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Vince_Welnick.Rhythmic.Review.Sep97
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1998-03-08
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[Image][Image]
Bobby Vega, Steve By Kelly Caldwell
Kimock and Vince
Welnick of The
Missing Man
Formation Celebrating its fifth anniversary, this year's
Trinity Tribal Stomp in Hayfork promises to be
one of the best yet. The weekend long festival
on Sept. 5 and 6 features a little something
for everyone. The list of performers at this
year's event includes Clan Dyken, Jai Uttal
and The Pagan love Orchestra, Alice DiMichele,
Native American reggae rockers Tribal War and
many others. For more information you can call
916-623-2656.
The highlight of the weekend will undoubtedly
be Sunday night's performance by Zero along
with special guests Vince Welnick and Prarie
Prince. I recently had the opportunity to
speak with Vince about the upcoming gig at the
Tribal Stomp as well as his band The Missing
Man Formation. Having been a deadhead for my
"I will always be a entire adult life (I lost count after about 50
memberof The shows) I had to work at maintaining a
Grateful Dead! A professional demeanor so as not to sound like
large part of my a groupie? After my initial trepidation wore
heart and soul is off we began by talking about Vince's musical
with that band. background:
Those years were Vince: I grew up in Phoenix, AR and got into
the happiest years piano watching my mom play boogie-woogie. I
of my life." went to a Catholic grade school, so I took
boogie-woogie lessons from my mom and
classical lessons from a nun. When I was nine
I got my first gig playing in church. After
that I started getting into popular music, and
then The Beatles happened and I dropped all
instruction all together. I was in my first
rock band when I was eleven and I've pretty
much spent all of my life playing in bands.
Kelly: At what point did you make the move to
the Bay Area?
I moved away from home when I was seventeen
and lived in Hollywood for a while, then I got
together with a band called The Beans, which
later became The Tubes. We moved to San
Francisco in the early 70's and survived on
food stamps. After playing college gigs for a
while the first Tubes record came out in the
mid 70's. By the early 80's we had somewhat
rocketed to stardom with a few top ten hits
like "She's a Beauty" and "Talk to You Later."
Through the Tubes I got hooked up with Todd
Rundgren whom I worked with on various
projects. Then in 1990 I auditioned for The
Grateful Dead after Brent (Mydland) died, and
ten days after I got the job we were out on
the road for the Fall tour.
Obviously everyone has heard about the live
Grateful Dead experience, but The Tubes were
pretty renowned for their live stage show as
well.
We were the greatest show on earth there for a
while. It was a traveling circus, we had no
less than 35 people up on stage for "White
Punks on Dope" every night. Everybody from our
crew to our manager to our manager's
girlfriend was required to also appear on
stage.
What about the band that's currently
performing as The Tubes?
You mean The Tubes not Tubes? It's missing
myself, Mike Cotton, and Bill Spooner. Prarie
(Prince) plays with them some of the time.
Any chance that the original line-up could
play together again?
As far as I'm concerned , if the Tubes were
ever going to play together it would have to
involve all the original members and none of
the subsequent members. I'm not sure if that's
very likely for various reasons. I know Fee
(Waybill) was real happy for me when I joined
the Dead, he used to come out and see us in
L.A. I also played with Spooner in a band
called The Affordables that opened for Jerry a
few times.
So your heading our way for a Missing Man
Formation gig at the Hog Farm and then you and
Prarie Prince will be playing with Zero at the
Trinity Tribal Stomp. Tell me a little about
MMF?
Well the core members are myself, Prarie
Prince on drums, and from Zero: Steve
Kimock(guitar) and Bobby Vega(bass). We also
have various "missing members," including
Bobby Strickland who plays sax and flute and
will be at the Hog Farm gig.
How long has Missing Man been together?
I believe it was April of 96. It's still in
the early stages. We're the hardliest working
band in show business next to the Affordables.
So what has the turnout and reaction been at
the Missing Man gigs? Are you finding your
audience is largely composed of Dead fans?
My feeling is that it's my old friends, along
with some younger people who may not have seen
The Dead but want to hang with some of the
people. We've played so few gigs that it's
hard to generalize, but I would say our crowd
is mostly the deadheads, which was who I was
hoping to see out there.
So when people come to the gigs can they
expect to hear Dead tunes?
Oh Yeah! I do a couple of my favorite Dead
tunes and we also do some Dead songs that I
never played with the band like "St. Stephen"
and "The Golden Road." We also cover other
bands like Zeppelin and The Stones. Basically
we'll play any of our favorite songs as well
as the originals that I wrote.
Do you have plans to record with Missing Man?
Sure, maybe someone who reads this will sign
us (laughs). Either that or I'm going to start
handing out cassettes of a Fillmore gig. A lot
of people don't even know that there is a
Missing Man Formation.
What about the name? Is that a reference to
Garcia?
My sister Nancy actually overheard some
deadhead surfers talking about what would
happen to the band after Jerry died, and one
of them said it would be a "missing man
formation." She mentioned the name to me and I
really liked it. It definitely is somewhat of
a reference to Jerry; this band is only here
because he's not. Other than that it's an Air
Force term for a ceremony that occurs when a
pilot goes down.
So tell me about 1990? I've never heard your
version of how you became a member of the
Grateful Dead? Did you lobby for the job or
did they approach you or what?
Bobby Weir's secretary used to be the Tubes
secretary, and my wife Laurie spoke to her and
found out they were auditioning keyboardists.
I was kind of surprised by that, I figured
they would know enough people that they could
ask to play. So I set up an audition and they
sent me tapes so I could practice. After my
audition about ten days passed, it seemed like
a lot longer, I got a call from Bobby asking
if, "my insurance was paid off?" I took that
as a yes. Then I spoke with Jerry and he told
me to go down to the office and, "get some
money." So I went and picked up my first
paycheck and I was a member of The Grateful
Dead.
Where would Vince Welnick be today had that
not happened?
Either living in the loft above our barn or in
Mexico. I'd still be playing music but I
wouldn't be living where I am now.
Would you have considered yourself a deadhead
prior to joining the band?
No. I didn't fall in love with the Dead until
I met the people in the band, particularly
Jerry. When Laurie first mentioned the
audition I wasn't sure I wanted to play in
that band. There was a lot of stigma attached
to it and the keyboard players die
often(laughs). A couple of days before my
audition I was down at Club Front (the
Grateful Dead studio/practice facility)
checking out Brent's equipment. Jerry and
Bobby happened to drop by and after talking
with them I decided I very much wanted to be a
deadhead.
So do consider yourself a member of The
Grateful Dead or someone who played keyboards
for the last few years?
I will always be a member of The Grateful
Dead! A large part of my heart and soul is
with that band. Those years were the happiest
years of my life.
[Image]
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