Kanye West Rankles Bonnaroo With Tardy Pre-Dawn Set

Kanye West delivered the most controversial performance at Bonnaroo this weekend, leaving thousands of festival-goers bummed out when his late-night set didn't kick off until nearly 4:30 in the morning — an hour and 45 minutes after its scheduled time. (According to our source, Kanye didn't want to go on until Phil Lesh and Sigur Ros had finished playing their late-night sets on Bonnaroo's other stages; he also had an enormous stage production.) As a jumbotron by the main stage posted the delays every half-hour, the crowd grew increasingly restless, eventually erupting into full-on boos just before he hit the stage.

West managed to drown those out with a giant theatrical show — a truncated version of his Glow in the Dark Tour space opera — which included deafening versions of "Stronger" and "Heard 'Em Say," as Bonnaroo celebrities like former Grateful Dead bassist Lesh watched in the crowd. The next day, some performers echoed the crowd's dissatisfaction during their sets. "Did Kanye really come on at 4:30 last night?" asked Zach Rogue of the California indie-rock group Rogue Wave during their Sunday afternoon set. The crowd responded with massive booing. "I have enough respect to show up on time for all you nice people." And during his Sunday performance, pedal-steel bluesman Robert Randolph led the crowd in a chant of "Kanye sucks!"

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter