Furthur bassist Phil Lesh is no stranger to the world of internet message boards. He’s posted on the PhilZone.org message board in the past including a visit in March, where he told fans about the circumstances behind Jay Lane’s departure from Furthur. This past Saturday night, Phil and his wife Jill headed to the less friendly confines of the RatDog.org message board and had an interesting three-hour visit, in which they posted 32 posts at that forum for the seemingly defunct Bob Weir-led band.

Phil and Jill started off by announcing that Furthur.net will host a message board of its own and took a shot at a few RatDog.org community members who have bashed Furthur and Phil in the past…

Hey, gang;

It’s a slow Saturday here, so we thought we’d log on and let you know that in the coming weeks, Furthur will be inaugurating our new community message board soon, and we’d like to invite the Ratdog community to join us there. Some of Furthur’s team will be available online to answer questions and discuss any issues that may arise in the community. furthur.net will have details soon.

This music can only exist in a harmonious balance between the energies of the band and the audience. Negative energy clogs the channels of communication, unbalancing the energy. We really want to keep a positive tone at our shows and on this new board, so we’d appreciate it if any negative sentiments or issues could be dealt with face to face. We travel constantly, and would be very happy to meet with anyone who wants to man or woman up and trash us to our faces.

Wheelman?
Rutil8ed?
You game?

Phil and Jill

After going back and forth with “Wheelman” for a bit, Phil and Jill took turns answering some questions from a few of the community members. READ ON for a summary of their responses from the lengthy thread…

When asked why John Kadlecik was tapped for the “Jerry” role in Furthur, Phil responded “Bob and I asked John to join the band because after the audition we agreed that this was the man we wanted to play with for the foreseeable future.” A brave forum member asked Jill why she “hates” Kimock and we thought we might get an answer to one of our unanswered questions, but she told the person who asked the question “I would be very happy to sit with you over coffee and tell you why Phil has no desire to play with Steve Kimock.” We’d love to be a fly on the wall at that coffee date.

Phil and Jill were clearly upset by a number of derogatory posts on RatDog.org, going so far as to post “actually, when we read post after post trashing us, it makes us question leaving home for weeks at a time to bring the music to you all. We understand that you are just passing time, but this is our life and it is incredibly hard work. We have often thought it would be easier and more fun to have a small venue close to home and retire from the road.” If the rumored 16-night Furthur run at the Best Buy Theater near Phil’s NYC residence comes to fruition, Phil and Jill might just get their wish.

One of the more interesting parts of the discussion focused on how setlists for Furthur shows are devised…

Hey Tom,

I have been doing setlists for Phil since the beginning of Phil Lesh & Friends. There is not a lot of time when you are on the road, and making a setlist is very time consuming. Sometimes Phil will do them with me and sometimes he would rather eat, sleep or read. He always goes over the list when it is done and sometimes makes changes. As I understand it, in Ratdog Bobby used a really cool computer program to make his lists based on tempo and rotation. You would be surprised at how many bands have other people make up their setlists, because when you crawl into a hotel at 5:00am and have to be at soundcheck at 4:00, there are other things you would rather do. Also, the production team need the setlist early in the day for various reasons. With Furthur [Bob Weir's manager] Matt [Busch] and I spilt [sic] the duties and Bobby goes over it with Matt as Phil does with me. We are all very happy with the arrangement and we understand that some will be happy with certain a setlist and other not. I can assure you that we put a great deal of time, energy and thought into each and every show.

Jill

Phil also took the opportunity to break the news that his son Brian wrote new lyrics for Welcome to the Dance that Lesh expects Furthur to “break out” soon. Jill responded to a question about GDTS TOO’s allotment of pre-order tickets with “Times have changed and our grandfathered in agreement for 50 % of the house for fan club tickets is no longer honored. There are a few venues where we can still get our allotment, but for the most part our allotment is a small percentage of the house.”

The conversation gave an insight into what makes the Lesh’s tick and it’s crazy to see how they took some of the unkind posts to heart. Furthur has rejected all but a few press requests, so these posts are about the extent of Phil’s on the record comments about his latest band. We love when artists interact with their fans on message boards, but you have to wonder if they should just ignore the haters and do what they think is best on a musical level rather than ask for “face to face” meetings (was that a threat?) with those who disapprove of the current direction.

Head over to RatDog.org to read all 32 posts from Phil and Jill.

Scott Bernstein

Scott Bernstein co-founded Hidden Track in October 2006 and was managing editor until taking over as EiC in January 2008. Scotty also writes for Relix Magazine and curates YEMblog.com.

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