Trey Anastasio Reveals The Last Song Phish Should Play & The Band’s Superpower

Phish, more specifically guitarist Trey Anastasio, has been on a publicity blitz as the band prepares to release their new album, Evolve. The latest article is an interview with Anastasio published by Rolling Stone in which the 59-year-old musician details the final tune he’d like Phish to perform when they eventually play their final show and details the quartet’s “superpower.”

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Anastasio selected “You Enjoy Myself” when asked what should be the final song at the final Phish concert. Not only is it arguably the band’s signature song, but it’s been played more than any other by a long shot. The foursome had a chance to use “YEM” as their last song once prior. Phish closed with a “YEM” encore at Shoreline on October 7, 2000 to usher in a hiatus that spanned 815 days.

Read Trey Anastasio’s full response to Rolling Stone journalist Andy Greene’s query below:

I would say probably “You Enjoy Myself,” with the vocal jam. That’s got to be the last song. To this day, I don’t know exactly why it works, but it works. It was on our first record, and it put us outside the mainstream. Nobody knew what to make of us. I remember when I brought in all these charts to band practice, and it’s, like, all atonal composition in there. I remember handing it to Page, and he was like, “I can’t wait to play this.” He loved it. And then we added all the other weird stuff, and it still puts a smile on my face whenever we play it, because it brings me back to those years. It would be a perfect song to end with.

Phish may be one of the biggest draws of the past 30 years but they’ve never had a hit. According to Anastasio, it was the lack of mainstream success that helped the band thrive. “People will never believe me when I say this, but I think it’s our superpower,” said Anastasio of Phish never having a radio hit. “It’s been incredibly liberating. We’re not in that game. We have grown at a glacial pace. We didn’t have to skip any stages of learning, and we didn’t cut the line. And it’s always bad to cut the line. It’s a lifetime pursuit, music, and it’s a series of false peaks. So every time you climb up a peak — ‘Oh, I think I get this. I think I understand album construction. I think I understand songwriting’ — there’s always another. You get to the top, you look behind the first peak, there’s always another peak to climb, and then you die. Nobody ever figures it out, all of it.”

With no airplay, Phish had to develop their fanbase organically. “Because of the fact that we took every step along the uphill staircase, we didn’t jump in the elevator for two floors,” Trey explained. He also told the story of “one of the greatest compliments” he ever received which came from Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien. “I spent a lot of the night facing backwards. I was watching the last row of the arena, in the way back, all the way at the top. Every single person in the room was completely involved in the concert. Usually there’s a crew up front that’s really into the band, and then there’s a crew kind of in the back that … it’s hip to come see the band,” O’Brien told Anastasio during setbreak on Halloween 2016 in Las Vegas.

“He was saying, ‘Sometimes at Radiohead shows I look back, and I think a lot of people are here because it’s cool to go see Radiohead, but they don’t necessarily know all the material, and they’re talking. And your fans are completely involved with, and informed about every detail, all the way to the back row,'” Trey added. “And I thought that was a really astute comment, being at his first Phish concert. That’s what you get by taking your time.”

Another interesting part of the interview came when Trey Anastasio discussed Steely Dan. Anastasio’s performances of “Kid Charlemagne” and “Reelin’ In The Years” were thought to be the first time he covered Steely Dan. However, Phish keyboardist Page McConnell feels differently. “[Bandmate] Page [McConnell] reminded me yesterday that we did cover Steely Dan, but that it was quite early, in the Eighties,” Anastasio told Greene when the journalist noted it was surprising Phish had never performed one of the band’s songs. While many early Phish shows went unrecorded, there are no instances of the quartet performing a Steely Dan song chronicled on either Phish.net or Phish.com.

Trey Anastasio was also asked about his experience performing with members of the Grateful Dead in 2015 at the Fare Thee Well concerts. While Trey called it “an incredible honor,” he said outside of honoring Jerry Garcia playing Dead song is “pretty much just nostalgia” and added “Sorry. But it is.”

Other topics hit upon were the making of Evolve, Trey’s thoughts on drugs, how he feels about being the only sober member of Phish, what he learned about himself during the hiatus and more. Anastasio also made it clear when one of the four members of Phish leaves the band for whatever reason, the group is done. “Listen, line me up and shoot me when I’m wrong. But there is no way that this band could exist without any of the four members,” he emphatically stated. “And the reason that all these bands kind of keep going on, with one or two members, especially Seventies bands, is just because there’s so much money to be made. It’s all money, at a certain point. I mean, it’s nostalgia, and money, and oldies.”

Head to Rolling Stone to read the full feature. Phish continues the press outing tonight with an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The band’s summer tour starts next Friday, July 19.