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- Hello?
- Hi, is this Vince?
- Yeah.
- Hi, it's Marc Allan.
- All right I'm gonna kill the music here.
Bob Marley up way too loud.
Let me shut this window too.
- All right, I'll hang on.
- Okay.
- Do you think the Four Seasons
get many people who play
Bob Marley up real loud?
- Maybe.
At least on this floor.
I don't know.
They asked for it, they
put the CD player in.
- Oh, that's nice.
- Yeah.
- Are you a big Marley fan?
- Yeah, I like him a lot.
In fact, I'm trying to introduce
"Waiting in Vain" to the band.
- Any takers so far?
- Yeah, they said you learn at
first and we'll whip it out.
It seems pretty easy enough.
You know, normally we would
have to have a rehearsal
or something, but we could
maybe work it up in sound check,
'cause it's not a difficult song.
- Yeah, I would think
Mickey would be into that,
pretty much.
- Yeah well it feels like a good
summery kind of thing to play outdoors.
And it would fit with a couple of songs,
you know, it's got lots
of room for vocals.
It's got a lot of vocal potential
for everybody to join in.
I kind of like the way
everybody's singing lately.
Yeah we have our new ear monitors
and I think it's improved
everybody's vocal a lot.
- Because everybody's
able to hear each other?
- Yeah, when you sing,
especially when you're singing,
it's just like singing in your own ear.
And if you have your
vocal turned up enough
in your own monitor,
you can hear the slightest little whisper
and you could sing in key,
and you're not trying to get
over the top of the music.
Which, you know, if you have to sing
above the volume of the music,
that limits you to your range quite a bit,
and sometimes it pulls you off key.
Now it's not a problem at all.
If you concentrate you could
sing perfectly at any level,
especially really delicately.
It's great.
I love it for like falsetto too.
- Was this something that the band
had been having problems with,
or discovered that would work better?
- Well we tried 'em out.
Bobby and Jerry, I think,
tried 'em out first
and they loved them.
'Cause the sound's right
up there in your head
and you can actually hear everybody.
You know, depending on
where you're on stage.
It was difficult to hear
everybody all the time,
and you could put 'em in your monitors,
but then you have to
put them in pretty loud,
and then you got other priorities.
(phone ringing) Oh, shucks,
could you hold on a sec?
- Sure.
Anyway, you were telling
me about the ear monitors
and what I'm wondering is
does that mean that you don't use
any stage monitors at all?
- No speakers whatsoever.
- That's gotta be great.
- It works good for the PA.
Then you're not listening to the decibels
that you would normally listen to.
So you don't suffer ear death.
- Let me get into the
scheduled material here.
What I wanted to ask you.
Is being in the Dead anything
like you imagined it would be?
- Actually I never
imagined being in the Dead.
I imagined being friends with them
as kind of a vision I had when
I first heard their album.
I just felt like I was there.
But actually being in the
Dead didn't occur to me
until all of a sudden, you
know, suddenly Brent died.
My wife, Lorie inquired
with Bobby's secretary
at the time, who used to
be The Tubes' secretary.
As you know, I played with The Tubes.
- Yes, I do know that.
- And Mimi told my wife
that they were auditioning people
and I wanted to audition
to see what's going on.
I didn't know if there'd
be any chemistry there,
but I wanted to see if
maybe they wanted me to be in the band.
And then as soon as I met Jerry and Bob,
I decided right away,
I really wanted to be in the band.
And I started checking out
the music, which they sent me.
So I could learn some
songs for the audition
and it was getting more
fabulous, the thought of it.
- They sent you sheet music?
- No, they sent me tapes.
- Oh, tapes.
- Mostly live tapes,
but they also sent CDs,
which was a laugh 'cause
I didn't own a CD player.
I didn't tell him that, but I
learned stuff off the tapes.
And then they auditioned a bunch of guys.
I went in there and we
played about eight songs.
And then I sat around by
the phone for about a week,
wondering how I did.
(Mark laughing)
Actually I didn't know
if I was going to get it,
'cause some of the other people
in there were pretty hot.
In fact, when I started hearing the names,
I got kind of bummed out,
but no, they picked me.
- Do people know who you competed against?
'Cause I don't think I know.
- Well there was some
of the guys, T Lavitz.
- Oh really?
- Pete Sears.
And a guy who for some reason
I thought might get it 'cause
he was playin' with The Tubes.
He had his own band and
his own name, Tim Gorman.
He played with The Who, lots of people.
- It's some heavy duty competition there.
- Yeah, but you know, I had
this dream when I was a kid.
I'm meetin' up with these
guys and, but you know,
you can never be cocky, like say,
well I got the audition
and every day that went by
seemed longer and longer.
And then Bobby called me up and said,
"Is your insurance paid up?"
And then I knew I landed the gig.
Hey what paper is this?
- The Indianapolis Star.
- Indianapolis Star?
- You'll be here next
Friday, I think it is.
- We're going to be in Indianapolis?
- Next Sunday and Monday.
A week from Sunday and a week from Monday.
- Where, Deer Creek?
- Yeah.
- And your name?
- Mark Allen.
- Mark Allen.
- Dennis told you that this
was going to happen, right?
- Yeah I'm just trying
to get my facts straight.
- Okay, good.
- Sorry to interrupt you, go ahead.
- No, that's all right. I
guess you probably go through
enough of these where you know,
it's hard to keep track of all this stuff.
- Well you know, they
don't give me too many.
Mostly want to talk to
Jerry and the other guys.
I'm pretty new at this, new in the band,
so, only got two years
worth of experience.
- Yeah, but it's pretty interesting.
I mean, you get a perspective
that the other guys
don't have just because they've
been in it all the time.
You had talked about the
first time that you heard 'em
when you were a kid,
how old a guy are you?
- I'm 41.
- You're 41.
- When did their album come out?
- What, the first album?
- Yeah (mumbles).
- I don't know. It's gotta
be something like that.
- Then that would've made me 14.
- But I mean, when you're a kid,
you probably wouldn't even
think that bands would be around
as long as a band like
the Dead has been around.
- Right, but I was already
starting to play in bands back then.
I did my first gig when
I was about 11 in church.
I used to do my seven o'clock Sunday gig.
I was playing in bands when I was 14.
So I was into all this new stuff.
Particularly what was
coming from San Francisco.
- Did you grow up in
the San Francisco area?
- Pardon me?
- Did you grow up in
the San Francisco area?
- No, I grew up in Phoenix.
- Oh, Phoenix.
- It was a rock and roll desert.
(both laughing)
At the time country was the big thing,
but, Phoenix was pretty hip
as far as picking up on all
the music from everywhere.
So we did catch, I had
the Grateful Dead album.
- Compare being in The Tubes
with being in the Dead.
I would imagine it's an
incredibly different experience.
- Well yeah, big difference.
The Tubes were like a traveling circus.
Three-ring circus that
set up in a different town
every night, which was
kind of crazy unto itself.
We weren't as spontaneous.
Although we had a great
time in The Tubes, you know,
it was fun, and doing all of that stuff
and playing every place
we played was fabulous.
But the tours were long and
hard and 200 or more a year.
And even did the most
interesting music can get boring.
One thing we did have in common
was a big selection of
songs to choose from.
It's just that when The
Tubes went out on a tour
because we had a show,
we had to set up
choreography and everything.
So there wasn't many places
where we could change songs
once we got the tour together.
We could change all the songs
once we did another tour
and we would do that.
But we had hundreds of songs to pick from
because The Tubes were together 17 years
and then the Grateful Dead
they played 133 different ones last year.
So that's one thing we have in common.
And then everything else was different.
Musically it's very
fulfilling playing with
the Grateful Dead,
because of the diversity
and the fact that there's
more emphasis on the music.
A lot of times I was dancing,
instead of playing with The Tubes.
But no, we had some great songs.
The Tubes have great songs
and the Dead have great songs,
but the Dead change up every night,
and that makes it
ultimately more interesting.
And it's a little easier going from
my 41 year old bones to
to do under a hundred gigs
instead of 200 and travel by bus,
all of that kind of stuff.
If Fee had not left The Tubes,
and if the things had not
happened with The Tubes,
I'd still be in that band
because I'd have been loyal
to them, to the bitter end.
- But what did happen?
- Well, Fee left and we went
on for years without him.
And then we couldn't
afford to do the show,
bad breaks, setbacks,
management, all of the above,
and then more people left the band
and just wasn't The Tubes anymore.
So I went with Todd Rundgren
for a couple albums and a couple tours.
I played on "Nearly
Human" and "Second Wind,"
his last two albums.
- The Tubes show was a
pretty amazing show to watch.
I imagine, like you
said, three-ring circus.
That's sorta what it was like.
- Yeah people would have
to come to the show.
That's another thing we have
in common with the band.
A lot of people would come
multiple times to the show.
In the Grateful Dead version
it's just because it's
so wonderful to be there.
And also you got to come many times
to hear the songs that you want to hear.
But with The Tubes, they'd come
sometimes just to watch the dancers,
sometimes just to listen to the music,
sometimes they watch the
props go up and down,
watch the crew try to be on stage and act
and move the (mumbles),
how quick we could change
the set in the dark out.
So yeah, we have people comin'
for multitudes of reasons
and a lot of people would
come and wanna be in The Tubes
and wound up performing with us.
- Really?
- Oh yeah.
Jane Dornacker, Pearl Harbor.
We even had Robin Williams try
out for our talent contest,
where we picked eight winners
to appear with the band for
a two week run at Bimbo's
and Robin Williams tried out and failed.
Oh no, we became friends later.
- Yeah.
He was unknown at the time, right?
- Uh huh.
- Yeah.
- Jane Dornacker was
with us and Re Styles.
Doing "Don't Touch Me
There" and other stuff.
- Yeah on a motorcycle
drove them on stage.
- Kenny, our choreographer
went on to be a movie director.
He does all those dance movies.
Michelle wound up with Todd
Rundgren, one of our dancers.
They just had a baby named Rebop.
Couple of them became actresses.
- Do you think The Tubes would
have done better commercially
if they hadn't become
known first for like,
"White Punks On Dope" and
"Don't Touch Me There?"
- Well, White Punks was
the anthem of the FM radio,
you know, top 10 most
requested for a long time.
- It almost makes you a novelty.
- Well, some people
thought of it that way.
I think I'd prefer to think
we were just ahead of our time.
I mean, look what they're doing now.
It's not a novelty.
They take it seriously.
But a lot of the new stuff around
is saying the same things we were saying.
- Yeah, I don't know if bands do quite as
involved and elaborate
a show as The Tubes.
- No, that was at a
time when the economics
were a little bit more conducive to that.
I don't think anybody could
do that show like The Tubes
on the level we did it,
in a small place with so little overhead.
'Cause it costs us money to do that show
every time we put it on.
So what band's gonna do that for 17 years?
- But it must be amazing
to work in a band like the Dead
and know that everywhere you go,
the show is sold out.
So there's no worry about selling tickets.
- Oh yeah.
It's really first rate, first class.
Yeah it's great.
The audience is so cool too.
I love the audience.
- Did you find it tough,
and do you still find it tough,
to work without a set list?
- Not so much now.
I'm gettin' a feel for it.
Yeah, I like it.
It's kind of interesting.
Hold on, I bet that's my wife again.
- Sure.
- How much more we got?
- Another 10 minutes, okay?
Did you happen to read the interview
that Jerry gave the
Rolling Stone last October?
- Yeah, I believe I did.
He was on the cover.
- Right, yeah.
He talked about a couple of things
I wanted to ask you about.
He had talked about how he felt
that there had been
some inertia in the band
that they didn't see
the band moving forward
or progressing at all.
Did you see that as a new member?
- I didn't see it because
how could I compare it?
- Yeah.
- At the time.
I didn't know where it was
coming from in the first place,
so I couldn't (mumbles) it.
But now in retrospect,
I did take time out of their evolution.
You know, it took some serious time out.
They had to fall back,
spend what normally would have been
their whole year's budget on rehearsal
and working out new songs
and writing and composing.
They had to spend going
into the past with Welnick.
You know, we try to knock
off about 10 songs a day
and we made great progress and everything,
and we got to review some songs.
I think in some cases, the
songs, especially the vocals
after they had to analyze them with me,
got a little more polished a bit,
but there were no new songs to learn.
And there was no time to do them
and they had to go out on
the road almost immediately,
and we had very little time.
And so, yeah, that's because of me,
but you know, that was
the way it had to be.
I mean, you don't give a guy 140 songs
and say, "Okay, you're on."
(both laughing)
But I think I learned it pretty quick.
I've worked on it at home.
I spent more time at home working on it
before we rehearsed.
And then we actually rehearsed.
So I gave him a break here and there.
It was probably the pits for those guys.
- But I don't think
they were talking about
having to teach you the songs.
I think they were probably.
- Well, it's just the transition.
I ate up all their time for a whole year.
I figured we had a whole year
working a new keyboard player in
instead of what would have happened.
And all I can do to make up
for that is evolve quicker.
Bring something into the party, myself,
which I wrote a song with a
couple of the guys in the band.
Now I'm trying to make up for lost time.
- Yeah.
That was my next question
actually was new material.
And there there's no new Dead album
at this time, particularly,
which I guess doesn't really
matter when you're touring.
- No, we have new songs though,
that will eventually be on an album.
But when I do not know.
I doubt if it would be this year.
- Yeah.
Is it likely we'll hear any of them?
You playin' 'em a couple of nights?
- I have some names.
- Okay.
- "Corrina."
- Spelled C-O-R-R-I-N-A?
Okay.
- And that's Mickey
Hart and Bobby sings it.
Bobby, I believe co-wrote it too.
Oh, and Hunter.
Robert Hunter, you know?
And then Phil did "Wave
to the Wind" with Robert.
Jerry's got "So Many Roads"
which I believe is with Hunter too.
Then I've got "Way To Go Home"
which was with Hunter and Bob Bralove?
And there's a weird,
I've got another demo I'm working on
with Barlow and Bob Bralove.
And there were other songs coming in,
but those were the only
ones we got to nail down
before we took off.
Then we also do a couple of new covers,
but those are the originals.
There are more close,
Phil has another one already done,
but we just haven't learned it yet.
And I think Jerry's got a few.
And Bobby says we're probably gettin'
close to havin' an album's worth,
except that the band wants to learn 'em
and take 'em on the road first
and get acquainted with them
before they go down to the record.
They don't like to write in the studio
like The Tubes used to do.
(both chuckle)
We'd have a deadline, we go in there.
Well, let's do that record.
Then we'd learn the songs off the record
after we finished it.
We figured out what the hell he did.
(Mark laughing)
I like the way it's moving now.
And it's coming right
along and there's no hurry.
You know, there's nobody that's gonna
light a fire up our butt
or push us to do something
before it's time.
That's really the luxury.
I see this band as the freedom
to be able to develop freely
and not be under any kind
of pressure from anybody.
- Yeah.
That's a real unique
experience in the music.
- That's the American way, I thought.
I always dreamed it'd be like this.
(both laughing)
- And then in this interview he said,
"If you're looking for comfort,
join a club or something.
The Grateful Dead is not
where you're going to find comfort."
And the question was about
is it difficult for a newcomer
to deal with being in the Dead.
He said, "In fact, if anything,
you'll catch a lot of shit.
And if you don't get it from the band,
you'll get it from the roadies."
And so, has it has been tough to fit in?
- No.
(both laughing)
It was mighty comfortable.
(both laughing)
I don't think he realized
where I was coming from.
Like, I don't have to share
a room with anyone anymore.
I don't ride on a bus after
the gig for 10 hours anymore.
I don't play 200 shows a year,
and sometimes two shows a
night for two weeks on end.
Now when The Tubes were on top,
with "She's a Beauty" in the top 10,
it wasn't like that.
But the last few years of my
life before the Grateful Dead
were tossed between The
Tubes and Todd Rundgren.
You know, you gotta deal
with folks there too.
And there was challenging things,
working with Todd, that
were really difficult.
Like doing a live album,
and not only you're playing and singing,
which usually you're just
doing one or the other,
you're also following a conductor
who was Todd, and playing
in front of an audience.
You know, that was a bitch.
But they're a very forgiving audience.
And so is the band, you
know, if I screw up,
they're going to call me on
it and it won't happen again
as long as I can help it.
But they're not gonna label
me an imbecile because of it.
And that's certainly the audience
isn't gonna hold anything against me.
Like if, when I get up and
walk away from the song
thinkin' it's over and it's not.
You know, in the beginning I did that.
But I try to, you know,
I try and work real hard at this.
I don't want to screw up in
front of those many people.
I hate making mistakes.
But no, these guys have
made me totally comfortable.
The crew and everybody,
it's just fabulous.
They couldn't have stayed
together this long.
If they didn't have just a wonderful
relationship with everybody.
- Yeah.
I wondered if he was being sarcastic,
and maybe he was being sarcastic.
- I thought he sounded like he was
on a bit of a bum bum with that interview,
but they weren't hard on me at all.
They were very gentle, most
generous and compassionate.
And I feel fabulous.
I feel like I'm in a big,
old, wonderful family.
- You mentioned they're
doing 133 songs last year.
A typical year for The Tubes,
what would you do about 20, 25?
- No, we do around, we do
more than that in the night.
- Oh, okay.
- No, in a gig.
No, we go, we tossed around maybe 60,
but we had 200 or more
songs in our repertoire.
We'd usually change maybe 80.
We would change almost all
the songs for every tour.
And we do about four a year, so.
But not nearly as many
as the Grateful Dead.
- That's still a lot of songs, though.
Like when you did the Todd tours,
I can't imagine that you had
to learn nearly that many,
did you?
- Oh no, no.
We would play the same exact thing.
Like, you know, 20 songs.
The same ones for the whole tour.
That was easy.
But also The Tubes was easy too,
because that was 17 years in the making.
Acquiring that set list.
There were some really complicated songs,
but we worked on it diligently
and after a year or so,
you know, they became
second nature to you.
So to do that many in that short of time
with The Grateful Dead,
that's the biggest
mouthful I have ever taken.
- Is Bruce Hornsby going to
be with you this time around?
- No, he handed the baton
off to me on the spring tour.
He felt things were going well
and he was going to have his life.
But he is coming out,
I think he's coming out
tomorrow and gonna sit in.
And he's always welcome any time.
Yeah, we miss him and we
love to play with him.
- Yeah.
And of course you must be
comfortable with dual keyboards
because all the bands you've played with
have more than one keyboard.
- Yeah, Todd's band had
two, The Tubes had two.
So yeah, I can hang with that.
And the likes of Bruce on
piano is, what can you say?
I mean, that's the most
fabulous guy I could think of
to have on piano playing with me.
He's happy and we're happy.
And he's coming out tomorrow.
- It sounds like you couldn't
be in a much better position.
I mean, it seems like you
got your dream job right now.
- It's pretty wonderful thing.
This is kind of a vision
I had when I was a kid.
When I was about 11.
I saw a sea of people with
their arms stretched out
and now I'm looking at it every night.
(Vince laughing)
- Anyway, is there anything else
you want me to tell people
about you, the tour, the Dead?
- Anything you think you
think'd be interesting.
You seem to cover it pretty well.
- Yeah. Okay.
And I should ask you this,
and it's just kind of
meant as a goofy question,
but I'm sure you've heard your
share of "Spinal Tap" jokes
about dead keyboard players?
- Oh sure, yeah.
Blowin' up.
- Yeah (laughs).
No fear of that, huh?
- No, what a way to go.
(Mark laughing)
I'll try to see that it doesn't happen.
- Good.
- For a while at least.
(both laughing)
- Great, well, I
appreciate your time Vince,
and we'll see you next Sunday.
- Okay, Mark.
- Thanks a lot.
- Hey come looking for me backstage.
- Okay, will do.
- Bye.
