Grateful Dead

Great interview, Blair. Thanks for the insights into the "new guy." I 've been impressed with his skills, especially since Jay left. I really like the groove this band seems to have found now. Great stuff !!

I love this one!

The way I have always described Joe is simply: He plays like 2 drummers. "It's got no signs or dividing line and very few rules to guide"

This is just the best interview. What a totally open and honest guy. Welcome aboard Mr.Russo!!

When I saw Joe Russo play drums for the first time a couple of weeks ago I was blown away. Now I get where he is coming from. A tremendous talent. Really does sound like two drummers by keeping the backbeat going while rolling on the toms. Anyone who has ever tried to make a living in the music industry knows how difficult it can be. It's great to see someone succeed after paying dues and working hard. Congrats Joe!!! Hope to see you play again.

wow. Thanks for sharing BJ. JR is awesome. Can't wait until the Tower! full moon on the 19th going into the Spring Equinox... :D

Great interview!Its refreshing to hear his point of view. Especially since he was not a Deadhead growing up and is only 32 yrs. old. He brings a new perspective to this band. Also love his comments about playing MSG for the first time. I recently took my 10 yr old niece to a Rangers game, it was her first time being inside MSG. When we entered into the arena I looked at her face and her eyes lit up and her jaw dropped. I started tearing up after having been in that building thousands of times and now getting to share that moment with my niece for the first time was really special. Rock on JR!!

Thanks Blair! I've really been wanting to hear an interview with Joe....I payed alot of attention to him at both the Red Rocks and the Broomfield shows I was at and he truly is a monster.

Great job Blair, now Jay has to convince the boys to do a Metallica cover. See you guys on 3/17!!! Nothing to tell now, let the words be yours I am done with mine...

When I saw Joe Russo's name thrown into the new band for the first September shows I couldn't have been happier. Coming from the East Coast, sitting in Western MA I got to see a lot of great music through NY, VT, and MA and Russo was always a staple. I found it hard to believe so many people hadn't known who he was prior to the Furthur tours he's been such a mainstay in the East for a quite a bit now...if it said Russo on the bill you now the music was gonna be kicking and fun! So happy to see him getting the worldwide attention he's worked so hard at his instrument to achieve, WHAT A STORY!! Congrats Joe

I must say... what a huge Mickey and of course Billy fan I am. Some of my favorite parts of the '09 tour was the Rhythm Devils. That being said I thought that the "new guy" had some monstrous shoes to feel. Especially with the departure of Jay. Russo killed it from the start for Furthur. I am so happy for him and amazed of his gift! From King Solomon's Marbles to Terrapin he is amazing. I love watching him warm up, what an animal! Furthur is on fire since day one and only getting better. I will close with just two words and four numbers and a few exclamation points... FURTHUR FESTIVAL 2011!!!!!

great story - another converted soul have an extra floor ticket for 3/17 Fairfax - reply if interested

I'm with you, Blair. I had never heard of Joe Russo before, but I'm a convert now. A great drummer...and from the East Side, like me.

but I like Joe A LOT more than Jay, and this is a great interview. Good questions and excellent answers. Bravo and kudos to both of you! Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.

I have friends who really didn't like Jay, but I always thought he was pretty good and I actually liked him quite a lot in the percussionist/Mickey role to Joe's drummer/Billy role in the early Furthur. Jay's failing, to me, was that in RatDog he was never able to kick Weir out of those sluggish tempos he sometimes gets into, whereas Joe has no problem at all kicking everyone's ass and keeping things lively. Of course it also helps having a maniacal bass player in Furthur...

miracle that first revealed itself to us at the fox and i had never heard of joe russo, and could find surprisingly little about him as i tried to research him prior to the fox .... of course i knew who everyone else was but i sure did not know who joe russo was, and i couldn't seem to find out much about him. the attention was mostly on john, phil and bob when johnnie sang a verse of bird song for his first vocal lead chills ran down every spine ... and there was this guy called joe on the kit. i didn't get it, until he took the stage alone at phil's birthday, he tore loose. and then looser, and then tighter. at calaveras county is where he first unleashed his full fury - terrapin flyer are YOU KIDDING ME !! king solomon's and he gets the billy kicks, for example uncle john's band he just gets it, slower tunes, althea, stella blue, ripping tunes like golden road, passenger, russo masters them all. i love him talking about hitting it with phil and laughing. am going to start paying closer attention to the phil-russo interconnectivity and good humor. sounds good for the spirit. very nice choice, phil and bob. joe you won my heart in frogtown and i am ever the more amazed by your genius. the interview reveals a down to earth humble yet confident good humored wonderful drummer and man. deserving entirely of the success you have earned. no more stealing ramen noodles, joe. i trust bobby and phil and the organization are taking good care of you. you are wowing the deadheads. furthur is nothing short of a miracle. johnnie you are the glue that makes it stick. phil and bobby you are the engine. jeff - say no more just listen to what joe has to say about the guy - and lastly and certainly not leastly the singers, jeff and sunshine, so energetic and so powerful, i want to see a pre-terrapin suite sunrise this spring with sunshine handling it, the time has come. also hanging on for that first ...... to lAy me down .... i feel it coming here in spring .... johnnie will sing it. thank you for the interview joe, and blair, and like someone said before mr russo, welcome aboard. ps how did you manage to get through the interview without touching upon the prince of england, and your nighthood .. ? peace, love, and fURTHur !!!!!!!!! beenWAYtoolongatsea

I just met Joe backstage at last Friday's Further show in NYC. A great guy! I told him his drumming reminded me of Ginger Baker and he didn't mind that comparison.

the storyteller makes no choice... Great, insightful interview! I caught the Colorado shows right after your interview... my jaw fell on the ground watching Joe Russo play Terrapin suite and I never bothered to pick it back up... Furthur is on fire and Joe is a pure dynamite. Keep on!

All drumrolled into one. I love watching him play. He pretty much takes center stage for me any time they bust out the "King Solomons Marbles". Farrell Timlake president, Homegrown Video timlake@homegrownvideo.com

I grew up seeing the Dead from age 16 on. (went to more than 700 dead shows). My first show being Cornell 77, I was from the same time frame era as Jay Blakesburg and from the East coast. After Jerry passed, I fell off the bus for a long time. During this time, I got into the band called Ween. They, like the Dead before, became my passion. I spent alot of time in New Hope in those years. Ween had a lot of side projects and other bands they would sit in with. One of these was, as Joe mentions, Chris Harford and the Band of Changes. If you ever get a chance, don't miss these guys! Through the 2000's I started to see Joe in more of these side projects, and I knew then that he was a monster on the kit. Finally, after going to see about 5 or 6 Gene Ween Band shows in 2008 and 2009 (Joe was the drummer for this along with Scott Metzger on lead guitar and Dave Driewitz on bass.) (Dave was also the bass player for Ween which Joe had also mentioned), I heard Joe was in the lineup for the new Dead incarnation called Furthur along with DSO guy John Kadlecik. Now I had always loved the Dead thing and still listened to that music after Jerrys passing. I didn't get to see that many of the Dead incarnations in the 15 years since. I did catch a couple of Phil and Friends and I saw The Other Ones. I also caught a couple of The Dead shows as well. Never saw Ratdog. I don't know, I just wasn't that into it or my tastes had changed. I am a purest with the Deads older sound and older arrangements. This is why I liked DSO so much and appreciated what John did for that band. When I heard about this lineup, I was really excited. I knew that both Joe and John would potentially do what we all now know they have done for the Grateful Dead music. My first Furthur show was at the second Hammerstein in New York. I'll never forget being crammed into that joint and then seeing Dave Driewitz come walking up. I said to him whatda think of Russo. He couldn't believe it. And neither could I. It is amazing where we are today! It wouldn't have been as good without Joe Russo, no doubt. John was what the scene needed but Joe gives it that something extra that we are so lucky to be witnessing. I am only going to the Radio City shows this run and I can't wait. The old days with the Grateful Dead are reborn for me with this band. Being a family man, I can't get to as many as I used to, but what I do see, I am truly grateful. The New Hope scene is alive and well also. It's great that Joe, between Furthur shows, comes back to some of his old stops and will sit in with Chris Harford still. It's all good!! We'll see you Joe and good luck, your right where you belong. Gene Ween Band with Joe from Mountain Jam 2009: http://www.iclips.net/watch/the-gene-ween-band enjoy...

My early review of Joe was, You make it hurt so good!I was so impressed right out the gate, WOW! Joe- I had so much fun Valentines's Day in 2010. Lots of other dates I was at come to mind for big fun, thanks for doing just what you do. ---------------------(----@ In lovingkindness forever. SherBear

Grate read. Your knowledge/preparation very evident in the questions. I feel I know Joe a lot better. Nice post above by Stealy.

WALSTIB

joe is doing a grate job for someone who was just put in ther they are realy jelling as aband and the dead is not easy job keep it up i like what i hear been touring for many years 35

I'm in the process of putting all of my Road Trips releases into iTunes and am astonished at the high number of discs that won't import. More so than any other release, or series of releases, I've had more problems with Road Trips than anything else. Don't get me wrong. The shows, the picks and fidelity are all great, but the actual disc manufacturing process, at least for this series has been less than optimal. All of my E72 Box discs imported no problem as well as the Warlocks Box. So far with the new Dave's Picks series, it's 1 for 1. So far, so good.