Bowling For Soup and the Totally Warped Summer: Talking Cartoons, Chaos & Punk Rock

Backstage at this year’s Warped Tour, Bowling for Soup were exactly what you’d hope they’d be—loud, hilarious, and totally in their element. With 40,000 fans flooding the RFK Festival Grounds in Washington, D.C. for the tour’s 30th anniversary, V13 caught up with the BFS (Jaret Reddick (lead vocals, guitar), Gary Wiseman (drums, percussion), and Rob Felicetti (bass, backing vocals, acoustic guitar)) backstage for a conversation full of nostalgia, cartoon chaos, and classic BFS energy. From cartoon theme songs to early-tour nerves and questionable merch choices, the pop-punk vets showed they haven’t lost their spark—or their magic when it comes to making every fan feel right at home.

From Phineas and Ferb memories and fidget spinner merch to emotional photo ops gone sideways, the pop-punk veterans proved that two decades later, they’re still the kings of not taking themselves too seriously, while somehow making every fan feel like part of the bit. Also, they may have accidentally invented a new national holiday: Bowling for Soup Day. It involves soup kitchen volunteering, football snacks, and hanging with your favourite people—and if this holiday ever becomes official, we’re completely here for it.

If you could go back in time and talk to yourselves before your first Warped Tour, what kind of advice would you give yourselves?

Jaret Reddick: “Before our first Warped Tour? Normally, when I get this question, I always just say, ‘Stay the course.’ You know, like anything to give advice to my former self, I’m like, you love where you are when you’re 53, don’t change anything. The one thing I probably would tell young us is, ‘guys, don’t be nervous.’ Because we were more nervous not about the shows, we were nervous about the people. We weren’t really considered a punk band. So I feel like we really felt just not a part of the group.

“I would just be like, ‘Hey, man, get in there and have a blast. You’re going to be part of this whole thing.’ And, you know, here we are, what, 22 years later, and we’re a big part of it. And when we walk through the artist area, we know everybody. Everybody is family. And so that’s probably what I do. I probably just try to take a little bit of the anxiety off of us, of just being sort of like new kids.

“I would also add, go ahead and invest in a good camping chair. Yeah, we just had crummy ones at first. So get the good sunscreen. Yeah, we could do all of that too. The preparatory sunscreen, baby wipes, and drink more water. Febreeze, too. Dryer sheets.”

Do you have a beverage of choice for Warped Tour?

Reddick: “Water, and Miller Light. We drink water and Miller Light, but that’s pretty much all the time.”

How do you guys like to engage with your fans, both online and during the live performances?

Reddick: “We’re a really interactive band. Social media-wise, I’m really active. Our account is really active. Rob does a lot of the answering of the messages for the band and stuff. So we try as hard as we can. It’s a lot to keep up with, but our live show is very interactive. We try to incorporate the crowd into the show, not just, you know, a time or two, not just ‘hey! sing or this, it’s the whole show.’ Try to really, really keep them invested and make them feel like they’re a part of the whole thing. And so, you know, we don’t really even have to try. I mean, that’s our show.”

What’s the most ridiculous or unexpected merch you’ve ever seen at a Warped Tour?

Reddick: “Well, did Ghost do Warped Tour? Because they have butt plugs?

“I feel like someone had some crazy stuff. Yeah, sometimes you run into some stuff, maybe it was AFI or something, but, like, you run into some things like that, where you’re, like, who buys this? You know, they’re sold out like three days after the tour. I mean, you know, to be honest, historically, the t-shirt is king here, you know, you’re fighting for not only your merch spot, but you’re trying to make that sell every day. You know that kids come with a certain amount of money. Back in the day, before you know, and I’m talking like early 2000s, you know, we were all selling merch really, really cheap, just trying to get it onto bodies, and so these high school kids, college kids come, they did their school shopping. We would literally see them with duffle bags full of shirts and stuff.

“And so we learned really quickly that, you know, the t-shirt is king, and it’s a walking billboard or whatever. But we sold women’s underpants, and we did fidget spinners the year that that got hot. We had, like, rain jackets that we thought were going to be great, and no one ever wanted them, until the day it rained and we sold a lot of them that day. Yeah, I will say we also got in trouble one time because we were selling earplugs, and you’re not supposed to sell earplugs, because they sell earplugs. So we got a little slap on the wrist.”

If your band were a national holiday, what would it be called, and how would you celebrate it?

Reddick: “I would say our national holiday will obviously be Bowling for Soup Day. That’s, you know, why complicate it. And then let’s just call it what it is: that everybody volunteers at local soup kitchens. And, you know, and we do it. It’s a volunteer day. More along the lines of like a Memorial Day grill and drink beers. And hang out by the pool with your friends and get hammered – that’s later.

“It’s like Thanksgiving. You volunteer in the morning. Not that you are obligated to, but you should. It’s a day you can and then you spend the rest of your day. So it should be on a football Sunday, and you watch football with your friends, and you make football food. People get the Monday off. That’s right. Ok, yeah.

“Gosh, guys, I love this idea. That’s really good. We’re doing it.”

Let’s talk about Phineas and Ferb. How did that all come about?

Reddick: “Yes, Phineas and Ferb was one of those organic things that just kind of seems to happen with our band, you know. Dan Povenmire and Swampy Marsh were creating a show. We already had a bit of it in Disney. And we had done a few things with them. We had worked with Nickelodeon. We, you know, we had had a few other children’s shows, movies, things like that. But Dan and Swampy were Bowling for Soup fans. And they were like, ‘We would love if Bowling for Soup did the theme.’

“And so I was lucky enough to be able to go there, and I spent a full day with them watching episodes. We had lunch in the Disney lot, and they played me episodes of the show, played me the theme. And then they were like, ‘We want you to do it. But also we have another opportunity, if you’re down, you think you could turn this 30 second song into a three and a half minute song that we could do for like promotion and whatever.’

“So that’s where ‘Today Is Going to be a Great Day’ came from. I took those 30 seconds and made it into a whole song. I (Reddick) also got to audition for the role of Danny. Well, I auditioned for Swampy, the drummer for Love Handel. I ended up getting cast as Danny, the singer for Love Handle, on that day. Then they gave me basically an open invitation to come in and write songs anytime I wanted. So I’ve been in and written several songs for the show, and it just, again, it’s just been all about that relationship, and we just absolutely love being a part of it.”

Bowling For Soup on April 6, 2024, photo by Eric

What were your favourite cartoons growing up?

Reddick: “Oh, man. So for me, I loved Captain Caveman. Captain Caveman was my absolute favourite, Hong Kong Phooey. But what about you guys?”

Wiseman: “Tom and Jerry has always been one of my favourites.”

Reddick: “I like Tom and Jerry when they’re friends. I don’t like when they’re they when they’re mad at each other.”

Felicetti: “That’s most of the show; they do get mad at each other a lot. For me, it’s He-Man, Thundercats, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Those are my top three.”

What’s the craziest thing that ever happened to you on stage at Warped Tour?

Reddick: “Craziest thing that happened to us on stage at Warped Tour? I mean, I think the funniest thing that ever happened on stage at Warped Tour was we do a photo opportunity during our set, and we had (Warped Tour Founder) Kevin Lyman come out and do a photo op with us, and he didn’t really know the bit, and so as we are being silly we are making stupid faces and like a silly song plays, and we just pose for photos for a little bit, yeah, and people are taking photos of us, and it’s funny.

“And so then we go to one side of the stage and the other side of the stage, but Kevin took the picture that he stepped up to the mic and started giving a speech, a heartfelt speech about Warped Tour and stuff. It was just that we’re completely lost, and he’s lost. It was adorable and cute and also just hilarious, and we were so stoked that he was even up there and but we still laughed about that quite a bit.”

If Bowling for Soup were an ice cream flavour, what flavour would it be and why?

Reddick: “Well, Gary and I love peanut butter and chocolate ice cream from Baskin-Robbins, so I vote we add something to that. Sorry to leave you (Felicetti) out.”

Felicetti: “You know what I do like, which I actually think would mix well with this, is banana ice cream.”

Reddick: “Ooh, banana ice cream,  peanut butter, banana chocolate ice cream, right? I’m down. That’s what it is.”

Are there any younger bands at this year’s lineup you’ve been impressed with?

Reddick: “Well, we just met the guys from Straight Jacket. They’re super cool. Can’t wait to check them out.

“People Are Ugly. We met them last night. They’re really cool, great guys. And then The Paradox.

Reddick: “Ok, yeah, I was going to say Magnolia Park. Cliff diver, yeah. So definitely some young talent on this run, and excited to check out the ones that we already know and the ones that we’re just finding out about, how long.”