![]() His family moved from Davenport, Iowa to the Chicago suburbs right before high school. “I was studying and learning how to repair audio and digital electronics at, like, 10 years old. It was the early Eighties by this point, and he was a brainy, Stranger Things-esque kid completely consumed by Dungeons and Dragons, science fiction movies, and tabletop strategy games. ![]() He began playing the violin, and weekly visits to church at the behest of his stepmother taught him a lot about complex vocal harmonizations. “And they asked, ‘Is this note higher or lower or the same as the first?’ I scored really well.” “They played us this record,” he remembers. In fourth grade, instructors came into his class to give auditory hearing tests. He was also drawn to string instruments after watching a babysitter practice the cello. Not long afterwards, he grew entranced by Beatles records and the original Star Wars soundtrack. I felt like I was learning a new secret language. “I basically taught myself the rudiments of reading music from this kid’s toy. “I have kind of autodidactic tendencies,” he says. ![]() Kadlecik’s excitement for music goes back to his early childhood, when he was given a color-coded xylophone with a little book of instructions. And if you ask many die-hard Deadheads, they’ll say that was the closest anyone ever came to recreating the magic of an actual Grateful Dead concert after 1995. In 2009, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir formed Furthur and invited Kadlecik into the fold. The singer-guitarist followed the Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band all across America in the late Eighties and early Nineties, and logged 12 years as the leader of the premier tribute band Dark Star Orchestra. Each of them brought something unique to the mix, but none of them managed to play Garcia’s parts with quite the same technical precision and stunning virtuosity as John Kadlecik. In the years following Jerry Garcia’s death, the surviving members of the Grateful Dead have worked with many incredible musicians who attempted to fill the enormous gap he left behind - including Trey Anastasio, John Mayer, Warren Haynes, Jimmy Herring, and Steve Kimock. This edition features former Furthur singer John Kadlecik. In the end, however, they all found out that replacement singers can themselves be replaced. Some of them stayed in their bands for years, while others lasted just a few months. ![]() Rolling Stone ‘s interview series King for a Day features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and singers who had the difficult job of fronting major rock bands after the departure of an iconic vocalist. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |