A Conversation with Vassar Clements   (continued)

PM: So along with the bluegrass and the newgrass crowds, you've run for decades with what might have once been called the psychedelic crowd, the Dead, Old and In the Way, Peter Rowan, and so many of those other great cats.

VC: Oh, yeah.

PM: How did that happen? Was that just an accident, or do you share a turn of mind with that free-thinking group? Because your playing has always sounded so free of any convention.

VC: Well, they let you be free. That's the great thing about them. Actually, all my life I've been kind of free. Even when I first started, Bill Monroe didn't tell me what to play. He showed me a lot, but he never did tell me what to play.

PM: No kidding.

VC: He never did. And I've heard bands telling somebody, "Play like this guy that did it on the record." I never was told that. And I can say that I've been blessed for that, because I could do it like I wanted to. Of course, when you get into doing studio work, and they say, "We need to get three or four songs out in these three hours. Start that off like Tommy Jackson did, dom, dom, dom," that kind of thing, you might have to go through that. That's one reason I didn't record--I've recorded a lot over the years, but I never wanted to do what had already been done. And I'd get really depressed in the studio sometimes, years ago, because they'd want you to do the same kickoff, maybe the same style as somebody else, but not exactly like them. But the bands that I played with never told me what to do.

PM: And especially that crowd, Jerry Garcia and--

VC: Oh, no. They want you to do whatever you wanted to do.

PM: Take it as far out as you wanted to.

VC: Yeah. Because Jerry, oh, man, when I'd play with them, that was something. They'd play a tune for an hour. And Jerry would motion to me, "Come on, let's go." We'd go to the back and do whatever we wanted to, and rest for a while and then go back out, and they was still playing the same song, and then two more would take a break or something.

[laughter]

VC: That was a lot of fun, and there was a great feeling in that bunch of people.

PM: Jerry was a beautiful guy.

VC: Oh, he was great.

PM: Was he a good friend to you?

VC: Yes. I've never seen anybody so humble and so wanting to play music all the time. Jerry wanted to play all the time.

PM: A musician through and through.

VC: Yeah. And I never heard him say anything bad about anybody. I've never seen him upset. I never saw him any way except just like Garcia always was.

PM: Wow. And he was a great banjo player.

VC: He was.

PM: A lot of his fans don't even know what a great banjo player he was.

VC: I'd say, "You need to do this." And he'd say, "Vassar, I'm going to have to practice on this banjo now about six months."

[laughter]

VC: He always said that. That was the funniest thing. I said, "No, you don't never forget that." He said, "No, I don't forget, but I got practice on that thing."

[laughter]

PM: What about Peter Rowan? What kind of a guy is he?

VC: He's great. Pete's got his own ways, and maybe some people don't understand it, but I do, and I just love him to death. All of them, I do.

PM: Yeah, just a great bunch of guys.

VC: They are. I feel just more at home when I'm doing that. I feel free, I feel relaxed, no pressure, no nothing. We just go out and play and have a good time.

PM: And who would have thunk it, probably, as your life rolled on, that there'd be so many fans of yours that would be just these free-thinkin' hippies?

VC: I would have never thought it, I'll tell you that.

PM: But the hippies love Vassar Clements.

VC: I know. And now they've come around again, it's an eerie feeling. I see the same faces, the same dress and the same movements and the same age and everything. And I say, "What in the world is going on? I've done this before." And I've had some of the kids come up to me and say, "Did you know you're starting all over again?" And I said, "Well, I appreciate that, and thanks for being here." I said, "But how did you get into this?" They say, "Well, I grew up with it, with my parents and stuff." It's amazing how it is handed down and handed down.

PM: And to see your popularity get recycled.

VC: I know. That's what's amazing to me, because I just wondered, where did they all start liking this stuff? And they tell me.

PM: "I keep getting older and my fans keep getting younger."

VC: Yeah, yeah. It's like a rerun.

[laughter]  continue

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