Interview with Vince Welnick of the Grateful Dead & The Tubes

Conducted by Jeremy Baldwin on 4/14/014

Aired on The Crossroads Music Program on 4/17/04

VW=Vince Welnick

JB=Jeremy Baldwin

JB: I want to thank you for talking to us and I was wondering if you've ever been up to the Ann Arbor area in Michigan before?

VW: Oh yeah, since the days of MC5, the Tubes have been frequenting the Ann Arbor area, because we were considered radical much like MC5. So I have been coming there since the seventies or eighties and I was back more recently with the Mickey Hart Band I believe and I might have done it more recently with the Missing Man Formation, I can't recall for sure. But Ann Arbor has always been a vital link to the people, to the Midwest and it has always been a very cool crowd. It reminds somewhat of Berkeley, California up here, where its college run and it is a college town and they are somewhat on the radical side and they are definitely into music and being free.

JB: Yeah, that's true and its still that way today

VW: I figured as much

JB: You're playing up at the Blind Pig, which is a pretty cool club. You're playing this time with a band called Terrapin Flyer. How did you hook up with those guys and what can you tell us about them?

VW: They primarily play Grateful Dead music and I played a couple shows with them. I did an outdoor festival one time and I played with them in Chicago last time I was in Chicago. Doug Hagman is somewhat the leader of the band, guitar player, and he so graciously went out and rustled up all these gigs and I come in there and I join them and they rent a keyboard and they learned some of my original songs. In the spirit of the Grateful Dead they do other cover songs of timeless Rock classics and things like that. We are actually going to rehearse for this upcoming tour and we will primarily do Grateful Dead style music and we'll also do the timeless classics and Vince Welnick originals, some of which have never been heard on record.

JB: So we might hear some of the songs you actually did with the Dead as well?

VW: Oh yeah, and beyond. They do some of the songs I've written since the Dead.

JB: Would you mind telling the story of how you originally got the gig playing with the Grateful Dead?

VW: It was summer of 1990. This friend of my wife Laurie, her name is Sheila Jones, called Laurie up and said, "Oh my god, Brent Mydland died and the band has got a tour up in September and Vince needs to be in this band." Laurie found out that the Tubes old Secretary, Mimi Mills was now working for Bob Weir, so she contacted Mimi and she said that they were auditioning people. I said, that's nonsense, they've got lots of friends that play. Why don't they just yank one of those people and get them in the band? And she said, no they are looking for somebody who could sing the high harmonies and that Bruce Hornsby was coming in, but just part-time. They needed someone to play synthesizer and sing all the harmonies and eventually take over all the piano when Bruce left. An audition was held, they sent me some tapes and I started practicing on my piano at home. I went to the audition and played and waited around for a few weeks. Several people had auditioned and a long time had passed and I started to wonder if they had just given it up and maybe didn't bother to tell me. Then I get a call and its Bob Weir on the phone and he says, "Is your insurance paid up?"

JB: It's kind of a dangerous position to be in…

VW: Yeah, A lot of people ask about that and my stock answer is that I am aware of the fact that you could die doing this job, but I was somewhat dying of boredom before the job came up so I thought I'd take my chances.

JB: You're not planning on playing with those guys anytime soon are you?

VW: I wouldn't say no.

JB: It's kind of up to them huh?

VW: I am patterning my life as a wandering minstrel who sits in with other bands and just brings something to the party. I'd like to play with so many people, but those guys are up near the top of the list of people I would like to play with.

JB: During that five years or so with the Dead you got to play with not only the people in the band, but they had some pretty cool special guests sit in with them. Do any of those particularly stand out?

VW: Oh sure, I was just thinking of Bob Dylan and the time he came up and we did "Everybody Must Get Stoned" together. Ornette Coleman was an extraordinary person to get to play on the bandstand with, as was Branford Marsalis. Steve Miller…Sting…Carlos…Neil Young…John Fogerty…all kinds of great players. It was truly a pleasure. One time that stands out in particular is a night at the LA Sports Arena that Branford did and he played the entire night instead of just coming up and just sitting in. He was standing right next to me on my side of the stage. So we were kind of relating and giggling and he started getting so enthusiastic and he started dancing for joy. I remember Jerry looking at him and thinking it was so funny that a guy would actually dance on stage. You know those guys aren't big dancers and Branford's all over the place dancing and jumping up down and Jerry's giggling. Branford doesn't have to be told what key the song is in or anything. He just comes in when it's right. He waits and listens and comes in and plays everything perfectly. Apparently Ornette Coleman had a big influence on Jerry's philosophy in music. One thing about the philosophy that Ornette Coleman has is that if you bother to wonder what key its in then you are not in the song.

JB: You're thinking too much huh?

VW: Right, everything is one key. There is only one key.

JB: One of my favorite projects that you have been involved with more recently is that Persuasions album where they play Grateful Dead tunes.

VW: I got to thank David Gans for hooking me up with that.

JB: I love your playing on "Ship of Fools" in particular…

VW: They really broke custom. That band had never played with instruments and I thought, how is this going to work? And then they bring this bass singer out, who never in his 50 year career with the band got to sing a lead. All of sudden he is singin' "Ship of Fools" and I'm playing the piano and they had this dreamy backup harmony and it all went down live. What you hear on the tape was the take.

JB: It's an incredible take…

VW: And I didn't know how he was going to arrange it or any of that stuff. It was also very soft. I had to treat the piano in a very soft way and play ever so soft and squishy and delicately.

JB: That's an underrated album too. That's for sure. What are your plans for the future?

VW: Being on the subject of the Persuasions, I would like to do Jerry Lawson's first solo album with a band and provide the band. You can get an example of that if you listen to "Home of the Angels". I put up the band and the arrangement and wrote the music and did the background vocals. He came in much like Frank Sinatra. I'd like to do a whole album of that. I'd like do an album of my newer stuff, some of which is on my website. I'm giving it away for now. I like to tour. I'm doing it just about as much as is a perfect balance of it. Before I get burned out, I'm home. By the time I leave home, I'm itching to get out there again so I am not working too hard and I'm not working not enough to keep my chops down. I have this beautiful Duesseldorfer (SP?) piano at home. It's the love of my life. It's all the piano I ever need. I have all the tools to do anything I want and I am completely free and unencumbered. The skies the limit really.

JB: WSDS plays a lot of Country during the week. Was Country music something you ever listened to?

VW: I couldn't help it, I grew up in Phoenix. I heard my share of country. I played at Waylon Jenning's, J.D.'s at the River Bottom Room. I must have played there 100 times, every Sunday. I hung out with a lot of those guys. I have written Country songs. I have a great country song that nobody has ever heard. The lyrics are written by Ken Kesey. It's called "Ragweed Root". I haven't recorded that in the studio yet, but its one of two poems that Ken sent me before he died that I put to music. This "Ragweed Root" song is very much an authentic Country song. I just happen to love Johnny Cash's last album. It hit me in a good place. I love Willie Nelson and the old guys. Actually I sent "Ragweed Root" to George Jones. I didn't get it to him directly so I don't know if he's ever heard it. I thought that would be a perfect song for George Jones to do. I try to get these songs into the hands of people who would perhaps do them better than I would. I think people who are Country-minded would like to see Terrapin Flyer with me. Not necessarily because we do Country music, but we play a lot in the style of Country music. I mean there are a lot of Grateful Dead songs that can be appreciated by the Country music listener. Hell, I might even whip out some Country songs.

JB: If you guys are rehearsing when you are in Chicago, think of one to play in Ann Arbor.

VW: Do you have one mind?

JB: I don't know… anything by Willie Nelson or Johnny Cash. The Dead used to some country songs like "Me & My Uncle" and "Mama Tried".

VW: You got a lot of the Dead Country-esque songs. Now that I have this in mind I might come up with something special for the occasion.

JB: That would be great. Alright Vince, we are going to see you on April 23rd at the Blind Pig with Terrapin Flyer. I know that I am looking forward to the show and I hope everybody comes up and checks out the band.