Bill Kreutzmann (Dad) interview

KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley CA
Dead to the World
Host: David Gans
Dec 10, 2003
Bill Kreutzmann


David Gans: That, of course, was the "Ace" studio version of "Playing in the Band," a great, great Grateful Dead song from Bob Weir's solo debut. The reason I played it was, there is one place in that song that I just love, the cymbal work toward the end. It's just one of those little things about Grateful Dead music that I fell in love with when I was a baby deadhead -- just the way that guy danced on those cymbals. The guy who played that is here with me this evening. His name is Bill Kreutzmann.

Bill Kreutzmann: Hello David!

DG: Let's talk about your art a little bit. You've been doing this for a few years. I went to an art show over at a gallery in Mill Valley a year and half or so ago. How did you get into this?

BK: I've always loved art. I mean, everybody loves art, of course. I had a computer, a little laptop, about 10 years ago. We were in LA playing, and I didn't know how to work Photoshop way back then. So I asked Garcia to come to my room. Jerry was always really good with computer stuff, so he showed me how to use Photoshop. It was one of those things you can't leave it alone. The only limit to something like that is your own imagination -- how willing you are to use your imagination. So it just became really fun; it's another way to express myself besides music - just do art.


DG: How would you characterize your artistic style?

BK: Free, just formless.... It's not impressionist; it's just me.

DG: Is there a place online where people could look right now?

BK: You can go to, it's called ocean-spirit.net -- you have to put the dash between the ocean and spirit. That's a page where you can see the art.

DG: Hello, you're on the air with Bill Kreutzmann.

Jim: I grew up Palo Alto here, I was a little younger than you guys, not that much, but a little bit. I grew up a block away from the McKernan family. I remember when there were some practices in the old garage there. I was curious when the first time you ever met Pigpen was and if you'd just go over that moment.


BK: It was probably like '64 I met him. I saw him playing at … '64, '65 I saw him playing at the Tangent in Palo Alto with Jerry. He was playing a string bass, a stand-up string bass on ... an old tub, whatever they call that. That was a really amazing night. I sat and I watched Jerry and Pigpen. I went "God, I'm going to follow Jerry forever." I made my mind up right then. This is the guy… I wasn't playing drums with him yet -- it was about two years after that. I saw that in him. I saw the magic that everybody saw in him. Everybody could recognize that.

DG: Hello, you're on the air with Bill Kreutzmann.

John: Hi, this is John in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

BK: Hi, John!

John: Hi! I'd just like to say first of all that you're probably my favorite drummer in rock, Bill.

BK: Thank you!


John: I have two questions: First, is that a lot of folks consider the '72-'74 period as the peak for the Grateful Dead, your playing in particular. I'd like to know -- how you feel your playing has changed or developed over the years?

BK: Gosh, whew, do we have all night for that answer? I'm more into it today than even then; it's more of a whole being for me. I come with my whole heart now. Because I have more confidence in my playing these days. That was 20-some years ago, thirty years ago. I just feel like more experienced walking in there and having a good time.

John: Great. Well, I've got to say I think you're playing better now than ever.

BK: Well, thank you. I feel good.

John: And my second question is &endash; since Jerry died, I've always wondered if you and Mickey have ever thought about taking the Rhythm Devils out on a small theatre tour?

BK: Umm, no! That was the answer. And no is a complete sentence, I think. Still is, isn't it?

John: Well, thanks a lot, Bill.

BK: Yeah, thank you for calling!

John: Bye, Bye!

DG: Hi, you're on the air with Bill Kreutzmann.

Roger: Thanks to both of you guys, and this is Roger from Fairfax.

BK: Hi Roger!

Roger: Billy, I'm wondering, as a non-musician -- just a listener and a fan -- how would you describe the difference in style that you and Mickey bring to the band as two drummers?

BK: It's pretty easy. Mickey plays a much tighter kind of style, like a straight 16th note, da-da-dut-dut-da, and I have more of a relaxed feeling. When you combine those two, you get a really nice thing; you get somewhere in between. I come with more of a triplet -- I think about time more of in triplets than I do in straight 16ths or straight 8th notes, more of a relaxed feeling. Did that help?
Roger: It helped a little bit, but you know the main thing is that you guys are sounding great these days.

BK: Yeah, that's the best. The way we have it set up on stage now, I can really, really hear him well. We use ear monitors, but I only use one; I use one on my right ear. So my left ear is left wide open to hear that side of the stage. And it really helps a lot.

Roger: Well I hope you guys keep on truckin'.

BK: Oh, we will.

Roger: All right, thanks a lot.

BK: Thanks a lot for calling, Bye, Bye!

DG: Hi, you're on the air with Bill Kreutzmann.

Robert: Hi, my name is Robert. I'm from San Francisco.

BK: Hi Robert!

Robert: I just want to say thank you, Bill, for the interesting journey that we've been on all these years, through most of my life.

BK: You're welcome!

Robert: I was wondering about the preparation that you and Mickey do prior to drum sessions, like if you talk it over, or discuss how you are going to approach that night.

BK: Yeah, we do. We have different menus for different nights, and we have different strange names which don't really matter now. Just off-the-wall names we identify with. They are different rhythm patterns and different textures that we'll bring up.

Robert: Like "tonight is 'chicken soufflé'"?

BK: Yeah, yeah; we might not be quite so hungry. We might go to some other level. We just come up with anything we like, that we've already prerecorded, so we have a bunch.

Robert: Could you tell us a couple of the code names?

BK: (aside) Gosh, do you know any?

Justin Kreutzmann: Not off the top of my head.

BK: My son Justin is here in the studio with me so I'm asking if he knows. No, I don't remember them. It doesn't really matter; they are on the sheet so I read them. Yes, we do. We get together before the shows and work out our part.

Robert: Great. Well, thanks for everything. I'll see you, but you won't see me, this 30th and 31st.

BK: Thanks for calling in.

Robert: Have fun out there.
DG: That puts me in mind of something. There are recordings from '68 and '69 of the drums, when you and Mickey were really into this stuff. You'd be playing in polyrhythms, and the drums would stop and you guys would talk to each other. There would be this la-la-la-la, tockata-tockata thing. It's sort of this mind-blowing thing, because all of this noise is happening, then it's gone and you guys are still talking in rhythm. Was that part of your entrainment exercises? Or some particular discipline?

BK: I love that you trust my memory so much. Ha, Ha! I really am amazed that you trust my memory. We were probably just singing the drum parts and screaming obscenities at each other, as far as I know. I don't remember. That's the answer there.

DG: I remember reading in Hank Harrison's book or something that Mickey would hypnotize you. Or that you would hypnotize each other.

BK: We played around with that when Phil and I and Mickey were living together in the Haight-Asbury; we did some of that stuff there in the living room as parlor tricks. But we never really did it playing very much.

The hippest thing that Hank Harrison ever did was turn the band onto was acid. That was the coolest thing.

DG: He gets the credit for that?

BK: He gets the credit. He was the one that came to us and said "hey you guys ought to all take acid!" We went "Okay!"

DG: And that worked out all right then?

BK: Here we are today, this is how many years later?

I never read his book. I heard all this stuff about his book, and I don't even want to get into it. For that onepiece of credit, everything he did after that, well, who cares?

DG: Yeah.

BK: It worked for us.


transcribed by Gary McCarthy




OCEAN-SPIRIT.NET