There’s a lot going on for Trey Anastasio this year, from a pending Rock & Roll Hall of Fame bid and upcoming spring and summer tours with Phish to his ongoing solo acoustic tour—his longest such run since 2019—but what really seemed to be on his mind as his tour hit Kansas City, MO’s Uptown Theater on Wednesday was that time he met Cher earlier this month.
The unlikely onstage connection between Trey Anastasio and Cher during the encore of the star-studded Love Rocks NYC benefit concert at New York’s Beacon Theatre had a viral moment in the aftermath of that show, so much so that Anastasio went on the cover Sonny & Cher‘s “I Got You Babe” when his solo tour started two days later. During Wednesday’s performance at the Uptown Theater, his candid musings once again drifted toward his brush with the pop icon.
As Anastasio said between songs in Kansas City, “I was walking out back here, [and] there are so many pictures of cool musicians who have played in this room. … If you just walk back there it’s like walls and walls of pictures of all the people who have played here, just covering all the walls. It’s a lot of people. And really great bands, like one after another. You’re walking down the wall like, ‘Wow, this person played here too?’ There’s a deep history here. As you walk on, it goes through like legendary… like, ‘Oh, there’s Jeff Beck, wow!’ Like, everybody.”
“And as you approach the stage door right there [the artists] kind of gets cooler and cooler, and the last person is Dolly [Parton], who I consider to be, like, there’s A-list,” he said, indicating a threshold with his hand, “and then there’s Dolly,” he added, raising his hand a few inches higher. “The second-coolest and -hottest celebrity… after Cher.”
“Ah, those were the days, my days with Cher,” a chuckling Trey added, feigning nostalgia for the bygone era of two weeks ago. “I look back at them… such fond memories. The whole arc of our relationship: She caught my eye from across the room, walked towards me. I said, ‘Hi, Cher. I’m Trey.’ She’s like, ‘I know,'” Trey mused before bursting into laughter and sheepishly burying his head in his hand.
“I gotta start playing songs now,” he muttered through hoots and hollers from the audience. “I’ll tell her you all said hi after the show. … She’s gotta come play here so her picture can go next to Dolly.”
Watch a clip of Trey Anastasio reminiscing about his brush with Cher during his solo acoustic show in Kansas City below (via Phish Sphere folk hero @acid_farts). Sroll down to watch videos of both the initial Trey/Cher reaction and Anastasio’s subsequent “I Got You Babe” cover at his tour opener and view a gallery of photos from Kansas City via Allison Scavo.
Trey Anastasio’s solo acoustic tour continues this week and weekend with shows in New Orleans, LA (3/21), Birmingham, AL (3/22), and Nashville, TN (3/26). Find a list of upcoming dates and ticketing details here. Phish is due to head out on a brief West Coast spring tour in April ahead of a lengthy 2025 summer trek. The band is also scheduled to headline the Friday night bill at Louisville, KY’s Bourbon & Beyond on September 12th. Find tickets to upcoming Phish concerts here.
Trey (Still) <3 Cher – 3/19/25
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Trey & Cher At Love Rocks NYC – 3/6/25
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Trey Anastasio Covers Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” – 3/8/25
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Setlist: Trey Anastasio | Uptown Theater | Kansas City, MO | 3/19/25
Set: Free, The Inlaw Josie Wales, Wolfman’s Brother, Summer of ’89, Dog Faced Boy, My Problem Right There, Backwards Down the Number Line, Kill Devil Falls, Twist, Let Me Lie [1], Brian and Robert, Reba, Split Open and Melt, ???, Bug, What’s The Use?
[1] by audience request
Note: Setlist is unconfirmed.
