Trey Anastasio

I worked at a Starbucks when I was living in Philly. It was a block away from one of the nicest hotels in the city, so sometimes famous people would come in. One Sunday morning I got to work at 5:30 and opened the store at 6:00. We usually didn’t get any customers until about 7 or so. A few minutes after I unlocked the front door a man came in and ordered a coffee. I looked at him after I handed him a Tall drip and said “You look just like that guy from Phish.” He said “I am that guy from Phish!” I can remember the conversation so well. I said “I don’t know why I feel like I can say this to you, but I hate your band. But you are one of the greatest guitarists alive.” He said “Only two other people have ever said that to me. My best friend and my wife.” We both kinda freaked out. He asked if I was a musician. I said I was and that my band had just broken up. Phish had broken up a little while before, and he was on tour with Les Claypool. He said that when you are in a band everyone has a certain role. It is like a circle that keeps shape because everyone is holding their part of it. When one person tries to take over the role of someone else, the circle breaks. I told him that that was exactly why my band had broken up. We both freaked out again. He told me that now he was playing with other really famous people and that he was having a hard time dealing with respecting other peoples egos and making the music work. We talked for another 20 minutes or so about songwriting and music. We were finishing each others sentences and we were both totally bugged out at how much we had in common in our ways of thinking. Other customers started to come in so I said that I had to start working again. He repeated my name over and over so that he would remember it and said goodbye. I have met a whole lot of celebrities and he by far was the nicest one I have ever met. I know that if we ever meet again he will remember me. Now when I hear Phish I actually like it and feel lucky that for one Sunday morning, we found a friend in each other.