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Unbelievably Interesting Trey Anastasio Interview
I just got an email with a link to a rather frank interview with Trey Anastasio, and I just have to run through it. Trey openly discusses the role that drugs had in Phish’s breakup–I am actually shocked. I think it was a very well-written piece and it’s easily worth highlighting a couple key passages.
His peripatetic style can lead him to get ahead of himself. Anastasio admits he unveiled his new band, dubbed 70 Volt Parade, a bit too early
I’ll go ahead and agree with that one.
“I … care about those people; I’ve got myself in a situation where I want them to be happy,” Anastasio said. “That’s so much of what Phish was. It was our job from the stage with the music, with the thinking of all the ideas and crazy things — ‘Hey, let’s do “Dark Side of the Moon” the night after Halloween!’ — all of that was nurturing a community.”
I wasn’t really into Phish at the time (and I know I’m newb-ing myself by saying that), so I never really went back and read reviews of this show. I always had a feeling that this was the true motive of so much of what they did, and the truth comes straight from the source. I guess it’s a conflicting position as a band to try and be fresh and yet at the same time try and nurture what the community might expect.
“For Coventry, our guest list was between 2,500 and 3,000 people,” Anastasio said. “It was like a nightmare backstage — very dark. But still, it was great to be onstage with my friends,” Anastasio said.
Very dark, indeed. I would not have walked away from Coventry a happy person, and hell, I only listened to a broken-ass radio stream on the internet.
“And then who knows? Maybe we could all play together again. I’d love it.”
Wow.
I think it is starting to make sense. From the botched Coventry weekend to the sloppy Vegas run, Phish fans had started to question the ear urination that they were receiving. The musical diarrhea, if you will. And hell, I did enjoy it at the time. It’s just scary to think that this is something that can cripple something so genius. It’s scary to think that this can be attributed to the scene, and yet, we are the scene. We can do better. We don’t have to let “hard drugs” creep into the hands of the band’s road manager.
I do understand that drugs are going to be a rampant hobby for many, many, many musicians (and artists alike). I certainly don’t like to think of the effect they have on the music and where Phish might have been today had drugs not taken over. If we can even fully believe that, but yet he seems completely intent on reminding fans that there was a glory in Phish that can’t be denied. Maybe the band mates and Trey himself are all completely sober now, as Trey is already in his own words. Maybe that does mean that a reunion might be possible.
Whatever. Don’t do oxycontin next time, then…
Discussion
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I knew a bunch of people that went out to the VU Loaded Halloween show in Vegas, then came back, saw they played DSOTM two days later and just FLIPPED OUT. That would suck. Although, that Loaded album was played so incredibly well, I’m not sure you can walk away unhappy.
Either way, the best part of the Dark Side show was the fact that they ended the album and IMMEDIATELY went back into Harpua. That’s why they are who they are. No turn unstoned.
As for the Trey interview, at some point we have to realize that the guy is just talking. Trey has granted interviews to so many different sources in the hopes of getting more press for the album/tour, so I’m starting to lose faith in what he’s saying as his true feelings. Maybe he’s just talking now, with nothing behind it. Or maybe it’s the opposite, maybe he’s less guarded than he was early on. Who knows?
All I do know is, lately we’re all Gay 4 Trey again, and I like the world when we like Trey, not hate him.
Good point, Ace. As someone who works in TV and media, I am also always wary of why people are doing interviews (e.g. Jose Canseco or Bill Romanowski, who both came out about steroids - surprise! - when they were hawking their crappy biographies).
And Justin, I just want to raise one point: It’s not as simple as keeping the drogas out of the road managers hands. I did a show with Poison and Bret Michaels was saying that the reason why rock stars do so much junk is that when they get off stage, and there is no crowd to cheer them, they look for ways to keep the high going. One thing we don’t realize as fans is how high that high that musicians get is. So many of them have referred to it (in various colorful ways) as, let’s just say, “engaging in sexual intercourse” with the crowd.
One thing that is just so striking about all of this, is how eerily similar the paths that the Dead and Phish took. Think about it: 10 years of crazy diehard touring, a 2 year break, a return with even more fans doing harder drugs…I think that somewhere in the back of all of Phish’s minds were that they WERE the next Grateful Dead, and I don’t think they wanted that legacy. When they announced the breakup, Trey immediately alluded to not wanting Phish to become a parody or nostaligia act, which I kind of read as a little dig at post-91 Grateful Dead. (For those of us at those shows, let’s all admit that most of those shows flat-out stunk). Now I’m wondering if Big Red didn’t also start thinking “Hey, if I stay on this course, I could end up dying 100 pounds overweight in a rehab clinic, too.”
But hey, I’m glad he’s finally talking about this stuff. This is an interview Jerry NEVER would have done.
(Thanks for this link, Justin)
Well said Ace and Chilly.
My pleasure, duder.
Thanks, Scotty.
Chilly, good insight with the Bret Michaels thing…I’m sure that’s a big part of it.
But more importantly, I think your comparison of Phish and the Dead is perfect…We all know Trey loves the Dead but he also loves aspects of Boston. In terms of the break-up, I think he was looking at the Dead the whole way. And while his physical appearance was always in check, I think he didn’t want people to say things like, “Phish, they’re really hit or miss these days” and “Trey can’t hit the same notes that he could when he was 21.”
Me personally? I’d take a mediocre Phish show over any other concert all day long.
A lot of people on the PT board are pointing to this article as an indicator that Phish will get back together. While the article does sort of lend Trey that tone I don’t think people should be getting their hopes up so much. I’m only a post-hiatus newb, but I’m right there with you Ace, little could make me happier than Phish getting back together… I just think that day is seriously a long way off.
Well, to date myself, I first saw Phish in 91, my sophomore year in high school. I was completely high on mescalin in Boston. I was hooked after that. I say this because, as I realized while reading that great interview (thanks, J), I lost interest in 98, right when Trey says things were getting “dark”
Anyways, I am now perceiving this all as a grand experiment. The grand experiment is: How public, how open, can Trey be about this stuff? How much can a rock icon reveal? If he says enough, will people forgive him, whether or not Phish plays again (1 year or ten years from now)? I really admire, and, from a perspective of someone that toured on and off through the early nineties, appreciate his courage to be so open about this stuff. Who else talks this openly? None that I can think of …
(so “gay for Trey” right now :o)
I think we’re all of a little gay for Trey this week. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Some of the stuff he’s talking about now could never have been spoken about until now……so, I don’t think it’s just ‘banter’ or ‘for publicity’s sake’. From what I gather from these interviews he gives, Phish was dead long before they called it quits in ‘04. We got lucky they ever came back at all after the hiatus
Since the break up, he has been under attack like no other artist has ever been and probably thought how futile it would be to say anything about Phish’s breakup, and he would have been right. The more time passes, the more we will hear of what actually took place. Again, he is only human and I think we tend to forget this.
Trey loved Phish, always has, and always will. And maybe when they’re all standing on their own two feet, healthy, ……………..??????
I know, I love how he leaves us with that.
He’s just doing it to fuel ticket sales. It’s the only reason why he’s agreed to 5,000 interviews in the past month.
Okay, okay. I’m just joking. I’m so Trey-ed out right now.
That gets me, too, when he says shit like-”I’d like to have that option” (of getting back together) -piss off, Trey!!
My first comments to reading these blogs is Phish is many different things to many different people. I first saw phish in 95 at Umass. The music they brought to me was indescribably INSANE. I followed them up until about 99 when I too, saw a change in the “scene”. However I’m a firm believer that Trey quit. I’ve seen his solo career, “trey band, 70 Volt” …He will never capturet the adulation he recieved as the front man for PHISH
As an artist, there is so much to explore…one can never run out of possibilities. Why would Trey limit himself to Phish? Think of a diamond. The facets so many. There are so many intricacies to a genius. Why would he deny himself the exploration of himself as an artist?
The fan base was such a demanding one. He gave so much for so long. So he did some drugs that lead to the bands break-up…does that make you mad? It just makes me sad. He will never be able to please everyone, so let it be.
Trey is so not trying to promote his album by admitting there was drug use among the band…give him a break.