Bonnaroo 2009: My Conference Call with David Byrne, Elvis Costello and Steven Van Zandt

On Wednesday I was pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation to participate in a press conference (via phone) with David Byrne, Elvis Costello and E Street Band consigliere Steven Van Zandt—three Bonnaroo artists who I'd probably fellate if only they'd ask. Byrne, Costello and Van Zandt each, in succession, did 30 minutes of Q & A (all questions Bonnaroo-specific) with music writers across the country.

As any one of my Scene co-workers will tell you, I have an attention span that's shocking in its brevity. However, an hour and a half of David Byrne talking about avant garde dancers and cycling, Elvis Costello telling any one of his career anecdotes and making fun of Korn, or Van Zandt anatomizing Bruce Springsteen's set list changes are subjects that can pique my interest for a an extended period of time. I was fortunate enough to get questions in to both Byrne and Van Zandt, despite reserving my best world-colliding "gem" for Costello. I was going to ask him if he was planning on inviting Springsteen onstage during his Bonnaroo set to join him in singing "Temptation"—a song he wrote about meeting Bruce backstage at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium in 1978. Sigh. I would love nothing more than to post the entire transcript of the interview. However, it's 57 pages long. In the event that the good folks over at Big Hassle Entertainment—the publicity agency that handles Bonnaroo—post one on their site I will update this post to include a link. Until then, I'll include my brief moments with Byrne and Little Steven. Read on after the jump.