Behind the stage for This Tent at Bonnaroo, Netherlands-based DJ Tiesto is calm and relaxed as he gets ready to hop on the turntables for his late-night set. The 70,000 audience members at Bonnaroo are small fish for the techno titan. Tiesto is used to playing to crowds upwards of 50,000 people (in early 2007, he played Rio de Janeiro for 200,000!), so at Bonnaroo, Tiesto was ready to rock the campgrounds like a true living legend.
If you haven't heard of Tiesto by now, you've probably been living under a rock. The DJ has spent practically half of his life behind the 1's and 2's, first busting onto the scene with the release of his hit 1994 single "Extacy" and the third installment of the Forbidden Paradise series in 1995. Tiesto released a flurry of live mixes over the course of the following years, finally releasing his own debut studio album in 2001 titled In My Memory, a record that solidified his reputation as a dance music and trance tastemaker.
After the album's release, Tiesto began his reign over the dance scene. He was soon branded as "No. 1 DJ in the World" for three consecutive years by DJMag, given a partnership with Georgio Armani to feature a limited edition Tiesto shirt in Armani Exchange stores and bestowed with over 50 awards for his accomplishments. His enormously successful career is marked by milestones like playing the 2004 Olympics Opening Ceremony, releasing dozens of mix CDs and original albums to mass acclaim and serving as a worldwide ambassador for Dance4Life by promoting AIDS/HIV awareness.
Tiesto just released his newest mix In Search of Sunrise 7: Asia, and has plenty more on his plate as he prepares for a summer-long residency as the house DJ for Privilege Ibiza, the largest nightclub in the world. As he chatted with Senior Editor Steven before taking the stage with special guests Jose Gonzalez and Tegan and Sara, Tiesto revealed the secret to how he finds music to include in his weekly podcasts and mixes, what it's like to play for tens of thousands of people and that, for a dude as in shape as he is, pizza is his favorite pre-show munchie.
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