https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/phish-page-mcconnell-new-album-phish-food-ice-cream-991613/Kinda interesting take, considering the above discussion.
Quote:
I’m curious about something else. For a long time, you guys had your own following, and the Grateful Dead had their own. After they stopped existing, a lot of their audience came over to Phish. Today, it seems like Phish are the major touring American rock & roll band …
The torch bearers? You know, just to back up to the premise of the question, although when the Dead stopped playing, there was certainly the perception that all these fans came over to us, from my perspective, when that was actually happening, the Dead fans didn’t think as much of Phish as they did of the Dead, and vice versa. Obviously, we had a much smaller following.
But what ended up happening was the real influence that I felt when the Dead stopped was all the people that came to Phish weren’t there for the music. They were there to sell stuff in the lots and try to make money. It was a little bit of an ugly scene, sort of the darker underbelly of their scene just came over to our lot because it was the next lot. Not because they liked Phish.
I think actually, after Trey did the Fare Thee Well concerts, I saw a lot of people that very next tour that looked like old Deadheads that were coming to check us out that hadn’t seen us before. That was my feeling around that. And that has grown.
They wrote great songs. And Robert Hunter wrote great lyrics. And I feel like there was a maturity to their lyrics that I hope that we’re touching on as well now. So I can see why people maybe would have had a harder time following a song like “Cavern” 20 years ago, but might be able to identify with “A Life Beyond the Dream” or something. There’s an emotional leap to them that our writing hasn’t always had.