Mickey Hart hinted that there could be future Dead & Company dates at Sphere to look forward to in a recent interview on Barstool Sports‘ Pardon My Take podcast.
Hart sat down alongside ESPN senior writer Wright Thompson to chat with Bar Stool Sports personalities Big Cat and PFT Commenter about Rhythm Masters: A Mickey Hart Experience, Hart’s new documentary exploring the connection between music and sports, which premiered on ESPN and ESPN+ Wednesday night. Big Cat started the conversation with a question about the inspiration behind the film, which Hart said came from late NBA legend, noted Deadhead, and friend of the band Bill Walton:
Bill and I were good friends, and he once mentioned to me that he thought basketball was very much like a band. A basketball team and putting a ball through a hoop into a net was like string music, and I thought that was very interesting, that he saw the musicality in basketball. That started me thinking that everything in this universe is full of rhythm. Vibration is the basis of all life, and it just extends on and on, over and over—the rhythm of life, the rhythm of anything. The rhythm of the game, sports for instance, was always intriguing to me since I [was young].
He went on to reminisce about watching basketball in black and white and how he recognized the artistry in the players’ movements even as a child.
The interview continued with an enlightening discussion of the flow states common to both athletes and musicians and the history of the Grateful Dead. Hart discussed the band’s fierce independence and relentless work ethic in the early days, remembering, “We weren’t sitting around smoking dope or anything, and even if we were, we were playing, constantly.”
He compared the Dead to other pop musicians of the time, asserting that the their music has lasted because it was rooted in something more real. “All those rock stars with their jewelry and fancy hairs and all that, they fell by the wayside because it wasn’t built on the right foundations. We were built to last and I I knew that right from the beginning.”
Hart then reflected on Dead & Company’s recently completed Sphere run, saying it nourished the band.
“The Sphere was great. It was really an honor to be able to play there, and it was yet again a new experience for us, and that nourished us,” he said. “If you play, you get nourished—if you really play hard, you play like you really mean it, and we meant it. We were not kidding around.”
Big Cat, whose laptop had multiple Grateful Dead stickers, asked the question on everyone’s mind: Will there be more Sphere dates?
“Yeah, there’s no reason why there wouldn’t be. Let’s leave it at that,” Hart replied.
Watch the full interview with Mickey Hart on Pardon My Take below (starting at 01:42:21).
Pardon My Take – Mickey Hart Interview
(Video: Pardon My Take)
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