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Grateful Dead Drummer: In the Key of Kreutzmann
Kreutzmann: I haven’t. I’ve been putting all of my energy into playing music. And I’m not sure if this is true for everyone, but I have to focus on one thing or the other. It’s almost like if I didn’t have gigs, I’d be doing my art. But I want to change from being a digital artist to a hand painter. I’d like to learn oil. I have a really good friend over here who paints like you wouldn’t believe, and he’s willing to teach me. So I’m going to start getting into oil painting.
Crawdaddy!: Will it be psychedelic like your digital art?
.jpg "Grateful Dead: Photo by Gene Anthony")
Kreutzmann: You never know. I’m sure it’s going to have a lot to do with psychedelia. That was sort of my art school, as it were.
Crawdaddy!: Speaking of psychedelia, is it true that you met Aldous Huxley when you were a kid?
Kreutzmann: Yeah, that’s a true story, I met him. It was at a boarding school in Arizona called Orme, and he actually heard me play. They let me have my drum set at the school, and I set it up in a multi-purpose room where lectures were given and so forth. Everyday after classes, I’d go in there and play as much and for as long as I could. One day, the headmaster walked in with this guy with these thick yellow glasses on—his eyesight was going even then, this was back in ’63. So the headmaster puts his fingers up to his lips and gives me the “shhh” sign really clearly, and I immediately stopped playing. Aldous gives him an elbow in the side and says “Hey, I’ve never heard anything like that. Tell him to keep going.” And the headmaster says, “Keep going!” And I did, and here I am.
Crawdaddy!: At that young age, do you think that encouraged you to continue with drumming?
Kreutzmann: Music in itself encouraged me. These were just high moments. They’re like stepping stones of high personal times, and I’m not talking about drugs. Thinking back on it, these are moments where I just go, “Wow, that was far out.” I’m sure I wasn’t a very good drummer yet. I was just learning.
Crawdaddy!: Aldous Huxley crossed paths with the Grateful Dead in many ways.
Kreutzmann: I think so. If you’re speaking of that which I think you’re speaking, I would say yes. [Renowned mythology scholar] Joseph Campbell loved us, too. Joseph Campbell sat behind me and Mickey and the whole band at Winterland in San Francisco. After the show he said, “Ah! This is the answer to nuclear war!” He felt the love from the audience, ya know.
Crawdaddy!: Didn’t he compare the Grateful Dead to a modern religious experience?
Kreutzmann: A modern spiritual experience.
Crawdaddy!: With your trio BK3, are you playing any Grateful Dead music?
Kreutzmann: Oh yeah, we’re playing “Eyes of the World”, we’re playing “Estimated Prophet”, we’re playing “Bertha” and “Sugaree.” Actually, we changed the end of “Sugaree.” Oteil came up with a beautiful, almost gospel-like ending. If Garcia could hear it, he’d really love it. I wish he could hear this band, he would like it. My new band is not the Grateful Dead, but it’s so damn good. Amazingly, mostly, we laugh through the whole set, we’re having so much fun.
Crawdaddy!: Is it mostly improvisation? How would you describe it?
Kreutzmann: I would describe it as improvisation within songs, and without songs. One time, I just got up there and started playing a drum solo, and that went on for a half hour. Then I came in with a really strong, clear rhythm, then we just started improvising off that rhythm. And then Scott leaned over and mouthed the tune name to me, you know, “Eyes of the World” or something, and then we went right into that. We just improvise like that. Robert Hunter has written 12 or so songs for us and we’re doing 10 of them. They’re fun as hell.
Crawdaddy!: It’s a rare occasion to see just Bill Kreutzmann behind a band.
Kreutzmann: I was always kind of the quiet member, but not anymore. Oteil said the funniest thing to me. One beautiful day he said, “Bill, you know, I listen to a lot of your records. I thought you played really softly. Shit man, you’re one of the loudest drummers I’ve ever heard!”
Crawdaddy!: Have you been recording any BK3 material?
Kreutzmann: We have probably two
DVDs in the can right now that were shot. One was at the Gathering of the Vibes and the other was shot in the Culture Room down in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The film work is beautiful and the playing is beyond belief. I’m just tickled pink. So we can release those two DVDs right now, and we have at least three or four CDs worth of material in the can, because we recorded all of the shows.
Crawdaddy!: What about the Rhythm Devils? Any future plans there?
Kreutzmann: That’s another one I came up with. I’d like to use the Rhythm Devils with my trio—Mickey on percussion and drums, and Jen Durkin, who sang with the Rhythm Devils—and make that the new Rhythm Devils with my trio as the basis. I thought people would be interested in seeing me and Mickey with different players. I think it would do pretty good. I haven’t even talked to Mickey about it yet, because Mickey’s such an excitable young man that if I do talk to him about it, it will be started.
Crawdaddy!: It’s great to see you so passionate. It’s like you’re experiencing a renaissance or something.
Kreutzmann: I guess you could call it that [laughs]. You know, things are opening up for me. It’s amazing. I finally get to be a busy guy again. It’s fun, and it’s exciting to do with different musicians. I tried to play with other bands during the Grateful Dead times, but they just never worked as well as these new bands are. Maybe I’ve grown up a little bit or something. I don’t know.
Watch: BK3 perform “Eyes of the World” [at youtube.com]
Tags:Bill Kreutzmann, Grateful Dead, BK3
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11 Comments
This is a really nice, rare chance to hear what Bill Kreutzmann has to say about his new and old musical experiences. Thanks so much for the peak into Bill The Drummer’s world! http://darkstarjamblog.blogspot.com
Do your homework, sir. Kreutzmann was given an extended credit for writing Dark Star since it was an improvisational piece that all of the GD members “wrote” differently each time they played it, but he really had nothing to do with the reality of the song’s genesis. Phil’s book SEARCHING FOR THE SOUND: MY LIFE WITH THE GRATEFUL DEAD (2005) directly conflicts with this claim of yours, as do countless other sources.
fantastic article!
Hi Dave28 aka “Grand trivia poobah of all things Dead”, the last time I checked, and including Lennon/McCartney, if a band member is listed in the songwriting credits, he/she is “co-writer” of said song. According to your theory, since Darkstar is an “improvisational” piece, shouldn’t Bill then be listed in all the Dead’s songwriting credits? The next time I need to “Ask an expert” on everything Dead-related (and all things not), I’ll be sure to ring you up. You are, after all, a walking-talking encyclopedia.
Corbett, get off your high horse. Dave is right and your bratty little response only demonstrates how little you know about songwriting, as does your laughable comment about Lennon/McCartney. The lump sum of their tunes were written almost exclusively by one and then sometimes tweaked by the other. Thier partnership was designed to allevaite potential ego and legal problems and it worked great for years…but it doesn’t mean that they wrote the tunes together. They did NOT.
As with the Dead. Dark Star is largely, as with most of the best Dead tunes, the alchemy of Hunter’s unmatched poetic lyrics and Garcia’s sense of melody. Lesh says in his book that the riff is partially his. That Kreutzman gets co-composer status is probably largely due to his wanting more royalties, as with other band members when they saw Jer’s bigger checks coming in (confirmed by most of the best Dead biographies).
So, decent article, but your knowledge of the Dead is indeed a joke compared to someone like Dave, so shut your mouth and accept your shortcomings. Lennon/McCartney wrote everything together? Ho ho, what a genius you are.
And for the record, though Bill comes off as a sweetheart in this piece, he was probably the biggest dick in the Dead. I spent a lot of years touring with the band and saw first-hand what a coked-out, nasty drunk he was much of the time in their middle years. He also cheated like hell on his wife every night with as many groupies as he could lure into his hotel room. Just for the record.
And yeah, you really ought to consult any expert on the Dead, ’cause you sure as hell ain’t one.
Aha, I see we have two Grand Poobahs of Dead Trivia, the second being even more thoroughly ironic than the first, and likely suffering with a short-person complex to boot. Your point is no more valid than Dave’s. If you really wanna engage, why don’t you come at me with some hard, intelligent data. By all appearances, you’re one of those Deadheads that’s seen 3,496 shows and has the ticket stubs to prove it. Your mud slinging about Bill doesn’t impress me any more than your weak defense of the other trivia guy. Christ, all these experts! When will it end? Anyone else wanna try?
for a bunch of peace-lovin’ beatniks, you guys sure do use some harsh language at each other.
To Tazo: Thank you SO MUCH for your stellar observation. You know, I breeze thru the most popular Dead forums on occasion, and I’ve noticed over and over this clique of mean-spirited people who use these venues to spew out this nasty energy that comes from god-knows-where. And I’m specifically talking about the digital Dead scene, peace-niks or not. When Ryan Adams played with Phil Lesh at Red Rocks a few years back, there was so much poison in Lesh’s forum about Adams that Phil himself almost shut the forum down permanently, shocked at some of the sheer ugliness that emanated from some of these haters. Someone even slandered his wife in such a lewd manner, that one wondered if we’d returned to the Paleolithic epoch. In cyberspace in general, these forums are a great place to debate and stir thought, but there are always those who have to bring in this bizarre negativity, and then more follow suit, and then soon, the whole discussion slips into a grotesque and repulsive product of dark-hearted and cruel intent. It spreads quickly like the disease of road-rage, contaminating the entire environment. What all this stems from we’ll leave to C.G. Jung’s next-generation disciples, but man, you hit it right on the nose. Nobody’s guilty, ya know. We’re all innocent. And I’m merely the Devil’s advocate. But what a puzzling phenomenon, this whole forum-tainting business.
Well, I’d say the orignal negativity started with BC here; Dave merely said, “Do your homework”, and then even added, “sir.” Seems pretty darn polite, especially compared to BC’s subsequent insults. If you can’t publish an article without accepting some gently worded criticism, perhaps you should pursue other avenues of self-expression.
A great article about a wicked drummer. I especially liked the part about Bill and Jerry getting chased by sharks in Hawaii. Also, I have to agree with BC. Just saying ‘do your homework’ is arrogant and is hardly criticism. It’s like saying ‘you’re full of shit’. Dave’s argument is unfounded anyway. Technically Corbett is correct. Kreutzman’s mere contribution of the drums to Dark Star makes him a ‘co-composer’. He’s also listed in the song credits. So what is there to argue about? Corbett didn’t mention anything about the ‘genesis’ of the song, so what’s Dave even talking about? Dave even says Kreutzman was given an ‘extended credit’, so he even agrees with BC! Its obvious that Dave only took the opportunity to try to impress everyone at the interviewer’s expense by twisting the meaning of a single word for his own purposes. Corbett is correct and the point is moot. Who cares about semantics anyway. Excellent interview!
“do you homework, sir” is about the most condescending thing ever. hardly nice.
but ANYWAY, this is a fantastic interview and a great talent.