The B List: Five Unanswered Questions
When a musical act has a rabid fanbase, it becomes tough for said act to keep the inner workings of their organization from the fans. Many times this leads to all kinds of speculation about what goes on “behind the curtain,” especially when something particularly controversial happens without much of an explanation from the band.
For this week’s B List we put together a list of five questions for which we’d love to know the answers. In many cases, the answers may never be known or can only be answered by the people involved – who aren’t talking. Yet, for conversation’s sake we’re going to put these questions out there…
1. What did the fax that the Allman Brothers Band sent to Dickey Betts say?
Back in May 2000, the Allman Brothers Band – supposedly – sent a fax to founding member Dickey Betts informing him that he had been replaced by Jimmy Herring. According to an Entertainment Weekly article, the fax implied he needed help with a substance abuse problem. We’ve always wondered exactly what the fax said. Was there small talk before the deed was done? “Hey Dickey, How’s the weather in Sarasota? Oh, by the way, we went another direction after 30 years, give our best to the fam.”
2. What was in Trey Anastasio’s backpack?
While promoting 2005′s Shine LP, 70 Volt Parade lead singer Trey Anastasio repeatedly referred to a backpack he took with him to visit producer Brendan O’Brien. We’ve always wondered what was in said backpack. A copy of The Phish Companion? Some Clif Bars and some cold green tea? The moments from Page’s day he received in the mail?
READ ON for three more unanswered questions…
3. Why did Steve Kimock leave Phil and Friends?
Just a few days into Phil Lesh and Friends’ 1999 Fall Tour, guitarist Steve Kimock left the band after posting a cryptic message on his website, “”I ain’t going to work on Maggie’s farm no more.” The closest we’ve ever come to getting an answer for what led to Kimock’s abrupt departure came from an interview with Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett in which they insinuated the issue was between Steve and Lesh’s wife, Jill. There are at least two sides to every story and the yenta in us would love to know each of those sides.
4. What did the Pacific Northwest do to piss off the Disco Biscuits?
From October 31 to November 3, 2001 the Disco Biscuits embarked on a successful tour of the Pacific Northwest in which they provided a “live” soundtrack to famous movies as part of the show at each stop. Nearly nine years later the band has yet to return to the area. Did something happen on the brief tour that led to the group’s PacNW hiatus? Is it simply a matter of economics?
The Disco Biscuits have acknowledged the situation a few times. At Caribbean Holidaze in 2008, guitarist Jon “Barber” Gutwillig told the crowd the band would be returning to the Pacific Northwest soon to which bassist Marc Brownstein retorted something along the lines of “it’s Barber’s turn to destroy his credibility.” Also, when one of our previous B Lists listed 10 Rejected Planet Anthem Pre-Order Items one of the entries was “Biscuits will play the Pacific Northwest ($1,000,000,000).” The band actually used our entry in the actual pre-order and sadly no one ponied up the billion bucks. A Facebook Group asking the band to return was started last year and a few weeks back the Biscuits posted an update to their official Facebook page asking for a role call of people who lived in the PAC NW and wanted the band to visit. Will this lengthy hiatus finally come to a close soon?
5. Who put the kibosh on MGMT’s taping policy?
Back in June, MGMT’s website was updated with an announcement stating that the band was embracing an open taping policy including the availability of a taper’s section at each show. Soon thereafter the news item disappeared from the site and despite the band’s publicist telling us an announcement about the taping policy would be forthcoming, three months later there’s been no word. Did the record label freak? Did the band want to hone their live show before sharing recordings with the world?
Feel free to leave your thoughts on any of the questions above in our comments section as well as other questions regarding bands we cover that you’d love to know the answers to.
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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ha, ha, I have always wondered about #2 and #3. Great link to all the backpack references in Trey interviews, those are pretty funny. As for #3, nothing funny about that- one can only image what the political/personal reasons were, but they must have been relatively significant in scope.
Awesome article! Trey’s backpack!
In interviews after the 2009 Halloween show, Trey talked about a conversation with Page after they had already learned the Halloween album. They weren’t sure if they really wanted to do it, so they scrapped it for Exile. How about asking what was the album they learned and didn’t play?
@One More – That’s totally on the list for part two along with what was Jay-Z referring to when he said “what does that mean?” in Brooklyn right after saying “Y’all been hiding this from me.”
I moved to the PacNW in 2002. When I lived on the East Coast I saw Disco Biscuits all the time. I haven’t seen them in 8 years now. WTF?
For the record, $1,000,000,000 is a billion not a million ;)
Great topic. Maybe some will be answered one day…
@onemore – there was no album. I call phish nanners
Great questions. I’d like to know what kind of backpack Trey was rockin. You think he goes for the North Face or the plain old Jansport circa 1991?
The rift between Jill Lesh and Steve Kimock was apparently over the smoking of a joint. The word going around the Bay Area at the time was that Steve was “getting prepared” to do a show, and Jill scolded him and said something to the effect of, “this is serious business and that won’t be tolerated”.
What happened the day George left Panic? Fight on the bus? Thrown laptop? Pissy deedle?
the current abb will never answer what was in that letter, they are making too much dough, its too bad, cause dickey and derek would make a killer combo
‘It says, ‘We hope that you will seek treatment and return to us happy and healthy in the fall,”’ says the guitarist, reading from the fax
jayz saw a double rainbow right before he said what does that mean?
If I may, I’d like to ask another question: Was Weir in fact dosed before the Nokia show? If not, then what the hell happened, if so, then who did it, with what, and where can I get some?