, of course.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

Trump cards say that.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

You guys say that over and over again, and I keep telling you that it's you, your band is great, there's some of the best musicians to assemble together. Your uh your rhythm sections top shit.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Half of which is right here today. What's up, brother? Hey, hey, peace, peace, peace. Greetings. Hey, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

That guy, infinitely talented, uh, exceptional band, and great songs. So you go, okay, no one really knows who my band Sullivan is, but it takes like four songs. You go, oh, this is good.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

And it's funny watching this winning over everyone.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

It's funny watching this too. Yeah.

Kevin Lyman Joins And Dream Talk

SPEAKER_00 2:43

And that's the power about that's the power of music, that's also the power of good songs, and that's the power about uh being able to perform live. And it's actually pretty funny because uh speaking of somebody that's been able to literally single-handedly been able to take bands that started kind of similar to you, and you know, having people kind of just with their arms crossed and staring at them into some of those bands becoming some of the biggest bands in the world, whether it's your Blick182 to your Katie Perry's, to your all-time lows and Fallout Boys. Kevin Lyman is uh joining us right now, of course. Not only music entrepreneur, but how about the man the myth, the legend, himself, Vance Wartor? And we are back again going international right now. What's up, my man? Kev, great to see you, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Hey guys, great to see you. God, it's so funny seeing you guys here today. It's funny. Dickie, you were in my dreams last night. I hate to say it. Yeah. You I you popped into my dream last night. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Are you telling the truth?

SPEAKER_01 3:37

I absolutely absolutely at Brookside Country Club here in Pasadena. Pasadena, near the near where you live in Altadena, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm over at the golf course. I I kind of woke up. It's a perfect day. People uh, you know, everyone's been out of Coachello, or so there's no one working in the music business today. And a Polestar Week. Everyone's got an excuse not to work.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

So I just one time on the warp tour years ago. And uh, and fat Mike drilled me between my shoulder blades with a golf ball. And that was the last time I ever golfed. Last time you played.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Son's on par, right? Yeah, it's it's uh, you know, it's one of those days, just nice days, and getting to be a very busy time of year for me.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

So uh, Kev, listen, man, how um how are you doing? Last year, of course, uh, Vance Warped to Returns was an absolute great success. I I was a part of all of them, and uh and thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

This is boring. This is boring from three shows. No, I'm not gonna hold on. I want to hear about his dream. From three shows. He had a dream about me last night, and you're gonna talk about what?

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yeah, well, you know, that that's uh it was uh the wet the wet kind of dream. All right, so we went from Wow We went from three shows into five shows, including international. At this point in the uh in the stage right now, man, how's it been going? How's it been selling? What's the uh buzz and feedback been like?

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Oh Kevin, could you ignore that and please tell me about your dream last night?

Altadena Wildfires And Rebuilding

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Thank you. It had something to do like with a flying J or something. I walked in and you were there, some sort of truck stop somewhere, and then kind of I, you know, an oil change, you know, just feel like it was a better dream than that, and guns just shit all over it. Yeah. No, um, it's it's you know, got I worked with a great team that you know over at Insomniac to put that together. I mean, uh, you know, it's it's it's kind of cool to be able to have great partners international now, reconnecting with those guys up in Montreal. We used to do warped, and then finally getting it to bring it down to Mexico City, you know, never got to bring warped down there. But, you know, literally today I was actually having a great call, and you'll like this, Dickie, with the Altadena girls are looking to do an event in October, and um, they want to do like a mini fest festival up here to continue the rebuilding process of the community. So I kind of gave them advice and you know, maybe help them in October put on a little uh festival out here in Altadena to raise some money.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Nice. What Kevin just mentioned is the town of Altadena is one of the two towns that got devastated over a year ago by wildfires. And um, Kevin lives in the very center of Altadena, and I had a house in Altadena for many years. We were we were neighbors um blocks away from each other, and uh and we're close friends, and we've been friends since I first met him. If the warp tour is the circus, then we're looking at P.T. Barnum right there. That's that's the man, the mastermind. All that is the warp tour came out of Kevin's head. All right, but the interesting thing about the Altadena fires and Kevin and Kevin Lyman is I called him two days after. I'm like, Kevin, are you okay? So he's he's you know in Altadena still, and he and I go, Did you evacuate? Kevin did not evacuate. They told him to get out. Kevin stood in his yard and hosed down the houses and a couple of houses of his neighbors and was one of the few houses in that area. I mean, it was chimneys everywhere the eye could see. And and a day later, I got finally got by the National Guard, came in to visit Kevin and his wife, see if he's okay. And he's still standing there hosing down sparks. Kevin, tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Well, I mean, it was, you know, it was, you know, it was interesting. I had just had a major surgery with one arm, I think. If you remember, I was fighting in. Oh, yes. And while I got this, I want to thank Sully because Sully helped us out moving some furniture when we had to move out. We eventually had to move out of the house for a moment. My back's still screwed up, but you're welcome. And uh Sully delivered us a van to get us some gear with Rick DeVoe and his crew came up and helped us. But you know, it was uh we were lucky, you know. It was so it was so hit and miss. You you know, it there's houses, and you know, we're now in the process where every week you see another foundation being poured, you see a frame going up, you see people, you know, starting the rebuild process. It's definitely gonna be a long time. Uh a lot of coyotes right now. I mean, there's a lot of nature up there right now. Hey Kevin, I have a question.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

So looking over all you survey with a garden hose and now sitting at a golf course and now looking at the success of warp tour coming up, does it does it energize you more? Does it give you hope? Does it make you feel like you want to retire? Does it make you feel like you want to go twice as fast?

Warped Tour Returns For New Fans

SPEAKER_01 8:05

You know, I also teach five classes at USC and definitely full-time there. It's definitely, you know, starting to get the mindset. You know, I I've gone out to to visit Dickie out in the desert. We've actually sat around my van, and when I'm camping out there, and I haven't been in the van as much in the last uh last year, and definitely started to cross my mind that I want to get back out. But is it it is exciting to bring Warp Tour to a whole new generation? Uh a lot of people thought maybe this was going to be a nostalgia type show, but a third of the people that were at Warp Tour had never been to a festival or a concert. So a lot of new people, and then the way we're selling tickets this year, it's like two, you know, two to one, like two new credit cards to one. So maybe we're getting young people out to a festival. I mean, keeping that ticket price, uh, you know, we keep it at we started at$150, including fees for a two-day festival. Um, we've got to turn people on to live music because over that pandemic, uh, there was a whole generation that never got turned on to live music. So uh I mean you know, I like I say, if you if you can get goosebumps, you keep doing something. And and lately I've been getting goosebumps again. I I kind of lost them for a little bit. I lost them for a little bit, and you know, they came back. And now, you know, little things like you know, that inspiring when I run into a uh a young person who goes, I came to Warp Tour and now I want to start a band or I want to start a nonprofit. And and that's what it was about for all, you know, the people like guns and you know, all those bands, you know, generational. We're now 32 years ago was when I started this, you know, when I was a young man.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

I love the way you think, I love the way you look at music, I love the way you operate, I love the way you bring people together, I love the way you put bands together, that that there's no real limitations. And that was something that was always great about the warp tour lineups, and you go, okay, it's these punk bands, but it really wasn't that. You went deeper than that. And uh, and plus with the extreme sports, you incorporated that, and then getting, you know, Steve Van Doren and the Vans in. Hey, do you remember uh Dave the Bullet Smith?

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Oh, yeah, you know, I I don't know if you knew I brought him back for those uh anniversary shows in 2019. That was like our last year when we did Atlantic City and San Francisco in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when they opened our exhibit. And I convinced the city of Atlantic City to let me bring this human cannonball. And uh we had to set that we set the net out like on the low in the high tide zone, so the water would come up when we weren't shooting the net. And it was a big deal like to get this done because I had to shoot him like over the crowd to make it work. And the first shot we did with him, he dislocated his shoulder. Like he was supposed to do six. How old is he now? I don't know. Probably too old to be shooting out of a cannon. Shooting out of a cannon.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

He comes from a family of human cannonballs. But I remember. Okay, he dresses like Evil Knevel, and his cannon is red, white, and blue. And then years, I think it was 2002, or what year did he first come on?

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Well, I mean, you were the you were the guinea pig, Dickie, if you remember.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

You came to me in the morning and you said, first day of work tour, you go, hey, we're traveling with a human cannonball. I can't get anybody to fire him off during this side. Well, you do me a favor. And I go, we're gonna shoot somebody out of a cannon during my set? By about the fourth show of the tour, people are going, Huckum Dickey keeps getting to shoot Dave the bullet.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Oh, that's great. I mean, and then Ben got involved. Remember when he would start dressing like Ben, and Ben would run behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

In Boston, Kevin, the story you're thinking about is in Boston. Yeah. So we've done the whole tour and we're we're now at Suffolk, Suffolk Downs in Boston. And we say, instead, somehow we got to figure out how to shoot Ben, our dancer, out of that cannon. And what we did was we had Did he go for it? We had Dave the Bullet. So we wear our suits and we're pretty identifiable on stage. But so if you're wearing the same suit as me and Ben, so we put Dave the Bullet in Ben's suit, okay? We we had somebody, we had Dave, somebody dressed as Dave the Bullet come out and go, Ben's in the cannon. I can't get him out. And the cannon's raising up above the crowd, and there's Dave the Bullet, but dressed in a suit. In a suit, in a Boston suit. Oh, and I and the Boston Globe even wrote, they shot their dancer out of a cannon.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

I think I one time dressed in that Ben suit. Remember down in Panama City, Florida? Yeah, you came running out in it, right? Yeah, I came out running out of the suit. But you know, I gotta ask you, Dickie, do you remember uh that time I had you camp across Australia? Yeah, yeah. How how many days did I camp? Yeah, no, you were but you guys were traveling and we were we were staying at surf spots all up and down the coast, Coughs Harbor, Uladola, Byron Bay. Yeah. And uh there you guys were in your suits every day. I gotta say, you guys were diehards. Didn't you have a trailer full of suits?

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Like a full trailer. We would roll with the trailer full of suits, but in Canada, but in uh Australia, he goes, uh, yeah, and we're gonna camp on the beach. I'm like, dude, I grew up in Boston. I'm not camping.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

I'm not camping on the beach.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

So we got we were the only band that got hotel rooms. Oh yeah. And then of course, and then of course the third day, the guys from Blink 182 is like, dude, can I take a shower at your hotel?

SPEAKER_01 13:09

I mean, it was uh we had some great. We had some great times, didn't we? Yeah, yeah, we absolutely did. We absolutely did.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

And Kev, yeah, Kevin, I mean, and that's you know, always uh expect the unexpected is kind of, you know, whether it is well, the Nitro Circus, the stories about human human cannonballs, that's what Warp Tour is all about. And you don't know unless you unless you attend. You know what I mean? You're gonna meet your best friends, you're gonna no doubt find your next favorite band as well as see your favorite bands perform, and then it's everything else around it as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yeah, I mean, that's what Warp Tour was. It was like, you know, there's lots of great festivals out there, but you know, it warped was about, you know, throwing a twist in. And even this summer, we've got some twists coming this summer. We're gonna do some fun stuff in each city. We've got, you know, always ideas, and I think a lot of that spun from paying attention to the fans, you know. And I think I liked how you said Dickie, you know, you watched things. And and sometimes I'd say it was watching the show and watching the band.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

People don't think it was never, there was never, you think Kevin's too busy, but there was he he would watch every he would stand on the side of the stage. I mean, when he wasn't, and he was the guy that, like all of a sudden in the morning, you'd see him with a porter party on a do on a dolly coming through. Where are you gonna give it away?

SPEAKER_00 14:26

He would do it himself.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

He rolled up his sleeves, he was there, he was on the bus, he was on the tour, he wasn't doing it from a distance, he wasn't doing it from the comfort of his of his office. Tent. He was roll his sleeves up, get in there and do it. You know, hey Dickie, grab that fencing for me. I'm like, I gotta play a show. Just get the fencing, Dickie. Yeah. You gotta put this up. The kids are pulling it down over here.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

What is the biggest difference from when you started to this summer in terms of uh logistics and drinking a whole lot more paperwork?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Let me tell you. Sally, we used to just do things, you know. I mean, definitely, you know, across the whole business, a lot more liability, a lot more paperwork, a lot more legal, those kind of things. But, you know, it's still the same thing, you know. A lot of people said, Oh, you can't write the schedule. You know, we we we don't announce what time the bands are playing until the morning of the show. Uh, we're a little different, you know. It's it's you know, it really logistically, you know, it's harder now because when we did a two-month tour, you would just load the trucks and we would go. We bring everything with us. And you had the family on the road. And, you know, yeah, I could yell at Dickie, hey, grab a piece of fence. And he'd jump in, knowing that we'd all jump in and help each other. You know, now we have to build this show, and it literally it's it's it's tiring. Like you go in and you have to build the show. Start on Tuesday, you do the show. I gotta fly home and teach class the next Tuesday, and you know, and then re-reset and reload. And you know, we used to get in that mode almost like you know, you were like this machine going down the road, and no one was getting any sleep, but we were all in sync. Um, so that's that's a little harder doing these one-off weekend shows, and and you're readvancing, and a lot more people involved in putting on a festival than we used to have.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

It's hard to get a groove going, you'd say, now with the one-offs.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Absolutely. You know, we used to get in that groove. That first week was brutal. Everyone was like exhausted at the end. It was a hell week. Hell week, yeah. Hell week. And then everyone was just in mode.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

And then it became, yeah, then you became a machine that kind of moved together and in sync. And and the people you put together, Kevin, the the crew is the best. They're the best. They still are. You you put the best of the best out there that every other kind of festival tries to steal from you or tries to tries to take from you. What would you say is the same? Like, what is important that you couldn't live without it's the same as a discovery.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Those kids running in, running over to the blow-up balloon, and the schedule goes up. I mean, but there was like thousands of people coming in, you know. We were we weren't supposed to, and you know, guns was at those shows, and you know, you're not supposed to open the doors till 11 o'clock, and we had to open by nine o'clock and have 45,000 people in by 11 in the morning. And then the first, you know, the battle of the bands winner strikes a note, and all of a sudden, like 10,000 people run to that stage. And I was thinking the other day, I go, if that's the one memory they get from the music business, they're gonna get a video of them playing for like 10,000 people on a you know, Saturday afternoon in Long Beach or Orlando or somewhere. And, you know, just you know, building memories and hopefully turning people on to live music. I mean, live music does bring people together. And I'm I'm excited that we're playing Canada and Mexico right now. You know, they're our closest neighbors, and you know, we need to, you know, it's fun to bring it together through music. So when the message boards go up now and we announce something, you know, you got a third of the people in Spanish, you get a third of people in English. And then, you know, up until recently, there was a third of the people in French cussing me out. But as that as that lineups, as that lineups come together, you know, they're getting excited up there. So, you know, it's gonna be a very busy summer, and uh, you know, I trying to still blend in those trips and you know, go visit my daughters and and hang out with them. You know, you you remember them growing up on the road.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Uh I remember when they were kids, they're now they're lovely, lovely adults. Yes. Can I ask a yeah? A question. Um go ahead.

Ticket Prices Value And Sponsors

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah, well, well, Kev, I I just wanted to, you're exactly right. I think that there is such a uh a demand, a craving, um, an energy for live shows, whether it's like, you know, you saw the the house tour that like all American Rejects did to pop-up shows happening all over. I feel like I truly believe people and fans and kids are tired of an algorithm being force feeding them every single thing that they're supposed to enjoy. And that that's why there is this rock resurgence, that's why there is a sky revival, that's why there is a live show demand that's happening right now. And it's just about making financially, I think, making it work for everybody involved because everybody wants to tour. Well, you mentioned the ticket prices and everything. Um, where would you say that the live event industry is right now? Grading one to worst, ten to best. Where are we right now? Because we are getting more into a guru for sure, but still there's only limited disposable income out there as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

This is gonna be this is gonna be a tough year. This one this is definitely the year that that value warped, you know, navigated 25 years up and down in the economy. And I think you know, we're really, you know, letting people know that, hey, you're gonna come down, you're gonna see some big names here that, you know, the rise against the worlds and all American rejects and data remember, but there's so many great, you know, our scene of music has never had more amazing females in it, as well as diversity with bands like Paradox and Magnolia Park and Nova Twins. So, you know, we're you know, we're a lot of a lot of punk Hispanic bands are playing this year. So I think it's gonna be it's a it's a great time. It's just uh, you know, hey, people are gonna be tight, credit cards are up, gas prices are you know, expansive. So, you know, we're you know, we're zeroing in around uh, you know, so people can come down, have a great value, and and enjoy a couple days because I think that traveling, flying to a festival is gonna be tough for a lot of people this year.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

But at least what you're able to do to separate yourselves is listen, I mean, you're gonna get as uh like you said, you will find something there, uh, you know, for the the diversity aspect to just just the hang aspect to the charity aspect to you know, some of the biggest names in music are all there. So you're making it worth uh a fan's, you know, being able to put out that money, you know?

SPEAKER_01 20:22

And you know, absolutely, absolutely. And you know, we try to send them home with a whole lot of stuff, the the comic books, all the way. Bang for your buck. Yeah, that's the word. Yeah, bang. Bang for your buck, and and I think that's that's the tricky part. And you know, of course, you know, going all the way back to the early days when people were saying, Oh, you know, punk rock, sell out, getting sponsors. I mean, we can't do it without sponsors. Warped was always kind of built that ticket price based on you know, using the sponsor dollars to give the people value.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

So yeah, great sponsor sponsor Stu Kevin. Van Doren was was another guy he was out with us.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Oh, he's still out there. You know, does he still come to the shows? Oh, yeah, he now it's the weekend. So he was out there every weekend in the booth all day long. You know, he and you know, it's been fun to work with him. I mean, my you know, me we me and him have known each other, you know, 40, 40 something years, and getting to work together for over 30 years has been kind of special. I love him so much. He's such a great guy. You know, it's kind of a mindset, and yeah, just kind of hopefully inspiring a new generation that, you know, there's a you know, like I said, you there's you know, I always say understand the fundamentals of a business. And that's what I did over, you know, working 320 nights a year in the clubs of LA, but that's also showed me that you could mix this sound of music. That first year warp tour when it was no doubt, sublime, quicksand, no use for a name, seaweed, orange millimeter. I mean, it was we got known more as a punk rock festival in you know, '96 when Pennywise and No Effects kind of jumped on board and kind of legitimized us in that scene of music a little more. Even though I worked in the clubs and venues, I was the guy who threw you off stage or set up your dressing rooms or loaded your van. Uh so you know, it I've always believed that, you know, fans, you know, of this music, of all these types. Music that are underrepresented, then maybe on pop radio and things, uh, can really have a great time and intermix. And you know, warped has always been. I think we had one or two ejections in two days in Long Beach. Two people got in trouble, you know, and and Coachella's amazing, but you know, I heard they had over a hundred arrests the first weekend, you know. And you know, it's it's it's a just a different vibe, you know. It's it's everything's different. And uh I, you know, I I just I love what I got to do for so long. And I I figure I got a few more years in me if I if I if the fans were. You got so many more years, Kevin.

Artists Kevin Knew Would Break

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Kevin, it's true that DIY and also just the the fellow respect for one another that Warp Tour does separate themselves from. I heard those same reports about Coachella. It's definitely just a different kind of audience that that's happening there. You know, we call it behind the scene because we do like talking about things that happen or just uh mindsets going in, and you know, um one thing that I'd love to ask you is, you know, throughout those 30 plus years, what band double questionnaire. What band did you as soon as you saw them, that you knew that they were something special and they were gonna be big? And then what band, perhaps not surprised, but you're pro you're very proud how they were able to adapt and become who they were.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

And why is it Sullivan?

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Yeah, and why is it Sullivan? Why is it Sullivan? Um I I think, you know, honestly, it was, you know, with with Haley Williams, to be honest, probably. Wow. Um I had another tour called Taste of Chaos, and that was a little bit, you know, that was during that 2005, and that was the use in my chem and kill switch engage. And and I just remember her dad pulling up because she wanted to kind of audition. You know, I I I was on tour and uh her dad um drove up in a station wagon and she brought an acoustic guitar and kind of played in right before Kill Switch Engage, she played a few songs, and I just saw this whole like I said, wow, this is like now I can't wait to see the band. And then getting to work with her and watch her grow into who she was. Um, and then of course, I I gotta say, sometimes I always say the craziest was probably Katy Perry in a very strange way. I remember that. You know, I had bought, you know, I had basically bought a song for a movie. I was kind of looking for a soundtrack, and someone played me, uh, Jason Flom played me the You're So Gay video she had. And I said, Does she have anything else? And they said, No, we're working on some stuff, but she probably hopefully put an album out. I said, I want her on warp tour. And uh and then to watch her kind of get up, you know, play right before. And I put her in really tough spots, put her on right before Bring Me the Horizon or Pierce the Veil. But just kind of watched how she persevered, and you know, she would go sit in her booth and sign autographs for three, four hours. And she was going down to uh she was going to radio stations in the morning. By the way, Kissed a Girl came out in May, and she was doing that hustle. And you were there, Dickie, at one point when you had a big single. Yeah, you're getting pulled in a million different directions by the label. And the lat towards the end of the summer, they do those superlatives on warps like best haircut, best guy without a shirt, you know, best dressed. And there was one laziest person on warp tour. I go, who's you know? Someone goes, Oh yeah, Katie Perry's gonna win laziest. And I'm like, oh my God. Like that girl gets up at four in the morning and goes, does kiss radio, or you know, she's just pushing and signing. And then I get walk up to her and I go, and I kind of start asking around, why is Katie looked at us so uh so lazy? And they said, Oh, she never comes to the party, she never comes to the parties at night. And I go, Oh, so I walk up to Katie, I go, they say you're the lady, and she's like, What the hell do you mean I'm the laziest person? Get me a bottle of Patron, I'll show them how lazy I am.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Who would you say is the craziest person on the warp tour, Kevin?

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Well, of course, you know, that that's gonna be Fletcher, you know. Fletcher, I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Remember when Fletcher threw the porta party in the Mississippi River?

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Oh, there's the river, I mean, there's the BB gun, the cleansing on the fence where he'd shoot people, or when he was shooting people on stage, and then we put hot pepper sauce all over his Zima bottles and and lit them up with ghost pepper one night.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

I I mean, yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Coachello had more crimes with the audience, but but but uh warp tour backstage. We we we had it. Kevin, what was it?

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Kevin, what was it called when you'd have to get to one end of the tour bus to the other? Oh, the running of the bulls. Explain the running of the bulls, Rebra. I remember Blink was doing it with you. What happened?

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Yeah. I mean, you know, nothing Blink the other. What do you remember of Blink? And all he said is two guys in their underwear running around my tour bus playing around running of the bulls, you know? Uh but you know, watching these bands grow up, and you know, it's interesting now because you know, sometimes I can't afford them with them. You know, they've earned much more money now, which is awesome. They've all earned the right to earn that. And some with that ticket price I have, I have an economic model. And when I hear there were economic models, I go, hey, I remember those bands were playing for a hundred bucks, and I'm so glad they've gone on, had families, went on, you know, made a career of this.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

I mean, these are some of my closest friends come from the warp tour, whether it's crew, band, and certainly you. When you come through where I live and and you say, you know, call me up and say, hey, we're spending a couple days there, come hang out, and we hang out. I I mean I I love you so much, Kevin. Thank you for everything. And thank you for the warp tour that you've given the world, but thank you for giving it to me as well. Thanks, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Kevin, one piece of advice for Sully when he goes and plays. Uh what would you tell him or any other bands that are watching? Perhaps this is their warp tour debut. What piece of advice do you have?

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Hey, Sully, you're at the age where you need to wear a shirt.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Let's go. Safety tip. Thanks. Kevin Lyman, the man the myth, the legend. We really do appreciate everything. Of course, Vance Warp Tour. Five different shows happening this summer. It's gonna be something special. You do not want to miss it. We are so back, baby. Kevin Lyman, we appreciate you. It is behind the scenes here with guns, Sneaky Barrett and Sully Sullivan. And that's all Vance Warp Tour. Founded.