With the Ween reunion shows kicking off tomorrow night (!) in Broomfield, CO, the band’s longtime bassist Dave Dreiwitz discussed a bit about how the shows came to be. Dreiwitz spoke about his role in Ween, and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, in an exclusive Jambands interview published today.
When asked about the reunion, Dreiwitz said, “I’ve been playing with the Dean Ween Group all through the fall, and he just made a new record. So we’ve been playing, and then we did a tour where we had all the guys from the band except Aaron…Maybe that spawned the idea of the reunion. That seems to happen with other groups, where half the group gets together and then the rest of them decide, “Okay, let’s just do this!” So I think that’s what it came down to.”
He continued, saying, “It was just one day where we got together for Dean Ween rehearsals and Dean Ween, aka Mickey, just told me, “Aaron’s decided that we should do some playing, and we’re going to do it.” And that was it, it was as simple as that. And it really came down to the two of them working that out. For the rest of us, it wasn’t like we had a band meeting and decided “Let’s do this.” Those guys just needed to figure it out and say yes, that’s all.”
Dreiwitz also spoke about the future plans for Ween, saying “We’re looking at a long term thing. I think we’re going to see how this year goes and then hopefully we’ll keep this going forever. Maybe we won’t be touring a billion gigs a year, but we’ll do a handful of gigs that will be awesome… I’d love to have Ween always working, at least while we’re all still on the planet.”
While Dreiwitz was a bit more hesitant when asked about the possibility of Ween making new music (“I’m not sure how that’s going to go.”), he does seems super enthusiastic about the opportunity to play Ween’s material. “Playing in Ween, that’s home for me. That’s where I belong.”
The interview also touched on Dreiwitz’s role in Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, with the bassist showing his respect for Phil Lesh and the catalog of the Grateful Dead. Still, it’s quite evident that home is where the heart is, and, for Dave Dreiwitz, it seems that Ween is home.
[Via Jambands.com]