Photo by Dean Budnick
In terms of inspiring guitarists, could talk a little bit about your friendship with B.B. King and the legacy you feel he’s passed onto you as a musician?
He’s a perfect gentleman and so inspiring. He was so down to earth and he always had time for people. He was humble and he really blew my mind because he is one of those people that is sort of like Santa Claus, you don’t even think they are real because they are just so magical [laughs]. He’s one of the originals. He created a style that everybody was inspired by, from Clapton to the Stones and all sorts of different people. Anybody in modern day music knows B.B. King and they know where it came from.
His life was so interesting in that it was difficult and tragic at times but he had such a beautiful, positive spirit that he overcame everything. He grew up on a plantation and his mom would be in the cotton fields during the day and he’d be inside playing with the daughter of his mom’s friend and then when he was alone he would have conversations with animals, which he even talks about in his book.
I can’t even describe how special he was to me because he really took me out on some of my really big tours through the decades. Since ’98 I think I had done six tours with him, which means I was out for like 3-4 weeks at a time with him. Some of them were in the United States and some of them were in Europe and it was absolutely amazing, playing in Budapest, Hungary, Switzerland or Austria at these beautiful venues where Bach and Mozart played—and here I am playing in the same venue with B.B. King.
He was always so sweet and he always had time for me. He made me feel so special and so loved, and he made me feel so welcomed. He felt like my grandfather or my uncle. He was definitely a father figure in a lot of ways and he gave me a lot of confidence. He always supported me and helped me to be stronger as a person and as a musician.
He was very giving; he always invited me up to play with him. I remember the first time he invited me up, we were on tour with Buddy Guy and Dr. John and he said “I’m gonna invite my friend Susan up to play with my old time friend Buddy,” because him and Buddy had been friends forever. I was on stage with Buddy Guy and B.B. King and it was like a dream. At first I said I can’t even play. I had just started playing guitar pretty much; I didn’t start playing electric until my 20s. I grew up playing acoustic cowboy chords but I really didn’t start figuring out the guitar until 22 or 23. That was really when I got going, and then I was opening for them at 28, so I had really only been digging into guitar for five years.
He was just very sweet, and he always gave me a lot of opportunities and stayed in touch and he felt like family. If I ever wanted to call him, I could. It was a very special thing that Derek and I were both blessed to know him and for him to give us so much love back. It was a very special relationship and I’m going to miss him a lot. It will never be the same.
How do you construct the setlists at this point? Which solo songs do you feel comfortable putting in there versus TTB material, or how you try to mix material from the various albums?
We will do stuff from all of the different albums. We mix it up and we’ll do some covers and we throw a couple of the new ones in there that we have performed live. At the same time we try to save as many as we can because nowadays everything gets shared. With YouTube and everybody filming at shows, you can’t keep anything fresh and new for the record if you play it. That’s a little frustrating.
We will always try to keep it fresh. We never try to do the exact same set. We will draw from things that people want to hear and work in things like “Midnight in Harlem,” “Bound for Glory,” “The Storm” and “Made Up Mind,” but we will also incorporate a whole bunch of other stuff to try and keep it fresh. We will do sit down sets maybe, or keep it live and electric other nights. It just depends on where we are and what kind of a crowd it is. A lot of times you play for the moment and what the band is feeling that day. What kind of a venue is it? Can you get rowdy and crazy? There is a lot that goes into each day and each set.
Derek usually writes the sets. I always wrote all of my sets up until I was in a band with him. At first I thought it was so weird, but he has a vision and understands this band as a whole. He sees the big picture, and I trust and believe in him and he does a great job. He pushes me too, he will have me do songs that I might not want to do, which is kind of weird, but if I am really inspired to do something I’ll bring it up. He really is a visionary. He sees things a certain way and has really great instincts, he’s very musical and very gifted and we all believe in him. He’s really a great bandleader.
The past year has seen a resurgence of interest in the Grateful Dead’s music. You were a member of The Other Ones in 2002. Can you talk a little bit about that experience?
I was very fortunate; I got to tour with The Dead in 2002. I gave birth to Charlie in March of 2002, and when I was pregnant with him I was out on the road with them. Derek was playing with Soulive and Friends and became friends with that whole camp. The first time they kind of got back together without Jerry was that New Year’s Eve of 2001 going into 2002 and we were in San Francisco.
There are two favorite memories that I have with those guys, one was just being there and seeing them back together. It was Phil & Friends or The Other Ones or something like that and they were going to get back together but they hadn’t really announced it. They came across the whole audience up in this huge riser 30 feet in the air and they were all on top. It went through the audience and dropped them off on stage and it was mayhem and craziness.
Everyone was really sweet and we got up and played and I think we did “Hard to Handle.” Warren Haynes was there and Derek and a bunch of us got up and played that night. It was kind of before The Dead really got back together. It was cool just to see them when they were thinking about really doing it. Then when they did do it, I got to play with them the November, December, January and February of 2002/2003 when I was on tour with them. We played in my home town of Boston which was a great memory, but one of my favorite shows was playing at MSG with them. I was in the band with Jimmy Herring. He was playing guitar and I was singing in the band and it was Mickey Hart, Kreutzman, Bobby, Jeff, and Rob Barraco and it was such a trip for me.
I love seeing Rob Barraco because he is the biggest Grateful Dead fan that’s in the Grateful Dead. He knew the songs better than they did. He’d say, “Should we do your version from ’79 or your version from ’84?” He knew all of the different versions they had done of their own tunes and these guys don’t even remember! It was just so cute.
We were doing this one show and we were playing “King Bee.” I wasn’t playing guitar in the band and I wanted to but I didn’t want to say anything because they didn’t need me, they had Jimmy and Bobby. But Jimmy came over and he said, “Come on, play a solo!” so I reached around Jimmy and played a solo.
I love Bob Weir, I really do. It made me fall in love with him as a person and as a player. He’s a sweetheart of a guy and he really has his own sound and his own style. Being in a band with him made me realize how great he really is, and Jimmy and I talk all the time about how Bob has this sound and style that is really his own. So I think some of my favorite memories are just the spontaneity and the craziness that would go down—not knowing what was going to happen.
We would practice things for hours and hours, I literally had to leave the band because I was nursing and I was so engorged from practicing for four hours at a time. Then we would take an hour break to eat dinner and then get ready and then play for another three or four hours. It was insane; I have never been in a band where you play that much. It was a lot of work, and if I hadn’t been nursing it would have been way better because I could have just focused 100% on that.
It was hard because we would practice things one way, and we would do it live and it would be nothing like we had practiced. And I would think, “But we didn’t practice it that way! You’re singing a different part now, so I don’t know what part to sing!” It really made me realize how much of it is improv, you start in one place and you have the song and learn the tune but then at the end of the day it would just morph into something else.
It was a lot of fun being a part of that and being a part of that journey and seeing how they all move together and how different they really were. Phil—his style of playing is very unique. I have played with many bass players and he really is just his own. There are none that play like him. He has a very specific style in the way that moves in and out of a tune and the way that he forms things, the way that he thinks. It is really interesting to be behind the scenes in that camp and see how they work together.
Did you feel that Jerry Garcia’s vision still drove the band?
I definitely felt them missing Jerry. They miss Jerry on a daily basis; he wasn’t just a musical leader but a good friend and a good person that could hold it all together. It’s actually kind of cool that they have stuck it out this long without him and that they continue to keep the legacy going, because it is important. People do love the music and love the scene. It is something very unique and special.
Ultimately being in that band, I was blown away about how many great songs there were, and how unique the tunes were when you get right down to the songwriting of it. The lyrics are great, with some of the interesting collaborations that they had. I really love their harmonies. On certain songs it was really natural, like “Uncle John’s Band” and things like that that shows off their singing and the parts. It has those Crosby, Stills & Nash kind of things. They don’t do that all the time, but I kind of like it when they do that more. I have a lot of memories, but I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about them!
They had a baby shower backstage for me that New Year’s. It was so funny, all of the wives of the Dead had a baby shower for me with beautiful presents like crochet blankets that they had made or baby carriers and stuff. It was awesome. I was very, very lucky to be a part of that scene and they treated me like family.
Whenever I see them now they are still super sweet. When I see Bob now, he’s like, “Suz, you wanna get up and play?” We played Lockn’ like two years ago and he said to come on up and play on his set. I’m thinking I’m going to get up for “Samson and Delilah” and play one tune. Before you know it I’m up for six tunes. I don’t know what’s happening and I’m playing guitar for like six songs [laughs]. Ah, Bobby. At one point I got up and said to the band, “Do you guys get paid to do this? It is so fun, it’s almost illegal to be having that much fun!” Bobby really is special, he’s a sweetheart. Musically, he’s really in it. He’s all about it, he’s very passionate. I can’t say enough nice things about Bob Weir. I really think he’s the real deal.
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