Trey Anastasio Quotes

Music has always been my protection against the world, from a very young age. I feel safe inside of a jam.

We want to have a spontaneous adventure. You can't plan an adventure, or it ceases to be one.

Set the gearshift for the high gear of your soul. You've got to run like an antelope, out of control.

Ideally the point of music is community, not the player. Musicians are simply channels to link the audience to the music and to each other.

It's like you're surfing... The same wave that can be a source of pain can be a beautiful flowing grace and source of power. It's all a matter of how you respond to it.

There are no Jerry Garcias coming down the pike, anymore than there is a Jimi Hendrix or Bob Marley. They are all at the same level - the highest level that you strive to get to as a musician. Me and my friends - we'll all be long dead, people will still be trying to dig into what Jerry Garcia did.

If there's one thing I discovered since I came back from hiatus, it's that you can't go backwards.

I'm not trying to pull the rug out from under anybody, but the music really does tell you where to go.

Things have gone beyond my wildest expectations and dreams, and I feel like I've been given so many blessings in my life, between my friendship with the guys in the band, our wonderful audience, being able to play this music, and then my family.

Creativity is the antidote to destruction.

What happens if you start drawing squares? Well, I'd say the answer to that is, don't get famous for drawing circles.

Music is a spiritual expression of what's in your heart. Music as a way of getting rich is a pretty new thing, and I often wonder if the mega-bucks glitzy atmosphere is making the quality of music suffer. You have to work really hard to get around that and remember why you're in it in the first place: because you have to be. It's like an addiction. You can't go a day without picking up your guitar. To me, the only commercial goals that are really valid are, 'Boy, I wish I didn't have to go to work. I wish I could do this all the time.'

I feel a great responsibility to deliver for our audience ... I am like their servant, but there's only one honest way to lift people up, which is to feel genuinely elevated yourself. And the way to do that is follow your heart. That's all we try to do.

As long as your intention is pure, and you know what you're in it for, then you're alright. And I'm in it because I enjoy it. I take it seriously... real seriously. I mean I could sit and talk all day about the music.

My life was a complete catatrophe. I was very, very sick from drugs and alcohol.

Jerry Garcia was a great American master and the Grateful Dead are not just a genuine piece of musical history, but also an important part of American history.

Anyone who writes knows that ultimately the majority of your time is spent alone in a room with a piano or a guitar, no matter what the project is.

Musicians from the beginning of time have been there to express the mood and the musical feelings in the air for whatever's going on in that particular culture. It's the greatest joy as a musician to be able to translate that, be part of something and watch the scenery around you.

There's so much excitement around the Phish tours, and if it stopped feeling that way, it would ruin everything we've done for seventeen years.

When you're a musician and you break new ground it resonates into the common consciousness.

If I had a ghost living on my street. I would try to stay alive, and offer him some meat!

I absolutely love the Philharmonic. I also love rock guitar.

I understand that transposing a song a half step can effect the believability of a lyric.

I’ve always loved the experience of working together with other people toward an artistic goal.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have worked with so many great collaborators in my lifetime.

Swing will never sound as good as it did in the '40s.

I've always loved musical theater. It's a bit of a family tradition.

The biggest sacrifice to me is to not be in an atmosphere where I can keep writing and moving forward.

I've been sober for two-and-a-half years, My children are happy. In August, my wife and I will celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary. My band is back together with a sold-out tour.

I am excited to get on tour, if I'm speaking to the Phish fans. I can't wait.

I think the Internet is going to open up a lot of possibilities with music, and the shake-up of power is exciting to me.

I've learned that in the theater the story is everything. Every lyric, every line and every musical gesture has to propel the journey of a given character or the overall plot.

I am a prince I have it all, and I hear your foot steps on the wall, I wait in silence for your call, and take a shot and watch you fall.