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10/31/11 - Jambands.com: Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann Reunite

08/24/11 - From Rolling Stone:

[Mickey Hart told Rolling Stone,] ". . . I just saw Bob and Phil at [San Francisco's] AT&T Park when they had Grateful Dead day. It was really nice hanging out."

The Dead last toured in 2009. "There was certainly personal tension on that tour," said Hart. "I mean, there were people that didn't get along. And there were musical differences. But nothing that couldn't be negotiated. I mean, there are differences in any family. But I didn't skip a beat. I've been in very interesting projects over the past few years and I have absolutely no inclination to join Furthur. Bob's doing just what he wants to do and so am I."

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Hart refuses to rule out the possibility of another Dead tour, though. "I would never say never," he says. "As long as we're above ground, there's always a possibility. I don't see any reason why we couldn't do more shows someday, but right now isn't the right time."

08/04/11 - From KTVU.com:

KTVU.com: I saw the latest line-up of the Rhythm Devils [with fellow Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann] just played some festival dates in the past couple of weeks. I was wondering if you have more plans to work with that band besides those live shows?

Mickey Hart: Any day playing with Bill's a good day. That's the first thing. Bill is building his house now. He lives in Hawaii and is taking some time now to build a new home and chill a bit. So we've just put that to sleep for a while until it rises up again. Just like the Dead. Someday maybe it'll happen again. But in the meantime, this is just riveting my imagination and attention. This is what I'm doing now. Everybody is friends. We're just putting it to sleep for a while. Letting it rest.

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KTVU.com: You mentioned earlier that the Dead was, as you put it, "asleep" for now. I know the surviving members still get together to address business affairs like the many archival releases of earlier Dead recordings and other things. It seems of all the various projects members of the Dead are involved in, Furthur [the band led by Bob Weir and Phil Lesh] is probably the closest related to the original Dead concept. Your band and Bill's band 7 Walkers both play Grateful Dead songs, but Further seem stick strictly to presenting the Dead's music in a new way. I was wondering, when the idea of Furthur came up, did you all have to agree to give it your blessing?

Mickey Hart: Look, we burnt the music together and anybody can play that music. I am not really interested right now in doing that. So I'm doing what I'm doing because I'm interested in doing that and Bill is doing what he's doing because he's interested in doing that. So when we get together and decide business decisions, we have a person who monitors all of the releases; someone who we trust. Our archivist. And then he brings to our attention what he thinks would be a good release and this and that and so forth. And then we all sign off on it.

So there's a mechanism that allows us to do good business even though we're not playing together. So there's no kind of friction between anybody or anything like that. It's just good business and we try to keep the Grateful Dead tension free in that way, so people can enjoy the music, because that's what it's really all about. It's not so much about how our feelings towards each other are, even though I have good feelings towards everybody in the band. I'm doing exactly what I want to do and I'm really happy to be doing it and I assume Bob and Phil are too. And so is Bill. They're doing exactly what they want to do.

KTVU.com: The Dead has always existed well outside of how the music industry worked and it seems like you continue to do so...

Mickey Hart: Well, what they're doing is not the Dead. That they can't do without me and Bill. If we wanted to do that again -- and perhaps we will someday -- we'll do it.

KTVU.com: What I was getting at was not so much about Furthur, but how you as a group were outside the music industry since you started. And now as the music industry tries to figure out ways to remain viable, you guys are nine steps ahead of the curve as far as your archival recordings and all the things you're doing with your history and the music you have. It's commendable. You certainly figured out your own science of how to do things...

Mickey Hart: You have to follow your own destiny, you know? And it works fine if you do that and you're not driven by any crazy managers telling you what to do. You find your own level and where you want to be and no one forces anybody to do anything. If you want to do it, you do it. We get together and we do. If not, we don't. It's very simple. We keep it on those terms. We did the Dead as hard as we could do it as best as we could. But now, like I said, I've got a universe out there waiting. And I'm allowed to do all these other things because I'm not out on the road constantly with Bob and Phil. This is much more interesting to me, actually.

07/28/11 - Florida Times-Union: Talking with Furthur's John Kadlecik about the band and the Grateful Dead

07/27/11 - From the Napa Valley Register:

The Mickey Hart Band features Bay Area-based singer Tim Hockenberry and Virginia-born gospel singer Crystal Monee Hall.

07/15/11 - New York Times: A Festival Carries the Torch of the Grateful Dead

07/14/11 - Times Herald-Record: Deadheads go Furthur at Bethel Woods

07/10/11 - Summer Tour dates are up for the Mickey Hart Band.

06/27/11 - Furthur, The Rhythm Devils, and Dark Star Orchestra (with Donna Jean) will all play at Gathering of the Vibes 2011.

06/07/11 - San Francisco Chronicle: Dead's Bob Weir debuts TRI Studios on Web

06/04/11 - Furthur September-October Western Tour dates are up.

06/03/11 - Marin Independent-Journal: Weir's new webcasting facility brings live music to anyone, anywhere

06/02/11 - San Jose Mercury News: The Dead and Shoreline

05/27/11 - San Francisco Chronicle: Bob Weir talks about Shoreline Amphitheatre gigs

05/16/11 - Jambands.com: Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Steve Kimock, Dave Schools, Tipper Gore and Others Celebrate Wavy Gravy’s 75th Birthday

05/03/11 - Bob Weir Solo Acoustic Tour dates are up.

04/22/11 - Marin Independent-Journal: Grateful Dead's Weir promises 'an adventure' in Marin Symphony collaboration

04/08/11 - Furthur Summer Tour dates are up.

04/07/11 - Jambands.com: Bob Weir: A Symphony of Possibilities

04/05/11 - Orlando Sentinel: The Dead and beyond

03/30/11 - Jambands.com: Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Landing

03/30/11 - Rolling Stone: The Dead Recall the Colorful Life of LSD Pioneer Owsley Stanley

03/29/11 - Broward New Times: The Improvisational Journey of Bob Weir's Further

03/28/11 - Jambands.com: Elvis Costello, Larry Campbell and Diana Krall Join Furthur at Radio City

03/18/11 - Philadelphia Inquirer: Furthur keeps the spirit of the Dead alive

03/14/11 - From Jambands.com:

In addition to Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, [the 2011] version of Rhythm Devils will feature Keller Williams, Steve Kimock and Reed Mathis. Mathis played bass in the first version of Kreutzmann’s 7 Walkers band. Both Williams and Kimock have performed in previous versions of Rhythm Devils.

03/14/11 - Jambands.com: Warren Haynes Sits in with Furthur

03/13/11 - Wavy Gravy's 75th Birthday Boogie, a benefit for Seva Foundation on 05/14/11 in Richmond, CA, will feature: Bob Weir & Mickey Hart with Barry Sless, Bobby Vega, Henry Kaiser, Jeff Chimenti, John Molo, Mark Karan, Nicki Bluhm, Pete Sears, Steve Kimock & Robin Sylvester.

03/07/11 - Nateva Festival 2011 acts include Bob Weir (solo acoustic) and 7 Walkers (featuring Bill Kreutzmann).

03/05/11 - From Relix:

Weir also mentions that he can imagine another band coming back together. "I actually expect that The Dead will reconvene at some point, but that'll be a walk down memory lane," he says. "It will be for those folks who want that, but we can't live there."

March 2011 - From DRUM! Magazine:

Still, it’s been four years since the first Rhythm Devils tour, so the obvious questions are, why again? And why now? Kreutzmann is quick with an answer. “Well, one reason, I’m going to say for myself, maybe Mickey might feel differently: I didn’t want to play in Further,” he says, referencing the Dead-nostalgia band-slash-festival headed by former Deadmates Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. “I still wanted to do Grateful Dead and I still wanted to play with this guy, and so this was the obvious way to go.”

Both Hart and Kreutzmann are reluctant to say anything negative about their old bandmates’ respective attempts to keep the Dead flame alive, but the subtext is that there’s something akin to sibling rivalry going on, some ancient rupture between the sons of melody and the sons of rhythm that hadn’t quite been set right during the various attempts to get the whole band back together in the wake of Garcia’s death.

“The end of the last Dead Tour, I’m gonna tell you the truth,” says Kreutzmann — whose media filter, it should be noted, is less finely meshed than Hart’s, “I was getting bored. These guys were playing the songs like this, like this; it was not as much open jamming as I would like to have. So, for myself, I didn’t do another Dead tour after the last one because I’d done enough, and I really wanted to play with other musicians. This cat right here, I can rely on him every minute of the week, I mean, I know that.”

Hart seems a little more willing to leave the door open a crack. “There might be a time, as long as we’re above ground,” he offers on the speculation of the “Other Ones” getting back together. “It’s, you know, not our plan, and it’s probably not their plan. I saw Bob a couple of weeks ago. You know, uh, good few moments together.” He pauses. “With Bob, it’s like taking a breath, taking a big breath and maybe seeing yourself in a different way. It’s really cool. You know, they’ll always be our brothers. The Grateful Dead — you don’t sign up and you don’t sign out with the Grateful Dead.”

02/12/11 - Denver Post: Dead survivors Weir, Lesh push the band Furthur

02/11/11 - Reverb: Long and Winding Road: Bob Weir

02/05/11 - Classic Rock Revisited: Symphonic Psychedelia : An Interview with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead

01/24/11 - Jambands.com: Bob Weir and Mickey Hart Reunite in Park City

01/22/11 - Salt Lake Tribune: Sundance: 'Music' resonates with Utahns

01/19/11 - From Goldmine Magazine:

could the four surviving members of the classic Grateful Dead lineup ever get back together and “play in the band” again?

“There’s always a possibility,” Kreutzmann said. “We haven’t been talking about that lately. Those guys are out doing Furthur, and I’m doing 7 Walkers, and Mickey has projects going on, so we’ve just kind of been wanting to experience our own projects, and then, possibly, it might get back together.

“But relations (between the Dead members) are OK. Yeah, I’d say things are very OK.”

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At The Festival
2011 Archive