Blender’s Heat-Seeking, Sweat-Dripping, Pool-Hopping Summer Music Blowout

Dave Matthews
Onstage electro­cution! Tick attacks! Glandular issues! The roots-rock phenom has survived them all.

Where are you, and what can you see?
I’m in Seattle, lying in my bed. It’s a sunken room, so I can see the tops of fences and houses out the window.

What gets too hot to touch onstage?
Me. I’m sweating like a racehorse. I’m disgusting. I think I have some overactive glandular headquarters.

Why should we leave our air-conditioned McMansion to come see you play this summer?
By coming to one of our shows, you won’t resign yourself to a life of mediocrity. You’ll still reserve the right to say you dislike us—you can dislike us anew.

What’s the worst thing ever thrown at you onstage?
A glass. But the most impressive thing that ever hit me was years ago at a music festival in Germany, where there was an errant wire in the microphone. I was hit in the face with electricity—it felt like someone was punching me from inside my mouth.

What’s your favorite alias for checking into hotels?
Stinky Pinky was a fun one. My new one is Bugh Zabunny.

We’re going to a nude beach. Are you coming with us?
I’ve been to many, but I don’t know if I’d rush off there right now. This is not the very best of me, this vessel.

What’s the longest you’ve gone without showering?
A little more than a week. When I was in my 20s, I found a fat, grape-sized tick had taken up residence on my head! It was then that I began to think that cleanliness is close to godliness.

Do you have a guy who carries your weed for you on tour?
There’s always weed. It’d be harder to find a place where there wasn’t weed. It’d be harder to find a place where there wasn’t good weed than it would be … to find a place … um, what was I saying?

Dave Matthews Band is on tour this summer, debuting new songs from an upcoming album.