Reed: You've become a rock star.

Del McCoury:  At my old age, I've become a rock star. <laughter> Well, you know, for some reason, well, I'll tell you what now.  We owe that to Ronnie because Ronnie said, "Now, you know, they've started this Bonnaroo," you know, first year, I think it was.  Ronnie told our manager, he said, "Stand, we should be on that show, you know."

Jo Reed:  What did your manager say when he said that? <laughter>

Del McCoury:  He was just kind of- I think he was kind of what would you say...

Jo Reed:  Stunned?

Del McCoury:  Yeah, stunned, you're right. <laughter>  

Jo Reed:  Well, you've performed at a concert with Phish, not exactly what you would think of as a likely pairing but one that worked.

Del McCoury:  Yeah, it did, you know?  Well, what happened, they did a song of mine on a live record and, after they did that, they called and wondered if we'd come play their festival up there on the lake, is it Oswego?  I think it is.

Jo Reed:  Oswego?

Del McCoury:  Oswego.  So we said, "Yeah, we'd love to" so we went up there and played and, man, I couldn't believe the people.  There were 77,000 people, they said, at that one.  I got there and Trey, kind of the leader of the band, he said, "What do you think we could sing together?" and I said, "Man, I have no idea."  He knew we could sing the one that he recorded, my song, we could do that.  He said, "Do you know Blue and Lonesome?" and, boy, that shocked me and I said, "You mean you know that song?"  And that was really hardcore bluegrass, you know?  That was back with Bill Monroe and Hank Williams, old Hank, wrote that song and the first to record it was Bill.  He'd done his homework.  He knew that song and he knew some more hardcore bluegrass songs so we went out there and we could have done a whole show, just the two of us, you know?  Doing those kind of things.  It surprised me.

Jo Reed:  Was it fun?

Del McCoury:  It was fun, yeah, it was.