Transitioning to Ween, what was the discussion like for the reunion with those guys? Reunions have been a big thing this year. Guns N’ Roses decided to do it, too.

Yeah, that’s funny. I was wondering if we were going to beat them. Now everybody is just waiting for the Talking Heads. I think that’s the one, right? Because everyone else has done it, or is doing it.

I’ve been playing with the Dean Ween Group all through the fall, and he just made a new record. So we’ve been playing, and then we did a tour where we had all the guys from the band except Aaron. We had a great time and it was really fun, there was good music. It was very natural, you know. We had to figure out how to do our thing with the four of us instead, so that was an interesting thing. Maybe that spawned the idea of the reunion. That seems to happen with other groups, where half the group gets together and then the rest of them decide, “Okay, let’s just do this!” So I think that’s what it came down to.

When did the discussion start? How long of a process was it?

It was just one day where we got together for Dean Ween rehearsals and Dean Ween, aka Mickey, just told me, “Aaron’s decided that we should do some playing, and we’re going to do it.” And that was it, it was as simple as that. And it really came down to the two of them working that out. For the rest of us, it wasn’t like we had a band meeting and decided “Let’s do this.” Those guys just needed to figure it out and say yes, that’s all.

Have you started rehearsing?

Because I’ve been so busy with JRAD, there hasn’t really been a whole lot of time. Claude is living in Asheville now, and he’s been working with Mike Dillon. I’m going to do a week long run with Marco this week right after Jam Cruise. And then as soon as I get back, I have about a week off and then we’re going right into rehearsals and start working on it.

How do you anticipate you’ll react getting back into that Ween material?

I think it’s going to be a horrible disaster and total failure [laughs]. No, it’s going to be great. It’s going to be amazing. I’m looking forward to it. Playing in JRAD is great, but I’m playing Phil Lesh’s music. I’m playing music of the Dead. Getting back to Ween, I’m Dave from Ween. I’m not in a cover band. So it’s different. That’s my music, you know. It’s apples and oranges, you can’t really compare how it feels.

You go for something that works. There’s always time for my own little trio where I do my own original music that nobody knows about called Crescent Moon. I barely ever get to do that. I do a couple of little gigs a year, if even. I think I missed this year completely. I guess, as an artist, you want to do something original and you want to do your thing. Playing Zeppelin is great, it’s really fun, and playing the Dead is a real challenge. But playing in Ween, that’s home for me. That’s where I belong.

Are you looking at this as a long term thing?

We’re looking at a long term thing. I think we’re going to see how this year goes and then hopefully we’ll keep this going forever. Maybe we won’t be touring a billion gigs a year, but we’ll do a handful of gigs that will be awesome. It would be great to get back to making new records and stuff, but if we don’t make records with Dean Ween or whatever or with my own stuff, that’s cool too. But I’d love to have Ween always working, at least while we’re all still on the planet.

Do you guys plan on recording new music?

I’m not sure how that’s going to go. I think we’re taking this all with baby steps in terms of just doing a bunch of shows and seeing how everybody feels about it. In my mind, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t last forever and just continue. Even if we don’t make new music or if we do, I’m looking forward to just getting back to playing that music.

Are you going to try to outlast Guns N’ Roses?

They didn’t last very long, did they? Are they going to have Steven Adler? To me, he’s the heart and soul of that whole thing. If they don’t have him, then I don’t know. But if he’s there, I might actually go.

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