“Everyone knows that the members of Widespread Panic met at the University of Georgia in Athens in the early 1980’s. What some friends and I would like to know is a little more detail about those years. Where exactly did you meet John Bell or Michael Houser? What was your first impressions of them? What about Todd and Sunny?” Adam A.

(Laughs) Good one. The first time I met John Bell, here’s how it goes, here’s how 80s we are…I lived in a dormitory near the stadium called Milledge Hall. It was part of the Reed dormitory area and there was a big quad out front where everyone would throw a Frisbee, play Hacky Sack and sit around. Well I was playing Hacky Sack and this cat bops into our circle and kicks it around. We were wearing tie dye or something and he’s starting talking about the Grateful Dead, and then says, “You should meet my friend John Bell, he’s looking for a bass player.” I’m like, “Okay, cool, is he playing around?” And he told me he was playing this place called Abbot’s which is now above the Georgia Bar.

So Horace and I went down there to see JB play and I remember thinking, “This guy’s great but he really needs a band.”

So we met. JB came and picked me up and took me on the scariest six block drive of my life (laughs). We wound up at what was the band house at King Avenue and I met Mikey for the first time. He had just gotten a haircut to please his parents and his moppy hair was all piled up on top of his head, kind of like Eraserhead. I remember he drank a lot of Budweisers and we played a lot of music and it wasn’t that great but somehow we had a pretty good hang and came back for more. That’s how it went down…

The story with Todd was he and Mikey had played together outside Chattanooga. They both grew up in this town called Harrison and I guess they were a mutually bad influence on each other so their parents decided that they probably should not hang. So with that in mind we fast-forward to me and Mikey and JB always playing parties and whatnot and always having these rotating drummers. There was one who was really good and played with us really well but most of the time we couldn’t afford him. Then there was another one that would break down into tears. He had a Neil Peart drum kit but couldn’t play a “Not Fade Away” beat to save his life and he’d cry every night. And then there was a guy who played a vegetable steamer and a conga with a wooden spoon.

And finally we had the biggest gig of our career, we were going to play this benefit at a place called the Mad Hatter Ballroom with a bunch of other Athens bands and none of our drummers could make it. We didn’t know what to do but Mikey goes, “Why don’t we give Todd a call?” And we called his mom and she told us he lived in Atlanta. So she gave us his number, Mikey called him and he said, “I’ll be right over.” He drove a beat up old Maverick over and played some with us. Then he spent the night on the cat infested couch and he was allergic to cats, so that shows you the level of his dedication and I guess the rest is history.

Now Sunny was friends with Kyle Pilgrim who owns the Uptown Lounge in Athens where we played every Monday. And I guess he had gotten to the point of being sick of Austin, Texas that’s where they had played in a band together. So Sunny drove all the way from Austin, Texas and came straight to the Uptown. He arrived just as we were setting up our stuff and he said, “I’ve got some congas in the car…” And we were like, “Bring them up! Bring them on stage!” So he sat in with us that night and got a job tending bar at the Uptown for his old buddy Kyle. Then he would sit in with us whenever we played around Athens and we just kept saying, “Come on the road, come on the road…” And we finally got him to come to Macon or Greenville, South Carolina, these gigs that you’d get home to afterwards and then we finally suckered him out on tour and he’s still here. Lucky us.

“Are you guys going to entertain doing interlocking sets with the Brothers a la ARU/Panic jams from HORDE all those years ago?” Derek C.

When you use a term like entertain how can I resist? Of course we’ll entertain it (laughs). Logistically, we have 2 drummers and a keyboard set up on risers and they have 3 drummers so I don’t know if it’s logistically possible to interlock and do full band segues which is what I assume the question is talking about. It was a lot easier when we all had tiny amps. However, will there be collaborations? I would definitely say yes. We’re birds of feather, we’ve known each other a long time and we’re really looking forward to this, both bands. It’s been a long time coming and I would suspect that once we get a couple of gigs under our belts and get familiar with how our crews work, the sky’s the limit. I’m feeling pretty good about what’s going to happen.

Next time: Dave talks about the next studio album, Europe, Athens in the R.E.M era and much more…

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