Dave Matthews Talks About Life on the Road

May 25th, 2005

Nekesa Mumbi Moody

The Dave Matthews Band is on road so much their tour bus has become their second home — so they've tried to make it just as comfortable as their real abodes.

Besides their instruments and gear, they also bring a caterer so they don't have to take a chance on strange cuisine. They also have decorations to make things aesthetically pleasing — and their spouses and kids often tag along for the trek.

AP: What's your diva request for backstage?

Matthews: I don't think we've got too many really unusual requests. I think there always has to be a little Scotch, a nice wine, and a couple cases of good beer.

AP: How do you wind down after a show?

Matthews: After a show, maybe I'll have a Scotch. Often my family is on the road, so now what I do is I get off stage and if my girls (3-year-old twins) are still awake, I get on the bus and read them a bedtime story. Sometimes I get into bed and I try to get my soaking wet shirt off so that I don't get the sheets all wet when I lie between my daughters, but that seems to be the thing that most quickly brings me down to earth.

AP: Do you have a must-have book or favorite reading?

Matthews: I always try and have something. I always like to have an atlas just so that I can find things out. It's always good to have an almanac; those sort of things. But then I also like to have a little fiction, and maybe a little bit of history, and some crappy magazines. But I've gotta have stuff to read.

AP: What's the gadget you can't live without that's not your iPod?

Matthews: I'm not a real gadgety person. In fact, some people think that I'm kind of primitive. Probably a bottle opener is probably the gadget I can't live without. Actually, I can open a bottle of beer pretty easily without it, but wine is always too much of a pain in the (rear) to open that up. So a corkscrew is probably the gadget that I can't live without.

AP: What kind of DVDs do you watch on the bus?

Matthews: Well, anything crap. Probably most of the time I watch children's movies because my kids are on the bus, so it requires them. Other than that, I watch World Link TV most of the time. I like that channel. They have some great documentaries.

AP: What's your favorite hotel alias that you've retired?

Matthews: I've had Strangely Brown ... what other ones did I have? Stinky Pinky. nobody else likes those, but I like those. Strangely Brown is probably my favorite. I've got a good one right now but I'm not gonna tell it to ya.

AP: What's the chance we'll find you hanging out in the city where you're performing?

Matthews: It would have to be the quietest, dive-iest place in town. That's where I would go. It would be following my wife that I would go out for a drink. But otherwise I would go be boring.

AP: I don't know if this applies to you since you're a family man and all, but what would a groupie need to do to get backstage?

Matthews: Ask anybody but me. Because I don't even know. That's what I say when they say, "How can I get backstage?" I say, "I don't know!"