| Photo |
Phil Lesh
|
Back from the Dead
BY JUSTIN QUINN
Forgive Phil Lesh.
For more than 30 years, he toured the globe as bassist with the famous tie-dye band, the Grateful Dead. After more than 3,000 shows, forgive him if he can't remember the one time he performed at Hersheypark.
"It was after my marriage, I know that," Lesh said Tuesday afternoon from a venue in Canandaigua, N.Y. "And I've been married for 17 years."
In fact, Lesh and the Grateful Dead played at Hersheypark 16 years ago, on June 28, 1985. It was a rainy day and the band's legendary lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia, wore a sport coat.
Sunday, Lesh marks his return to Hersheypark with a performance at The Star Pavilion stage. His band, Phil Lesh and Friends, will headline an all-star lineup including the Derek Trucks Band and Willie Nelson and Family.
"For summer tours, you really want to have some strong acts that complement what it is you're doing," Lesh said. "Of the bands that are going out and were available, we tried to find some of the most interesting and even provocative bands that are working today, sort of in that jam-band area."
The Grateful Dead are credited by many with being the forefathers of modern jam bands like Phish, Disco Biscuits and others. This is partly because the second set of every Dead show could be counted on for an intense jam leading into an extended period of music exploration. Deadheads called it "space."
In keeping with that theme, Lesh's band uses transitions between songs instead of silence. Band members are familiar with performing spacy jams. They include former Bruce Hornsby drummer John Molo, former Zen Trickters keyboardist Rob Barraco and former Allman Brothers Band guitarists Jimmy Herring and Warren Haynes.
"I'm hoping to get to this point where we can just go up and call a key, start playing and eventually wind our way around and follow the current through the islands of all the songs that suggest themselves," Lesh said. "I really want to attempt that with this band."
Until then, Lesh said he'll continue organizing the set lists so every show is unique.
"As it stands now, what I'm trying to do is make the set lists so they tell a story or describe a journey of some kind," he said.
"The music will tell one story maybe. The combination of the lyrics and their sequence will tell another. And the jams in between will tell yet another story."
Perhaps the best part is that the music is available for free, Lesh says. Like the Grateful Dead, he encourages his fans to bring microphones and tape the shows.
"It's the best kind of word-of-mouth," he said. "If the music can speak for itself, then you don't have to rely on people trying to describe it. When the Grateful Dead agreed to allow taping, or more accurately, we agreed not to ban it, I think that was one of the smartest moves market-wise we ever made, because it allowed the music to go out there."
And the fans paid the band back with respect, Lesh said.
"The thing is, nobody, none of the Deadheads ended up selling it," he said. "They gave it to each other."
The advent of the Internet opened up new possibilities for sharing, Lesh said.
"The shows that we really like, we put up the soundboards on the Internet," he said. "This way, there are people burning CDs and sending them to five people and each one of those people burns CDs and sends them to five people."
Even before Garcia's death in 1995, the rest of the band members found themselves woven into the fabric of American pop culture.
"It's kind of like being in a club," Lesh laughed. "Except that there's no requirements particularly for entry.
"You know what?" he added with a serious tone. "It's destiny that leads you to this place."
In April, as he was working on three new songs, destiny led him to Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
"I was working on one of these little tunes and it just sat up and said to me, "I'm a Robert Hunter song,'" Lesh said. "So I went over and I played it for him."
After about two days, Hunter had written the words to "Night of A Thousand Stars," "Celebration" and "Rock 'n' Roll Blues."
"Hunter's lyrics, to me, really speak to deep areas of the human spirit and soul," Lesh said.
At the conclusion of all his shows, Lesh speaks to the audience about the importance of organ and blood donation. That's because nearly three years ago, he was at death's door due to a "shot" liver.
"My donor was a young man who died in a helmetless road accident of some kind," Lesh said. "I didn't know his name until just a little while ago, just about three or four months ago. It turns out that he had informed his mother six months before his death that, if anything happened to him, he wanted to be an organ donor."
The transplant gave Lesh insight into what is imporant in his life, he said.
"Without the liver transplant, I'd be dead," he said. "Aside from that fundamental level, I certainly have become aware now of how important it is to maintain integrity and do things for the right reasons and not for, I guess, ego gratification or cold cash or whatever."
And Grateful Dead music is as important as ever, Lesh said.
"I'm still playing the music because the music demands it," he said. "It sort of has me by the throat, and it won't let me go."
For more than 30 years, he toured the globe as bassist with the famous tie-dye band, the Grateful Dead. After more than 3,000 shows, forgive him if he can't remember the one time he performed at Hersheypark.
"It was after my marriage, I know that," Lesh said Tuesday afternoon from a venue in Canandaigua, N.Y. "And I've been married for 17 years."
In fact, Lesh and the Grateful Dead played at Hersheypark 16 years ago, on June 28, 1985. It was a rainy day and the band's legendary lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia, wore a sport coat.
Sunday, Lesh marks his return to Hersheypark with a performance at The Star Pavilion stage. His band, Phil Lesh and Friends, will headline an all-star lineup including the Derek Trucks Band and Willie Nelson and Family.
"For summer tours, you really want to have some strong acts that complement what it is you're doing," Lesh said. "Of the bands that are going out and were available, we tried to find some of the most interesting and even provocative bands that are working today, sort of in that jam-band area."
The Grateful Dead are credited by many with being the forefathers of modern jam bands like Phish, Disco Biscuits and others. This is partly because the second set of every Dead show could be counted on for an intense jam leading into an extended period of music exploration. Deadheads called it "space."
In keeping with that theme, Lesh's band uses transitions between songs instead of silence. Band members are familiar with performing spacy jams. They include former Bruce Hornsby drummer John Molo, former Zen Trickters keyboardist Rob Barraco and former Allman Brothers Band guitarists Jimmy Herring and Warren Haynes.
"I'm hoping to get to this point where we can just go up and call a key, start playing and eventually wind our way around and follow the current through the islands of all the songs that suggest themselves," Lesh said. "I really want to attempt that with this band."
Until then, Lesh said he'll continue organizing the set lists so every show is unique.
"As it stands now, what I'm trying to do is make the set lists so they tell a story or describe a journey of some kind," he said.
"The music will tell one story maybe. The combination of the lyrics and their sequence will tell another. And the jams in between will tell yet another story."
Perhaps the best part is that the music is available for free, Lesh says. Like the Grateful Dead, he encourages his fans to bring microphones and tape the shows.
"It's the best kind of word-of-mouth," he said. "If the music can speak for itself, then you don't have to rely on people trying to describe it. When the Grateful Dead agreed to allow taping, or more accurately, we agreed not to ban it, I think that was one of the smartest moves market-wise we ever made, because it allowed the music to go out there."
And the fans paid the band back with respect, Lesh said.
"The thing is, nobody, none of the Deadheads ended up selling it," he said. "They gave it to each other."
The advent of the Internet opened up new possibilities for sharing, Lesh said.
"The shows that we really like, we put up the soundboards on the Internet," he said. "This way, there are people burning CDs and sending them to five people and each one of those people burns CDs and sends them to five people."
Even before Garcia's death in 1995, the rest of the band members found themselves woven into the fabric of American pop culture.
"It's kind of like being in a club," Lesh laughed. "Except that there's no requirements particularly for entry.
"You know what?" he added with a serious tone. "It's destiny that leads you to this place."
In April, as he was working on three new songs, destiny led him to Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
"I was working on one of these little tunes and it just sat up and said to me, "I'm a Robert Hunter song,'" Lesh said. "So I went over and I played it for him."
After about two days, Hunter had written the words to "Night of A Thousand Stars," "Celebration" and "Rock 'n' Roll Blues."
"Hunter's lyrics, to me, really speak to deep areas of the human spirit and soul," Lesh said.
At the conclusion of all his shows, Lesh speaks to the audience about the importance of organ and blood donation. That's because nearly three years ago, he was at death's door due to a "shot" liver.
"My donor was a young man who died in a helmetless road accident of some kind," Lesh said. "I didn't know his name until just a little while ago, just about three or four months ago. It turns out that he had informed his mother six months before his death that, if anything happened to him, he wanted to be an organ donor."
The transplant gave Lesh insight into what is imporant in his life, he said.
"Without the liver transplant, I'd be dead," he said. "Aside from that fundamental level, I certainly have become aware now of how important it is to maintain integrity and do things for the right reasons and not for, I guess, ego gratification or cold cash or whatever."
And Grateful Dead music is as important as ever, Lesh said.
"I'm still playing the music because the music demands it," he said. "It sort of has me by the throat, and it won't let me go."