OLDCHELLA MUSINGS
In his L.A. Times preview of Desert Trip, which takes place on consecutive three-day weekends starting Friday, Mikael Wood lays out the salient facts and imagines what future lineups might look like...
In his L.A. Times preview of Desert Trip, which takes place on consecutive three-day weekends starting Friday, Mikael Wood lays out the salient facts. For starters, the average age of the participants—The Stones, Dylan, McCartney, Neil Young, The Who and Roger Waters—is 72. The surviving members of Led Zeppelin are rumored to have turned down $14m to perform. And altogether, the gatherings are expected to pull in around $160 million, nearly twice what Coachella made in 2015.
This last point, Wood points out, virtually guarantees that Oldchella will be an annual event for several years to come—which leads to the intriguing question of who might be approached to perform. Apart from another go at Led Zep, Wood singles out Eric Clapton and Paul Simon—to which we’d add Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Van Morrison, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Don Henley/Eagles, Sting/The Police and the Pretenders. Who else qualifies, and what would be the ultimate Desert Trip II lineup?