Mastodon recently spoke with Musicradar.com regarding their run-in with Barney And Friends. An excerpt from the interview regarding the meeting can be found below:
“Musicradar.com: What was with you and that picture of Barney? [laughs all around]
Bill Kelliher: “Oh man, good ol’ Barney! We played a show with Barney. Barney’s Birthday Bash.”
Brent Hinds: “We showed up the other day in Indianapolis, Indiana, and on the marquee of this venue it said ‘Barney’s Birthday Bash’ and below that it said ‘Mastodon.'”
Musicradar.com: Just like in Spinal Tap.
Brent Hinds: “Right out of Spinal Tap! [laughs] We didn’t know it, but there were two venues inside this giant place. We played upstairs and Barney played downstairs. He was done by nine, and we went on at ten. All the Barney people – Baby Bop, all the folks in the show – they came on stage with us and sang Creature Lives. It was amazing. We hung out afterwards, drank beer and whiskey…”
Bill Kelliher: “It was something else. You know, the people in the Barney show, they’re just like us. They’re in a tour bus, we’re in a tour bus. They plauy gigs, we play gigs. When I saw Barney was in the house, I told our tour manager, ‘We have got to get a picture with Barney And Friends.’
Musicradar.com: That’s pretty hardcore.
Brent Hinds: “You can’t get any cooler than Barney. He’s a little dinosaur, man!”
Unfortunately, as footage from the aforementioned Indianapolis, Indiana set below shows; if it actually was members of Barney And Friends who helped the band on “Creature Lives“, they weren’t in costume when they took to the stage:
