photo by Dean Budnick
Widespread Panic are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, and the band is facing some changes to go along with the benchmark. Drummer Todd Nance has left the band and Duane Trucks now sits behind the kit, and there has been talk of the group easing up on the long tour cycles that are so prevalent in the jamband community. But with a new album last year and an energized fanbase, this is far from the end of Widespread Panic.
Percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz has been with the band almost since the beginning, and while he is the oldest member of the group, his good-natured attitude and passion for the music makes him a force to be reckoned with. Here, Ortiz talks with us about bringing in a new drummer, what the band’s plans are concerning their future tours and why he doesn’t even know the meaning of the word “retire.”
When the band starts coming around this time, what kind of conversations did you have about things you wanted to do with the shows or anything like that to celebrate the years?
Wow, you know, can I be frank with you, even though I’m Sunny? The 25th year was the coming out party for us. The 30th year—I mean it’s this awesome thing, don’t get me wrong, but for us, as a whole, I think 25 years was the special moment. You know, 30 years, we’re scratching our heads going like, “Man, has it been that long?” But we really didn’t have special plans, except for coming out and kicking some ass—and coming out with a new album Street Dogs, so I think that was the biggest kick for us, to have this new product. But I think all the rest of the boys would agree with me that any year that we can get out here and perform and have a great time, it’s a celebration.
I heard, because I read these blogs—I’m not very computer literate but my kids are—and so they’re telling me, “Yeah, Dad, everyone is going to wear gold for Red Rocks.” So I’m going, “Holy moly, what on Earth for?” “Because it’s 30 years.” And I go, “I thought gold was for 50 years!” [Laughs] But it’s always a surprise to us, how our fans come out in jubilation and in festive attire to our shows—for no reason at all [laughs].
I noticed you guys have been weaving in a bit more older material recently. When a band gets to a landmark, does that come up—thinking of playing some stuff you haven’t played in a while or stuff you used to play when you were just starting out?
We have such a huge repertoire that we really wanted to bring some of the older material back into the rotation, because there’s a lot of good songs. Whether it’s our originals or the cover songs, there’s just so many to grab from, and we felt fortunate. But the motivation behind all of that was our fans, because when we first started this adventure in ’86, the last thing that we wanted to do was play the same songs night in and night out. Obviously when we first started playing we learned cover songs, because in order for us to sustain ourselves in the early years, the only way people would recognize us would be if we did a cover song, whether it was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young or an Eric Clapton song, and then once we got them hooked with the cover songs, we threw in some originals. And then our original songs kind of sounded like cover songs, because then we would have bar managers and frat and sorority sisters come up to us and say, “Hey, what was the name of that song—yada yada?” And we’d go, “Well, that was an original,” and they’re like, “No, that sounded like…” whoever. So, yeah, this has been a long journey, and we’re just trying to bring in different songs that we haven’t done in a long time, that’s easy.
Obviously you guys have a new drummer, Duane Trucks, on tour now. Especially for you, as a percussionist, what kind of acclimating has to go on with a new musician, after so long with Todd?
As a percussionist, I’ve learned through my—gee-wiz—45 years of playing my instrument that you learn to listen and you learn to watch, and you learn to accent and add color to the ensemble. We’re surprised at the changes, but the thing is that on my end, as a percussionist, my job is to add color and complement the other players. I’m not so much of a lead guitarist or lead vocalist. For me, it was just a transition that, mentally, I had to—we had to—accept, and we knew that the nucleus of the band would still continue to grow. So I guess in answer to your question, really there wasn’t any changes on my end. I think Duane Trucks really wanted to keep all the embellishments, all the drum parts, all the rhythms the same—that’s how much he respected Todd. If I might add, when we lost Mikey Houser and we got Jimmy Herring to do the gig, he felt the same way. He didn’t change anything, and he didn’t want to come in there and strong-arm any song. He loved Mikey Houser’s phrasings and the way he played, and he wanted to simulate him as much as he could. It’s a compliment to both Todd Nance and Mikey Houser. We really didn’t change much, and that’s one of the reasons why learning songs from our early repertoires, because it’s just kind of a new beginning for us.
Besides honoring Todd Nance, what do you think Duane brings to the group, and do you think the shows have changed even a little bit since he’s taken over?
No, the shows haven’t changed. Like I’ve said, they’re all the same songs. We’re playing the same songs, a different person is just here in the boat. It’s like school, and you’re waiting to be picked up by your normal school bus driver, and you have a new bus driver. I really don’t want to elaborate on the new drummer because there’s just so much more involved.
You guys have been in the news for talking about taking a break from touring or stopping your long tours. Can you talk a little bit about what you’ve discussed within the group?
Well, we’ve been doing this for 30-plus years, and there’s just so many things that evolve in touring. Number one, that’s how we sustain ourselves. Record sales have never been our forte, we’ve never hit the top 40, triple-A radio waves. We did a couple of videos in the early years—Billy Bob Thornton produced some of those things. So that told us from the get-go that if we wanted to continue this rollercoaster ride, we had to go on tour. In early years, there weren’t many bands like us touring. There was a handful—a dozen maybe—but nowadays there’s a lot of traffic, a lot of artists, a lot of great festivals, and so it just got to the point where, with the economy, people weren’t traveling as much from show to show, from our perspective. They might want to go check out another band, and that’s their prerogative, you know? So in order to fight that system, we decided to just cut back on touring. Eventually, as in any situation, the time will come for us to reevaluate everything—as we do, since we are six individuals with six different avenues to venture, six different ideas, and so we will reevaluate mid-year next year what our situation will be.
I enjoy, I love, I have a passion for touring. Somebody else might not, and with the way we operate as a band and as brothers in this little club that we’ve established so to speak, we listened to everybody’s feelings. So we all came to the agreement that taking less amount of shows would help us grows and help us not be in a rut where we’re just doing the same thing over and over again, going to the same towns over and over again. We’ll do Red Rocks, we’ll do the West Coast, we’ll do the East Coast. We’ll just limit ourselves to not being out as much. All of us have given up a lot of things as we matured in this band—our families and friends and birthday parties and graduations, anniversaries, on and on, and so it’s just nice to be able to kick back and relax for a while and then recharge our batteries so to speak, and then see what next year brings us. How we develop, how we grow as a band—I think that’s the key, if not the success, to the some of the artists. We’re just flying by the seat of our pants every year, and there’s not a rule that says you gotta tour so many dates a year. We just want to still be able to have a good time and not really burn ourselves out.
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.
