2005-02-02 - 11:53 p.m.
Part 1: A friend of Phil…
It all began in San Francisco. RRE was playing at The Independent and I was feeling terrible. I was suffering from acute bronchitis and not doing well at all. This had been the case for the whole tour. I’m lucky really because when I play I become pretty much oblivious to pain and misery. We had finished the first set and I was chilling out back stage drinking a cup of tea when someone unfamiliar to me came in to our dressing room and said, “I’m Phil Lesh’s publicist”, to which I said, “Pleased to meet you. I’m Tim Carbone”. He smiled and said, “Phil’s out in the hallway. Why don’t you go out and introduce yourself?” Didn’t have to be asked twice so out I went and sure enough there he was. He was having a conversation with a woman who I didn’t recognize. I kind of just hung there for a while, not wanting to be rude and all, when out of the blue, Phil turns to me and says, “Hey Tim, I’m Phil Lesh” I found myself saying, ”Pleased to meet you. I’m Tim”, instantly forgetting he just called me by my name. He told me how much he was enjoying the show and I said thanks. Then he had his publicist take our picture in the Rowans dressing room. We sat and chatted for a bit. He said some nice things about my playing and I thanked him for all the years of enjoyment he’d given me. We shook hands and just before he went back out front, he turned to me and said,” We’ll be doing something together before long.” I of course thought he meant RRE would do a show with Phil and Friends and I went and got ready for the next set.
Three days later as I was about to walk to breakfast my cell phone rang and our manager Brian was on the other end. He said,” I’m not sure but I think Phil Lesh may be giving you a ring to ask you if you want to play with Phil and Friends ” to which I said ,” You’re shitin; me!” He says,” Well, Kathy, his personal manager just called me for your number. I’d keep your cell phone on.” Sure enough about two hours later my phone rings and on the other end I hear, “ Tim, it’s Phil Lesh.” We exchange pleasantries and then he asks me, “Would you be interested in coming out and playing with Phil and Friends in December?” Of course I say yes and he then tells me the “theme” of the shows and we talk a little about the details. Just before he hangs up he says, “Do you suppose John Skehan would be interested in coming out?” and I say, “I’m sure, but let me give you his number.” And I do and he hangs up. We had been stopped for gas and I took the call alone in the van. When the guys got back in the van I told them. Minutes later I got a call from Kathy, Phil’s assistant, telling me not to tell anyone! I said, ”Well it’s a little late, I told my band mates already!” It was cool as long as we were sworn to secrecy. We were to receive CD's and stuff a little later in the tour.
When all was said and done I had about 9 days to learn some 40 songs. (This was to balloon to 52 by the time we flew out to the west coast!) John and I practiced together and he’s really great at writing charts. I was actually lucky because not being in the rhythm section, I didn’t really need to memorize the chords to the songs. Sometimes it’s better for me to just know where the song is going. I tend to play rather unconscious and find it better to think less. John’s charts were like maps that I could just fly over and survey the landscape of the song.
On 13 December, John and I flew to San Francisco for three days of rehearsals at the Grateful Dead rehearsal studios in Marin County. We were in luck, or John was in luck, we found a bar in the Newark airport that he could smoke in. He bought me a beer and we toasted the auspicious adventure we were about to embark upon. Five hours on a plane is quite enough, thank you. On the other hand, it beats flying to Asia. We were picked up at the airport and delivered to our hotel that was about ten or fifteen minutes from the studio. As we were checking in, John Molo, our drummer was just then coming in from dinner. He seemed a very gregarious sort and I knew we’d hit it off well. We had an early call, but I had a couple of drinks from a small bottle of Jameson’s I picked up at a liquor store we stopped at on the way from the airport. Even though it was three hours later to me because of the time difference, I was pretty keyed up and it was awhile before I fell off to sleep.
Before John and I were to be picked up to go to the studio I took advantage of the free continental breakfast. We had to be at rehearsal an hour or so before the others so production could integrate our equipment into the stage setup. When we pulled up to the studio, production manager, Robbie Taylor, greeted us. When he sees that I’m carrying my entire stage rig in a medium size leather briefcase he breaks out in a big grin. “Is that all you have?” he said. “I try to keep it simple and it’s easy to fly with something this size”, I say. “Brilliant! Most people come in here with enormous racks of all kinds of shit,” Robbie said. John was yanking one such rack out of the mini-van as Robbie was speaking those very words. The next time I would see a smile on the face of the hard working Mr. Taylor - whose name in my mind will always remain Mr. Taylor- would not be until the shows were over. A very dry and serious fellow indeed! Our monitor engineer Ian made it extremely easy to interface with the rest of group and we were up and running in good time.
The first band member to arrive was Chris Robinson. I loved the Black Crowes and I’m excited to be working with Chris. He’s a very warm and unassuming guy. Make no mistake: He’s rock star, not only in the way he sings and carries himself on stage but in the way he commands the attention of a room when he walks in and his ability to be entertaining, funny but still make you feel at ease. After getting to know him during these rehearsals and performances I can honestly say that I have never met someone more comfortable in his own skin. Barry Sless was next. I’ve met Barry before when we played with the David Nelson Band and way back when he was in a great band called Cowboy Jazz on the East Coast. Barry’s a great player and sweet guy. The rest of the guys showed up a few minutes later with Phil right behind. He came in and in short order we went to work. John and I had missed the first day of rehearsals and it was pretty clear we were going to be doing a large portion of the first nights show with no rehearsal. I was a little worried about that but hey; we’re going for it! Man, it sounded great right from the gitgo. Jimmy Herring is such a great musician. He’s where I want to be; having the ability to play whatever it is that pops into your mind. John Molo is as solid as a rock and Phil is not just a great bass player but is the best bandleader I’ve ever worked with. He knew what he wanted; took suggestions but ultimately realized his vision of how he heard the show and made you believe in it too! Phil has been always been one of my four favorite bass players. I’ve now been blessed with the opportunity to play with two of them – Rick Danko being the other. I’ve played on the same bill as Joey Spampinato of NRBQ but I’ve never played with Paul McCartney. Maybe someday. We moved quickly through the material but it was still almost 9 pm before we were through. Phil’s wife Jill was there most of the day and we all went out to dinner at our hotel after the work was through. It was great fun getting to know all these fine people and I went off to bed exhausted but ready to get to work on the morrow.
