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Phil Lesh on the Unbroken Chain Foundation and His New Phriends

by David Saslavsky

For musical reviews of the event check out the articles by Rob Turner, Michael Shuster, and Alison King in the West Region Reports.

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Since their early years, the Grateful dead has always been involved in giving back to the community, first by playing numerous benefits for Bay Area organizations, and later by forming their own charitable organization, The Rex Foundation. In 1997, Phil and Jill Lesh, looking to continue the tradition, as well as harness the vast energy, talents , and deadication of the Deadheads formed The Unbroken Chain Foundation. Unbroken Chain Foundation is an all-volunteer non-profit with minimal overhead expenses. With funds raised through benefit shows, Unbroken Chain Foundation (UBC) has donated grants to other non-profits that support music, the environment, or education.

The first benefit show in December 1997 was a group singalong between musicians and audience called Philharmonia. Since then Phil Lesh has appeared with many different incarnations of musicians in an ongoing musical adventure called Phil and Friends. Phil's friends have included Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bruce Hornsby, Branford Marsalis, Steve Kimock , and Vince Welnick. Each time, at least one of the Phil and Friends shows has been a benefit for UBC.

In December 1998, after a severe illness, Phil was the fortunate recipient of a liver transplant. After a remarkable recovery, Phil once again too the stage April 15-17 at San Francisco's Warfield Theater. The latest Phil and Friends line up included Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell from Phish, Steve Kimock from KVHW, and The Other Ones, and John Molo of The Other Ones. Using Grateful Dead and even a few Phish songs as a launching pad, this group improvised and stretched musical jams into the stratosphere.

Jambands.com recently spoke with Phil regarding these shows, UBC, and his recovery.

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D:How was the Unbroken Chain foundation formed?

P: It started out in '97. After Jerry's death the Rex Foundation went into limbo, because there was no more income, and the board of directors couldn't agree on how to fund any more grants. My wife, Jill and I decided we wanted to start our own foundation, but we didn't really have an impetus for it until we were driving back from Tahoe one weekend, from a ski weekend, and we were singing in the car. Jill said "Why don't we have a sing along benefit where the audience is the band essentially" and so we put that together, and it was called Philharmonia, and we had Donna Jean come in, Mickey came by, Bob was there, Michael Tilson Thomas, musical director of the San Francisco Symphony, Graham Nash, Bruce Hornsby, David Grisman, Jackie LaBranch from the Garcia Band, and Edie Brickell came in from NY to be part of it. We sang a bunch of songs that everybody knew , and each one of the guest artists did a song that they were associated with. Graham Nash did "Our House," and stuff like that. We did "Ripple" as a sing along kind of thing. We did famous participatory stuff like "12 Days of Christmas," and we did sacred chants in rounds like "Ave Marias" and Mozart in four parts. The whole thing was to get the audience to participate and sing along It was very successful.

The foundation out of that was able to fund three organization in the tenderloin of San Francisco, a women and children's center, a rec. center, and another organization called Central City Hospitality House, It's for street kids. There's a guy there who was hustling his tail on Polk street, when he came in there, and they helped educate him and now he's one of their flagship stories that they tell everybody. Now he's an artist and his work is being shown in galleries in San Francisco and at the Museum of Modern Art. Anyhow, that's their trip. they rehabilitate the street kids.. We also were able to give enough money to the children's rec. center to buy a van so they could take their kids out to the country, which was a really cool thing, so that's how the foundation got started. Since then I've been doing several shows every year, Phil and Friends shows, sometimes there will be a group of two or three shows, and always one of those shows is a benefit for Unbroken Chain. And we've continued to donate money to various causes, I don't have the list here now.

D: Are there any other recipients that have stood out?

P: Well for me, since I'm a musician we have funded a young musicians program in Berkeley , and we funded The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra's program called Under Construction where young composers can hear their music played by an orchestra, and learn from that experience, and sort of an open rehearsal where the public comes in and they rehearse the piece and play it through, so the composers can gauge the audiences reaction to what they are doing. That is a really neat thing for composers, which they don't get a chance to do very often. We've been partially funding that for a couple of years now. Also the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, the New College of California, Julia Butterfly's thing, you know she's living in a tree in the endangered redwood grove in California here.

One thing that we just did recently was there's an area of land that was going to be logged up in Sonoma County, right next to the Bohemian Grove, which is where the San Francisco Bohemian Club has their campouts and get togethers. It's a big redwood grove really, and that came up for sale, and we provided the seed money to get a benefit going to purchase that land from the public, and that's called The Bohemia Waterfall Grove Project. Mickey was involved in that heavily.

D: You recently did a show for that?

P: Yes, on April 27. The foundation laid out the seed money and we also played a benefit..

D: Is Unbroken Chain involved with anything outside the Bay area?

P: Not as yet, it's pretty much local, but what we're planning to do is release the recordings of the April shows we recorded with the Phish guys, and a portion of that we're going to try agree on a charity that we can donate some money to from the proceeds of the recording.

D: Will this be a double CD?

P: No, it's going to be every note, I will release everything.

D: Wow! I heard it's 10 CD's

P: Yes, it is.

D: That's tremendous. When we were leaving after the third night, we were all saying "They should just release the whole thing."

P: I'm pretty sure that's what the Phish guys want to do, and I've been listening to it and warts and all it's an incredible thing. I personally would not want to face the task of trying to select the best moments from that. There are absolutely transcendental moments in just about everything. In fact, for once, the transcendental moments outweigh the little train wrecks and stumbles, and the minute little mess-ups.

D: Since you had only worked together for a week , you would have expected those-

P: Four Days.

D: Four days was it?

P: Four Days.

D: There were times that seemed as if you guys had been together thirty years.

P: I know, that's what it felt like to me too, but those guys are so enthusiastic, they really have a reverence for the art of music, and they know Grateful Dead material, and they love to play it. Trey and Page came up with like a dozen tunes that I wouldn't have thought to do, but they wanted to do them.

D: Any ones in particular?

P: Well it was Trey's idea to do "Viola Lee Blues." That was the opener.

D: That set the tone. The curtain opens and you do a 39 minute "Viola Lee Blues." It was as if you were saying "we are not here to fool around!"

P: (Laughs) No we weren't and I think that proved it. We just went on from there. It was tremendously exciting for me.

D: By the third night, people weren't even cheering for songs any more. It was already known that anything could happen.

P: That's what we are looking for. That's the feeling we want to have every place we play. I pray that it will never be predictable. That's what we are striving to create, unpredictability.

D: Many are wondering how the group came together.

P: It was kind of cosmic in a way. I wanted to come back on stage and perform and really demonstrate my gratitude for my new vigor. We were talking about maybe doing an Other Ones gig. Then that couldn't happen because people weren't available. Then I wanted to do it with Bob, but he couldn't do it because he was making a record. Then we just sort of started casting around. Someone mentioned Phish, and I thought "I don't really know their music that well,." So I got some CD's, and I was listening, then some people sent me live tapes, and I heard Trey play this one thing, and I thought, "Jeez, I could play with that guy." I don't even remember what it was."

D: I was going to ask...

P: It was absolutely entrancing, it was just gorgeous, and but I couldn't hear the piano well on the live tapes, so I went back to the CD's and started listening to Page and what he was doing, and so I said "Well..." and my wife said "Come on, Come on, give them a call." Somehow I got their phone numbers, and I gave them both a call. We talked about it, and they said we'd love to do it, and so we set a date, and we started calling back and forth, and like I said earlier they brought in a dozen Grateful Dead tunes I never would have thought of doing, but they wanted to them. And we got together at rehearsal and the first thing we did together was "Viola Lee Blues," and from there on out it was like now let's do this one, and let's do this one. It was real rehearsal in the sense that the Grateful Dead rarely was. Grateful Dead rehearsals were kind of comical. We believed in public rehearsals.

D: That's right. Working it out right there on stage. It was interesting.

P: And sometimes it was bloody awful.

D: I've heard Phish is a more regimented band. they do forty hour weeks before going on tour.

P: I wouldn't be surprised. Their music demands that in a way. I think Page and Trey relished the chance to just stretch out. That was the main criteria I laid down at rehearsals and when we were talking is that I wanted to just open up every one of these songs as much as we could. I wanted everybody to converse together at the same time. which is what ended up happening, nothing makes me happier than that.

D: How about doing the Phish tunes?

P: I got off on that. I had thought maybe we would do this tune or that tune, and in the end, we only ended up doing one tune that I though we would do, and that was "Prince Caspian," and then they brought up those other three, "Wolfman's Brother," which I had never heard, and "Down With Disease" and "Chalkdust Torture," which I hadn't heard either until we played them at the rehearsal, and then I went and got the CD's and checked them out. But then I started listening to their other stuff, their other stuff is real interesting, but you can tell by listening to that that they need their forty hour weeks, because they really need to get that shit down.

D: It was something else watching you do the opening bass line to "Down with Disease" while Mike Gordon was sitting on the side of the stage.

P: (Laughs) He was probably cringing because I don't slap.

D: That was great in that you kept it in your style.

P: But unfortunately, that's what I have to do.

D: We've been hearing rumors of a summer tour...

P: Nothing is finalized yet. As I was saying earlier, its kind of cosmic how things come together. There has been some offers made. We haven't really sorted them out yet. Something could happen in August, but I have no idea who it's going to be. Or where. But there is a possibility.

D: Speaking of which, since we're an internet magazine, it's amazing what a role the internet plays in getting the word out on bands.

P: Yeah, I'm finding that out just now. In fact we don't even care if the media come to my shows, we don't give them free tickets. I don't care. I get all the feedback I care from the internet. Its certainly a larger statistical sampling than one review that comes with a particular set of prejudices, but it is certainly illuminating, to read everybody's different comments.

D: S o you read a lot of the reviews on the internet?

P: You bet. I check out the news groups, the user groups, and I also check out Deadnet central. where a lot of hard-core Deadheads are.

D: There were a lot of reviews that were tremendously glowing.

P: Yes there were.

D: But then there were some that were resistant to other groups like Phish?

P: Everybody has their own likes and dislikes, but heck I'm just going to play music with people that turn me on. I don't care where they were first. I don't care where they started out or came from.

D: Well there are a lot of talented players to choose from.

P: It's a neat thing that there are so many jambands out there. It is truly mind boggling. I mean, just in the Bay area, there is a whole pool of musicians that sort of rotate around and form different kinds of bands you know, doing that kind of music, and it's really exciting, and that's how I got started doing what I'm doing, is I discovered there is this whole pool of musicians that knew Grateful Dead material really well. And I went to see some friends of mine who played in one of these outfits, its kind of an ad-hoc outfit where the personnel would change from time to time. And it was hallucinatory, I walked in there and you could hear the music from outside, and it was like one of those dreams I've had many times, where it's like Spinal Tap and I'm in the bowels of some gig, some coliseum somewhere, trying to find my way through the ventilation ducts and the storage areas... yet all the time I can hear the music and the whole band is on stage, and there is even somebody playing bass, and its really strange, so it's kind of like that, a dream experience to hear this music played like that, not by me.

D: Is that the first time you have ever seen another group cover your material?

P: Yeah, pretty much. Well, I should say cover it so well- so that it was almost virtually impossible to distinguish it from what I remember us doing. Then I went there that night and sort of sat in. Then I started playing Phil and Friends gigs with some of these guys and that just started getting the whole thing going.

D: Well that must have been a thrill.

P: For everyone, and a weird experience to boot.

D: Can you talk a little bit about the importance of musicians leading by example and giving back to the community?

P: Well, you just said it. In a way, that's always what Grateful Dead did. When we started out, once we could eat and had a roof over our head, we would play for free in the park whenever we could. And then of course, in the old days, there were benefits all the time, and we played as many as we could. But as time went on we couldn't play every benefit, not even one-tenth of the benefits that were asked of us, so then we started a foundation. In my mind, it's an obligation for people like us who are so prominent in the public eye to contribute, to give back to the community as many ways as possible. Sometimes that involves playing free shows, which is not as easy to do as it might sound, because of security problems essentially. If you are going to do a free show, where are you going to play it? How many people are going to come there? Are they going to trash the place? What's the city going to do? Are you going to prepare the local neighborhood for this and so on? If you are an act that's only known locally, you can get away with this a lot easier. Free gigs are less practical now than they were in the sixties, but I think its the responsibility of each musical organization or individual to do something whether host benefits or perform in benefits or create their own foundation. I really think its an obligation

The Thing about jamband music especially, is that its a metaphor for the kind of cooperation that you can use in society,. You see five or six people up on stage creating something out of thin air as it were, to me that's a metaphor for what can happen in a community. It only takes a few people to get something going.

D: What can our readers to get involved in their own communities?

P: It think it depends on your community, how many people you have around you that are like minded. Every community has its own problems, and it own solutions. My advice would be look around. See what bother s you, see if there is something that seems unjust to you or out of balance, and then find other people who agree and then get together and try to do something about it. There is no set of rules. that you can just follow. The situation is what's in charge, and you have to tailor your actions to the reality.

D: You spoke so eloquently about the importance of becoming an organ donor. I feel it bears repeating.

P: Well, I'm only alive today because someone died and their family was generous enough and courageous enough to donate their organs to whomever might need them. They didn't know that liver was going to go to me. But in their grief and in that terrible hour of tragedy they had that courage and nobility to give life to others, and if I'm not mistaken the organs from one person can save the lives or improve the quality of life for at least eight people. And the thing about it is there is a tremendous shortage of organs, and there is a tremendous amount of people that are waiting for these organs that are on the verge of death. I just read today that one state is going to offer a reward for organ donations. They'll defray up to x number of dollars off the funeral expenses. People are trying to figure out incentives for organ donation, which in far as I'm concerned, whatever it takes to get it happening. Individuals, if they do desire to be an organ donor at their death, not only should they fill out the little card with their drivers license, but the most important thing is to notify their families, preferably in writing that it is their irrevocable desire be an organ donor at their death. Remember, its not you that has to make that decision at the moment. You're gone. Your family at that moment of tremendous grief, and trauma in their lives, will be approached by the doctor who will say "do you wish to donate so and so's organs?" And a lot of times, people will just say "No, no. I can't think about that now." If the family is aware in advance that someone wishes to become an organ donor, it eases that pain and makes it possible for the organs to be donated easily with less trauma. In other words, if the family is prepared, it will be a lot easier on everybody. And the end result will be their will be a lot more organs and more lives will be saved.

Also blood donations are tremendously important. In the Bay area over the Christmas holiday, when there is a lot of accidents, over New Year's particularly. there is a shortage of whole blood in the Bay area. I think blood donations are equally important. In fact, if anyone knows they are going to have surgery or fears they are going to have problems in the future, you can donate your own blood and have it held for you indefinitely, I believe.

One other thing I need to mention is a lot of doctors are not aware of the realities of special disease, the transplantation parameters. I received misinformation and my wife also received misinformation from qualified medical personnel about the age possibilities of transplants and other various possibilities of that. The doctors need to be more aware of what the current situation is in various specialties. And I would also recommend that if anyone ever has liver problems, or heart problems or lung problems or kidney problems, not to stay with a GP, or if you have a liver problem, don't stay with your gastrointestinal doctor, go to a specialist, a hepatoligist, go to a cardiologist, etc. Even your insurance company can be tweaked to allow for all this. You have to be aggressive, because there is such an overload of information that the doctors can't keep up unless they are specialists. I never realized as well as I do now the value of a second, third, or even fourth opinion.

D: That's a lesson to be learned.

P: Yes, it is especially as we all grow older.

D: While you were recovering, there was a tremendous amount of love and healing energy sent your way. Could you talk a little bit about what that meant to you?

P: To me, that was the key to my rapid recovery. I must say that from the time that I became ill back in September to the time till now really, the amount of energy, love and healing light that has been sent me has been palpable. I can read about it on the net. I can go back down through these hundreds, thousands of posts that read "Healing love and light to you Phil," with graphics and beautiful roses, and all kinds of stuff. It's kind of overwhelming really. At one point they had five minutes of prayer on a Sunday afternoon at noon, and Jill and I went out there on the porch and just opened ourselves up, I mean I could feel it. I could feel this glow, and it wasn't from the sun. It was from inside. I know what that was , that was the community. Not only did it generate healing power in me, but it brought the community closer together, just in that act of knowing that you're doing something that thousands of other people are doing at the same time. That creates a sense of community, a sense of value , and a sense of meaning. that is very very powerful.

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UBC accepts donations from generous supporters worldwide. If want to become a Link in the Chain of Giving, please send a contribution to:

Unbroken Chain Foundation
PO Box 10188
San Rafael, CA. 94912
(Federal Tax ID #: 94-3283387)