In a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Warren Haynes revealed Phil Lesh’s rule for post-Grateful Dead collaborations: avoid imitating Jerry Garcia’s style. After Garcia’s death in 1995 and the Grateful Dead’s retirement, Lesh formed ‘Phil Lesh and Friends’ with various musicians, including Haynes. He emphasized the importance of each musician bringing their own style rather than replicating Garcia’s. Warren explained Lesh’s policy. He said:
“I got a call from Phil Lesh in the late ‘90s saying that he had put together a list of musicians, quite a long list of musicians that he wanted to play with and that I was one of those people. The thing that he told all of us was, ‘I don’t want anybody to play or sing like Jerry. I want everybody to bring their own personality. And I don’t want to hear any of the signature stuff that he played.’ All the musicians at that time, he was giving the same kind of parameters to. Because he wanted to hear other musicians interpreting that music in a different way.”
Haynes Played The Most With The Grateful Dead’s ‘Core 4’
No living guitarist has played more with the Grateful Dead‘s ‘core four’ of Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Phil Lesh than Warren Haynes. In an interview with Audacy in 2015, Warren talked about old members of the Grateful Dead’s 2015 tour, ‘Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead’ in which he was not included. He said:
“Well, I’m glad that they are doing final shows. I thought it was important for them to do something for the 50th anniversary.I — probably like everyone else, wish it had been a little bit more. Phil and I continue to work together. Which I still enjoy very much. But I think the door is also open for all those guys to do whatever they want to do and have fun. It’s good to see that they still all love playing music and being on stage. that’s what it’s all about: maintaining that lifelong passion.”
As advice to guitarist Trey Anastasio, who was picked instead of him on the tour, he said:
“Well, I think any time somebody steps into that sort of position, what’s required of you is that you inject your own personality into the performance. And if you’re the right person for the job, which Trey is, that’s what the band expects of you and that’s what the audience expects of you. And whatever minority of the audience doesn’t want that, I think they are just that: a small minority of the audience. I was very lucky when I joined the Allman Brothers Band: no one wanted me to play more like Duane Allman. Or less like Duane Allman. It was, ‘You be yourself.’”
When asked if Haynes had been asked to play on the ‘Fare Thee Well’ tour before Trey, he responded:
“It’s not something we talked about, but I’ve got a lot of my own stuff going on at the moment. I’m curious to see the whole thing, I’m glad Bruce Hornsby is doing it. I wish I could be there to see it, I’m sure it will be great.”
