2000 This is forwarded from rec.musis.gdead: From: michaelz@zoka.com (Michael Z.) Subject: Transcript: Dennis McNally on KPFA, 8/30/95 [long] Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 20:26:27 -0800 Reply-To: michaelz@zoka.com My apologies if someone has already posted this to r.m.g., but my Internet service provider's news server crashed hard yesterday, so we're all playing catch-up on news (the lag was 18 hours at last report). This is my transcript of the 10-minute phone conversation between David Gans and Dennis McNally, GD publicist, on yesterday's "Dead to the World" broadcast on KPFA, Berkeley. I'm posting this in the interests of propagating some "official" information from the band (even if it does come from the P.R. flak, and is noteworthy more for what is *not* known yet). I have no doubt the silly rumors will continue on r.m.g -- some are actually fun (if not taken too seriously) -- it's a jungle in here! See my previous posts for (1) a list of music played on the show, and (2) "Drums and Space," a memorial poem written by another GD radio show host. =========================================================================== "Dead to the World" KPFA 94.1 FM, Berkeley CA 8/30/95, 7-9pm PDT Transcript: Dennis McNally phone call David Gans: The person on the line with me here, folks, is Dennis McNally, the publicist of the Grateful Dead and the official historian of the Grateful Dead. Dennis McNally: Ah, yeah. DG: And I just basically wanted you to call in and say hello, and tell us how you're doin' and if you know anything, what we oughta know, et cetera. DM: Um, well, you know, we're hangin' in there. Um, it's still busy, you know. Not to gripe a lot, because there's more important things around, but it's still darn busy. Um, there's *not* a lot to say, you know, I've said this so many times -- and I apologize, because I get a lot of reporters who are either (a) convinced that I'm holding back or (b) fed up with what I'm saying, and I don't mind saying *I'm* semi-fed up with it, too, just 'cause the repetition's getting much -- and that is very simply, and quite truthfully: the band, outside of the immediate and obvious things of doing the funeral -- the private funeral -- and then the public ceremony in the park, for which David [Gans] and Dick [Latvala] did the really cool thing, which was of course the whole point of it, which was to listen to music and think about things -- um, the only two decisions the band's really made was to cancel the fall tour and to, as I have been putting it, put the business structure into partial hibernation, and to leave things organized to carry on with what's essential while basically they sit back and think about what they want to do. That is really *it.* Uh, and quite frankly, a couple of them have been off with their families, away from Marin, and so I haven't really talked with anybody except Bobby, and as I say, the band hasn't made any decisions, which is not always very satisfactory to Deadheads wanting to know, well, what's going on right now, right now, and I don't say as I blame 'em, uh, being somewhat interested in it *myself*. . . DG: I can imagine. . . DM: . . . but nobody knows. And anybody who tells you, "Well, *I hear. . .*" is absolutely B.S.'ing you, you know, really and truly, because, um, nobody in the band has -- other than the really immediate and urgent decisions that *had* to be made a couple of weeks ago -- they haven't been together, I don't believe they've really particularly talked; the only bits of news I can tell you is, among other things -- news which I imagine David's talked about, but quite frankly, I don't know -- and that is that there'll be a really cool CD coming out, which is *long* planned, I mean it's not hot-breaking news, planned certainly before Jerry died, and that is what's being called "The Hundred-Year Hall," the Jahrhundert Halle show from April 26. . . DG: 1972. DM: . . .1972, a really cool, what in effect is a really cool "Europe '72" outtake. That'll be out September 26th, and because, also coincidentally, we had, the band had decided to distribute Grateful Dead records through Arista now, through a larger distribution setup, that [CD] should be really easy to get a hold of, for all of you that will hear this that might not necessarily be real close to a big record store. DG: Well, and it'll also be available through the usual 800 number, right? DM: And the 800 number [1-800-225-3323] and California Dead and all that good stuff. DG: We were talking a little bit about the autopsy report, and how interesting it is that the various columnists and axe-grinders thought that it was, you know, important to make note that Jerry was a drug user, when in fact it seems like it was the cigarettes and cheeseburgers that had more to do with his demise. DM: People have been calling me and asking me that, obviously, well, for a long time -- and I've said it a thousand times, and I know that they didn't think that I was telling the truth -- that what I worried about with him was side-effects of his lifestyle and quite frankly, not drug use. And alas and alack, I was right. As we said August 9th, and will say, he died of a heart attack. I think you probably would have read -- David's probably mentioned the, uh, autopsy noted that two out of the three arteries that went to his heart were 85 percent blocked, which is. . . DG: Wow. DM: . . .not a way you can live; you can't live with that and uh, his body, uh, didn't. Obviously, as somebody who loved him and who also wanted very much for him to face things, what I'm gonna remember is *where* he died, and he died in a rehab center, out of his own choice, by his own -- you know, because he drove himself there, because he recognized that he had to change things and frankly, *that's* what I'm gonna remember. The rest is, frankly, real boring. What he made, a commitment to his art and to his muse and to his life and his family -- and of *that* I am proud. DG: So, Dennis, regardless of what the bandıs plans are, are you thinkinı about writinı that book yet? DM: Oh, yeah, itıs getting a little closer [laughs]. Yeah, you know, I got asked by Jerry to be the bandıs biographer a loooong time ago. . . DG: About 15 years ago now, isnıt it? DM: Now, itıs right up on 15 years. And 11 years ago, he asked me to be the publicist, because *they* needed one and *I* needed a job, which sounded okay to me at the time, and I recognized then, as now, that I could not be on the road and a part of the business structure of the band *and* write a hist-- you know, a reasonable history thatıs fair. Iım not going to tell every stinking story I know, obviously, because -- thereıs not that many *good* ones, frankly. Most of the good, juicy stories are kind of silly human weakness rather than anything. . . DG: You have to leave a few for *Parishıs* memoirs, I think. DM: Hey! You know, heıll have a few stories. But at any rate, um, yes, itıs still, I intend to start working, basically, as soon as the phones *stop* ringing 400 times a day. It will still be a couple of years of writing before I can even think about, uh, you know -- so it ainıt gonna be soon. Thereıre gonna be plenty of potboilers for your delectation, ranging from the incredibly lame, like the one that will be out in a couple of months from Rolling Stone -- I donıt know, it may not even be lame, but the fact is, the indecent haste with which itıs coming out is. . . DG: Well, I got a number of phone calls from publishers asking all sorts of ridiculous things. DM: Oh, yeah, and David, youıre not the only one, believe me. [Laughs] DG: Oh, I know it. I and my colleagues have been comparing notes quite a bit. DM: And theyıre all convinced that thereıs money to be made here, so -- Quite frankly, the lowest taste, from I guy I actually respect, was on August 10th, I got a call offering me a job, which was, uh, kind of hard for me to believe. DG: Wow. DM: But at any rate, uh, all I can say is good luck to everybody. Itıs 961 a, huh -- churning something out in a couple of months is gonna add to the worldıs pile of bound pages, rather than -- I donıt know how much itıs gonna contribute. . . DG: Well, the trick is for all of us out there in the audience to figure out whatıs worth reading and whatıs not, given the amount of stuff thatıs likely to come out over the next six -- my attitude, and most of my professional Deadhead journalist friends have all agreed with this, is that if itıs worth doing, itıs worth doing in a proper time span, and not doing in this immediate wake of Jerryıs demise, you know. DM: And you know, the fact is, um, and I have no inside knowledge, *believe* me, but, you know, a number of people were running around saying, *if* this group of musicians were to play again, they *couldnıt* be the Grateful Dead. My comment was, thatıs what everybody said in 1973, when Pigpen died. DG: Look, I donıt know *why* people think that; I think itıs sort of colossally missing the point to claim that Jerryıs death kills the Grateful Dead. I mean, the DNA was in all of them, right? DM: It was a collective group of amazing musicians, and the point of its coolness was when there were no individuals left, not even in the band, not even in the room, not even in the audience -- we were one interesting group mind. DG: *Exactly.* DM: And, uh, you know. . . DG: So who knows?! DM: Itıs a very *open* universe. DG: Well, my attitude toward that is that I donıt even want to register an opinion with the band members, I want them to decide for *themselves* if they want to continue. DM: Which they will. [Laughs] DG: Oh, Iım sure theyıre getting tons of unwelcome input about it. DM: Oh, probably, although you know, it's like -- only *they* have a vote. . . DG: Thatıs right. DM: . . .so weıll wait and see. DG: Well, Dennis, thanks for calling in . . . DM: Youıre welcome. DG: . . .Iım going to play a bunch of music for the next half-hour, and if youıre smart, youıll turn on your radio because I think youıre gonna like this. DM: Okay, promise. DG: Thanks, Dennis. Take care. DM: Bye-bye. =========================================================================== ______________________ Michael Zelner Oakland CA USA e-mail: michaelz@zoka.com ______________________ ------------------------------ . 0