From a musical perspective, what most surprised you over the years?

I thought it was interesting how they wrestled with creative challenges. I don’t know if the fan base really appreciated all of the effort they put into making records. I think maybe the recorded catalogue is underappreciated by the hardcore fans who sort of live to see them play live. I think in the early part of their career before they signed to Elektra, so much of the material Trey was writing was written for the live show. They themselves thought more in terms of live shows than albums. And then I think maybe after a certain point they started to take the album-making process pretty seriously as well and had their different approaches, whether it was the group democracy experiment of Story of The Ghost or going in the other direction on Farmhouse. They’ve really wanted to make great albums as well as being a great live band.

There are so many intense, invested Phish fans. How would you describe your target audience for this book and did you think about that all when you were writing it?

Well, I wasn’t going to try to compete with the Phish Companion. There are several hundred contributors to that. I wasn’t looking to write an encyclopedia or statistical abstract. I wanted to produce a coherent, thorough narrative history of Phish’s career that would be illuminating to fans as well as anyone curious to learn about the band, because theirs is a uniquely fascinating story. Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees and in the this case I was trying to get a good glimpse of the forest.

Nonetheless, I imagine it must be at least somewhat daunting that there is an army of fact-checkers out there who will take you to task for even the smallest of errors.

Right. One tiny piece of erroneous information will invalidate the whole thing. [Laughs] That was something I expected going in because that’s just the lay of the land. I knew that full well. But again, I wasn’t writing this exclusively for Phishhead Nation. I wanted the rest of the world to hear the story of this band because it’s an amazing story. So there are several audiences for the book but yes, I realized going in full well that I’m setting myself up for failure to a degree but you just have to plow forward and do the best you can. And I’ll collect anything I find out for the paperback edition.

The publication of this book was delayed a bit. Was that because you had some inkling of what was to come?

I think I tested my editor’s patience by drawing the process out. I was getting wind that there might be a reunion and I wanted to end this book on a happier note than Coventry. I don’t think I heard reunion rumors before anyone else did but what I recall is that when the announcement came, my editor was intent on getting the book out to coincide with the reunion shows. He really wanted it out in the spring of this year. On the other hand, I began having the thought that the reunion had to be the final chapter and epilogue and I wanted to see how it played out. Also, reunion aside, I didn’t want to rush the book into publication for the reason you noted – namely, that it would be closely scrutinized by knowledgeable Phishheads, much more so than the average rock bio.

So it was a combination of being careful and also wanting to squeeze in as much as I could about the reunion year while still getting the book out this year that led to delayed publication. I will say that my editor might not have been thrilled about all this back in the spring but he never jumped down my throat and is pleased with the way it all worked out.

I blew my deadline badly but deliberately in order to accommodate the reunion and it couldn’t make me happier to see all of this get resolved and be in the rear view mirror. I didn’t think their story could end with Coventry. If nothing else, they had to have a better finale. And now it looks like a strong new beginning. I love the fact that they’ve recovered the solid interpersonal group dynamic they had for so long before things got so big in the late Nineties. And it sure makes for a happier ending to my book. That moment when they first came out at Hampton in March and lit into “Fluffhead” stands as one of the great rock and roll moments I’ve ever witnessed.

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