The last time Bonnaroo Music Festival did a Reddit AMA, co-founders Ashley Capps and Rick Farman dished on everything from Kanye West returning to the Farm to the much-requested screens at the Tent stages. On Thursday night, the festival sent SuperJam producer Paul Peck to field questions from the Roo faithful. Here are some of Peck’s choice responses:

— While Peck usually talks to an artist’s manager or agent first, sometimes conversations don’t happen till the day of the show. “… [L]ike in the case of Derek/Pretty Lights who Adam Deitch and I wanted to invite to play bass on a tune with the hip hop superjam with Lettuce/Jazzy Jeff etc. The idea didn’t come to us til the day of the gig. I texted his manager who hit me right back saying that Derek was interested and could he call me directly to discuss. We had a great convo and 6 hours later he was onstage playing bass on Liquid Swords with RZA.”



— R. Kelly and Billy Idol only confirmed their involvement in last year’s Rock N ‘Soul SuperJam two weeks prior to the festival. “I had been borderline harassing each artist’s manager for months bc I was so psyched each of those possibilities as were Jim and Oates. About 2 weeks before the festival I got a phone call from R. Kelly’s manager giving me the good news that he wanted to make it happen. Literally within 20 minutes of that call I saw an email flash across my screen that Billy was in. True story.”

— Peck revealed that last year’s Hip Hop SuperJam almost didn’t happen. “Basically my key guy was one of my very favorite rappers of all time and he eventually bowed out which also cost me the band that was going to back the thing (that he chose). That was about 3 weeks before the festival and I had a whole late night slot with my name on it and no show to put in the tent. Ultimately I was able to get the backing band that I wanted in the first place (LETTUCE) and was able to get RZA to sign on in addition to Jazzy Jeff, Solange, Schoolboy Q and then later Method Man, Ghostface and Redman who all came out as surprise guests! Craziness….”

— RegardinG the Skrillex and Friends SuperJam, Peck said, “[Skrillex’s} such an inspired and visionary creative figure that I knew right away he’d be perfect and someone that would inspire the other artists to really take a super ambitious swing at doing something totally fresh and unique. We decided that Big [Gigantic] would be the ideal anchor for the group bc they sorta have one foot in the dance world but are also virtuoso musicians. From there we started reaching out to other artists that we thought were massive longshots and as you can see from the lineup, many of them were down.” So who was responsible for adding The Doors’ Robby Krieger and The Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart? “All props due to Mr. Skrillex.”

— Asked about what we can expect Trucks’ SuperJam to sound like, Peck noted, “These shows usually start with an initial concept that we’re all excited about and it evolves from there usually up until the point the band hits the stage. We’re now just starting to get into the setlist but I see some themes emerging such as 70s rock and funk and the idea of exploring vocal combinations between different singers.”

— Someone pointed out that the Derek Trucks SuperJam is lacking a bassist and asked who it might be. “someone siiiiick,” was all Peck responded.

— Another Redditor asked if Jack White could get involved and Peck teasing replied, “Imma hit him with a text right now!” Let’s hope he wasn’t kidding.

— Will we ever see a SuperJam on the main What Stage? “Would definitely be up for a massive show on What Stage. I def have ideas kickin around in my head! If anyone knows Neil Young have him call me!”

— Peck would like to see the SuperJam mini-docs series continue. “So many crazy stories of how certain things happened or totally almost didn’t happen and a goal for this year’s doc series is to go deeper on those.”

— Touching on why the SuperJam lineups and schedule times are no longer a secret as they were in the early days, Peck said, “There’s so many tough choices to make at an event as packed with talent as Bonnaroo. I like to give people some info on what they’re getting themselves into at the expense of something else amazing that’s happening at the same time… I think we’ve done a good job of giving some info while still trying to drop in some huge surprises ie Brittany Howard last year.”