The Dead perform with Bob Dylan 6 p.m. Wednesday at the St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa. $52.50. (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100.
By GINA VIVINETTO
Published July 29, 2003
The Dead is back, on its first summer tour since leader Jerry Garcia's death in 1995. Joining the band for its Tampa performance at the St. Pete Times Forum is Bob Dylan.
The Grateful Dead and its hippie following have been a part of the American counterculture since the band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. The band, now touring as the Dead, still has members Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, and has added new members, including singer Joan Osborne to help perform classics such as Uncle John's Band, Truckin' and Sugar Magnolia.
For more than three decades Hart, 59, has been the Dead's percussionist. An avid proponent of recording and preserving the world's indigenous musics, Hart recently published Songcatchers: In Search Of The World's Musics, his fourth book. From his home in Northern California, Hart answers 10 Pressing Questions about playing without Garcia, what to do when you're given the gift of a human skull, and the fact that he never has actually tie-dyed a shirt.
(1) After so many years, the Dead's audience is made up of the stereotypical aging hippies in tie-dyed shirts and tons of younger people out to see you for the first time. Which stokes you more? I get it from both sides. That's one of the great things about the band. It's lasted so long, so we're able to pick up three or four generations of people. It's gratifying. They are dancing, they are all loving it and taking it in. It's about people. The Grateful Dead doesn't know about age, doesn't know about gender, doesn't know about how much you make a year. Or what you do.
It's very reassuring to know that your music has lasted. The older ones kind of appreciated even more, because they're the ones who have kept coming back. They have been loyal all these years. You have to sort of tip your hat to the older ones. The silver hairs.
(2) On a scale of one to 10, rate your own tie-dying skills. I've never tie-dyed. I'm not a big tie-dye fan. It's just another style. Tie-dye started because it sort of visually portrayed the psychedelic, mind-altering experience of acid, and it was cheap, a cheap way to put color into your shirts. I had a lot of friends who were really good at it, so I actually never attempted it. If you were really good at it, they looked great. But the process is not easy.
(3) What's the most memorable gift you've ever received from a fan? I once got a human skull. It was a real "Deadhead." This fellow claimed that he and his brother were on the way to a Grateful Dead show and they got into a car accident. His brother died and this guy thought his brother's wishes would be that his skull could be forever with the Grateful Dead. This was about 25 years ago. The skull stayed between the speakers of my studio for 15 years.
Our ritual was to go to (promoter) Bill Graham's house every New Year's. I always gave Bill a present. One year I couldn't figure out what to give him, so I thought (in a whisper) the skull. So, I gave Bill the Deadhead and we took a picture of it and it became a very famous picture.
(4) You love rhythm so much. Were you a toddler that beat on pots and pans? My pots and pans days are over, but that's where I started, sure. The other day I did something unique: I played a guitar case. My friend and I were out on the beach. He was playing guitar and I played his case with my hands.
One time me and (filmmaker) Francis Coppola played his kitchen.
Just everything in his kitchen? Yeah. He had all these pots and pans set up over the stove. We went crazy. We had had a couple of glasses of wine. We went around with wooden spoons and played the kitchen. That was about 15 years ago. I haven't played anyone's kitchen since.
(5) The sets go for four hours. What's the secret to the Dead's stamina? Viagra. (Laughs). Huge doses of Viagra. No, I'm kidding. With music, the hardest thing is to start. But, once you do, the music propels you. It sends an energy through your body; it's adrenaline. You can go for four hours. It's such an adventure. You get lost in the music. You're entranced. You can't feel aches and pains. You don't get tired like you normally would.
Is it ever hard to stop after four hours? No. Four hours is enough. After four hours, you're tired. People can't really sustain much more than four hours of music. It really stretches your concentration. The audience is tired, too, after standing and dancing for four hours.
(6) Recently you referred to Jerry's death as a time when "Jerry was ripped away from us." I was struck by severity of those words, the pain, eight years later. Jerry was really in a lot of pain and suffering in the last years of his life. He wasn't able to breath easily. He was never really a physical specimen. The body was decomposing rapidly. He was suffering in his last 15 years.
Having him gone is actually a relief in some ways because he's not suffering on the physical plane. And he still lives with us spiritually. He's still giving us so much. And he spawned the Grateful Dead, which we're taking on.
Do you feel him there onstage? It would be difficult not to. He was my best friend, aside from the music. I spent my whole adult life hanging out with him almost every day. The musical part of it, his guitar, still rings in my ear every day, when I wake up. All I have to do is listen for him, it's like, he's there.
(7) Are you enjoying taking new folks into the family, like Joan Osborne? It's easy! The Grateful Dead has always been about a conversation. Now we've got new guys involved in the conversation. We're talking about old ideas in a new way. These guys are picking up on it big-time. It's real easy to talk to them because they're kind, they're smart and they're good. They know about our conversation and they respect it. So, I don't find it labored at all. I find it very facile. And very invigorating.
(8) Is there's an era in time you're particularly drawn to? Between 1875 and 1900, the Great Age of Invention, that's my favorite time in history. There was a giant explosion of ideas of invention. That was right there in the Industrial Age and Edison, Bell, Tesla, all of those people.
(9) Tell me about your kids. I've got a daughter, Reya. She's 10. And, my boy, Taro, is 20. Reya is a great reader. (Reya is in the room with Hart, on speaker phone.) Tell her how long it took you to read the last Harry Potter book.
Reya: Eight days.
Hart: She's an amazing reader.
(10) You love sound so much and work so hard to preserve music. What's the last sound you'd like to hear before you leave the planet? The sounds and voices of my wife and my daughter. My children. Those are the sounds you want to hear.
