Phil Lesh Reveals He’s Off The Bus For 2014 In New Interview

Radio host Gary Lambert conducted a rare interview with Phil Lesh that aired on yesterday’s installment of Tales From From The Golden Road. During the 28-minute chat Lesh shared a number of newsworthy bits including that he’s “off the bus” in 2014 and that Phil Lesh & Friends will cover a number of albums over the course of their coming fall tour.

With Furthur on hiatus in 2014, Lesh’s touring status for next year was up in the air. Phil told Gary that, “I’m getting tired after 48 years on the road. After this tour I’m basically ‘off the bus,’ I won’t be doing any tours per say. Phil Lesh and Friends has a really great setup going for next year for performances outside of Terrapin and we’ll make an announcement about it this tour.” The bassist went on to say, “we’ve got the whole year of 2014 locked in for a really cool way. We’ll expand the horizons of the whole scene. Phil Lesh and Friends will actually expand its membership into new areas.” Later in the interview Lesh gave a hint of what he has planned when the discussion came around to residencies. He said residencies are “the paradigm now” and “a similar thing to what we’ll be doing next year,” making us think he’ll play a number of residencies instead of tours.

Phil also went into more detail about his plans for the upcoming Phil & Friends’ fall tour. He revealed that, “on this tour we’re focusing on albums. We’ve picked six albums and we’re gonna sprinkle these albums throughout our set to give it kind of a thread.” Lesh said that the opening act on the tour, American Jubilee, will play a song from each album in their set and then Phil & Friends will “play through the album in order that way” which he feels “gives a thread to each show.” The performances will also include the familiar mix of Grateful Dead material.

Take a listen to the complete interview:

Over the weekend Lesh revealed he’s teaming with Warren Haynes and Jimmy Herring for a series of shows at Terrapin Crossroads in December.