Especially next year, in between those shows, do you see yourself kicking back and relaxing like you said, or do you think you’ll maybe do some other projects?

I want to do some side projects. Individually, I think we’re not going to just fall off the face of the Earth. We’re going to do some selective shows. In our down time, we’ll do whatever it is that makes us recharge our batteries, that makes us the person that we are, and really lead a decent life—instead of coming home after a four-week tour, unpacking, doing laundry and then packing up again to do another four-week tour. The cycle can be vicious and it can get old. The thing about it is, we just want to change up things, change up where we toured to and how many dates we go out—we don’t want to be predictable. If we want to do a show in Hawaii, we can announce it two months in advance instead of it being part of a tour. The door is wide open for us, and it’s going to be fun. It’ll be exciting, and we’re looking forward to it, and we kind of hope everybody else is open to it as well. Like I said before, there’s just a huge amount of entertainment—I call it traffic—out there that people can check out, myself included. So many awesome bands that are out there. We’re just looking for festivals that are out there and they’re being filled up. So those will continue to grow as they have been. We just hope we can be a part of those things again.

Have you guys talked about studio work? Do you guys think you will cut another album?

We’d love to. The wheels are constantly turning, musically. It’s just a matter of, would anybody be interested in funding the project? That’s always key, because nowadays, as always, in order to work it, so to speak, you have to have a good team of people that are supporting you—marketing, publicists, someone that’s going to put your name out there so we’re not doing all of the leg-work ourselves. When people say, “I’m a songwriter, I have my own publishing company—how do I get out there?” I’m like, “For folks like you guys, you just get on the Internet and Facebook and just go out and play.” But for us, I think it’s a little bit different. I think the only way I know how to grab these people is to really saturate the market with a product, but that may not work all the time. You can see by our record sales that we’ve never really jumped out in front of you to make a killing, so to speak. We’ve always kind of maintained a certain level and that’s about it. Like I said before, Triple A radio station has never been an advocate for us, and colleges are more apt to play us, and that’s just the norm that it always has been. So yeah, we’d love to do another product, we just don’t know when. We probably will go in the studio and do something special next year.

You guys have another Red Rocks run coming up that’s already sold out, and you guys have the record for sold-out shows at Red Rocks. Can you talk a little bit about Widespread Panic’s relationship with Red Rocks and how you guys have kind of grown up with that venue?

When we first started playing there, we were opening for Blues Traveler, because they always had that Fourth of July weekend. When we first walking in there, some of the boys had seen, obviously, the Dead there, and it was a massive place—it was a dream come true for some of the members. What can I say that hasn’t been said about the venue? It’s spectacular, definitely an eye-catcher. To hold a record is just one of those things where we never would’ve put in the equation that we would even get this far. Bottom line is that the fans have created this scene, and we just happen to be a part of the scene, which makes it special for us. I’m definitely excited about it, but I also know that there are always going to be challenges amongst each other to really make it special. And I think that’s what really makes our wheels turn—as a band, we challenge each other every time we get up onstage, because it’s a great conversation between the band members as we play, and the fans who are listening can actually feel the conversation. I think that’s the magic that we all have, that’s the connectivity that we all have together. We’re conversing, and the people are really listening to us and they’re having a good time—at least that’s what we see. I think that solidifies the whole record for most sold out shows at Red Rocks. It’s still fun for all of us, and obviously it’s still fun for the fans. Like I said before, we owe it to our fan base that has been very supportive these 30 years. If you get a chance, you should come out to those shows, they’re going to be awesome. Bring your little oxygen canister—because now they don’t come in tanks, they come in canisters. But it’s a treat, it really is a treat. We never thought in our wildest dreams that we would sell out 50 shows. It was one of those things that we feel kind of just snuck up on us. It just happened.

Speaking of your fan base, you guys had your official 30th anniversary show back home earlier this year. What does it mean to come home for the 30th—or any other anniversary—and play in Athens?

It’s a zoo. It’s great, really awesome, for me, to call Athens my home. Like I said before, there’s music everywhere, and when you come to Athens, obviously, there’s music of all kinds. To be able to play in your hometown I think is very humbling, because for us, this is where this all started, in Athens. I remember we could barely bring in 25 people into the Uptown Lounge when we first started. We were doing 25-cent longnecks of Budweiser and charging a dollar to get in, and we used to get 15 people to come up. I remember one time we were in Virginia and the club owner couldn’t pay us, so he broke into his pool tables just to pay us in quarters. So we’ve come a long way as an ensemble, as a group, as a band. In our hearts, we still want to go a long way, we still want to keep on going. I think that’s the drive, and there are a lot of incentives that make us want to continue to pursue our dreams as musicians. But to answer your question, it’s just an awesome feeling. You get to sleep in your own bed, you get to go to your favorite restaurants. It’s just kind of a treat.

What was the impetus behind doing New Year’s Eve in Nashville for the first time this year?

Well, a couple of the guys live there, and you know, we like to mix it up. We don’t want to be predictable, because everybody was thinking, “Oh, they’ll go back to Charlotte, or they’ll do Denver again, or they’ll play the Fox.” We just don’t want to be predictable, and I think that shows in our music. I like being unpredictable and flying by the seat of my pants. Some people say “Dude, how can you do it? You’re 63 years old, don’t you want to retire?” And I’m like, “No, man, I have no idea what that word means.” Because the music makes me feel young, makes me feel like there is a purpose for everything. You’re only as old as you say you are, and I feel great. I think the rest of the boys are into it, because they’re like 10 years my junior. Duane hasn’t even reached 30 yet. But you know, we’ve got a ways to go before we even talk about slowing down. It’s just a phase that we want to take it easy. We want to be able to do it for a long time, and if we keep doing it at the pace we’re doing it at, we’re either going to get burned out or fans will get burned out, and there’s no need for that. There’s plenty of room to grow for everybody.

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