Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - Fyre Fest Founder, Billy McFarland

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Billy McFarland, the disgraced founder of Fyre Fest, joins Andy Frasco and Nick to talk about life in prison, his biggest mistake, his relationship with Ja Rule, Blink 182 lying, and much more in his crazy life and career saga. This is a quick-hitting, back-and-forth interview with tons of great stories and even an Epstein-related tale he has never said before on a podcast, so check it out. No opening this week, we're getting right into it. You decide for yourself if you think Billy McFarland is really remorseful, or if he's just faking it for his next attempt. He owes over $26 million dollars and is doing everything he can to pay it off. This is a crazy story of bad decisions compiling and creating more bad decisions that led to serious time in prison.

Were the accommodations at Fire Fest better or worse than the accommodations in prison? That's a good question. I plead the fifth on that one. So maybe instead of solitary confinement, they should have just made you live like a Firefest attendee for a year. Jesus Christ. He laughed. That's crazy.

He thought it was funny. I'd be a good TV show. William McFarlane has to live as a Firefest one attendee for six months. He gets cheese and bread and nothing else. We'll take $8 million off his restitution. And TikTok influence. There's dancing all around them. You're like, sign me up for that.

Hell yeah. Can I go now? Wow, big show tonight. Big, we got a big show tonight. Billy, what a legend. Firefest founder. He started a credit card company. Prison survivor.

Prison survivor. That's a big one. A lot of people don't really get out of that. Billy, hi, welcome to show. Thank you. That's the top of my resume, prison survival. Tell us what prison's like. I kind of want to know what, what's prison like, for a guy like you.

It seems like the sign in the wall where it says break rules make money applies to most of the guys I met there. So you guys know what's up. Yeah, man. So I was like, you know, it's like a lot of things going on. I mean, like, what a, what a career, Bill. I, I, I don't know where to start here. One of, one of the things I'm kind of want to, I'm curious is like, do you take anything to like sleep at night?

Like, how do you, like, like, do you take, like a pill or do you smoke weed? Like, give us a little, like, synopsis on the day to day of Billy McFarland. Damn, getting right into the thick of it. I don't think I've tried any other drugs. except for weed in my life. I get a lot of like, you know, how much cocaine are you doing comments? I never tried it.

I think I'd probably run through a wall and kill myself and probably hurt other people as well. So that's a good thing. But it's got to be. No trucks. I mean, like the judgment, like, it's got to be like the judgment of people, how people perceive you versus who you actually are.

It's like how much of it is false and how much is it is true? Good question. I certainly did a lot of fucked up shit. made a lot of bad decisions and violated trust and people I cared about. So there's a lot that's wrong. I think the thing that I don't like and it kind of irked me the most is there was enough bad that that should stand alone. But of course, you know, fiction always sells more. So it was always, weird to me how stories and narratives had to be told when there was like enough terrible shit

to really focus on. So the world's a weird place. Media is a weird, weird industry and it's been quite their eye. Yeah. And like, what about like, did you feel like you feel like you had to play full on heel like a wrestler? They have to play full on heel. You know, like you kind of like add on to the thing, you know, like after like you kind of doubled down on it a little bit. Probably. I certainly doubled down.

I think the more the people get pissed off, the more that the people who are our customers or our partners, the more interesting they feel and proud they feel to be part of like a, you know, kind of counterculture movement. So I definitely think that there's some. business. I hope there's some business sense in continuing whatever the war may be. Yeah, totally. Like, I was like, you know, like, there's got to be some, what do you think the scariest moment in your life was? Scariest moment. I think being in front of a judge who, you know,

singularly had the power and the ability to smack her gavel and decide how many years in my life I would spend in jail. What was that day like when you, when you're about have your verdict. I was sentenced to six years. I was 25 or 26 at the time. And up until that point, I had been living every day by the hour, you know, trying to pay bills by the hour, trying to survive by the hour. And just to hear six years, couldn't really fathom that that period of time. It was super long and scary. I bet, man. I think about like, what were the scariest moments of Fire Fest, like when it was, when shit was about to go down? Like, did you ever think you were, like, in physical danger?

Not really. I think a lot of that was played up. The victims were mostly the investors, and there's, you know, people I let down, like, who were kind of collateral damage, which is awful. But I think this whole idea, like, oh, Bahamians weren't paid, and they were trying to kill them. I think that's all kind of BS, and I wish that true story there was told. So the safety factor wasn't there. I think when shit really hit the fan was when our number two record head of operations told me that three people had gotten killed at the festival. And no one was hurt at all. It was totally bullshit.

but that was the... Oh, no one got killed. What the fuck is happening? No one got hurt. No one was even slightly hurt. But like I was told that and like in the moment believed it and that was like fuck like, like literally started turning airplanes around in the air to go back home. Dude.

That's, that's insane. What about... Okay. I'd be more scared of these fucking billionaires trying to kill you than the bohemians. I watch too many of these blue collar or white collar films, dude. We all know about billionaires and islands. We know about billionaires and islands. Yeah.

I've told one person that my life this. and I don't know why I was doing this now. I was at the right time or not, but I attempted to do a podcast from the pay phone in jail. And it took me to solitary confine. Bad idea for anybody listening. But they took me to solitary confinement for seven months. Oh my God.

And they pulled me out of the cell, you know, two months in. They questioned me on something. I had no idea what they're asking me about. And the exact quote from this person in charge who is, you know, fairly powerful official, said, quote, this is the type of thing where the wrong person with transfer to your cell and your family's reading about your suicide. Oh my God.

I mean, Lex would look at one half a dollies. This is like 12 months after Epstein died. What the fuck? Oh, because of one of the investors, not somebody else in prison with you. This is from the outside you're being asked about.

I think that they mean that their point was that there was someone who could, who's not there who could, you know, make you not there. Oh my fucking God. How much money did you actually lose there? A lot. Yeah.

30 million plus. And you're still paying that back, right? Correct. Like a part of your proceeds forever. Exactly. So every month I have to pay a check and it's a percentage of my income. So whether you're in $10 or $10 million, I'm not making $10 million, right? But a percentage goes back to.

What does it feel like to owe the government that much for the rest of your life? Really good question. It's kind of weird because when I'm not making, you know, I have, like months were, you know, bad months where income is super low and then no one cares. And then the second you have like a good month and like do all right, then like the people come out of fucking like every angle. So it's kind of this like fucked up thing where it's almost designed to make you not want to want to work. And obviously I'm doing the opposite. But yeah, it's kind of like kind of weird. Where as you start like doing semi okay, then it just

becomes like more expensive to actually work and to not work. Well, it feels like you're, you're just working for the government now. You're not working for yourself. So how do you, for real? So how do you departmentalize that in your head to keep working? working if it's not for you it's for them i just remember having a conversation with with one of the entities that are one of the government entities that are owed and it's like all right well if you're making ten dollars a month on this we want 12 and i'm like well why i wouldn't just sit home and play video games like how does that like how am i losing money to to work so it's kind of weird yeah i read during your like during your probation you were required to work like 30 hours a

week at like a regular job basically was that true and also like how do that feel because obviously you're not wired for that. So was that worse than solitary confinement? So the only time that that was actually true was during a halfway house, which was at for four months. Okay. So it was a pretty short period of time and just went and worked for a friend's company.

But yeah, it was like three and a half for four months. It was pretty short. What kind of job were you working? I'm not going to say the company's name, but a friend is a tech company. So, you know, tech startup in New York. Okay. What?

What? I'll be curious about, your real friends. When this shit went down, could you find out who your real friends were versus the people who just fucking ditched you immediately? You know what the craziest thing is? If you asked me like 10 years ago

to put down, write down five people that would have stuck around and five people that would have left, I probably would have gotten every single one wrong. Really? And that was like one of the weirdest things for like life, you know, smack you in the face type of thing. Would have gotten every one wrong.

Did that hurt you? for sure and i think it's like it's made more sense over time but i think the ones that that i gave the most to were the first to leave because you know they were around for the free shit and ironically some of the people i hurt the most they're the ones that stayed and so it kind of like it makes sense but doesn't make sense it's like a really weird thought process who are who are more pissed off at you people of public like a jaw rule or investors um the biggest investors are the most understanding which i think is like I think it's kind of intuitive, but I guess it's not.

Because they probably lose a bunch. Yeah, they're used to it. They're used to it. It's a numbers game. I think if you've made $2 billion, you've seen some shit. So I think it's like, oh, whatever. It's like, you know, I lost one.

I won 10. Like, I'll be all right. It's like the smaller investors are probably the ones that are the most mad who, you know, because the risk. Thought this is their chance to make. Yeah. You know, I'm going to give you five grand and make, you know, 500 million off this and like, oh, fuck, I didn't do it.

Like, those are the ones that got the most pissed. Hey guys, Andy, and I want to talk a little bit about volume.com. Yes, volume.com. Our Sugar Daddy, yes, our sponsor. And we are doing a only Frasco subscription. For five bucks a month, we're going to have extended videos of the podcast. You're going to have a live stream once a month of the band. You're going to have live streams of us making the new record.

So head over to volume.com slash Andy Frasco subscribe. It's only five bucks. I got a cup of coffee today. It was $7.50. sense. You could just spend one cup of coffee and get all the frasco you want. So head over to volume.com slash Andy Frasco and subscribe. Support your guys. Maybe I'll even pay Nick more. You never know. What about like, what was your conversations like with DrawRull afterwards? Like, was he so pissed or did, was this like a thing or like any of the public figures?

Like the guys who were going to like take a bunch of the grunt from the media. I was curious about those guys more. My last, the last interaction with Draw Rule was my lawyer called me in and said, job role is going in to cooperate with the government tomorrow. And I said, what does that mean? And he said, if you talk to him again, I'm not going to represent you. So never spoke with him since.

Holy shit. Do you want to speak with him? Do you want to speak with him? No interest. Yeah. What about your lawyer? Tell me about how he approached this whole thing. Was he good to you?

Was it hard or did you still have him in your life? I think from the lawyer side, they did a great job. Like I was black and white guilty, so there's not really much you can do. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. There wasn't like a big, yeah, yeah, respect.

Yeah, there's not like how we can argue this. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all on paper. It's, you signed it. It's all on paper. There's a documentary. There's not much we can really do. I think the weird thing was just like meeting different people

throughout the process who got either like more time or less time. And then like thinking my thing, I think they're either too short or too long. And like, I've never, you know, I never thought otherwise, right? It was always either I got too long and it got enough. That's kind of a weird process. What about your mental health through that thing?

Did you ever like think about suicide or like how you're so alone, man. Like I, that is a hard time. I mean, it is fucked up what happened and what you did and stuff. But also you as a human, I still, you know, think about your heart and your mind. Like how is that? How are you going through there? Thank you. Good question.

I think the weird thing is before everything collapsed. the people around me probably overestimated my abilities, right? They had tons of employees and people like that. And they were all kind of like, go, go, go, like the guestmen. And then when things went wrong, it went from like, hey, he can't even figure out how to work out an ice cream shop, right? We need to treat him like, he's like, he's like totally challenged. So it was like the total like opposite ends of the spectrum.

And it was kind of weird to seeing like, you know, friends and family go from like, oh, you can do anything to, oh, like, hey, like, can he even live in her basement? Like, is he capable of that? Oh, yeah. process. I mean, you must have been super alone, man. What about suicide? Is that ever cross your bond? No, never. That's good. Never, never.

How'd you convince these super millionaires to give $26 million to a 25-year-old kid? Yeah, I think it's fucked up. I knew most of them for years before it. And the majority of the money came from people who had invested in my previous businesses and they had seen small wins, small failures along the way. So when I truthfully said, I think this is the biggest opportunity, right? They didn't question it, but I think that was where the trust was violated.

What were your business before this? I had a credit card company that you alluded to called Magnesis, and then I had a tech company before that. Oh, that was like a social media link sharing thing, right? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So what made you want to do another fire fest? Or was that a, what was your philosophy on that? It's really fucking hard to do anything after jail, right?

Like, people are scared to touch you. I know. You see that with people getting jobs in prison too. Like, you know, like even like little jobs. And the music industry is already crazy enough. Like, yeah. It's hard. And I think the one thing that I'm lucky is to have these media opportunities, right?

I think media is a one industry where they'll still have you on because it serves them. So like the big media companies aren't scared to, you know, happen with its first show or an interview or whatever. But other industries are. So kind of had a how to lean into that, right? And I feel like going into the belly of the beast was the best way to create some opportunity and try to get a team and get a chance to get back to work. Yeah, like, you know, I'm not saying this like ignorantly. I'm just asking you, like, do you have remorse?

Is that in you? Oh, for 100%. Yeah. And as you get older, do you feel like you become more sensitive to remorse? I think I've gone through periods of like how I've self-internalized the guilt, right? There were some days where I'm like, I'm the world's worst person and then, you know, some days something happens or I see something else. And I'm like, okay, like I have a chance, right?

I'm not as bad as this guy. So it's been kind of this weird like cycle. And I think the weirdest fucking thing is, especially for the first like year after jail, every single person I met, they try to whether connect or confide, they all told me like the worst things have ever done. I'm like, wow. I'm like, oh my God. They're just trying to relate with you.

Like, yo, I went to prison for this. So who do you feel worse for in the fire, like who do you feel the worst for in the Fire Fest situation? I think one, you know, family who had nothing to do with my work at all, right? And they kind of became the real victims from the jail and the media and all that, all that BS. And then two of the people who I knew the longest, I think the investors who were like good people and they backed me when I was a young kid, right? And just like wanted to, wanted to like give me a shot. I think there's the ones I let down the most. What about like the local Bahamians and stuff?

Are they still getting paid back? or is that? Yeah, I think that's like the worst part of the story for me. And I don't know how to like say this right. I'm not going to say it right, but that story is bullshit. Like they were, you know, they were paid millions and millions of dollars. And I think we really helped tourism wise. So I think it's tough to like approach it so bluntly.

But though I didn't see the doc with the woman who claimed to be on this money. This doc, you know, never knew she existed. Like it's just it's not real. So it's a tough situation. So what did you start knowing that media and everyone was flipping? in the story. Like, you know, there's like a tipping point in media where the, this, the propaganda starts getting really crazy. I think I was doing like one interview after and I was so like focused on the guilt to the investors and they just didn't fucking care about the investors. Like, oh, what about

this? What about this? I'm like, no, like, I legitimately hurt these people who like believed in me. And they just like, they couldn't have cared less. I think people just, it was, the media realized it's horror to make somebody feel bad for a super wealthy person who lost money, right? And it's easier to make someone feel bad for someone who seemingly was taking advantage of it, who has nothing. So I think that's kind of like what twisted it the most. Do you ever run into people that attended the festival, like when you're walking around New York or anything? All the time.

Really? I was talking, talk to somebody earlier. I met three couples who met at Fire Festival who got married after. So what's their reaction towards it, the people who were actually there? I think secretly the most had a good time. Oh, my. Really? That's crazy.

That's crazy. I don't know. I saw those sandwiches. Yeah, that's, so that's my question. You know, like, were the accommodations at Fire Fest

better or worse than the accommodations in prison? That's a good question. I plead the fifth on that one. So maybe instead of solitary confinement, they should have just made you live like a Firefest attendee for a year. Jesus Christ. He laughed. That's crazy.

He thought it was fun. I'd be a good TV show. He said, Billy McFarland has to live as a Firefest one attendee for six months. He gets, he gets cheese and bread

and nothing else. We'll take $8 million off his restitution. And tick-to-rock influencers dancing all around them. You're like, sign me up for that. Hell yeah. Can I go now? Who are meaner,

the influencers or, like, the people who are, you guys, because you hired a shit ton of influencers to go down there. do you regret doing that now and just let the festival just be awesome as it was supposedly was gonna be yeah it's like it's as stupid and like granular as it sounds uh i've made one decision the day of that ruined it and like if that decision wasn't made there still would have been a festival people

were arriving like early in the morning and i felt like it didn't look good enough no shit right so instead of just saying like all right like i'll tell everybody come at eight a m when they're sober, like get situated. We sent them to a beach on the side of the island with like a bunch of booze and boats and parties and then had them all come at 9 p.m. So they were like drunk and it was dark and like it was a thousand people instead of like 50 people

at a time and that kind of created the chaos. So it's a stupid idea really like that like, I thought we could make it look great in however many hours and we couldn't and like it wouldn't really have mattered. It was gonna look bad anyway. So people should have just come when they were sober. Quick break from the interview.

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I think for the most part they knew I was lying. and they that we're just doing better than we were. So I think they all knew I was lying and they were like investing despite of that and if I had told the truth, they probably would have invested more.

So I think like ironically it's actually made it worse. Did any of, yeah, it's kind of weird you're saying that but we'll still do it, right? It was a weird situation. Do you feel like they're hiding money? Like kind of this is just like a tax write off? They're like, fuck it. If it fails, it fails.

Right. No, I think they assumed like as I got closer they weren't going to make money on that festival, but had it had worked, they would have owned part of a brand that had a chance. So I think that was kind of the logic at the end. That's, um, I'm curious about this. How do you keep, did you keep going with the credit card company after Firefest? I sold it for earlier, like pennies and the dollar, maybe a month after. I was also actually curious about the time with the ticket, the ticket scheme, like when you were on

bail for Firefest. Were you like, fuck it, I'm already in so much trouble. Like, I'm already in so much trouble. might as well just try this too? Or like, what was the thought process there? Yeah, I think I still don't know how to justify that. It certainly was wrong. I think where like Fire Festival was so black and white, like black being guilty, everything after was kind of a gray area.

And I shouldn't have been doing it. I don't think it was as drastic as stories had been told. But it was wrong. And that was the time to like sit down and shut the fuck up. And I didn't do that. And like, that gets guilty in itself. What advice would you, give young promoters starting festivals if they'll if if if looking back at seeing a flop like this

what would you give advice to people starting new festivals man i don't think they make any money so i think that's probably a bad motivation i mean we're musicians i do i'm in the jam scene so like i do 40 festivals a year and i see these new guys new festival pop up all the time i'm like see you don't i won't see you next year or it well i don't want to say that, but it's like, you know what I mean, though. Yeah, it's like being exaggerating, but it's a lot, it's a hard balance of how what the lineup is, the music, the band's on it and how easy is to get to the fucking location. You know, like, what, what advice would you give someone to do for if you're giving anyone advice about music festivals? I think it's just not a good way to make money because I think music is so sexy that there's always going to need people who are paying artists more than they can make back because they want to be involved, right?

So it's hard to actually make money when you're competing against people or someone who's, like, willing to lose because they want to be associated with a band like you guys or an artist or an act. You know, you understand the game. Totally. It's tough. There is a cultural capital to it. For sure. 100%. 100%.

You're going to be competing against somebody who has unlimited money, but they have zero cultural, you know, capital or status. And they're willing to spend to drive that. That's why Jeff Bezos had his wedding on a yacht. Do you think Live Nation after seeing, do you think Live Nation after seeing your story was like, fuck yes a little tension driven away a little tension driven away

from the fucking big calamity like poor guy like did you have talks I think a lot of people or Aegee or anyone

to like partner uh no no comment yeah oh yeah fair enough that's that lawyer shit good good good good job bill he's on the other side

on the press you're on the last yeah I'm the prize on the prize I don't want the wrong person getting transferred to my to my neighborhood and being deleted. But do you really feel like that could possibly, that still is a possibility for you?

Probably. Who knows? Who knows? What if you stop paying? What if you just like say, I'm done paying the government? What happens? I don't know.

I don't want to know, but just like it's the, the income is up and down, right? There's good months. There's bad months. So it's like, it's spotty on doing what I can do. Do you think you'll ever pay back the money?

I think so. And whether it takes two years or seven years or 47 years, I have no idea. What's your plan? Like, what are your business, what do you do it now to kind of get out of that fucking hole? Well, we just finally did our festival in December. So that was cool. How'd that go? It was good.

We rented a little island off the coast of Utila, which is Honduras in the Caribbean. So we did a 400 person little festival there on the, Island it was great who played the yeah uh french montana was like the main act and we had some jimmy from ray shremard we had bobby shmurda i watched some of the stream yeah yeah and it's kind of like there

yeah for sure it was like 400 425 people so kept it small and and you had a range of ticket packages up to like a million dollar package or uh we did did anybody buy the million dollar package uh not for that one no unfortunately It comes to like a private jet from Miami. What was it? It was like a private jet and a inch, a chef.

You think people are worried that you're just going to put them on spirit, Bill? I think that would have been best case scenario. That'd be the least of their worries. Oh, man. I didn't get a checked bag. I didn't get a checked bag. Can we talk about your personal life a little bit, Bill? what's it like trying to be trying to be in love and trying to like tell like get intimate with

someone and have them trust you from not having them see what you did in your past yeah i always get asked that um such a weird thing i think like even to seeing friends and family when when i didn't see them for a period of time they started thinking like they started believing things were worse and they really were just because the obviously the news the stories they'd hear it and i think for the first, like, year when I got released, I'd go and see someone for the first time. And like five minutes in, you'd see him like snap back. Like, oh, like, you're the same guy. No, the same strengths, the same flaws.

Like, you know, it's like you're the same person. I think it just takes to face time. But after that, it's, you know, pretty quick to get back to normal with people I'm close with. Oh, man. It's like, it's like falling in love. Like, are you married, have a girlfriend or anything? It was a longtime girlfriend. Long time girlfriend.

She stuck with you? Yeah. She did. Yeah. Was that tough in the beginning years? How'd you? She's, yeah,

she's crazier than me. I'll, I'll clap to that. That's good. We all need a crazy woman in our life. No comment. Oh, man. Keep us on track.

Yeah, yeah. My lawyer's saying no comment on the crazy woman. Are you guys married? No. Basically. He's, without the law. I'm just a,

I understand. I'm just been on the road for 15 years, you know, torn. So, no, not really. Any time soon or no one's? I think so. I think I'm almost ready to find love. I've found so, you know, it's nice. We'll get you to do your reality show. You found some pockets of it. Yeah. It does, what's just Billy and Andy find love? Yeah, he's going to be in the tent and you have to find love within six months. Yeah. With an influencer from Firefest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to take every influencer from Firefest and he has to live in the tent with the hands.

This is awesome. So tell me about how you find new friends. Now, is it harder to trust people to be in your life? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think it's hard for them to trust me, right? I think one of the things I realized, too, it's like people are, they're doing this shit about you, right? They're scared for themselves. Right.

So I think people, most people aren't, like, concerned about what I may or may not say or do. It's like, what will my boss think? What will my wife say? Well, what my parents say to me, right? People are always just concerned about their own shit. So I think once I've really understood that, it's made it easier to.

to internalize. Any of the investors like just lose everything because of this investment, like lost their house, lost their families? I don't think so and I really hope not. Yeah. That's a, that'd be what I'd be like,

damn, like if you convince like one of your homies who just took out all his savings. Like those Bitcoin rugpoles. Yeah. Like one of those things. Most of the investors were like professional venture investors. It doesn't make it right, but no,

like it's. So what's it like going back into these venture capital? meetings and say, hey, man, I'm the fire fest guy. I need some more capital. How are those meetings been for you in your recent life? I have a lot of restrictions on what I can or can't do financially. I think ironically, if I didn't have restrictions, I could probably raise money easier now than ever. Really? Explain that. What, like, what restrictions do you have? I can't like sell securities. It's kind of like the one rule. So, you know, I can't go, be like, hey, for a million dollars, I'll give you 10% of my company.

So I can't, like, you know, can't raise traditional venture capital. So how, so what, how do you, what's your philosophy of how to raise capital then? If you can't do that. I mean, I really can't. I've got to earn it. So doing a documentary, we did like a live stream for the festival. I do marketing work. I got to, got to grind it out.

So it's not easy. Oh, man. What's, how did the stream do? Did that make some dough? I got paid for the rights for it. So, you know, a different, a different company. of you and say yeah is this kind of sold the rights for the live stream that commentary so i know that uh lime wire bought the fire fest like brand last summer and you said last month on lincoln you're

trying to buy it back is that because of that cultural capital that it comes with it or or what's the philosophy behind you trying to get it back so i think we had a so i think we like when it was when it was me plus fire it was just too scary for most people to want to deal with and so i thought we had to like decouple it right we did our little event you know built some trust back on that through a couple other ventures. So now I think it's such an important part of my life. I'd love to have it back. Okay.

In your heart of hearts. So for $5 million, for 5%, now I'm just kidding. You're going to get the wrong guys. We're in the jam scene, bud. We barely get per diems at these fucking shows. We might be hitting you up for money. Yeah, we might be hitting you up for money. You know, in your heart of hearts, you know, I say that very, very,

do you think you're a con you're a con man or our con man or we're a con man now looking back of it or no no i think i was desperate and made some really bad decisions that i shouldn't have made yeah yeah so i mean you're so young dude like i'd be scared shitless to talk to these investors when you see the festival you're the thing you convinced them is losing i mean it must have been weird i mean i can't you a lot of people would lie do you think you'd be the best car salesman of all time if you wanted to do that. I don't think so. No?

I don't know. I think you could be a really good salesman. Sell a jet. You can sell a music festival. You can sell a jetta. I mean, I'd see that. Who was,

okay, so I, a couple more questions and we'll, and we'll close this up. But who was your target for Fire Fest? Who were like the people that you wanted, what bands you wanted the most? And you almost had them and didn't get them.

This was obviously pre-melked down number like 54 by early wanted Kanye West. Oh yeah. Of course. We had good music, which was his record label at the time, headlining. It was officially like five or six of the other acts, but there was always kind of hoped in anticipation he was going to come. So that would be cool. I want to bligwin A2 until they lied and said they didn't get paid and canceled

because they got paid to fuck them. Hold on. What happened with them? They said they didn't get paid and they did. They got 500K. kept it. Oh my God. Very. That's a hot gosh. Interesting. That's hot goss. Oh. Wow. Yeah. How many people did that? How many bands took the money and said they didn't get paid? Every single band got paid. I think Blinkway, too, is the only one that lied about it.

Not getting paid, but they were all paid. You think they did it for marketing reasons? They came out and said like, oh, our brand doesn't align with, like, rich kids on these yachts. Like, Javas Barker had his chartering, like, a $200,000 yacht for him to take him from Miami. Mary Door Kardashian. A lot of hot goss today. A lot of hot goss. We hate these yachts, except that we require the nicest one for our show. Interesting.

Very interesting. When it's all said and done, what do you want to be remembered by? Not giving up. And hopefully that leads to a good outcome. Do you still believe in the American dream? That's a great fucking question. I think I grew up in like a really normal suburb, right? And I think I believed everything I was told about the world until I was like 24 or 25.

I was like super anti-conspiracy theory, like thought everything was as it appeared. And I'm starting to, you know, quickly flip to the opposite side. So I was asking a politician here and I'm not going to say who it was. I said, is it true the elections are actually rigged? And he goes, I don't know if the elections are rigged, but the country is rigged. That makes sense. Are you going to go to your 25-year high school reunion? Yeah, sure.

Of course. Why not? I don't even know when that is. That'd be funny. Hey, fuckers. Hey, it's Bill. What's up? I'm still here, bitches!

I'm the most famous one. Doesn't matter why. I am the most famous. Doesn't matter why. This is America. This is America. You ever, like, you ever meet old Trumper? What was that like?

he was not the person I asked that question to. What do you say about this whole debacle you're in? I'm not going to get into that, but yeah, we've met. I respect. I like how. He did get you a year off your prison term, didn't he? Me and a bunch of others. Yeah, not you specifically, but he passed some law that.

Yeah, yeah. He passed the law to give first time nonviolent people a year off. That was, that was right. What's your take about Jeffrey Epstein? I think he was killed and I don't want to get hurt for saying that. Yeah, that's pretty obvious. And that is the official narrative. That's official narrative.

Well, not really, but it's turning into it kind of. I think it's being in the same solitary wing that he was in. It's certainly very easy for someone to have that order. Hold on. You were in the same solitary confinement as him? For a period of time, yes. Like, not when he was there, but a different period. The same facility, though.

The same facility. Oh, wow, I didn't know that. Who else was in prison when you were in prison? Uh, that place, nobody interesting. I was at a, like a white collar place for six months with, uh, Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer in the situation. So that was funny. Wow.

But then I got kicked out of there. What did you? Why did you get kicked out? I had a USB device. So I was trying to record a book and they didn't like that one either. Holy, that was just like a bill. Like a cockroach. You're a fucking cockroach.

Bill, you're a pest, dude. I kind of think I would listen to a jail phone podcast to be fair. Dude, that would rule. So what happened when they found the USB? Okay, this is the last question. I pride. You are, this is crazy. What was the last question?

Like, what the fuck is this, Bill? I'm going to, I'm going to leave the viewers with this. I had a USB device very, very clear against the rules, not allowed to do it. For that, I was sentenced to three months in solitary confinement and lost my phone privileges like afterwards for 45 days or something. Then I did the podcast. I did the podcast. Broke, no rules, was found not guilty, did seven months in solitary confinement and couldn't

call my family for two years. So when you break the rolls, when I broke the rules, I got a less time and I didn't break the rules. That, that's fucking in the head. Maybe America is rigged. Maybe America might be rigged. Maybe it is rigged. On that note, American Dream is dead and America is rigged. Bill, thanks for being honest.

I really appreciate it. I can't wait to talk to. Jason. Jason's going to be fun. All right, bud. Thank you. Do you guys, do you guys have any shows in New York anytime soon? Yeah.

We just played two nights at the Brooklyn Bowl. and um really yeah we're doing uh we're doing we're doing we're doing a what are we doing i'm doing the beacon theater with um the almond brother review and then i'm doing oh nice yeah i'm coming a lot i'll uh i'll message you on insta yeah let me know i'll buy a ticket and come and come cheer you're not buying tickets on me brother i got you you're already doing with a lot i'll put you on the guest list yeah you can't come backstage but i'm getting it Bill, thanks so much. And let me know when we,

when to get Jason in here. Bye later.