Episode 22 - Mayor Scott

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Guys, you hear that? Hey, the mayor of Clinton, Iowa, turns 40 next Wednesday. If you want to, you know, do a shot with him. [00:00:05] Speaker B: I heard Lakeview is coming to play my birthday party. [00:00:07] Speaker A: Yeah, he. Will you guys play his birthday party, please? This was for the home team. This was for the home team. Cameras. [00:00:24] Speaker C: All rolling. [00:00:24] Speaker A: Cameras have been rolling, Lane. So whatever you guys have said is on camera. [00:00:28] Speaker C: We got it on camera, but I. [00:00:29] Speaker A: Will hold it again. [00:00:29] Speaker C: I've got. I've got audio rolling. [00:00:33] Speaker A: So you know all about this because you're one of our top listeners. The conversation of Crash it. [00:00:41] Speaker C: Come on in. [00:00:42] Speaker A: Conversation of what? Everybody wants to know what was the start of tailgate and tall boys coming to Clinton, Iowa? Because you were the one that made it happen. It's the mayor's party. I think that's the million dollar question, literally, of what brought it to Clinton, Iowa. [00:00:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's kind of crazy. So I had a guy in town that had connections in the music industry, and it began with Josh Eggers, our parks and rec director, who's like my partner in crime on the city side. We were talking about bringing live music back to Clinton, and it was like. I was like, we have this baseball stadium. We should do a show in the baseball stadium, like a small show. And Josh was like, we should get the Dave Matthews Tribute Band. And I'm like, okay, let's figure out. So I talked to this guy and he said, you should do something different than that. And I was like, okay. And he knew Red Hot Brian Scott from the radio, who was on when I was growing up. And he's like, I'll call him right now. You should do this tailgate and tall boys thing. And I was like, I don't know what the hell that is. So he calls this guy right on the thing, and he answers in his radio voice. And I'm like, holy smokes, that's him. And they're like, yeah, I'll give you the email for this guy named Wayne. He's the one that runs it. And I was like, okay. You know, and then, you know, I was talking to this guy and he says, he's like, you can email him. I'm like, yeah, I'll email him. No problem. So I put this professional email together, you know, like, hi, Wayne, I'm Scott. I'm the mayor of Clinton, Iowa. We'd really love to talk about bringing your festival to Clinton. And I didn't expect to get a response because I've done stuff like that before, like, you know, businesses, different stuff, like that you kind of cold email, like, hey, you come to Clinton. Come check us out. And, you know, I know now, like, in. In typical Wayne fashion, I got an email back within, like, 45 minutes. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is what's crazy is. I mean, that is needle. That is needle in a haystack. [00:02:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:02:27] Speaker A: So needle in a haystack that you got. I mean, he had to be sitting on the. Just open his email and just saw it pop up. That's the only way that he ever. [00:02:36] Speaker B: So. So I don't know. Like, I don't know why, but he responded, right? [00:02:40] Speaker C: And. [00:02:40] Speaker B: And then we kind of connected back and forth a little bit, and he's like, yeah, I'd love to come talk to you. So he came to Clinton, and it was probably, like, within the next week. Like, I think he came and, you know, I think he thought I was gonna. He was gonna meet with just me. And I had, like, a team of, like, 12 people there. Like, you know, parks and Rec and city people and all this stuff. And so I remember him walking up to the second. The second floor there of City Hall. And I walk out of the chambers. Cause I see him walk up and he's like, yeah, I'm looking for the mayor. I'm like, yeah, I'm scouting the mayor. And he's like. Kind of looks at me. He's like, you're not old. [00:03:13] Speaker A: And I was like, I thought you'd be taller. [00:03:15] Speaker B: Yeah, something like that, you know? And I was not wearing a suit. I wasn't anything, you know? And he's like, oh, okay. So I bring him in this room. And then I think he was probably like, oh, crap. Like, there's all these people in there. So we sat in the council's chambers and probably talked for, like, three hours on what the festival was. And I did some research on it, you know, and different things and all that. And he was like, where are we gonna have this thing at? Right. I'm like, well, down on the riverfront. He's like, can we go to it? And we're like, yeah, sure. So we went down to the riverfront, and it was February, and it was. There was, like, probably 2 inches of snow on the ground. And we're walking in the snow. Right where the camping is is where we were walking. We're walking down there, and he's looking around. He's like, I think we can make this work. And then we went to the Candlelight. We sat there for, like, another two hours or whatever, listening to Wayne's stories and talking about this and whatever. And then, you know, after that it got to the point where we brought Austin. You came to that meeting with the park and Rec advisory board. So we did like the city stuff. Like, let's get the park and Rec advisory board on board and put it from my perspective. [00:04:13] Speaker A: We put this like slideshow together. [00:04:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:15] Speaker A: And typical Wayne fashion again. God love him. El Pres. You know, it was like, oh yeah, dude, we're going to go to Clinton, Iowa. Like I think we're maybe do a festival there and like, hey, can we put a slideshow together? Hey, by the way, we need all this other information. Can you get all this shit? I'm like putting all this shit together and then we get there and I think I even came from like my actual day job where I'm like dressed up. I'm like, we show up and we're in this parks and rec room and they were sitting around the tables. I'm like. And anyways guys, so on slide 6 here we have, you know, tailgate and tallboys, you know, what we've done and so on and so forth. And I still like wasn't fully aware of what we were going like really that this was going to happen. And we were in a growth year of really expanding and doing all of our stuff. So in my head when it was gonna happen, I'm like, God, and we're gonna fucking go to fucking Clinton, Iowa. This shit going on. We already got Taylorville shit going on. I got shit going on over here. I got a full time job. I got all this shit. We work on it, work on it, sell it, sell it, do all this shit. And then when I remember showing up to Clinton, Iowa for it to happen. Yeah, first year was, I'm like, I love this place. Yeah, the park is amazing. The, the whole riverfront was amazing. The weather was perfect. I was like, I fucking love Clinton, Iowa. I thought everything about it was great because I just went into it like, man, we're traveling here. What is going to happen? And then you go to Bloomington. Bloomington is massive, right? How you get around it all. And the team you guys have, the city was just, they wanted, they wanted to be a part of it. You guys loved it being there and I love that part of it. [00:05:51] Speaker B: I think it's a cool dynamic because I think the city brings resources that kind of eases the, the flow of the event, you know. You know, Josh and I are on the grounds, you know, and you guys putting everything together because obviously you're the, you're the pros and the experts, and they're like, well, we need this. And Josh and I are like, okay, yeah, we can get that. And call Parks and Parks or Public Works or whoever it is, and we get it done and we go and. Yeah, it's. I think it's been a. It's been a cool thing so far. And I'm really grateful that Wayne responded to that email and he came because this is something that I really wanted to bring to Clinton because I think it's important. Long story short, we used to have a Riverboat Days festival that was like the largest fourth of July festival in the state of Iowa. We had, you know, actually Jason Aldean played that way back in early 2000s. Right. So like, we. We had Garth Brooks there. We had a bunch of different people on that. And it kind of went away for whatever reason. And this. I think Clinton lost some of its identity then. [00:06:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:46] Speaker B: And this was a way to like, not. Not redo that, but bring a new things that's fun, that people can really kind of look and then kind of bring that identity back to Clinton. Because live music is. It brings people together. Right. That's what it does. [00:07:01] Speaker C: What has been the response of the people of Clinton? [00:07:04] Speaker B: You know, you're always going to have some naysayers. And I think at the beginning we did because the council agreed to a three year contract and we agreed to commit, you know, you know, the city $1.5 million a year to this thing. Right. Knowing that we could get a return or we could lose every penny of it. Right. So that's a big commitment for a city like us because we're 25,000 people. So, you know, we're not massive. And we had some naysayers at the beginning. We had some people that weren't sure about it. But I think if you look at year one, like the first day attendance wasn't. Wasn't huge, and then it got bigger. And then by Saturday, the upgrades and the people coming in and buying a box office, like it was like a FOMO thing. Like, oh my God, this is the real deal, you know, And I think people had to see that. Now I don't get a lot of negative feedback at all. I mean, people are, you know, the day after the festival, people are gonna be like, you know who we're getting next year yet. And it's like, okay, just slow down. Like, I'm still cleaning up Riverfront. And so, I mean, it's been really positive. But we went through those phases. We went through the, you know, kind of what are we doing thing to now where it's like, all right, what are we doing next year? [00:08:09] Speaker C: So, and, And I've told you off camera and I've told Austin this several times on. On different podcasts. You know, Clinton. Clinton is. Is my favorite. I mean, from all the. The tailgates obvious. Yes, absolutely. Everything is right there. There's. There's so much, you know, the, the city and, and the riverfront and there's. There's bars, there's. There's diners. We talked about Jenny's Bar or excuse me, Jenny's Diner. [00:08:30] Speaker B: Yep. [00:08:30] Speaker C: I went. Had breakfast at, I think on a Sunday morning, you know, during. During the. The festival. And, you know, they were very welcoming and great food and. And all of that kind of stuff. And, you know, it's just very, very open and very welcoming that way. And certainly it's my favorite across the board. [00:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think it's really cool to have it, like, inside the city. It gives a different feel to. To being in a different space. And year one, again, our businesses didn't really know what to expect, But I think year two, they stepped their game up a little bit and they were like, oh, okay, like, we get it. And I, I think that's going to continue to get better and better from. From that perspective. And really another reason to bring something like this, there is. Is that economic impact to our local businesses. You're bringing people from. I think we had, like, 34 or 35 states represented last year. [00:09:20] Speaker A: Oh, no, last. Last year we were over, like, over 40. Yeah, we were okay. [00:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah, over 40. So I mean, you're bringing people from all over the place to Clinton. They're never going to go to Clinton if the festival is not there. Right. I understand that everybody gets that, but now you might. You might get someone that thinks about, like, oh, I want to go back there and, and do something, or, you know, I want to move there, or they find a job, whatever it is, like. [00:09:42] Speaker A: But you'll never be able to measure that. [00:09:44] Speaker B: No, you can't. And. And this is what you do as a city. You, ways to make. To. To make yourself stand out and, and tailgate and Tall Boys has helped Clinton stand out. Right. And hopefully it's helped the brand and all that kind of stuff, because that's important to us too, because we care about that brand that you guys are sharing with us. But ultimately, like, those are the things that kind of gives me chills and, and makes me want to, you know, keep this thing going. [00:10:09] Speaker C: So I, I've met you a few times here. We're at Cruising's here, West Peoria. You come over here, and we've got Lakeview here tonight. They're actually in the room with us right now getting ready to go on stage, which is absolutely phenomenal. And you come over and enjoy some live shows here. So the relationship, obviously, is strong. The relationship between, you know, Clinton, Iowa, the mayor of Clinton here. We call him Mayor Scott, and I know him as Scott Allen on Facebook. We talked about that, too. [00:10:41] Speaker A: I mean, it's the mayor's party, right? We put a cover of tailgating tall boys over, but it's actually the mayor. [00:10:47] Speaker C: Mayor's having the party. [00:10:48] Speaker A: And he turns 40 next week. [00:10:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I. Oh, I did. I heard rumblings of next Wednesday. [00:10:55] Speaker A: Yeah, guys, you hear that? Hey, the mayor of Clinton, Iowa, turns 40 next Wednesday. If you want to, you know, do a shot with him. [00:11:01] Speaker B: I heard Lakeview is coming to play my birthday party. [00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah, he. Will you guys play his birthday party, please? It's the mayor's birthday. 40 years old, man. [00:11:11] Speaker B: I know, it's crazy. I think, to answer your question, the relationship is really cool. I don't think I expected going in to have the type of relationship that I have with Wayne and Austin and the USA team and all that stuff. And I think that is probably been, for me personally, one of the coolest things. Austin and I, we have our annual run in the morning. We go run in the morning out front. [00:11:37] Speaker C: When does Austin run? [00:11:39] Speaker B: He does. Yeah, we do, man. [00:11:40] Speaker A: And I'll tell you what, you know what? I wish I lived closer so that we and the mayor could do that. Because, dude, I enjoy it because we go out and we. We party hard. Yeah, we. We like to have fun. But I always know, I'm like, hey, I gotta get up and run with this. [00:11:54] Speaker C: What day is this? Because I. I mean, I've got a bum knee. Otherwise. [00:11:57] Speaker B: We've usually done it like Thursday, Friday ish. Or Wednesday morning. [00:12:01] Speaker A: Usually it's the day before. So it would be Wednesday or Thursday morning. One of those two. Yeah, like, right when it starts. And I love it. [00:12:08] Speaker C: I mean, if my knees were good. [00:12:10] Speaker B: And we don't just talk about tailgates. I mean, we talk about life, like, everything. Austin. I've got to know each other pretty good on level just by those little experiences, which, I mean, that's really cool. Because life is about relationships, right? Absolutely. And. And a festival is a festival, and it can live on for a long time. But at the end of the day, those relationships you create Are. Are more important than anything. And I think that's been a cool thing that has kind of come out of this. [00:12:33] Speaker A: And I think the first year, you know, me and you just ran. And then I think last year you had a buddy of yours. [00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah, Cody's council member. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Yeah, he came. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it is you. You sit there and you run again. I think he's a way better runner. [00:12:46] Speaker B: I'm not going to tell him he's not better than me. He might be better than you now. He's slow. He'll lose every time he runs against me anyways. [00:12:53] Speaker A: Either way, we're all different paces. I mean, I remember I ran one year, and then he's like, all right, I'm going to go run another 10 miles or however many miles he's going to run. I'm like, I don't mean it's a good moment. You're getting ready for this weekend of grind. I mean, dude, I do like 40,000 steps a day. I bet, with a golf cart. And at the end of the day, like, we're going crazy. And so, I don't know, it's a good. Let's get kind of set for this weekend. And it's a ritual that we've done and whether. How long that lives on might be. [00:13:22] Speaker B: A walk this year or something, right? [00:13:24] Speaker A: No, no, no. I can push through, but it's been a good bond for us. And, yeah, I think knowing you know, your. Your passions and what you've done with the city, and you look at. You look at other mayors, okay, and not to get into any certain politics of any direction, but you look at your passion for Clinton. Where are you born and raised out of Clinton. To see you born, raised, hometown guy, just advocate for your city, right or wrong. Not everybody's gonna agree with you and there's always gonna be the naysayers, but, like, you're advocating for Clinton, Iowa. You are telling people, come here, businesses, people, concerts, whoever come to Clinton, Iowa, and change the perspective of the city. And that's not easy. No, because, you know, again, you know, my city, I love, you know, a city I grew up in, but it doesn't mean that other people go, oh, my God, this is a shithole. This is. This. This is stereotype. It's a farm town. It's whatever the fuck it is. It's something where you're advocating for it. And I look at other mayors of. No matter how big or small these cities are, they're just. I don't know, they lose The. The relationship of the people in the city they represent. And I don't know, I think you've done a great job. I know I'm very biased because, I mean, I know you and I think you as a person are great, but just seeing what you've done with Clinton, Iowa, like, I love it. I love what you've done with it. I love what we've done. I hope it continues to remain no matter how big the size. I just think how can we get people to see the event that it is and how much fun it can be for your family, for you and your wife, for you and your friends, for you whoever. We're trying to bring these different people from all, you know, from national acts down to even again, trying to do local bands, right? We want to see this grow constantly. And I just. I don't know, I root for Clinton all the time. Bloomington is at a different level, but even Bloomington, I don't know, I just. I want to see it succeed. We don't have the buy in from the city of Bloomington like we do the city of Clinton. [00:15:32] Speaker B: I mean, you got all hands on deck down there. I mean, Josh has 30 people there. You know, I remember that year one, they were like, putting up scrim. And I remember someone was like, oh, yeah, it should take like three or four hours. And like 45 minutes later, Josh's team comes back like, we're done. And the whole scrim was up. And I remember Wayne was like, what? It's done. We're like, yeah, it's done. And he's like, okay, like, let's go on to this, you know, and. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, it comes down to doing the right thing. And the reason I got into the mayor thing is because I'm proud to be from Clinton. I don't care what anybody says about it, I'm proud to be from there. And I want my kids to grow up with that same pride. So everything we do and everything I try to do and I try to push, whether it's the festival or other things, it's all to make sure that my kids and my buddy's kids and everybody that's growing up right now has the same upbringing and the same love for Clinton. And whether you, you know, move to Milwaukee and that's where you're going to stay for the rest of your life, that's great. But if you just remember in your heart that Clinton's home, that's what's important to me. [00:16:34] Speaker A: That just passion of the Town that you grow up in again, every town has its bullshit. Yeah, every town has their drama or whatever you want to call it. But I, again, I don't live in Clinton 24 7, but I do love it. I think it's got a lot of potential. There's a lot of great places to eat. I mean, every time we go there, we go to either different bars, different restaurants, different spots. [00:16:55] Speaker B: And you know, that, that to me is something important too. I love how much you all patronize the local community when you're there. Like you, you all really do, you know, from the bars to the restaurants to the casino, everything like that, that's cool to me. [00:17:12] Speaker A: There's a coffee shop, a stone's throw away. I can't think of the name of it, but there's a coffee shop literally right after the railroad tracks on whatever the main street. I stopped there on one of the first years we were there and walked in. I mean, I'm probably half hungover or we might have gone for a run, I don't know. But I'm like, walk in, you guys, you know, ready for this weekend, you know, blah, blah. I don't know. Like, probably be a lot of people, you know, and to me, I'm like, what? But again, it's year one. Yeah, but again, getting local people to just see that, like, whether you like it. And again, maybe coffee shop people aren't really our target demographic. But like, how do you guys not know this is happening right now? [00:17:51] Speaker B: You know, it was weird year one. There was a lot of that, like, people didn't like, this is what it's coming, huh? And it's like we marketed the hell out of this thing, right? And like we told everybody, it's like, how do you not know it's coming? Right? And it did. And then people understood. And last year, I mean, we had like 35,000 people over the weekend, right? The population of Clinton is 24,492 per the census, right? So we had 10,000 more people than our population running around a riverfront over the weekend. And to me, that's. That's wild Win. Like, how do you not know that's happening? [00:18:25] Speaker A: And even getting to the point where I fucking love rock music. But okay, so rock music isn't here, but at the end of the day, this is a pretty inexpensive event in the grand scheme of what you're going to pay to go see, you know, big time artists, you get to see, what is it, 12 artists, main national acts over the course of the weekend. [00:18:44] Speaker B: We have 13 this year. [00:18:45] Speaker A: Thirteen. [00:18:46] Speaker B: Sorry, we added, we added. [00:18:48] Speaker A: That's where I'm like, just come out and support it and have a fun time. Bring your lawn chair, do your thing. I don't know, I don't know how you train that into people just see it. And we're always trying to bring the best acts. I mean you've gotten to see everybody from Jelly Roll to Shine down to Tim McGraw to up and Coming Axe that, you know, the, the acts that you just are going to look. I mean this year you have Riley Green and Ella on the same day. Day. I mean that they are. [00:19:16] Speaker C: That's where I want to get into. So like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you know, Clinton, Iowa, lineup wise, what do we have? Thursday, Friday, Saturday. [00:19:24] Speaker A: So you have Whiskey Myers and Wyatt. [00:19:26] Speaker C: Flores on Thursday, which, which is an amazing. Just those two by themselves on a Thursday night in Clinton, Iowa. Whiskey Myers and Wyatt Flores. [00:19:35] Speaker A: And this is what kills me. So Whiskey Myers, Wyatt Flores. And I've got to pull this up because I can't think of it off the top of my head, but Whiskey Myers and Wyatt Flores, let's say go on tour. You are going to see ticket prices that are anywhere from 2, 3, $400, okay, for just four artists. So we have Whiskey Myers, Wyatt Flores, Baker Blankenship, Joe Sandband. And that's what kills me is just that lineup at the Civic center in Peoria at a venue over in Iowa. You're going to pay 80 to $300 to go see that. You could go do that. And you get the whole weekend. You get Riley Greene, llang, the old 60, Preston Cooper, Jason Aldean, Gavin Adcock, Lily Rose, Dylan Schneider, Graham Barham, all of it. And that's where my mind just baffles. People were like, I don't know if any. I mean Stapleton is, you know, massive name everybody. He just dropped his tour. Go look at what those prices of tickets are, right? [00:20:34] Speaker B: And you could do a payment plan. [00:20:36] Speaker A: Yeah, you can do a payment plan. You know, we're trying to operate and I know people are like, well, why do you listen? We understand where people's economical like the impact of their life and where think cost wise are. And we're doing everything we can and this payment plan is like a 10% down and you can do over six months or something like that. Going back to the lineup. You are in a radio town. You're not going to find Baker Blankenship on the radio. [00:20:59] Speaker B: Correct. [00:21:00] Speaker A: Go listen to him. [00:21:01] Speaker B: I've been trying to tell people stuff like this. [00:21:03] Speaker A: You Will be mind Wyatt Flores. Wyatt Flores. [00:21:05] Speaker B: Listen to him. [00:21:06] Speaker A: Is so freaking good. And the undercards even in in both festivals will blow your mind of Ella Langley is one of the best female artists out there right now. Doesn't even get the credit she deserves by a long shot, but is hands down one of the best female out there. With Riley Green on stage who again, I look at Riley Green, how many years he's had to work to even get to where he's at. He's been underrated for a long time. Old 60 and Baker Blankenship are two of my favorite like that. I'm my underdogs. I'm like so pumped to see. [00:21:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:39] Speaker A: Old 60 is one of the biggest up and coming acts out of Nashville, hands down. People just don't understand that because all they want to hear is, you know, what's in there, what's in the radio. But Friday, Riley green, Ella Langley, Old 60, Preston Cooper, and then Saturday with Jason Aldean, Gavin Adcock, where you have Jason Aldean. How many albums did we say one night when we sat here. [00:21:59] Speaker C: Oh goodness. [00:22:00] Speaker A: Drunken. I mean it's like 13 albums. I mean the guy is a absolute legend. [00:22:04] Speaker B: It was. He's got almost 30 number one hits. [00:22:07] Speaker A: Probably Banger after banger after banger. And then you had Gavin Adcock who again up and comer dude is has a stage present out of that'll be. [00:22:15] Speaker B: A party with him on stage. [00:22:17] Speaker C: Oh goodness. [00:22:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:18] Speaker A: But one night him and I sat here and we were talking about like how many great songs that Jason Aldean has. And we were going through all these albums and when you look at Flyover States is one and song came out in 2010. Why truth. [00:22:38] Speaker C: Yeah. Might have been different album, but man, that's. That's. Yeah, yeah. [00:22:42] Speaker A: This song, this came out in 2009. [00:22:48] Speaker C: Tell them all the truth. [00:22:50] Speaker A: I mean, just so good. [00:22:52] Speaker B: I can't. I can't wait to have him backing Clinton because he did play Clinton early in his career, which is really cool. So, you know, I don't know if he'll remember. Hopefully I get a chance to chat with him because I'd love to see if he remembers. You know, I mean they played a thousand shows, right? But there is a. There is a cool story apparently about him at him and his crew at one of the local bars. [00:23:11] Speaker C: Oh really? [00:23:11] Speaker B: So hopefully that will ring a bell for him. You know, I don't know the whole thing, but I'm going to make sure I get it. They got pretty rowdy at Lions Tap one night or something. [00:23:20] Speaker C: So one of the things that I kind of personally have taken on and I think our podcast has taken on as well, is that making sure that people know or start to think about or understand that they do know some of those undercard artists. And it might only be one or two songs, it might be a viral song on TikTok or whatever, but they know the, they know that artist because. [00:23:46] Speaker A: People don't know the name, right? [00:23:48] Speaker C: No, that's exactly it. [00:23:48] Speaker A: Then they hear the song, oh, I know that song. I know who Ella Langley is. So. [00:23:52] Speaker C: So getting them to show up at dorse at, at 2, 3 o'clock in the afternoon rather than just coming for Jason Aldean at 7:00. But that makes an economic difference. That makes, you know, a difference all, all the way across. So I think some of our charge eventually here in the next few months is, is making sure that people know that they are. They have been introduced to these names by the songs. [00:24:15] Speaker B: I think too. Like one thing in Clinton is, it's an education piece on the fact that there's not a lot of festivals in Iowa in our area, like this three day festival where you're going to see all these bands. A lot of what our area is used to is county fairs, right? So you would go to the county fair and you would see Jason Aldean on a Friday night, and then the next night you would go to the county fair and you would see one artist, right? You know, maybe Riley Green is that next night, right? And you don't get those undercards, you just show up for that one show and that's what we're used to. Or you go to the Quad Cities and you go to the arena and maybe they got one opener and then, you know, the Big Dog plays. So I think it's, it's educating them on that as well. Like, this is not a one artist show each night. This is experience, this is camping, this is all day, this is fun. This is, you know, it's different than what we're, what we're used to in our area. So I think teaching people that too, and I think they'll understand kind of where we're coming from. Like, and for the ticket prices, like, you can't, you can't beat that right now. [00:25:26] Speaker A: An early on issue that I had when we first started this relationship too is I was like, I was like, what? I was like, we're gonna share all of this publicly. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, what? And then actually, you know what? I Got to a point where I was kind of like. I'm like, I actually kind of like this because people just see a mass crowd. It could be a thousand people, it could be 10,000 people. And all people think is, oh, my God, deer making money hand over fist and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, no, come look, Listen. So if you want this to continue, like, we're on our third year, and I think for all of us, like, people need to come out and support this. At the end of the day, we are trying our best to give this, you know, all of our best efforts, and we want to make this as, like, economical as possible for every family and person. But at the end of the day, like, this has to be able to produce and pay for itself in a certain fashion. [00:26:21] Speaker B: We gotta make some money. [00:26:22] Speaker A: Exactly right. [00:26:23] Speaker B: We have. [00:26:23] Speaker A: To me, I just don't think that people see that part and what it does bring to the community, and I love that about Clinton, of this relationship that it is out there. No, no, come check this out. We're doing our best, but what's so crazy to me is I can go to this concert, and I go to VIP and I watch four artists, and I pay $800 for VIP one night in an arena. Beers are $18. [00:26:57] Speaker B: Yep. [00:26:58] Speaker A: And I'm blown away. I can go to. I mean, go to a baseball game, go to a Cardinal. Big Cardinals fan. Love the Cardinals. Go to a baseball game, buy a hot dog, tell me how much it costs. Go buy a beer, tell me how much it costs. [00:27:11] Speaker B: And nobody balks at that stage. [00:27:13] Speaker A: But we become brainwashed to think this is, like, normal. God, how many baseball. They play, what, 162 games or something? Ridiculous. Yeah. Why do you think they're signing people for 15 years? 800 mil, like, something stupid. What's the latest? [00:27:26] Speaker B: Just the hot dog sales covered that. [00:27:29] Speaker A: Soto just signed that deal with the Mets for what? I mean, it was literally the biggest contract ever. He goes to bat, and he makes over a hundred thousand dollars. [00:27:38] Speaker B: Even if he strikes out. [00:27:40] Speaker A: Yes. [00:27:40] Speaker B: Doesn't matter. [00:27:41] Speaker A: But we don't even care about that. We still got. Because it's an American pastime. We got to take our kids to a baseball game. They got to buy cotton candy for $35. Might as well buy a beer for 23. And it's normal. And, like, this is the part. This is part of. And guess what? Fuel prices go up. Guess what? Festival prices go up. Artist prices go up. Their bus drivers charge more money. This is. We're all dealing with this Raising prices. [00:28:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:06] Speaker A: And it's just. [00:28:07] Speaker B: And we're still reasonable. I think if you average the cost of a ticket right now for general mission, we'll say and then you average that over 12 artists. [00:28:16] Speaker A: I challenge nothing. I challenge nothing. I challenge any person to go compare to anything else out there. [00:28:24] Speaker B: Yeah, apples. [00:28:25] Speaker A: Apples. And please tell me that we're not very competitive. But that's the aggressive side of me that again, gets a little bit like we put a lot of effort into this, guys. And if you've ever put a lot of effort into something and still lose, that sucks. And again, we love Clinton. We want the city of Clinton to love it. We want them to get behind it as much as we do. [00:28:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:48] Speaker A: And I love your passion. I think the whole city is very lucky, you know, to have you and. [00:28:53] Speaker C: The open mindedness and to think outside the box to me is what, you know, those, those two things, I mean that's. You're bringing. [00:29:00] Speaker A: If they ever vote you out West Peoria, we will vote you over here. If they ever don't want you over there. So come to Illinois. [00:29:08] Speaker B: You're gonna fund my campaign or what? [00:29:11] Speaker A: Illinois needs to govern. Okay. Oh boy. We want to go down a rabbit. [00:29:16] Speaker B: Know about that. [00:29:16] Speaker A: I don't know if we can get the funding, but I can find enough people that we could maybe make a case that you could be the new governor of Illinois. Okay. [00:29:22] Speaker C: So again, tailgate beers here. Austin and I, we're sitting here, we're talking with, with Mayor Scott. Well, we got, I'm moving us on here, but again we're sitting here with, with, with Mayor Scott, Mayor of Clinton, Iowa. Tailgate and tall boys. Such a, a good time and open minded mayor that allows and has partnered with USA Concerts to bring tailgate and tall boys to the heart of the Midwest. And we certainly appreciate your time sitting down with us tonight. I know. On behalf of our sponsor Surfside, my buddy Austin here has a question that I know you, I know you're prepared for. [00:30:02] Speaker B: I know, I mean, I might listen to the podcast. [00:30:04] Speaker C: You know what's coming. [00:30:05] Speaker A: I should throw a curveball. [00:30:06] Speaker C: I know you know what's coming, but thank you Surfside for sponsoring this session for us. [00:30:11] Speaker A: So you've now gotten a drink Surfside a couple of times. I love Surfside. We got a chance because of raise Rowdy Matt Quigley, you know, came here. We have a great relationship with them and as you know, even with our sponsors at, you know, Clinton, we don't want somebody just to be a billboard sponsor. We want them to be a partner. We want them to get the. The success out of it and see that partnership and be like, man, I. I get so much value out of them. This. And that's how I felt with Surfside too. And, you know, all of us being dads, you know, I'm trying to watch my dad bod. So again, when they're like looking at this and I'm watching. I'm watching 100 calories, zero grams of sugar, zero bubbles. I'm like, I am. I'm in. [00:30:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:52] Speaker A: So I love it. It'll be at the festivals this year. We'll have IC vodka. It'll be in Clinton, Iowa. [00:30:58] Speaker B: Good deal. [00:30:59] Speaker A: We'll have I iced tea vodka. We'll have lemonade vodka. And I think also this one is probably my favorite iced tea lemonade vodka. They do a green tea. [00:31:10] Speaker B: Dude, I had the green tea at Ducks. That's good. I like it. [00:31:13] Speaker C: I'm with the peach tea. [00:31:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think we're had the peach tea, but it is also good. But no so on. On behalf of them one, I want to thank you for coming on. And honestly, I hope we do this again before the festival. I hope we do it at the festival. [00:31:26] Speaker B: We do it live at the festival. [00:31:28] Speaker A: I don't know about live, but we will be at the festival. [00:31:30] Speaker C: All right, I'm with. [00:31:32] Speaker B: We have to get Josh on. [00:31:34] Speaker A: We do have. [00:31:34] Speaker B: We gotta get Josh. Josh Eggers, the parks and director. My partner couldn't be here today. Like, he. He is awesome. And we need to make sure and. [00:31:44] Speaker A: And there are several people behind the scenes of all of this. [00:31:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:47] Speaker A: That I don't think get enough credit. That people just don't realize what truly goes on in a day. And I. It's kind of mind blowing. And even Ryan getting involved over the last couple years, it's. I mean, some people like, dude, I don't even know how you guys do this. All that being said, we appreciate Surfside. We appreciate you. Tickets are on sale. Tailgate and tallboys.com. there is a promo code. [00:32:24] Speaker B: Reach out to me if you want to sponsor. [00:32:26] Speaker A: Yes, we got sponsorships available. There is a promo code if you are watching this at this point. TNT25 to get discount on tickets. So you're on a plane and it's your private jet because you're the mayor of Clinton, Iowa. So you've kind of cut budget a little bit, cut ties on maintenance people and all this stuff. You know, whatever. Budget cuts, you know, I thought we. [00:32:45] Speaker B: Were getting out of. [00:32:46] Speaker A: Hydrants are empty. Yeah, Hydrants are empty in Clinton, Iowa. [00:32:49] Speaker C: All the things, we're sandbags. [00:32:51] Speaker A: Okay. So you've cut costs, and now all of a sudden your private jet is going down. The pilots aren't even on the plane. They didn't even show up. Somehow it's in the air, it's going down. You have parachute. Thank God, because you can cut all the costs out. You never travel without every album known to man. What five albums are you taking with you for the rest of your life? And you're at about 25,000ft going down. [00:33:12] Speaker B: All right, so I have thought about this because I think I do. I think I'm the number one fan on the podcast. [00:33:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:33:17] Speaker B: I told Austin in the beginning. [00:33:19] Speaker A: Right. [00:33:20] Speaker B: Maybe your parents or something. [00:33:21] Speaker A: No, my parents actually don't even know. Yeah, that's fucked up. [00:33:24] Speaker C: My mom doesn't know my podcast. [00:33:26] Speaker A: I don't know if my parents have ever listened to this. [00:33:29] Speaker B: So I've thought about this. The number one is Nirvana Unplugged in New York. I think I've bought that album three or four times on CD because I've worn it out. So that one absolutely has to happen. Number two is Dashboard Confessional. Unplugged in New York. [00:33:46] Speaker A: We talked about that one. [00:33:47] Speaker B: You put me in a car on a road trip with that album, and I will scream the top of my lungs, beginning to end. [00:33:52] Speaker C: Wow. [00:33:53] Speaker A: You have to start a chart that shows how many of these percentages these are probably. [00:33:57] Speaker C: First two, we need a data analytics person. [00:33:59] Speaker B: Right. So that one's really important to me. Number three would probably be what's a Story? Morning, Lori. Oasis. That album Wonderwall kinda kind of changed my life in a way. I don't know why. That song just resonated with me and made me want to learn how to play guitar. It made me really get into the music stuff. [00:34:20] Speaker A: Me as an Oasis fan. [00:34:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:23] Speaker A: Wonderwall is actually probably one of my. I don't want to say least favorites. Me as a true Oasis fan, I'm. It's. It's not like it's a. [00:34:31] Speaker B: It's emotion. It's emotion that drives. [00:34:33] Speaker A: Never Hit Me the Same. And Don't Look Back in Anger and Rocking Chair are the two that made me like. [00:34:38] Speaker B: I was gonna say Don't Look Back in Anger. Even Noel will say that's the best song he's ever written. [00:34:44] Speaker A: It's so good. [00:34:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that song is amazing. So that album was. Was like, you know, more respect for you. Bought that cd. Bought that CD way back when. [00:34:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. [00:34:52] Speaker B: You know, so number Four. It's. It's really hard for me to choose because, like you, I'm a John Mayer fan. Right. Love his live stuff. I love the live Any Given Thursday album. And the reason is Covered in Rain is my favorite John Mayer song. It's like 10 minutes, 10 minutes long on that album. The solo, the song. Love it. But where the light is in la, having the three sets with the blues and the acoustic and all that stuff, it's really hard to not choose that one. But I think I would do Any Given Thursday just because Covered In Rainbow, that song, to me. [00:35:26] Speaker A: Because I chose la. [00:35:27] Speaker B: Well, yeah, that's true. But I just. I love that song, so that's good. And then the last one, I think Hot Fuss by the Killers, because I'm a huge killer. [00:35:38] Speaker A: Killers are so good. [00:35:39] Speaker B: Right. And that's hard too, because I would really want to put. I love. I love Piano Rock in the Fray and Jack's Mannequin. So it's hard. I might put that number five. I don't know. [00:35:49] Speaker A: It's really difficult not to age us or you. Yeah, but. [00:35:52] Speaker B: Well, you already told my age, but Killers. [00:35:55] Speaker A: So the Killers had like an HBO LIVE concert like series. And I'll never forget when a friend of mine turned me on to that one time we were over there and they had it going. I'm like, dude, the Killers are so fucking good. [00:36:11] Speaker B: I have a ton of. I would. Stained is one of my favorite bands of all time. It's hard for me to not put. Put them in there, but I think those five are ones that I probably listened to beginning to end more than anything versus just songs, you know, and that's where this. [00:36:29] Speaker A: This is a great exercise. And that's why I love asking the question of. And it's going to change, you know, based on where you're at now. But there's albums that you haven't listened to in years, but you're gonna listen to it. When it stands the test of time, it never changes. And I like listening to music like that. I grew up listening to it from start to finish. I think when you write albums and it's a story from track one to track 13, you know, I thought, like. [00:36:55] Speaker B: Listening to you guys do this. I thought about it too. Like, I have no country in there and I like country music, but for. [00:37:01] Speaker A: Me, I have no country in mind. [00:37:03] Speaker B: Country music, to me, country music has always been about singles, not full albums. [00:37:09] Speaker A: Agree to disagree that that country was the original. I think countries the original start to finish. [00:37:14] Speaker B: I don't know I see. I see I'm opposite. [00:37:16] Speaker A: Like, I disagree without heavy. And yet mine does not have country in either. However, I'm not saying country's not. I mean, Morgan Wallen's double album is a very hard not to put in my top five, Gary Allen's album. And like, I have other ones where they're. They're lingering there. Yeah, it changes for me, but there's some that I know in my heart. If everything else goes away, I just need these five albums. [00:37:38] Speaker B: Right? Yeah. [00:37:39] Speaker A: And that's what I need. And I could listen to them on repeat and they never get old, and that's how I feel. And it's a great exercise. [00:37:44] Speaker B: But, I mean, if I could bring one song, I'd bring Turnip Greens. That's my favorite country song of all time. That song comes on, and I'm singing and I'm dancing, and I don't care where I'm at. [00:37:53] Speaker A: Well, right now we need a cheers, because I think Lakeview is on. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Let's go. [00:37:57] Speaker A: We need to get a cheers. [00:37:58] Speaker C: But hey, let's get a cheers. [00:37:59] Speaker A: Here's to the mayor of Clinton, Iowa. [00:38:01] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:38:02] Speaker A: Thank you so much. [00:38:03] Speaker C: Looking forward to it. [00:38:04] Speaker B: Make sure you're there. Yes.