Photo by Jeffrey Dupuis
Widespread Panic is celebrating the band’s 25th anniversary the only way it knows how — playing concerts across the country. The final leg is taking place this fall with their annual Halloween and New Year’s Eve dates as well as the sold out Panic En La Playa at a Mexican resort in early 2012. Following that, the members will go on an indefinite hiatus.
With much of Panic’s past, present and future documented in the July/August “Relix” cover story I approached my conversation with John Bell by emphasizing other matters in his life such as his environmental interests, his wife’s wellness center and his use of the Energy Enhancement System.
He spoke about being absorbed by music as a child and then becoming a part of one of the most popular touring acts in the country.
Although he’s very much a part of the digital age, the native of Shaker Heights and Pepper Pike, Ohio also brought up his sadness that favorite stops to visit while on the road such as Borders bookstores and Tower Records are nothing but memories now. Whether it applies to his band, his life or the general public, it’s apparent that a sense of community among musicians, fans and strangers gathering at brick-and-mortar businesses is important to him.
In good spirits, the conversation flowed easily and, most importantly, Bell was agreeable to tackle any subject presented to him.
JPG: I’m calling you from your old stomping grounds in Northeast Ohio.
JB: Yeah!
JPG: You grew up in Shaker Heights?
JB: Through six, maybe, part of seventh grade. Then, we just moved out to Pepper Pike. My parents owned land out there for years and years. That was one of their lifelong dreams, designing a house together. So, there were always some blueprints there on the desk in the living room.
JPG: And, because I keep reading different accounts did you go to Shaker Heights High School or University School?
JB: I went to US. I was at Sussex Elementary and lived right across from the playground.
JPG: Nice.
JB: Well, it’s kinda nice but then you’re the first one called home because you can’t deny your dad’s whistle. (laughs)
JPG: Finishing up about Ohio, this may have some meaning to you. Do you remember Jane Scott from “The Plain Dealer?” (The beloved Cleveland pop critic died last summer ).
JB: Yeah, I got an envelope full of articles from my dad and a bunch of email links from my friends who are in this century. (laughs)
JPG: I don’t know if you heard, the Rock Hall had a tribute night for her with several hours of remembrances and performances.
JG: She was really hip. She came out to our shows and was just a sweetheart. And I grew up reading her column to see the concerts that were coming up. She was adorable.
JPG: So, I take it you were a veteran of places like the Richfield Coliseum and Blossom Music Center.
JB: Yeah, man. I started watching World Team Tennis there and then they started bringing concerts in there. And Blossom Music Center, that was pretty much the place you really loved to go during the summers. But if it was raining the Coliseum was there and it was closer.
From Blossom it was probably a 45-minute hike back home. That’s nothing when you’re younger. Nowadays, it’s like, ‘Oh, let me check and see what’s on TV.’ (slight laugh)
JPG: As far as music itself, whether it was going to concerts or something else, was there anything in particular as you were growing up that inspired you to do what you’re doing now?
JB: I suspect, but maybe it’s…all kids kind of pretend, you know, when watching TV. We had some kind of guitar in the house ever since I can remember, whether it had strings on it or not. So, there was something to pretend with.
I remember, and I think my grandparents, my dad’s folks, gave me a little transistor radio when I was five years old and I was allowed to listen to that into the night. I had a little earplug in it and everything was cool. Subliminally, I think I was absorbing stuff. Mostly what you got was WIXY 1260 and CKLW from Windsor. And Windsor’s right across from Detroit, so you got a lot of Motown there.
But then, one of the biggest things about music was I was never pressured into it, save for the first piano lessons to see if anything stuck. But that’s a good thing for parents to do, at least expose them and see if there’s some connection there.
JPG: Do you think a light came on in college when you were working with Michael Houser?
JB: I was writing stupid stuff as soon as I learned to write but it was little kid, first, second grade stuff. But I was still trying it. As far as a light coming on, I think that might have taken place in ninth grade or something like that. I just remember playing the guitar and singing in my basement and something sounded kinda okay to me. (laughs) It wasn’t like I was just pretending. I think I hit my first note. And then I had some friends from Cleveland, we had some guitars and sang together. Just piddling around. Being real nervous but trusting each other. That was a big deal. Every little step of the way was a big deal.
JPG: I’m just real curious about this, not just because you’re from the same area but in the recent Relix cover story there wasn’t room to go into much detail about your pre-college days. So, I didn’t know if there was more there, that you had the usual high school bands playing around town…
JB: Doing more of a folky, bluesy thing in high school. Didn’t do anything outside of a friend’s house or school talent show. Then, in college I was strapped for cash and did some open mic nights. One night nobody good was there so I got 20 bucks. I was there for school, playing the guitar was an escape so there was no pressure to it. So, I started gravitating towards my no pressure gig. Then, just started schlepping myself out as a single [act], learned a bunch of songs and started playing ‘em. Then, I met the guys.
There was a lot of sports in school and a little music intermixed when I started playing music. In college I wasn’t very good at anything so sports fell off and it was more music. So, it seemed like a natural progression.
JPG: Did you ever get your degree?
JB: I was an English major and I had all that stuff taken care of. I was five hours short of my degree. But music was rolling and I had been largely into Cliffs Notes. I wasn’t really up for the charade of having people pat me on the back for faking my way through college. (laughs)
JPG: Would that be on your agenda during the band’s hiatus? Finish up for the hell of it?
JB: You know I think about it probably two or three times a year. So, one of these days I’ll probably do it. That’s something. It would be interesting. But I’d probably do an independent study course because I don’t know if I can, classrooms were always tough. First, it was tough finding ‘em…
JPG: As for the present, you’re home now, just about to get back on the road.
JB: Hanging out, visiting with some friends, playing a little bit of golf, doing a lot of gardening. Right now, it’s hot down here. So our season, we start early so things are pretty much wrapping up. Start to get ready to plant for cold weather, fall crops.
JPG: Up here we’re doing the harvest with zucchini and eggplant…
JB: You guys are peaking right now.
JPG: It’s been a weird year where we’ll go without rain for awhile and then get a major downpour and then nothing again. So, the tomatoes have these weird marks on ‘em.
JB: Stretch marks. It’s a gas going out there and making that into your salad for the evening.
JPG: We are going to get to Panic in a second here.
JB: (laughs) That is a Panic thing as far as I’m concerned. Whatever you bring to the table.
JPG: Well good, because before we get to the band I wanted to bring up that I was at your panel at Bonnaroo’s Solar Stage last June. You spoke about your wife having a wellness center and that you visit the energy room.
JB: It’s called the energy enhancement system and if you want to read about, really check it out in depth, get a good grasp of the description, check out eesystem.com. eesystem.com. Yeah, it’s pretty freaky. Has a bunch of computers that are configured in physical location and spacing between each other. They’re programmed that they interact in such a way that creates a bioactive field that resonates you on a cellular level.
JPG: Is it like an advanced version of the hemi-sync method from the Monroe Institute?
JB: Yeah, but this would be more akin to a mechanically-derived version of reiki. On that website, www.eesystem.com. eesystem.com, there’s a list of all the systems in the country and in the world, actually. And their highlighted as to which ones are publicly accessible.
JPG: You mentioned that you use it for something like two hours a day.
JB: Yeah, if you’re just doing a phone call or something, you just decide to multi-task and go in there and resonate. (slight laugh)
JPG: I thought it was something where nothing else is going on, kind of like deprivation tank.
JB: No, I do that as well. Basically, it’s a very nice room with 16 computers, shooting their waves at each other and that creates the field that you immerse yourself in. We’ve got a couch and four anti-gravity lounge chairs. It’s real easy to relax, listen to a meditation tape, fall sleep or go in there and read if you want. It’s a peaceful gig.
JPG: If you’re doing that all the time at home when you go out on the road, is it like a drug where it goes out of your system or is there some way that you can reactivate it without the computers?
JB: It stays with you. Actually, when I’m away from it…what can I compare it to? It’s like if you’re getting a massage every day or doing yoga every day, you get used to that and you can be relaxed and real supple. But then, when you go out doing regular stuff like working in the yard and other things you feel the strength that those activities have given you. And that’s what happens when I go out on the road, you hold the energy…you’re there. You feel alert and strong and it lasts. But, there are some places on the road, if we have a day off, there’s one in L.A. where I’ve got some friends and we’ll go do that instead of going to get cocktails. We’ll go to the energy room. And there might be a cocktail afterwards. (laughs)
Photo by Gerry Hardy
JPG: Back to the Bonnaroo panel you mentioned that you have solar panels at the wellness center and are considering getting them for your house. Did you ever do that?
JB: Just at the wellness center. But at this point I consider both places home. They just happen to be in two different locations.
JPG: I also recall you participated in an environmental panel at ROTHBURY as well. On the opposite end of that you’re touring the country with a number of buses and tractor trailers. As someone concerned with the environment, does that drive you a little crazy or do you work with the band to try lower your carbon footprint?
JB: Oh, we definitely do automatically because the band at our level, we’ve got three tour buses and three trucks, semis. We’ve got that scaled down to the bare minimum for our type of operation. One of the big things is the band, we travel together. Luckily, we all dig each other so we can live in the same space. And we stay in the bus. We’re not flying from gig to gig and having the bus there as a personal trailer, which is the case in a lot of bands. And when we can, we haven’t done it these last couple tours because we’ve got a new line of buses and the owners of the buses are skittish, but we have in the past been traveling on biodiesel for the trucks and the buses. Yep, keep bringing that up and hoping we can reinstitute that. Beyond that, we ask for recycling bins at all our gigs. And our personal trash we try to keep at a minimum.
JPG: As far as the band, you’re celebrating your 25th anniversary. That’s a major achievement. The Beatles didn’t stick together that long. Zeppelin didn’t do that as well as many other artists. Is that the main idea for Widespread Panic that you get along, that the friendship supersedes the music and has been a key in the band’s longevity?
JB: I think they go hand-in-hand. I do know that early on there was a shared love of music. We weren’t well-versed in a band type of communication. We all really dug music and we all played instruments but we hadn’t been in full-fledged bands other than little high school bands, some of the guys have. So, paramount to even jumping in together and trusting each other was if we got along personally. And it’s not like we’re all the same guy. Totally different personalities. I wouldn’t say conflicting but sometimes they’re complementary in the way that they’re so different that you’re forced to see the other side of things. And I think a lot of that’s part of the dynamic that creates strong friendships. Now, it’s like you don’t know one from the other. Musically, friendship-wise, it feels like the same thing.
JPG: It’s hard not to ask this question after reading how inspired the members are and hearing how well you’re playing now but why take a break in early 2012?
JB: You know it’s kind of important once in a while. We’ve been seven years since our last break. It’s really good to step back from what you’re doing, to remember who you are, to draw from other worldly experiences even if they’re the mundane everyday cooking dinner experiences to keep yourself a little well-rounded. Step back a little and bring that back to the music. It’s just a way of staying in the groove and giving yourself a way of…you can’t eat pizza every night.
JPG: Do you think that taking that previous break of 14 months allowed you to come back whereas if you didn’t do that we wouldn’t be chatting about Widespread Panic because there wouldn’t be a Widespread Panic?
JB: Yeah, but I gotta tell you it was the first time we ever tried that. We had planned to do it while Mikey was still alive and then he was diagnosed and stuck it out ‘til the end. Then, we got back up on the horse and kept re-establishing our whatever we were at that point for the next year-and-a-half or something. And then took the next 14 months off, and that was kind of weird. For one it was the first time we ever did it. For two it happened not as scheduled, not as planned. I think this time it’s going to give us, for one we experienced it before so we kinda know what to expect. It was really weird to stop doing something that you’ve been doing for…I’ve been playing live since 1981 or something like that, and that was the first time I hadn’t for an extended period of time. I had been doing something once a week somewhere. And when we were really doing it, we were playing 300 shows a year. So, this time around it’s gonna be different because we’ve got a little experience doing it, and we’re a little more established with our configuration with Jimmy Herring as the guitar player.
JPG: The other aspect of being together so long, is there any sage advice you can give to younger bands?
JB: Hmmmm… (pauses) Well, you know, I’d say…it might hard to put it in a nutshell but if I had to put it in a short paragraph it would be to look around at the guys you’re playing with… At times you’re only going to have each other. Create a creative environment of curiosity, acceptance, forgiveness and when you can, remember to let the music play you. Try to loosen your grip a little, and that’s when things really take off. And you’d be surprised in the experience and not just trying to win all the time.
JPG: There are times watching you onstage where it looks like you are really deeply into it, almost as if you’re in a hypnotic state.
JB: Oh yeah. You hit a place where you’re in the zone, where you’re shooting three-pointers and so are your buddies. And you’re not always just trying to shoot three-pointers, the other team disappears and you’re passing it. Time slows down and there’s a simplicity that takes over. You can be doing some incredible acrobatics, musically, together but it doesn’t feel that way because it’s gone into this realm of simplicity.
JPG: Do you describe yourself in the band as guitarist John Bell or rhythm guitarist John Bell or does it matter?
JB: Band member.
JPG: I won’t say ‘leader.’ I know that’s a no-no.
JB: Well, it wouldn’t help anybody. But, as long as it’s all inclusive because I think we’re all leaders. In that context I’ll put that on my resume.
JPG: Watching you play, in comparison to others who are fronting a large band, say Dave Matthews who is playing a specific rhythmic part before Tim Reynolds or someone else solos. You’re not playing in that manner. It seems to be more like Bob Weir where you’re playing within the song rather than a riff. Is that how you approach your role in the context of the band?
JB: I think I’m following you and the way I look at it is it’s my job to be part of the conversation, which means I listen at the appropriate times. Hopefully, if I interject it’s an appropriate moment where it doesn’t stop the flow of communal conversation. That could take the form of single notes or chords or a rhythmic pattern or playing nothing at all. It’s a bunch of guys getting together and talking about stuff — in our case musically — but hoping we open the door so we all come away with personal revelations, something bigger than we would have come up with on our own.
JPG: I interviewed Chris Barron of Spin Doctors the other day.
JB: (brightens up) No kiddin’! How’s he doing?
JPG: He was in a really good mood. They’re touring behind the 20th anniversary re-issue of Pocket Full of Kryptonite.
JB: Holy mackerel. That’s freaky because I remember when they just started. They played and we played then Blues Traveler played over in New York. That was a heavy sound. I watched their whole set. I really dug it.
JPG: Speaking to him about his band’s commercial success made me think about the previous times I’ve interviewed you and Dave Schools and Todd Nance. Each time, there was talk and hope that whatever album you were supporting it was going to be the album to achieve widespread success. Was there a point where you just said, ‘We’re going to do it our way and live our life and not worry anymore’?
JB: We live in both worlds. And I promise you, we still enjoy and are surprised enough by what we do on every album that we go, ‘Yeah. Who knows? Maybe.’ Depending on how it goes. Actually, this year the album was nominated for a Grammy. So, that was a first. (John Keane was nominated for Best Engineered Album category for Dirty Side Down ). There’s definitely is a realization that the pop formula for hit songs, for what’s new that comes down the pipe, is way different than the way we approach music. And we’re not striving to fit in either. That’s our own problem. We’re striving to feel good about the music that we’re making together and then whatever happens after that is a byproduct.
But we still go through the motions. We still push two or three songs deep within every album. Our little niche is Adult Alternative [radio]. We get a little mileage out of that. We ride that chart for a little bit. But it’s a different world. If we had been there 10 years earlier, who knows? Of course, we might have been overshadowed by the whole New Wave movement. But, at least records would have been something that were sold. You talked earlier about Borders closing. Man, watching Tower Records close blew me away.
JPG: Yeah, that’s so sad. It reminds me of my need to take a one-day trip to San Francisco and hit Amoeba Records and come back with a suitcase full of new music.
JB: That’s what’s going on. The independent record stores, they’re still holding firm. They banded together in a coalition across the country, really hip shops. They’re new and used and a lot of memorabilia and a lot of silly eye candy stuff in the stores, and the box sets and ‘We can order you anything’ and that kind of thing. I love going to places like that.
JPG: I have a couple friends who still have indie record stores and are surviving. The one, I think, is selling a lot of vinyl these days.
JB: We still print in vinyl. Some people really dig it and we listen to it like that. We grew up listening to it like that. They can still make ‘em.
JPG: Well, the sun’s starting to go down. I’ll end it here. Let you go outside, do a little gardening or just catch a bit of the sun’s warmth.
JB: Now that it’s cooling off a bit, I’ll walk the dogs.
JPG: I read somewhere that you had puppies but…
JB: This new batch is coming up on four-years old.
JPG: The good thing for you is you’re out on the road so you miss all the insanity of the puppy phase.
JB: They’re shepherd chow mixes so they’re still insane. We spoil ‘em. We discipline them with love. That’s what keeps ‘em coming back. The rest of it. They’re comedians.
