Best friends know the good and bad about each other — which is why Brianna LaPaglia isn’t surprised when her BFFs cohost Josh Richards is running late to their interview with Rolling Stone. In fact, she thinks it’s an absolutely perfect start.
“This is our ongoing bit for the tour — that Josh is always late,” LaPaglia jokes over a Zoom call. “So this is entirely on brand.”
Lapaglia and Richards, hosts of the Barstool Sports podcast BFFs, are known for sharing their personal and hilarious bits to their 400,000 monthly listeners. But now, the two are taking the laughs on the road with “The Best Friends (For Now) Tour” — a monthlong U.S. trek through stops like Chicago, San Diego, and Nashville where BFFs fans will get treated to a live version of the pop culture podcast, complete with games, never before heard stories, and a few secret surprises. While Richards and LaPaglia have both been on live tours in the past, this is their first time touring BFFs, and the two tell Rolling Stone they’re excited to finally interact with fans in person instead of behind a screen. The tour begins in Louisiana on Oct. 1.
“I’ve never done the podcast tour before,” says Richards, 23. “The last time I was touring was when I was 17, just starting to do content. So it’s cool getting to put a face to the comments, likes, and the people that support the content, the podcast.”
“We’ve been doing the podcast for so long now it’s almost crazy that we haven’t gone on tour,” LaPaglia adds. “I’m so excited to give the fans what they want, because they’ve been asking for four years now for a BFFs tour. So it’s finally all coming together.”
When BFFs premiered in 2020, it was hosted by LaPaglia, Richards, and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. “It’’s a light hearted look into Gen Z and just growing up in your twenties,” says LaPaglia, 26, describing the show. “We’ve grown up on the podcast. We try to give a lot of insight on who we are as people and also cover all of the silly, stupid topics that shouldn’t be on the news.”
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While BFFs started as a way to discuss the latest internet drama and news of the day, the rising stars of LaPaglia and Richards eventually meant that sometimes, the news of the day was about them. In 2024, LaPaglia dated and eventually split with country music star Zach Bryan. But after weeks of speculation, she shared in a detailed episode of BFFs about how the relationship started and fell apart, accusing Bryan of emotional abuse and allegedly asking her to sign a $12 million non-disclosure agreement. (Bryan did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment at the time and denied the allegations on social media.) Since the revelatory episode, Richards and LaPaglia, and Portnoy have continued to publicly call out Bryan for his behavior. One of the fan favorite antics has been diss tracks performed by Portnoy and Richards — music videos that make fun of Bryan’s past public mistakes and refer to the country singer as a “douchebag” and “liar.”
“I’ve shared a lot of my personal life on BFFs, and I think Josh [did] as well in the beginning,” LaPaglia says. “We can’t be the people that talk about all this drama and talk about everyone’s personal life without also sharing our own. We would be hypocrites if we did that. Sometimes it’s hard to share things that you might want to keep personal, but it’s also nice that we have our own platform to do it.”
This tour also marks a year since Portnoy left the podcast as a host. Portnoy, 48, first announced the switchup during a November 2024 episode. He noted the departure wasn’t because of any falling out but rather he felt that “talking about teenage drama [is] a little out of my wheelhouse now.” With Portnoy gone, both Richards and LaPaglia say the podcast has changed — but they agree that it’s ended up transforming the podcast into something new and fresh.
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“Dave is Dave,” LaPaglia says. “He is the person that says exactly what he’s thinking, and he’s not scared to hold back. Josh and I are a little more lighthearted. We don’t take things to heart. We don’t hold grudges with champagne bottles.” (Portnoy — a self proclaimed hater — has famously said he buys champagne bottles, writes his enemies names on them, and then drinks them when they’re embarrassed in public.) So we knew we were going to have to pivot a little and bring a little bit more of our personal life into it. I think we really captivated who was there from the beginning, that just loved the podcast and loved Josh and I, and weren’t just there for one person. We’ve gotten a closer community with our fans because of it.”
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While fans of BFFs can expect a similar banter from the live show, it won’t be exactly the same. “We’re doing a bunch of these bigger moments and fun surprises that you typically won’t get to see through the podcast,” Richards says. “We’ve really tried to create an immersive experience at the shows. The audience can expect to get thrown into a couple of games and be brought on stage. We’re having the people get involved.”
One thing LaPaglia is excited for? The return of the diss tracks. “There will be more,” LaPaglia says. “You have to come to the show to find out who they’re about and what they’re going to say, but that’s a very exciting thing that only people that come to the live show will get to see.”
