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ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE NAMES DAVE AS ONE OF THE 'PEOPLE OF THE YEAR'
December, 2001 --- "DAVE MATTHEWS:ON THE ROAD, HE WAS STILL THE KING.
AT HOME, HE BECAME A DAD"
"I'm sort of a haphazard person," says Dave
Matthews. "Not real organized. But everything
seems to be falling in place for me right now."
No joke. The Dave Matthews Band's 2001
release, Everyday, has sold close to 3 million
copies since its February release (making it the
eighth-best-selling record of the year), and the
band's summer tour - its first full-on stadium
outing - sold more tickets than 'NSync or
the Backstreet Boys.
The man didn't do too
bad at home, either: In
August, Matthews' wife,
Ashley, gave birth to twin
girls, Stella and Grace.
Not that family life has
slowed him down. In the
four days after we talked,
Matthews traveled from
his home in Seattle to
San Francisco to play
solo at the Bridge School
Benefit, then to Virginia
to shoot a video with the
band, then to London for
another solo show.
QUESTION: You started a family
this year.
My wife and I had twins! That was a high point
that kind of overshadowed everything
else. And, just a few days ago, Carter [Beauford], who plays drums for us, had a little daughter. I
feel blessed, and now my daughters have just started to have human
qualities beyond crying - little smiles and things like that - so that's
occupied the majority of my conscious waking hours. Sleep is not as big a
priority as it was. Two babies is a hundred times more work than one baby.
If my wife and I have one kid after this, it'll be a piece of cake. But I don't
know - maybe we'll get two again, or maybe we'll get three.
QUESTION: Were you on the road when they were born?
No. We had canceled about fifteen or twenty shows knowing that the twins
were coming sometime in August or September. Actually [laughs], I had a
conversation with them before they were born and said that they should
come on the 15th of August, because that was perfect timing. And they did!
It gave me about a week and a half to be with them before we did a few more
shows.
QUESTION: Will fatherhood make touring harder?
It will probably make us participate more heavily in the planning of tours, and
we'll probably take some family out. We'll have nanny buses. Family buses,
which will be exciting.
QUESTION: What was the high point for the band this year?
We had a great summer, one of the best we've had. I knew things were
going well when we went to L.A. and played Dodger Stadium. L.A. is a
difficult place to play, but it was great this time; the whole summer was a
real fine musical moment for us. We got along real well all summer.
QUESTION: You scrapped an entire record before making Everyday, and it ended
up geting bootlegged on the Internet. Did that bother you?
I would have preferred it if the album we hadn't finished didn't get out,
although it's been well-received. It was like having a painting and not
finishing it, and then seeing it show up in a gallery. It would have been nice if
we could have put the tag on it. But overall, I think it's a blessing in some
ways, because people still enjoy it. More than likely we'll probably cut those
songs again.
QUESTION: You recently performed solo at the Groundwork benefit in Seattle
and at the Bridge School Benefit in the Bay Area. Do you like doing it
alone?
Well, I'm intimidated playing alone. I love playing with the band so much. I've never worked at anything nearly as hard, so there's really a sense of freedom and accomplishment when we all play together. It's odd when I'm out by myself, because on top of having terrible stage fright, I have to comfort myself with the thought that I'm out there representing the band, not just myself. But I'm still always kinda like, "How did I get here?"
QUESTION: How different is the world after September 11th?
I think we're gonna see there's a lot of changes, and I think we're right at the
beginning of those changes. We can only hope that peace will prevail, and
not at the expense of too many things that are beautiful and wonderful in the
world. There is no madness that human beings unleash on the world greater
than war. For me personally, there is a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty, but we
must carry on and live as lovingly as we can. It's a very uncertain time.
QUESTION: Do you approve of U.S. military action?
I was raised and I've always been a strong believer in nonviolence. But what
do we do when we're faced with this sort of thing? I certainly couldn't stand
up and say peace is the only answer. [Al Qaeda] is an organization that is
destitute of the capacity to empathize with people suffering, destitute of any
respect for women. It just boggles our minds. So where I would say let's go
peacefully in most instances, you can't say that about coming face to face
with this kind of evil. You can't say, "Well, I'll offer my hand in peace,"
because they will remove it. I find it impossible to forgive an organization like
that. I also find it relatively impossible to live in a world where that kind of
organization is allowed to flourish, entirely in hatred. What I wish could
happen is that someone could reach down from the heavens and just pluck
them like weeds in a garden. That would be the great answer, if we had
some heavenly tweezers.
QUESTION: Your band decided to cancel its upcoming European tour. Was it a
hard decision?
There's a big part of me that just wanted to carry on, because it's important
to do that, but some people in the band felt that they didn't want to be far
away from home at this time. People feel insecure. I'm disappointed that
we're not going to do it, but I'm realizing that there's more important things
than whether or not we play.
QUESTION: Will pop music become more serious now?
To pretend that we can encapsulate the horror in pop music is a little
shortsighted. Music in the Sixties and early Seventies obviously became a
very strong record of the anti-war struggle, but at the same time frivolous
entertainment has also thrived in times of war and trouble. Because one of
the properties of music is to entertain and to - I don't mean this lightly -
distract us from the things that pull us down. Music should be not only a
source for political ideas but also a source of hope, for the simple things in
life - like dancing.
QUESTION: Do you have any resolutions for 2002?
To spend more time with my babies, spend more time with my family. That's
what I want to do. And I'm going to practice saying no. I have a hard time
doing that.
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