Vince Welnick Interview - March 1995

From the Memphis Flyer

Vince Welnick, 44, keyboardist for the Grateful Dead, in his hotel room in Charlotte:

Flyer:

Have you been to Memphis before?

Welnick:

I've been there with the Tubes a long time ago and was through there one time with Todd Rundgren.

Flyer:

Bruce really adds a spark to the band when he's there, doesn't he?

Welnick:

Oh, yeah, and you can tell from the audience that he was well-received. It sounds like they're booing but they're yelling for Bruce. I heard a lot of that right before we came out. It was fun - it always pleases Jerry to have Bruce there, and Bruce is a great piano man. It was great to watch him play, play with him, and hang out in the bar afterwards.

Flyer:

You changed instruments for "Days Between."

Welnick:

Well, when Bruce was coming I ditched all my piano sounds out of my keyboard and was using all electronic sounds and synthesizer sounds. And since I start the intro off on piano with Jerry and only I know the piano part, we decided that at some point during space we'd switch keyboards. Normally I would play that on my keyboard, but when Bruce is around I leave the piano work to him.

Flyer:

I thought "Easy Answers" was where the show really started to get going.

Welnick:

"Easy Answers" was about as funky and as groovy as we've ever played it last night.

Flyer:

Do certain shows stick out in your mind as being particularly good?

Welnick:

We have tapes of all the shows, and once I start hearing the order I can recall where and what we were doing and it brings me back to the show.

Flyer:

Do you ever listen back to a show and realize it wasn't what you thought it was?

Welnick:

A lot of times - that's why I listen to them. More often than not, it's not as I imagined it at the time. You don't have a very objective viewpoint with your own monitor mix up on stage. It can sound heavenly to you but it didn't necessarily go that well out front. Also, a part that you might play that you didn't think much about at the time turns out to be spectacular in context with the music. So I have a keyboard hooked up to my stereo that I can tune up with the tapes, and I can mix myself right in with the band. I used to do that a lot - I would play all the show tapes from the tour before I go out on the next tour, just to review everything and find out where it's at and where it wasn't at. But a lot of times the good stuff doesn't come out that good and the stuff that you overlooked is much better.

Flyer:

One example is Boston last fall - a lot of the fans say that was one of the best runs in years.

Welnick:

Yeah, Boston is great, but it's hard to remember any particular show - it all sort of flows together into one big show. The Garden has good vibes with all those banners flying - it just smells of victory. It smells of a lot of other things, too, but it's a funky old place.

Flyer:

Are you and the rest of the band aware that in Memphis you're playing a Pyramid?

Welnick:

Does it have Pyramid power? Can you leave an apple in there and it won't turn brown?

Flyer:

Somebody actually put a fake skull up there, part of some media thing.

Welnick:

Well, I'll have to tip 'em off to that - maybe we can find the skull. Actually it should sound great, and the last pyramid they played at they enjoyed thoroughly. I wish I'd have been there.

Flyer:

Tell me about the unveiling of "Unbroken Chain."

Welnick:

Phil was driving to rehearsal - we do rehearse every now and then - and he just got a flash that he'd like to do it. So a chart was prepared, because it's a difficult piece. Your typical song takes one sheet of paper, but this one took three. We practiced it about four or five times with just Phil, Jerry, Bobby, and myself. Then when we got to the Philly soundcheck, we laid it on the drummers, and they picked it up pretty fast considering it's way back on the Mars Hotel album. I think what inspired it to go off in Philly was that Phil's family was there, and he wanted them to hear it.

Flyer:

How'd it go?

Welnick:

It went really well. In fact, we closed the first set with it, and that was probably the single most enthusiastic response from an audience that I've been in front of with the Dead for a first set. The next day there were banners flying saying "Thank you, Phil."

Flyer:

Do you have a guess as to why it took them 22 years to play that tune?

Welnick:

Apparently, they just never learned it after they put it on the album. There's some kind of a rumor that they did it once, and somebody's trying to find the date.

Flyer:

On the tapes from Philadelphia, the crowd is screaming so loud you can't even hear the band. Can you guys even hear yourselves playing when it's like that?

Welnick:

We have our in-the-ear monitors, so our mix is right up in our heads. They also act as earplugs, so they don't let in much of the outside sound. So for us to really notice the audience they have to react about that loud for it to cut through the music. It's a double-edged sword. It's neat to hear the audience going off, but in a way it deadens the sound of the audience to where it's not a distraction all the time. Before, when we had speakers on stage, we'd just kind of wait for it to blow over. But when we're up there pumping, there's nothing louder than us not even a jet airplane.

Flyer:

Do you notice a difference in feel between east coast shows and west coast shows?

Welnick:

East coast people are more rabid. I think they're not as blase' about us because we don't live there and play regularly. And we aren't as blase' about it because we aren't going home after the show. We're out officially on tour, so there's more of an edge to it.

Flyer:

How much does the band hang out before or after the show?

Welnick:

Usually you blob out in bed and wait for the next show - just speaking for myself. Some of the guys might go out and run around or meet friends for dinner. I keep to myself a lot.

Flyer:

Do the fans hang around a lot?

Welnick:

Depends on the hotel. Sometimes it can get out of hand, and that's probably the reason you don't see Jerry much. He's not really able to. Bobby, on the other hand, likes the crowds in small doses. We try to be as normal as possible, but after about three shows you put your phone on permanent "do not disturb," get in bed, hunker down, order room service, roll one up, and make a day of it. And by the next day your soreness is pretty much over, the ringing has gone down, and you're ready to rock.

We stay in a lot of hotels where there's a bunch of deadheads. You see them playing cards in the hallway or something, and you just step right over them. They're pretty respectful. Some people have had to change their names for the sake of privacy, but the tried and true Deadhead will approach you cautiously and considerately. I've never had to summon security or anything. It's not like the Tubes crowd, which was more of a head-banger crowd where a guy might come in flailing around and you'd have to tie him down with gaffer's tape.

Flyer:

Were you a co-reviewer of the shows in the Philadelphia paper?

Welnick:

Yeah, that was my first time doing that. They were doing it by 1 to 5 bears, and we lucked out, because we had a very good run. I didn't have to slam the band too much. But I'd be thinking during the show, "Is this a three?" But we wound up with a couple of four-bear performances, one just short of a five-bear performance. The paper did their thing, and I did mine, and we were right in sync except for one show where there was a bear discrepancy in one of the sets. A five-bear would be ready for "One From the Vault," and I would have to review the tape before I could give anything five bears.

Flyer:

What's the latest on the next album?

Welnick:

We've already cut the basics, more than enough. We're going back in in May, but due to the tour scheduling I doubt very much the album will come out this year. We want to do it right.

Flyer:

At this point, are all the tunes on the album tunes that we've heard live?

Welnick:

Yeah, except that as more time passes the more opportunities there are to slip in new tunes that everybody has going. Phil has a whole mess of them, Bobby has a couple, I've got a couple. Generally, they like to tour and play a song before they put it on an album. But if something truly spectacular shows up I'm sure we'd all go in and have a crack at it. But the general rule of thumb is to tour with it, let it grow a face.

Flyer:

Isn't that sort of backwards for most bands?

Welnick:

The Tubes used to make an album, then learn it to figure out what they did, then go out and play it. I don't personally have a rule about it. I think the best way to make a great album is any way you can.

Flyer:

The record company doesn't put any pressure on you?

Welnick:

They wouldn't dare (laugh).

Flyer:

Here's a random thing - do you happen to know what the words to "Aiko Aiko" mean?

Welnick:

It's something like "Fuck you in the ass" (laughing). It's a real happy song.

Flyer:

How set are you guys on a set list - or even the first tune - when you go out there?

Welnick:

We ain't got a clue, literally. It'll be Bobby or Jerry's turn to do the first song of the night, and he'll call that song. Then we're out there with not even a breath of a clue. And by process of elimination, we won't do any of the songs from the first two nights. They're pretty good about not accidentally repeating a song. Bobby will sometimes just count it off to the drummers, and they instinctively start right up, then I might let a couple bars go by until I recognize the tune. With Jerry, he might practice it before we play it. He sort of gives away the secret a lot.

Flyer:

You have a reputation for being the catalyst for bringing back some of these older tunes like "Here Comes Sunshine."

Welnick:

I had a side band called the Affordables, and I used that as a way to make demo tapes to present to the band. Everybody brings them in, though - not just me. I brought in "Here Comes Sunshine," even though Jerry wrote it.

Flyer:

Did a request for that come in the mail?

Welnick:

Somebody sent me a list of tunes and when was the last time they were played, and when I heard it I thought it had a really nice Beatles-type feel to it. I did it with the Affordables when we opened for the Jerry Garcia Band on Halloween 1991. Then we got into a rehearsal mode, and I said, "Let's do that one," and Jerry said, "Do we have a copy of Wake of the Flood around?" I said, "No, but I do have the Affordables' arrangement of it, which started off a cappella. He liked that, so we started it off that way. That was like my attempt at the Beach Boys sound, I guess.

Flyer:

I also read that you'd like to bring back "The Golden Road."

Welnick:

The Affordables did that, too, and it brought the house down more than "Here Comes Sunshine."

Flyer:

By the way, "The Golden Road" mentions Memphis in the lyrics.

Welnick:

Well, then, we should do it. That'll be an excuse to bring it up again. I drop the hint about three times a year, but you can't twist anybody's arm.

Flyer:

A lot of the fans talk about St. Stephen. Is there some sort of mojo working there?

Welnick:

That song runs into a brick wall somewhere in the bridge, and it has in the past for them. I've never gotten to the brick wall to run into it with them. We did it at soundcheck in Oakland, but we never got to that brick-wall bridge. It's just too much to work out at this point. I guess it's kind of a bug-a-boo. But the fans would love to hear it, that's for sure.

Flyer:

What do you think about coming to Memphis?

Welnick:

We're excited. I think we want to go to Graceland, eat ribs, do the whole deal. We hear the kitchen is open at Graceland now, so maybe we can get in there and fry up some peanut butter and bananas. I'd like to get Al Green to come out, maybe sing "Take Me to the River."

Flyer:

Any plans for April Foolery?

Welnick:

That's something that usually blows up in your face. Sometimes we fool everybody and don't do anything.

Flyer:

What's up with the teleprompters?

Welnick:

The teleprompters, contrary to popular belief, are very rarely on. How can you predict what song to put up on the teleprompter when we don't even know what we're going to play? It's only in cases like a special request or when we drag a song out that hasn't been done very often and we need some lyrical help on it. It also helps with something like "Visions of Johanna," because there just ain't enough hours in the day to review all these lyrics. So this enables us to drag songs out from the past and do obscure tunes. But very little of the catalog is in there. "I Want to Tell You" was on the teleprompter, and so was "Days Between." I think most of the new ones are probably on there. Eventually we'll have songs like "Strawberry Fields" on there that we don't do very often. You can also run chord charts on them.

Flyer:

There seems to be more Beatles tunes lately.

Welnick:

Well, they just have so damn many good ones. But it's no particular reason. I'm trying to come in with a Stones song, and I'd like to do James Brown's "It's a Man's World." I'm also working on John Lennon's "Watching the Wheels." With the Valentines I did "Playing with Fire" by the Rolling Stones, and I also did "It's All Too Much" by the Beatles.

Flyer:

"Baba O'Reilly" worked really well.

Welnick:

That's one we've forgotten. We have to review it at soundcheck time.

Flyer:

Anything else in the pipeline that you'd like to hint at?

Welnick:

Well, since Memphis is first time ever or something, hopefully there'll be some surprises, special Memphis tribute.

Flyer:

Are we gonna see Bruce again this tour?

Welnick:

Possibly. This is as close as we get to him, probably until summer tour. We probably won't see him again until we get to D.C.

From the Memphis Flyer

That's Entertainment!