Oh, to be a fly on the wall for Shep Rose, Craig Conover, and Austen Kroll‘s night out with Andy Cohen and John Mayer last month.
Cohen shared during a March episode of Andy Cohen Live! that he took the Southern Charm gents out to a nice dinner at San Vicente Bungalows, a private club in New York City, during which chaos erupted to the point that Cohen had to tell the guys to “bring it down.” When Mayer eventually joined them, Cohen said the Grammy-winning artist was trying to figure out the ins and outs of Southern Charm, and that he eventually described the trio as “the most chaotic energy” he had ever been around.
When DECIDER caught up with Rose via Zoom to talk about his involvement with the professional tennis league INTENNSE, he recalled the “funniest part” about that dinner.
“Obviously, we all know who John Mayer is. But Austen and I are extremely astute and passionate live music fans. Austen loves Phish. We both love the Grateful Dead. We both know all the different musicians in that orbit,” Rose explained. “So, Austen and I are like, ‘Aw, man, tell us about this. Tell us about that. Tell us about the Grateful Dead.’”
Mayer, of course, plays lead guitar for Dead & Company, the Grateful Dead’s successor band started by original members Bob Weir, who died in January, and Mickey Hart. Plus, it’s well-known that Cohen is a Dead Head. We’ve all seen that viral video of him dancing in a tie-dye shirt at a Dead & Company concert back in 2024.
“Andy was soaking it in and was happy to see our enthusiasm,” Rose said, but noted that Conover seemed a little lost in the conversation. “It was funny because Craig likes pop music, you know? I know he doesn’t know one Grateful Dead song. I just kind of look back wistfully and laugh because I remember thinking, ‘I wonder if Craig knows any of these people that we’re talking about.'”
With DECIDER pointing out that Conover gives off more Swifie vibes than Dead Head, Rose concurred, “Yeah, he loves Taylor Swift. By the way, an extremely talented girl there, Taylor Swift.”
While speaking of Conover, Rose also shared whether he believes the Sewing Down South founder will return for the next season of Southern Charm. As we all saw in the reunion episodes, which finished airing late last month, the pile-on became a lot for Conover to handle, forcing him to question whether being on the show was still the best choice for him.
“I think he wants to do it. I think he’s good at it,” Rose said. “He and I have been doing this a long time, and we’ve developed a muscle for it. And look, I’ve been there. I’ve totally been in that mindset of, ‘I need a break,‘ or what have you. It’s actually an opportunity, that’s how I see it, to just come back and wipe the slate clean. I think the show can be very cathartic in that manner. Also, you can shoot yourself in the foot, which happens quite often, but it happens to all of us, and they’re pretty fair about showing that. So, I would encourage him as a friend, and I hope I don’t have to, but I think he should [come back].”
Southern Charm Season 11 is currently streaming on Peacock.
