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Behind the Magic: Bill Kreutzmann & Mickey Hart Talk To Billy Martin

You also met Alex Huxley when you were young, right?

Yep. I went to prep school in Arizona, and when I was in seventh grade, they let me have my drum set in the barn, so that after class I could go play. One day the headmaster and this guy who couldn’t see very well— who happened to be Alex Huxley—walked into the auditorium and the headmaster gives me the shush sign. He put his thumb up to his mouth and I obeyed. Then the guy next to him is like, “No, keep playing.” Not only did you brush shoulders with one of the greats, but he was like, “Keep playing!” I was too young to really appreciate it… He was a psychedelic kind of guy. The farthest-out thing that ever happened to the Grateful Dead was that we all took acid together. It was really cool. It’s not something we do today but it really opened us up for playing and not making so many rules. I really like what John Coltrane said: “Damn the rules.” I’m getting to play with my new trio and it’s just a kick.

Yeah, with [Allman Brothers Band bassist] Oteil [Burbridge].

Yeah. You know Oteil?

Yeah. That must be a blast.

Yeah, he can do no wrong, that guy has such big ears. He suggests something and it becomes part of the moment. We’re a trio just like you guys.

Are you just collaborating? Is it a collective thing?

It’s totally a collective thing. We’re writing pretty fast. It’s not like a chore or anything. We got 12 new tunes in about seven days. We’re going to try to do some recording.

That’s great. I can’t wait to hear it.

Yeah, [Robert] Hunter writes some incredible words. He’s a master poet and he’s underrated, unless you know about the Dead, then of course you probably know him.

I want to talk about your artwork. I saw a bunch of your art and there is a bunch I really dug. Like these striped masks. One is a skeleton with like a circuit board tattooed on.

I drew the skull then drew the circuit board mask and laid it where the skull was. I use Photoshop. What do you use? I know you’re an artist.

I love to play around with imaging, too, but for some reason more of my improvising comes out with oil pastels and paper. It’s a little bit painterly and you get these mistakes that happen. Now that I’m in to film I’m really into tying in my artwork digitally. I’m not a purist. But I love your artwork. Are you going to have a show?

There’s a store in Fort Collins that sells a lot of musician art. I’ve done shows a couple years ago but not now. I’m playing music now. I usually do one or the other. It’s hard to have it all. I did the artwork because I was frustrated with my life. I’m not now.

That’s funny. That’s how it came about with me. I was touring and I was in Europe and I was in my hotel all depressed and I started drawing. You gotta transcend the depression by expressing yourself or you will kill yourself.

I learned Photoshop on the road. I knew Garcia knew about it and he came into the room and told me about it and it was all over from then. With a person’s imagination you can do anything you can think of. You just have to figure out how to do it. That’s what I love about art and music. I’ve always been a drummer.