Hunter Rodgers, co-owner of Cain’s Ballroom
What was the first show you saw at Cain’s? It was either Nappy Roots or Bone Thugs-N-Harmony in 2002. I don’t remember which one came first. They were right around the same time. I think it was Nappy Roots, to be honest.
Cain’s has gained some high profile fans, from Jack White and Wilco to Elvis Costello. What do you think it is about Cain’s that musicians respond to? I think it’s the history and it’s just not your typical venue. I don’t want to name any other venues specifically in the state, but some are just like a brick building, you know? I don’t want to say like a warehouse, but there’s just no real character to it. Then they get to Cain’s and they see the history and that it’s well taken care of, and it isn’t corporate either. I don’t know if they realize it’s family-run, but it’s not like they’re walking into Corporate America.
Are there any “white whales” you’re trying to catch—any artist who’s never played Cain’s that you’d love to get? I’ve thought a lot about that, and there’s a ton of artists who haven’t played there, but I think Garth would be the one. He’s from around here, and I think it would be awesome if he ever came and did a benefit show here for somebody or something. And Taylor Swift would be cool. You know, we had a chance to book her before she was anybody. We were like, “We don’t know who she is, she isn’t going to sell any tickets.” A year later and she was the biggest draw in the world.
What are some strange requests you’ve gotten in artists’ riders? Buckethead wanted headcheese. This was back in ’06, maybe ‘07. And we didn’t even really know what the heck that was and we couldn’t find it at the time. Besides that, we don’t really get a lot of weird requests that the BOK Center might get, but we’ve been asked for, like, an ounce of high-grade marijuana, which isn’t that weird, but we obviously didn’t provide it for them.
Who was that? It was G. Love and Special Sauce.
The Tulsa World recently reported that you found a time capsule that had been hidden in Cain’s last time the floor was replaced, and that you were a bit underwhelmed with its contents. What would you have put in a Cain’s time capsule? Well, when we redid the floor back in ’07-’08 when this guy put his in, we actually put one in as well. And they had to dig it back up this time, but we didn’t open it and put it back in. I think it has a Tulsa World, some tickets, a t-shirt, Cain’s memorabilia. We kind of wish we’d done another one this time, but we were under such a time crunch and had to get back open so quickly that we didn’t have the time to plan it. But there’s definitely one down there somewhere.
Speaking of, how’s the new floor feeling? Man, so far so good. I’d say it has as much bounce as the last one, honestly. We were kind of worried, in a sense. There are these neoprene pads in between the sub-floor and concrete, and it really does give it a good feel. It does bounce a lot. We’re pleased.
That’s good. You can’t lose that bounce. We definitely didn’t. –John Langdon