Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools on Monday posted a remembrance of the late Neal Casal, who took his own life five years ago today.
Schools first met Casal in 2014 during the recording sessions for Hard Working Americans, the eponymous debut record from the supergroup featuring Schools, his Widespread Panic bandmate Duane Trucks, troubadour Todd Snider, keyboardist Chad Staehly (Great American Taxi), and Neal. Jesse Aycock was added to the live lineup after Neal’s extensive overdubbing made clear the need for another guitarist). As the bassist said during a 2021 interview with Live For Live Music, Schools and Casal formed a bond as “studio rat brothers,” instantly establishing a relationship.
“The day Neal took himself out of this life always stings,” Schools wrote about his late Hard Working American bandmate. “I’m not sure the pain will ever really subside – it just hides behind the regular stuff of life and without warning grief emerges and shakes up my day.”
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Folks please check on your friends,” Schools continued. “And if you aren’t feeling right about life and having suicidal ideations please know there is so much opportunity to get real time help. Places like [Nuçi’s Space] and [Backline] are excellent resources.”
“There is not a day that goes by when I don’t think about Neal or listen his music or remember the good times onstage, on the bus, in record stores all over the country, and especially in the studio,” Schools continued. “I try not to think about the music that we could be creating or the waves he could be catching with his pals but it does give me a sense of peace when I think about the gifts of music and photography that are his legacy for us. … Miss you Neal.”
In the wake of Casal’s suicide, Schools helped spearhead Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal, a “five LP-headstone” for Neal. In addition to recruiting 100+ notable musicians to record Neal’s songs for the compilation, the project helped lay the groundwork for the Neal Casal Music Foundation, which aims to “inspire future musicians and bring mental health support to musicians already on the path.”
“A lot of times, people will feel these things if they’re out on the road and they feel alone and depressed, and they’re not getting anywhere, or nobody’s hearing them,” Schools said in 2021. “You name it, a depressed person is going to take that shit and put it in his basket and ruminate upon it, and dwell on it. They won’t necessarily want to share, because people will think, ‘Oh, you’re crazy.’ Or, ‘You just want attention.’ There’s a million different ways that it’s been stigmatized, but there seems to be more openness and more willing ears out there, to listen non-judgmentally, and that’s what folks need to hear.”
“They need to know that these resources are available,” Schools said, “so that when they’re in trouble, in their head out there on the road, and it does… it feels like you’re floating in a dark sea, or that you’re orbiting way out on the edge of the known universe, just tapping on the window, looking in… and it can be the most difficult thing to reach out from that feeling and seek some help.”
Schools and Widespread Panic recently canceled the remainder of their scheduled 2024 tour dates as guitarist Jimmy Herring receives cancer treatment. For more information on the Widespread Panic concert cancellations, head here.
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