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Vince_Welnick-JAMtv.1998
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Downloaded from http://www.jamtv.com/xfiles/features/1998/issue27/042701/default.asp
[ Jacked Home ][ New Releases ][ Daily JAM ][ Gallery ][
Charts ][ Reviews ][ Columns ]
[Feature Article]
[Vince Welnick]
[Image]
By Isaac Josephson
[Image] [Im[Image]
[Image] It's been nearly three years since
[Image] the Grateful Dead's demise and
[Image] Vince Welnick, their fourth and
[Image] final keyboardist, is still living
[Image] in the shadow of his former
[Image] bandmates.
[Image]
[Image] Welnick, the former Tubes member
[Image] who joined the Dead in 1990, may
[Image] have filled the musical shoes of
[Image] his legendary predecessors. But
[Image] his five-year stint with the band
(a mere one-sixth of the Dead's
lifespan) did little to fill the
emotional hole created by their
departures, and Welnick never got
past the "Johnny-come-lately"
phase in the eyes of many in the
Dead community.
Now, in the sphere of post-Dead
projects, Welnick is once more
last to the game, his Missing Man
Formation's recorded debut coming
out this spring, just after
percussionist Billy Kreutzmann's
Backbone. Meanwhile, guitarist Bob
Weir, percussionist Mickey Hart
and bassist Phil Lesh, all long
since occupied with their own
highly visible musical endeavors,
are preparing to come together on
stage again under the "Other Ones"
moniker. It's a Grateful Dead
reunion of sorts -- one to which
Kreutzmann was invited and
politely declined. Welnick, on the
other hand, was overlooked in
favor of Bay-area keyboardist and
sometimes Grateful Dead live
guest, Bruce Hornsby. To say the
least, he's disappointed.
In some respects, Jerry Garcia's
death and the subsequent
dissolution of the Dead was harder
on Welnick than the rest. The
48-year-old keyboardist strove
constantly to prove his mettle,
collaborating with Grateful Dead
lyricist Robert Hunter more than
any other band member in that time
period, and picking up vocal
duties on many of the newer songs.
For Weir and the others, the
Grateful Dead was a way of life.
For Welnick, it was a surprise
induction into a vast and mystical
socio-historical force -- one
which never fully embraced him.
Like a little sibling, Welnick was
constantly playing mojo catch-up
to Garcia, Weir, Hart, Lesh and
Kreutzmann, and the game ended
before he'd made his mark.
Perhaps Welnick will get another
shot with Missing Man Formation.
The band's lineup, which at
different times has boasted the
talents of guitarist Steve
Kimlock, saxophonist Bobby Vega
and ex-Tubes drummer Prairie
Prince, delivers a sound not
unlike the Dead. It's loose and
flowing, with Welnick's resonant,
slightly countrified vocals
holding things together. Although
they indulge concertgoers with
Grateful Dead tunes, Missing Man
Formation's self-titled album is
composed solely of Welnick- and
Welnick/Hunter-penned originals.
Eager to chat with JAMTV about
Missing Man, his days with the
Dead and new bands on the scene,
Welnick himself called from his
California home half an hour
before the interview was scheduled
to make sure "all systems were
go."
The name "Missing Man Formation"
has a peculiar, sad tone.
I actually got the name Missing
Man from my sister, Nancy. She
overheard some surfer-Deadheads
talking in this bar about life
after Jerry's death and what the
Grateful Dead's future might be
like without Jerry. And one of the
guys said it would be like a
missing man formation. He went on
with the conversation, but that
name stuck in her mind. And it
turned out to have a military
meaning for that fly-by over a big
monument where the head plane goes
up into the sky and the empty
space remains.
Do you ever worry that the name
emphasizes loss rather than life
or creativity?
I wouldn't be here if Jerry hadn't
died. I'd still be playing with
the Dead.
There's some serious musicianship
on the album. Do you feel like
you're trying to live up to the
standards set by the Dead?
I'm trying to live up to the
standards set by the Dead,
particularly the ones set by Jerry
-- the pure music, no politics, no
bullshit. I think it's vital that
somebody carries the flag, as many
people as possible, to keep this
thing going.
Do you think Furthur Festival is
doing that?
I'd have hoped that it would this
year. Because they keep saying,
"Oh, we'll do it more Dead-like."
I thought that they'd ask me and
possibly Missing Man to come out
this year. And eventually they
thought it would be smart to get
down to three bands, and they
thought it would be smart if Bobby
Weir would do more Grateful Dead
songs. They eventually gravitated
towards that stuff. Only hangup
is, I didn't get invited and
neither did Missing Man. So I
think, personally, it's going to
be slightly less Dead-like than it
would be if I were there. For
Chrissake, I am and always will be
a member of the Grateful Dead.
It's a lifetime thing that Jerry
bestows upon a person.
Are you disappointed that they
didn't ask you to be in The Other
Ones?
Yeah, I'm not happy about it, but
there's nothing I can do.
Do you ever talk to the other
surviving members of the Dead any
more?
Yeah, I just did a thing with Phil
[Lesh]. Phil's been doing a
benefit for the Unbroken Chain
Foundation. Once a month he's been
doing stuff, and I've been on two
of those so far. We just did a
great one. In fact, he brought
Bobby Strickland on to play horns
and sing. We actually rehearsed.
I'd never seen Phil rehearse. Even
with the Dead. We put in like,
three big long days. Phil's great.
He's taking voice lessons. He did
a lot of Jerry songs, which was
great. For a while there, I was
afraid they were just going to
say, "Well Jerry's dead. Let's not
do his songs anymore."
Do you have a lot of Dead songs in
Missing Man's live set?
I have a fair amount. I try to do
my favorites and also ones that
hadn't been done when I was in the
band. I do "St. Stephen."
Missing Man has played with String
Cheese Incident and Leftover
Salmon and a lot of the younger
bands. Do you feel closer to them
than the older fellows?
I think String Cheese is a really
great up-and-coming band. I
actually played as a special guest
with String Cheese and Leftover
Salmon this past New Year's.
What do you think of Phish?
You know what? This is gonna be
embarassing, but I don't think
I've ever heard a single Phish
tune. And it's not that I don't
like them; it's just the way it
turned out.
It became pretty obvious that as
soon as Jerry died and after they
did the memorial issues on all the
magazines, the Deadhead 'zines
were shifting their coverage over
to Phish. So it's pretty obvious
that they locked into that scene.
The only downside I've heard from
other people is that maybe they're
a little bit on the comical side.
Some people take their music more
spiritually or seriously. I don't
know if you get the profound
experience that you might get from
a Dead show with Phish, but
they're certainly keeping the
party alive and that's important.
My hat's off to them for keeping
the scene alive, which is
something that I wish the Grateful
Dead would have done. As weird as
it sounds, days after Jerry died,
we should have gone out and
fucking played.
Was there anyone in particular who
[Image] dropped the ball on that, or did
everyone take it as an opportunity
to go their separate ways?
I don't think it was so much of an
opportunity for people to go their
separate ways. Definitely, the
ball was dropped. Both of our
balls got kicked in. Personally, I
was unable to perform during that
time out of sheer depression. If
it would have been up to me, we
would have never stopped. We would
have gone right back out on that
fall tour.
I guess the band called it quits
about four months after Jerry's
death?
Oh, boy, that was a bad night. It
was December 7th, Pearl Harbor
day.
Tell me about the decision.
I don't want to snitch on who let
the air out of the tires, but it
was decided by the time I got to
the meeting.
Did anyone ask you before making
the decision?
No. In fact I was out on the road
with Ratdog, and we came in on our
day off. We had to fly in from
Phoenix or Vegas or somewhere. It
was really inconvenient. I mean,
if it was going to be that bad of
news, I wish they would have told
me over the telephone. But we flew
out there, and I walked in, and
that was the first thing on the
table. I was dumbfounded. I just
couldn't accept it in any shape or
form. It had been bad enough that
Jerry died. I wondered how much
worse it could get, and that's how
much worse it could get.
Do you know how the decision was
made to bring Bruce Hornsby in for
the Other Ones?
I would imagine that Bruce got
together with Bobby and Phil and
thought this thing up.
Do you see yourself being a part
of the reunion that's being talked
about for the opening of the
Interactive Museum in 1999?
Yeah, I see myself as being a part
of everything. I don't know if the
museum's going to be up and
running by then. We've kind of
fallen behind schedule.
Does the Missing Man formation
audience extend beyond the
Deadhead sphere?
There's a slight Tubes and Todd
Rungren contingent, it turns out.
I'd be happy if even a fraction of
the Deadheads took to the album. I
think it can go beyond that,
though. The music is pretty
universal.
Speaking of the Tubes, can you
tell me about the difference in
personality between the Tubes and
the Dead?
The Tubes were cynical and
tongue-in-cheek, as opposed to
spiritual. A whole lot of Tubes
songs were written to go with
skits. Like, when Fee Waybill
would do [on-stage punk persona]
Johnny Bugger. We called him Rod
Planet at first. And then we just
started making up songs that he
could sing. Eventually [Tubes cult
hit] "White Punks" became one of
them.
Didn't Fee Waybill break his leg
doing that song in Europe?
Yes, he walked off the end of the
stage and broke his leg before he
hit the ground. This was some
serious stuff. This was back when
the pyro guy used to go behind the
curtain and plug the flashpots
straight into the wall. And have
no sight lines. So if someone
wasn't on cue, they just went up
in flames. That was it. We had
jumpsuits with little Christmas
Tree lights all over them that we
plugged directly into the wall.
And I remember a couple of gigs
where I had to tear my suit off
because it was getting too hot.
That's some serious performance
art.
(laughing) Yeah, we even set fire
to the fire curtain at one of our
gigs.
I hear there was a Grateful Dead
album in the works when Jerry
died. Do you remember what was
supposed to be on it?
There would have been "Liberty,"
"So Many Roads," "Days Between,"
"Samba in the Rain," "Way To Go,"
"Corrina," "Easy Answers." The
problem was that Jerry sat out on
some of the basic sessions. The
only vocals that we got were the
working vocals. There weren't even
those on some of the songs. There
was also very little guitar. We
had just about finished the basics
when Jerry checked out. It's a
shame, because we spent a lot of
time in there. But there's this
dilemma about how we could ever
salvage it.
But the tapes are around, right?
Has there been any mumbling about
putting something together and
releasing it?
Oh yeah, the tapes are around.
Thing is, the tapes are bad.
There's a rehearsal tape of "Days
Between" that sounds better than
anything they'd ever salvage out
of the tapes because Jerry
actually sang it. So there's not
what you would call a perfect take
of that song. I think they'd have
to find it from one of the show
tapes. If you were to get all the
verses the way Robert had written
it, you might even have to splice
between a couple of tapes.
What do the rest of the guys think
of Missing Man?
Phil's the only one that's made a
comment. He likes "Golden Days"
and "True Blue" a lot. In fact, he
learned both of those songs and we
did them at the last "Unbroken
Chain" concert. He also liked
"It's Alive." But I haven't heard
from Bobby, Mickey or Billy.
Does anybody hear from Billy?
I imagine someone does, but I
don't know what's going on. I know
he's hanging out in Kauai with
Todd Rundgren. I heard he's
threatening to come out here with
his group, Backbone and play some
gigs. In fact, we might be playing
together at the Fillmore. I don't
know yet. He asked to play, but I
don't know if he's going to turn
up or not. Billy is that way. I
think he was invited on the
Furthur tour and he declined.
He said he didn't want to go on
the road or something, right?
Yep. And so it would be a little
bit ironic that he would pass on
that and then go out with
Backbone. I hear tell that might
happen.
When the Dead was on tour, there
were several buses. Did you share
one with Jerry?
There were seven tour buses, but
we didn't bus. We had a private
jet, thank you. We vanned a lot.
The only time we took limos was to
and from the airport and to gigs
in the Bay area. The rest of the
time, we were in vans. I vanned a
lot with Jerry, especially on the
summer gigs when the rest of the
band would helicopter back and
forth from sound check to the
hotel and back to the gig again.
Jerry and I did not ride in the
copters. We would always van it.
We didn't care if it was a
four-hour drive.
Sometimes it's nice to drive.
It was a great time to hang with
Jerry. We spent a lot of quality
one-on-one time in the van.
What do you think he would think
of Missing Man Formation?
I think he'd like us. I think he
would have definitely wanted me to
continue on and granted me
permission to do any of his songs,
because if he didn't want those
songs done after his death, he
wouldn't have let everybody in the
goddamn world record them night
after night. I think he had a
definite wish to immortalize his
music. And I aim to do that.