Page 16 - the NOISE June 2014

TITlIng The RooT RusTed
iNTeRvieW by Mike WilliaMs
IconicworldmusicrockersRustedRootwillbeheadliningtheVerdeValleyTiltedEarthWine & Music Festival at Riverfront Park in Cottonwood on June 20. The two-day fest, starting on June 19 will feature wineries from all over the northern Arizona region, activities for both young and old and plenty of local food. This writer had the pleasure of catching up with found- ing member Michael Glabicki for a stunning walk through the past, present, and future of the band and its epoch.
You played Woodstock ‘99, which unlike Woodstock ‘69, degenerated into a full-scale riot. Band members looked visibly distressed during the video of your performance, were there indicators from stage about how bad things were going to go?
You know, you could really feel it in the air, it was really tense. when things turned, some- thing didn’t feel right and I ended up walking behind the stage about 45 minutes before we went on and just sort of chanted. Really grounding my energy. Just trying to be focused when I went up there to calm the energy. when the change-over went through, I went to the middle of the stage to strum my guitar just to bring some positive energy. It’s a little hard to describe how it was happening ... It was just really grounding. It ended up with the crew flying around me trying to set up with 120,000 people looking at the stage and every hundred or so people would be pointing at me. I’d point back and just give them the love and the vibes, you know? when we were playing, we were just so intensely focused on the healing vibes that people said it was the only jam that really brought the woodstock energy out of the whole festival. The crowd just really settled down. As we were leaving, we were watching what was happening and just going, “what would’ve happened if we hadn’t brought what we did?” It was really bad and it was really scary.
You’ve got forty tracks that only exist in rare bootlegs. Will we be seeing re-mastered or re-record- ed versions of these songs any time soon?
I’m not really sure, I’m not really in that department. Ha, ha! I’m just into writing music and in the studio all the time now. we’re really focusing on our new album. every once in a while, I’ll get a call from management or someone in the band and it’s like, “next time we’re on the road, get with me on that.” Ha, if someone does, it’ll probably happen, but if not, then it prob- ably won’t.
How does Rusted Roots spend their downtime when not touring?
I work a lot in the studio and I have a family, so I spend a lot of time with them. I have a great dog, so I get to hang out with him and he’s just the best, ha! Lisa has kind of a school of Rock type thing she does where she works with kids. everyone has their side projects they do and families.
You’ve played with some incredible acts across the globe including Carlos Santana, Dave Mat- thews Band, and the Page and Plant Led Zepplin reunion. As musicians are inevitably fans as well as performers, is there anyone that sticks out as just a mind-blowing experience to play with?
I would say that, between the Page and Plant tour and santana, those are the two real high- lights. santana was a real teacher and an inspiration, both as a human being and a musician. we did two tours with him, one with supernatural and one after. The first tour, he told us to come up on stage and we’ll play some songs. He played songs his band hadn’t even heard before with all seven of us on stage. He just directed the whole thing and it was crazy. It was insane. In the middle of one song, he pointed at me, walked off stage, and lit up a cigar. I was left there, in the middle of a solo, for what seemed like eight hours. Ha, ha!
16 • JUNE 2015 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
Itwasprobablyjust,like,fortyseconds,butIhadafull-bodysweat. Afterafewweeks,Ireal- ized that he is so aware of musicians, he had already listened to us and picked that song just for us, so when I started playing, I knew immediately what to do. At the time, we didn’t know he knew us, so we just started freaking out. He’s just one of those kind of guys: so aware and so conscious! A great teacher ... There were times when he’d be watching us from back stage and he’d tell me afterwards, “Hey, man, you need to get really angry.” I didn’t understand how he could say something like that and, a couple days later, I would realize what he was saying.
Like, I wasn’t leading the band properly and he would pick up on little things like that. Be- cause of those teachings, we evolved much further as a band. But, then, as a number two, Page and Plant had their own thing going on and would get at it like little kids. They just tried to stay innocent in it all, have fun, and just stayed focused on that.
Is there anyone on your list that you’d still like to play with but haven’t yet?
Oh yeah ... One of the bands I’d like to tour with is My Morning Jacket. They’d be a lot of fun. Let’s see, I think someone like Bjork would be great ... we’re just pretty content right now. It’s been twenty-five years and this next album has had a lot of wait time put on it. As we’re start- ing the next twenty-five years, we’re going to have to take it pretty far out.
Taking it way back to your very beginnings, Rusted Root got a chance when you were first starting out to open up for The Grateful Dead. This was just about a year before Jerry Garcia unfortunately passed away. What was that like as a musician new to the circuit and did you get to hang out him at all?
He was very isolated. He just kind of had a crew of people around him, but the rest of the band came out while we were playing. we got one of the best responses you could want for a totally new band opening for the Grateful Dead. A lot of people came in, about 12,000 watch- ing us, and I think that’s what brought the band members out. normally, with anybody open- ing, the audience is all out in the parking lot partying and getting ready for their show. we just drew them in for some reason and got to hang out with some of them afterwards. But Jerry was surrounded by the people that were protecting him from the drugs and alcohol.
Will you be performing your newest song from the Buy This Fracking compilation?
we put one song on that and it’s in an extremely different guitar tuning. I’d have to bring an- other guitar with us on tour just to play that one song, so we’re probably not going to do that one. It’ll just be an exclusive for the anti-fracking album. we do have a lot of new material that we’re doing, like four or five new songs that we’re doing in a night from the new record coming out.
Finally, as this is wine & music festival, what kind of wine would you say best compliments your sound?
Pre-show, we’re much more red wine, like a cab or a mix. But, then by the end of the show, well, I never mix wine, but by the end of the night, we’re pretty hyped up, so white wine by the end of the night.
Fantastic! Thank you so much for the stories and we can’t wait to check out the fest!
| Mike Williams is not as vino versed as he’d like to be.
mike@thenoise.us
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