WSP’s Sunny Ortiz: “Music that Makes the Body and Soul Think And Move at the Same Time”

Sunny Ortiz, ever exuberant, Texas-born percussionist in Widespread Panic (WSP) since its earliest days in Athens, GA, recently had a wide-ranging conversation with No Depression that amounts to a WSP opus. One of the country’s most in-demand bands, Widespread Panic has sold over 3 million albums and holds the record for sold-out performances at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre (48). Ortiz and the band are currently barnstorming the country on their 30^th Anniversary Tour.

Sunny:  Life on the Road, In Manholes, Family, Creativity, “Writing Your Own Book” on Stage, Their Music “Raw, but Refined,” & “Music, a Second Home”

The 7,500 -word discussion covers: the economics of ticket sales, the importance of fans and fan loyalty, community citizenship, the recording process, the band’s business model, importance of family, staying vital through the years of aging, life on the road, love of fellow musicians and crew, importance of improvisation, and the process of songwriting.

Ortiz also discusses their latest album, Street Dogs, the question of when do rock and roll bands call it quits, life in Athens back in the day with creative types the likes of Billy Bob Thornton, Angelina Jolie, and cult favorite Vic Chesnutt, and  many more WSP topics. Sunny covers a waterfront of musical history through his distinctive analysis and passionate expression.

No Depression:  Is it true that you guys are not putting a hold on touring after 30 years? One report seemed to indicate this would be your last tour, but it seemed so unlikely!

Sunny Ortiz:  Yes, we will still tour, but we’re taking less amount of shows next year. I think it kind of balances out because, again, there’s a boatload of great entertainment out there, and it’s tough to be competitive with all that.  Ticket prices have risen.  Venues are charging all these astronomical fees: for parking, for staffing, for huge amounts, you know. 

I was just talking about it with a friend of mine this morning, going, I wish the days would come back to when it was just one flat fee that covered everything, you know.  Whether it be 60 bucks or whether it be 80 bucks, and that includes the fees.  Everything. You know, it’s tough.  And, it’s tough for our fans.  In that entity, it’s tough for the consumer, you know, like I said, that has to make all these plans. 

So, they have a lot of choices and yet higher costs?

That mighty dollar unfortunately doesn’t go as far as it did back in ’86 when we first started this little venture, you know.  And, I have to be honest with you, we have to not only think of ourselves anymore, but we also have a staff that we keep on board, insurance, health insurance, you know. 

So for us to say that we’re going to not tour, I think it was — I think we need to expand on that and say, yeah, we’ve got to tour.  We have to sustain ourselves.  It’s what we’ve been doing for the past 30 years is touring.  We’re not just going to just — we’re not at the point of our lives and our careers to where we can take five or six years off. 

I mean, you know, I have to be realistic and say if we were ever to do that, I’m like 63.  I’m going to be 64 in July.  If we were to take any extensive amount of time off, you know, do I want to come back?

Do you see an end point?

Do I want to be like everybody else that says, okay, well, the band’s going to quit, such as String Cheese, such as Grateful Dead, Phish.  And then all of the sudden, miraculously, you want to make a comeback two years later. 

Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to the fans.  If you’re going to say you’re not going to tour, don’t tour.  If you say you’re going to do shows, then say, you know, we’re going to do a smaller amount of shows next year.  Come out and — but I think, you know, and I think that’s what the article says. (He refers here to a recent article that some felt indicated WSP would no longer tour.)

I think when JoJo mentioned that, you almost have to read a little bit more and say we’re not going to tour this much.  We are going to tour, you know, but we’re not going to tour as much.  So I hope that kind of sets the tone for that little article.

Were your fans upset, worried?

Oh, yeah. And it certainly is nice to know that we have that much of a fan base that actually care, are concerned.  And the thing is that, and I understand, the thing is that when you hear something like, your mind just starts to reflect on number one, the first time you heard the band, you know, all the years, what you’ve been through, what the band’s been through, you know, together.  So you start to reflect, and you’re going like, no, it can’t end. 

And I think we as band members feel the same way.  We’re not going to just come out from our back pockets and say, you know, we’re not going to tour.  But, you know, we need to finish the statement and say we are going to tour, but we’re not going to do as many shows as we did, as we are doing this year.

Eventually, it’s inevitable, as in every rock-and- roll band, that it has to come to that period.  Come to that red light to where you do have to make a decision.  But right now, you know, I think we’re all having good enough times to not want to cease, you know.  So, there, yeah.

You guys are getting to be of an age, how do you keep going night after night?

I think it’s important to always keep those candles burning to where you don’t lose focus on your priorities.

Music to us is — I’m not going to say it’s a hobby, but it’s something that runs parallel to our personal and private lives, you know.  It’s a big factor.  At the very beginning, we never did think that it was going to be in the small magnitude that it has developed now. 

So, you know, this is kind of — the music entity is kind of like a second home to us because when we’re out here on the road, we’re totally focused on the music and the comradery that we have amongst each other, plus the 30 other personnel that travel with us when we’re on the road.  And, it’s a whole different lifestyle.  And then, you get home and you realize, oh, this is where it all begins, right here. 

The home front is a crucial part of that extension of music.  So we feel very blessed that we have families that are supportive and understand what we do night after night is the livelihood of that six-headed monster.

I believe you taped another appearance on Austin City Limits recently. Is that right? 

Well, we were in Austin last weekend.  We did a three-night run.  And I think what it was, I think it was just one song for their culmination of other artists.  Every once in a while, they pick randomly bands, and then they may have 12 or 15 bands that they pick and then they shoot one song out of one night and put it all together and have a best of the best.

So I think that that’s what transpired out of this video shoot that they had Sunday —- if I’m not mistaken.  You know, it’s all high-tech now. There at Moody Theater is a great building with all the facilities available to mankind.  And, you know, it was one of those things to where we were even honored that they would even consider us as being a band to put on a culmination video that they’re, you know, making for eventual release.

So yeah, you know, being from Texas, I used to watch Austin City Limits every Sunday andthen it came on in Austin.  Performed in it a couple of times.  So yeah, it’s a great training tool.

Different subject.  You sponsored a house in the Ninth ward (New Orleans) after Katrina. Is that something that’s — how’s that going?

Well, I’m proud to say it’s still standing, you know.

Good!

And people are actually living in it.  And, you know, that was an awesome thingfor the Make It Right program to start-up.  And, we have, as you know or may not know, we love the New Orleans area. We’ve been playing in that city since the early, early years.  I remember doing fraternities, sorority parties, there before we even got the recognition to — or before we got theinvitation to play Tipitina’s, which was an awesome, awesome thrill for us. 

And then, we just worked our way up the ladder so to speak.  So, yeah, you know, the Make It Right program and the Ninth Ward, you know, hold dear to our hearts.

Any other New Orleans efforts?

Whenever we play in the New Orleans area, you know, we try to — or JoJo (keyboardist JoJo Hermann) sets up the little side projects to set up the musicians there, so to speak, that have suffered since Katrina, and, you know, just for some reason just can’t get back on their feet again.

So we sometimes do a little project with a whole bunch of other musicians who help us withthat fundraiser.  But, yeah, the house is an awesome house.  In situations like that, unfortunately, it takes awhile, kind of, for everything to get rebuilt.  We hope that people continue to still donate to the Make It Right foundation.

Back to Music. How would you describe your latest album Street Dogs?  Is it different in significant ways from earlier records?

Recording-wise, no.  Street Dogs is not different than any other except that we did it in Asheville, Echo Mountain.  It was recorded in the same process that we record almost every album that we’re with John King.  It took a little while to get out because of our touring schedule. 

I remember we did pre-production two years ago and had to leave it alone because we had to go out on tour.  And then, we had just done New Year’s Eve in Atlanta, and I remember we had to pack up — our crew had to pack up, I should say, and get us to Echo Mountain to start doing the actual recording the following year.  So in that sense it was different, but it was done with the same process that we always do. 

We work on songs, you know, we reshape them a little bit and kind of tweak them out, and weactually go to the studio.  Whereas this one, we had a year to kind of tweak them out,whichwas different, because usually, you know, we just go into the studio with nothing in our hands except for our guitars and drumsticks.

But you prefer the live recordings would you say?

Yeah.  That’s the whole process that John King likes to capture.  We’ll go in — whereas most bands would do a basic track of drums, bass, and guitar or drums, bass, and keyboards, and then work on top of that. 

We always go into the studio, full band, into one big row and lay down the rhythm tracks andthen go back in and doctor it up.  Doll it up.  First all of — or, you know, add on what we add on. That’s usually how the process goes for us. 

Some bands have funds to bring a product out.  I think for us, you know, since our days arelimited because we’re touring, or because we have other entities out, we try to knock it out in, you know, four-to-six weeks.

So big question:  What’s kept you guys together as a group for such a long period to be celebrating your 30th anniversary now?

Well, I think, in my humble opinion, I think it’s just what we talked about earlier in theconversation –

Oh, right.  Right.

 — and that’s that we know when that time is coming up to where we need to recharge ourbatteries.  I think most bands — and I have to admit, we’re not like most bands.  We kind of conform to our personal time.  What I mean by that is that we tour extensively. 

We don’t depend on, obviously, sales from iTunes and sales from radio hits and Top 40-charted songs.  We don’t play in major stadiums and packed houses and, you know, reap the benefits from that.  We sustain ourselves solely by touring. 

And so, with that in mind, again, we just can’t play 200-plus days a year anymore, you know, because, number one, you’ll saturate markets, and you’ll run out of markets to perform in.

Audiences have choices, right?

People can, you know, I’m not going to say, finicky, but they have the right to pick and choosewho they want to go see on a weekend basis.  And, not every day’s a weekend.  You got to fill in those Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday dates in order to get to those Friday, Saturday,and Sunday shows.  So, I think, you know, we know our limitations after all these years.  We know our fans’ limitations. 

And, that’s the tough part of saying, you know, what we said, that we’re going to play less amount of dates next year.  And we have to be perfectly honest with ourselves.  We see – we look out in the audience, and I think what’s kind of deceiving to the public is that you might play at an awesome venue, but the bottom line is that if you don’t sell the tickets to pack that venue out, the chances of you going back to that venue are slim because the promoter just doesn’t want to take a bath, so to speak. 

The promoter says well, you know, I had you guys at a bigger venue, and we sold half the  house.  So, you know, he’s out, you know, to make his nut. Whereas, like for us, all we want to do is play, or so we’ve conceptualized since I’ve been in the band in ’86.  We just want to play.We just want people to hear our music. 

It’s not our fault that the promoter puts us at the wrong venue, and then, you know, he’s taking a bath, and then they don’t want to book us anymore.  That’s just the world that we live in, us,Widespread Panic.

Is it the same for all bands?

Maybe not for all bands, but that’s what it is in a nutshell.  So I like the hopscotching idea. And, what I mean by that is we play X amount of shows one year.  And, then the next year, we evaluate what we do that following year. And, if markets are not what we want, you know, then we have to ask ourselves, is it worth going back and doing 200 shows compared to 60 shows that are awesome, you know. So, yeah, I think that’s what kind of keeps up the vitality and makes the composition of newsongs lively is that, you know, we’ll likely take some time off and enjoy the time that we have.

Recharging your batteries?

Recharge our batteries and come up with new ideas.  And trust me, even after 30 years, it’s stillrefreshing every time we start a tour, to get back and hug your buddies.  Jump on that 40-foot-of-love bus that you travel down the road in 60 days out of the year.  So, it’s still a treat for us.  It is, and it always will be.  And there’s nothing like it.  There’s really nothing like it.

Wow, yeah.  Sounds like it. You talked about, relatedly, you talked about the importance of family and doing the different family events and gatherings.  What are some of the other things you like to do when you’re not playing?  You mentioned golf earlier.

Yeah!

… your passions?

I love to play golf, but in my spare time, and I’m sure everyone will say this in the band, what they like to do in their spare time is go down to their manhole or man cave, whatever they want to call it, and just play music.

I’ll be darned!

I think that’s a passion that all of us, each and every one of us, and I can say that honestly,that we enjoy doing the most.  That, you know, even though we’re on a break or we have a couple of days off, all of us are in our hotel room or in our man cave just throwing out ideas, just recording ideas. 

That’s what keeps it so fresh and alive.  And, it’s just an extension of us at this stage of our lives, and that’s the beauty of it.  Because we know, as in everything, we know that eventually it’s going to come to an end.  But we don’t want it to end.  I don’t think any of us want it to end. 

No burn out?

I think we want — unfortunately, I think we have to come to the realization again that we can’tover-saturate ourselves, because then we’ll burn ourselves out, burn our fans out.  The promoters won’t want to take a chance on us like most promoters do and have done for all these years.  Especially, in the early years.

I can only say that there’s only a handful of promoters that have been with us at in thebeginning that are currently with us now, you know, that have stuck with us through the end, atleast through this phase of our lives after 30 years.  There’s only a handful.  The rest of them have either said, you know, I’m going to make some real money with Kenny Chesney or whoever, you know.

The big corporate people have done their thing, and they’re successful, and more power to them, but, we just don’t fit their persona.

How would you describe the band?  There’s so many ways that people look at the music you do, the style of music.  How would you place it within the broad spectrum of — of course, there’s rock-and- roll, but blues, jazz, jam band, southern rock?  Do you have any way you characterize it yourself genre-wise?

Well, genre-wise, it’s always tough because we tend to do so many things.  We have six individuals that come from six different backgrounds that listen to six different types of music when they’re in the confines of their home or their hotel room or their man cave, so it’s reallytough to categorize it. 

I know most of the media has categorized us in a certain category.  And I don’t want tomention it, but, you know, if I could define our music, I would have to say it’s raw but yet refined.  A music that really makes the body and the soul think and move at the same time. So, if there was a “pick category”, that’s how I would categorize it.

That’s cool! What’s the significance of improvisation in your work as a whole?

Well, you know, it’s like writing a book.  Each of us, you know, writes our own book when we’re up on stage.  There’s — and I hate to use this simulation, but it’s just like every book has a hard cover, and every book has a forward, and every book has a first chapter.  And, the author dictates on how — on what road you’re going to travel. 

And I look at it for us as a book, but each of us has a different chapter in the book to where wecan put in our own two cents, so to speak, and find that we’re all speaking the same language. We’re all speaking from the same foundation of our music.  Does that make sense?

Sure.  Cool. 

Of all things, I’ve read that your business model has been touted by The Wall Street Journal and Fortune and other institutions. How do you handle the structure of your business as it were?

For us, you know, we talk about the structure of how we make albums.  Everything that we receive whether it’s from a record company or private individual, it always goes into the product.We never ask for advances, you know.  We never ask for — go play for candy bars or anythinglike that.  It’s always into whatever product we’re trying to manufacture, to produce, and torecord.  And, you know, nowadays you can achieve that in so many ways without a privatedonor or record company.

It’s just a matter of how many people are going to tap into it.  How many people who actuallypurchase it on iTunes or nugs.net (where fans can buy downloads or CDs  of each WSP concert) or what’s happened to your stream of the show.  It’s a new phase for our tenure here. 

There’s no more vinyl {it has appeared}. And yet, we’re proud of ourselves to where when we distribute a CD, we try to manufacture a certain amount of albums, because we know that it’scoming back.  Vinyl’s are coming back, and it’s awesome.

But, you know, when you have a limited budget, it’s just tough to kind of conquer that end of it.  You can’t have it all.  You’ve got to pick — at least for us, we’ve grown accustomed to believe that we can’t have it all.  We have to pick and choose.  We always want to pick – always, always, always want to pick what’s a fan-friendly environment.

What’s a fan-friendly situation?  Whether it amounts to ticket pricing or camping for the fansor bathroom facilities.  How easy is it for the fans to get to where we are?  That’s always beena big priority in our organization, which I’m proud to say.

I think it’s a big question:  What’s your songwriting process as a band?

Our songwriting process is we come up with individual ideas and we present them and then weall embellish it.  Sometimes JoJo has lyrics for some of his songs that he brings in.  But the majority of the time, they come without lyrics.  They’re all rhythm melodies, rhythm ideas,chordal ideas.  And then, you know, with anything, a lot of things happen.  JB (founding member, guitarist, and principal vocalist John Bell) sometimes comes up with some great lyrics. 

I remember one time in the studio, we would come up with — everybody would write a line.  Aline would be started, and we would pass the book around, and everybody would add a line to whatever the line was before.  That was in the early days.  Those were fun.

Just like naming album titles.  We would throw up a sheet of paper in the studio — going into the studio, we would come up with different ideas and different names for the album.  All that’s fun, and it’s hilarious at times.  It’s just part of guys being guys.  Still having fun.  Still laughing at the same times.  It’s unique. 

It’s like our own little fraternity, and so, you know, we’ve mustered through a lot and probablymustered through a lot more for the longevity of this band.  But the music kind of speaks for itself.  It’s kind of unique.  And like I said, it’s raw but yet, still refined in its own way.

Yeah, yeah!  Cool.  Who are some of your musical influences, and who are you listening to now?

I grew up in Texas, so I listened to a boatload of Tex-Mex music.  When I was growing up,You know, my first touch with — another genre was R&B. 

I remember when I was, I guess, a sophomore, maybe a junior, in high school, I went to myvery first real concert, it was James Brown and the Famous Flames.  It was The James Brown Review back then.  And, I thought it was awesome.

I saw Bootsy Collins.  Maceo, and others, all up on the same stage in the late ‘60s and was amazed.  Was floored.  I remember when the Beatles came out.  I remember being the president of the Waco, TX, Beatles Fan Club. I remember A Hard Day’s Night, watching it for like a buck-twenty-five on a Saturday.  Just floored, you know.

And then, as I got older, you know, I was playing drums at the time, so I was all into the Latin music.  But I couldn’t get any jobs, so I switched over to hand percussion in 1971, and Ijust started — the flood gates just opened up with opportunities.  So, you know, a lot of salsa music, a lot of  Latin music.

Right now, I’m all into teaching videos.  And right now, I’m watching a lot of Giovanni Hidalgo who is an extremely awesome percussion player that I respect and I admire.  So I’m watching a lot of his techniques, a lot of his teaching videos.

So, you’re still learning? 

Oh, yeah.  You’re never too old to learn.  You always want to add fire to your pit so to speak.You always want to add wood to the fire.  You never want to stop. But, right now, I’ve listened to tons of Latin music, Fania All Stars, a lot of Tito Puente, a lot of Ray Barretto.  I listen to some of the early stuff from Santana, and some of his later.  I just downloaded his latest album yesterday. And, so, yeah, some of my side projects in Austin, I do this Santana tribute.  I do this Young Rascals tribute band.  I’m into Frank Sinatra.  And, it’s just pretty broad, you know.

Going back to the realm of the songwriting for a minute.  How would you describe the content of your songs lyrically?  Is it, like, in terms of the different elements, is it humor?  narrative?  philosophy?  emotional connections? 

I think it’s a little bit of everything.  I think JB tries to incorporate all those aspects.  Most of it, like I said, is just stuff that we go through on a daily basis.  Our personal lives, you know, and there again, we’ve had a couple of songs:  Postcard for one and C. Brown for another that are ideas from old and dear friends of ours, you know, that send us lyrics on a postcard, so we named one Postcard:  “This town (Telluride, CO) is nuts, you know, my kind of place.  I don’t ever want to leave.”

C. Brown was written by a dear friend of ours who knows the struggles of being an outcast, or being a person that may be a little different than others, you know.  So, it’s (songwriting) a process that’s always open.  It’s a process that there’s — nothing is etched in stone.  And we all respect and admire and love one another in a very special way.  That being our friends or being someone in our organization.

The world’s not perfect.  We learned that a long time ago.  But we’re trying to make it that way, but as well as for everybody else in the music that we generate.  It’s a great outlet.

That’s great. It sounds like you guys have been pretty consistent as a band.  Are there any big changes you can think of over the years in the band?  How you approach the music or any –

Well, we wear bigger-sized pants, let me tell you, and our shirts have gotten bigger.  And,we’re losing lots more hair.

I know the feeling.

There’s always going to be changes.  I think the thing that we have to remember is that, alongwith changes, there’s growth, whether it’s personal growth or psychological growth.  There’s alearning curve in everything that us as adults, because that’s what we are now.  We’re not in our 20’s anymore.  We have responsibility.  We have, again, we have families.  We have lives outside of the music.  And, I think that’s the part that keeps us grounded is that music is not the only substance that we have. 

We haven’t seen it all.  We want to see more.  There are places that we want to go physically that we haven’t gone yet.  We still have a lot of road to cover.  But we still find ourselves veryblessed and fortunate that we’ve gotten to where we are.

Speaking of acting like adults, what do you think of what’s going on in the presidential race; the primary, Trump, and so forth?

Well, it’s a right.  It’s a right that everybody has, you know.  I think it’s — I’m torn, like no matter who wins, it’s not going to affect any of us.  I think it definitely is a privilege being able to vote for someone. 

I think they should join a rock- and- roll band.  I think all of them should start their own band and see what the real world is like, you know.

Yeah.

And, you know, in my opinion, honesty has always been the best policy.  If you can’t be honest with the media, then they’re going to keep wondering “Well, what did he mean by that?”  Or,“What are his actual intentions?”  You might as well just come out with it and speak how youwant to speak and be honest. 

Because the media, for what it’s worth, can be your brother, or it can be your worst nemesis.  And so, you might as well just take full advantage of reaching the masses in whatever way youwant to.  Be it iTunes, Nugs.net, or Clarion in Mississippi (The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson) or,you  know, the local American –or what is it called —The Chronicle in Austin, TX (The Austin Chronicle).  You have that opportunity, use it.

I’m all for it.  It’s tough.  It’s a tough thing to do.  I mean, you’re talking mega amounts of responsibility.  And, but yet, you still have to look at yourself in the mirror every day, you know, whether you’re shaving your armpits or shaving your face.

Do you think it would be easier or harder for a group starting out as a band today as opposed to 30 years ago?

I think it’s harder to work.  I think you really have to have a group of people nowadays that are tapped into the technology that’s available to you now.

I tell up-and-coming artists — they say, like, you know, how do I get my song to Sony Records,or Atlantic Records?  And I’m like, dude, you know, just shoot it yourself with phone and just put it out there on Facebook, and see how many hits you get.

If you get enough hits, you know, then get a website together, and just kind of go through the process of seeing how many people like your stuff, you know.  And, nowadays, in myopinion, I think the real gratitude, gratification you get is by selling your songs.

I think if you write a hit, you can sell that sucker to anybody you want to and let them goout and work it, and you’re sitting back at home watching golf or watching whatever, youknow, bringing in the royalty checks, you know.  Or, changing a diaper, you know.

But, if you want to pursue the music end, then it’s a lifelong career.  You’re devoting a hugechunk of your life into, you know, performing and to going out there and hitting the road. If you want to play with a group of people, then you have to pick and choose who you’re going to get to play with.  I mean, who’s going to be in your band.  And, then, you know,you’ve got to get some people to manage you, and then you’ve got to get an accountant.You’ve got to get a lawyer.  And, make sure when you do all this, you get people that onlywork for you. 

But publishing’s where it’s at in my opinion.

I see.  Okay, another topic – Now, people can buy your concerts online; is that right?

You know, I don’t know. (You can still buy all WSP concerts on-line at livewidespreadpanic.com)

Okay.

I was talking to my very dear friend this morning about that.  And one of the things that they were very disappointed in was how hard it is to get tickets to some of our shows because — and I’ll use this as an example:  Red Rocks.

Yeah?

Ticket Master.  You know, you can wait online and get kicked off, and then in the next minute tickets are gone.  So it’s a sad situation.  And, I understand, you know, but thenyou’ve got, you know, and I have to speak this.  I have to say this:  You got people working for brokers that all they do is get paid by the broker to plug up the lines, buy the tickets.

You know, that’s entrepreneurship.  Call it what you want.  But, you know, you’re cuttingout the family that’s been coming to every Red Rocks show for the past five years, and theyneed five tickets for just one show, but you got brokers plugging up the system, buying up all the tickets, and then charging their ridiculous costs.  You know, getting the tickets, so it’s unfair.

So, those are the kinds of things the system, you know, is deceiving itself to where we’re not — and when I say “we” you know, Widespread Panic.  We’re not receiving any of those residuals.  The broker is, you know, making all this cash and holding all the tickets, and,you know.  It’s unfair, but there’s nothing we can do about it.

But, you’ve tried?

We tried it by selling our own tickets, but Ticket Master and the venues started getting uptight, because we weren’t charging our mail order tickets — I should say we weren’t charging our mail order entries the service charge.  And, you know, that’s a huge chunk of change to these venues, the service charge. 

Think about it, you know.  So, something’s got to change.  I’m all for doing it ourselves, but,you know, we tried it for several years, and finally Ticket Master was going, oh, you know, no more.  We’re losing money.

And that’s why I said earlier, let’s just charge a flat rate, whether it’s going to be 60 bucks, or80 bucks, then let 80 bucks be it — and don’t even mention anything about parking fees and camping fees and reservation fees and bathroom fees.  I mean, all that other crap, you know.  Put it as one price.  Say, this is it.  I don’t want to know about fees, you know. 

I mean, look at these acts that are out there right now, you know, charging 150 bucks for nose-bleeding.  But, yet, you got some people paying $1,500 for pit tickets.  And, they’re playing major stadiums or major arenas.  Come on, you know.  Let’s kind of be practical,you know.  That’s the part that’s upsetting.  And, maybe upsetting is not the word.  That’skind of mind-boggling, you know, that people are actually paying that much to see some of these acts.

Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, I’m going, like, they must have a huge overhead.

Sunny, your name, how long have you had the name Sunny?  And how did that comeabout?  Is it referenced to your disposition?  (Ortiz’s given name is Domingo Ortiz.)

Well, you know, Sunny was a nickname I acquired when I was a junior in high school because everybody got tired of calling me Steve.  I had a great disposition.  I smiled a lotback then.  I didn’t have as many gray hairs, that’s for sure.  And, so, yeah.  I’ve acquiredthat nickname when I was a junior in high school.

I see.  And, where are you all based now?  Are you in proximity to your homes?

None of us are in the same place more than a minute, so yeah.  You know, Athens has always been our home base.  We are all just like the name.  We are “wide spread,” you know, across the southeast.  There’s a couple of us that live in the Midwest.  A couple of us live on the West Coast, so –

Oh, wow!

— we’re all scattered.  That’s why I say we’re never — we finish a tour, we usually don’t,you know, write to each other, email to each other unless management says, oh, we need toget together.  And, nowadays, you do that in just a matter of seconds. 

And, it’s always a reunion when we get back together again for each tour whether it’s 20days or two months that we’re apart.  You know what I mean?  Things happen.  Again, we charge up batteries.  Everybody’s fresh.  Everybody’s excited, you know.  And, so, it’s like a reunion.

Okay.  Good.  Yeah, that’s surprising. Speaking of Athens, a favorite of mine is Vic Chesnutt (Chesnutt, legendary, eccentric, quadriplegic, and at times brilliant singer-songwriter, now passed-away, was from Athens).  I understand that you guys did some collaborating with him early on.

Yeah.  Vic Chesnutt was a very close personal friend of ours.  We did a couple of songs by him.  I remember John King was the first one to introduce us to Vic.  And, Mickey took a special liking to Vic.  And, then, you know, Mickey did a project with Vic, and then,you know, which later opened up the doors for the rest of us.  So, yeah.  I think JoJo  has done a documentary on Vic, which has yet to be released.  Yeah, Vic holds a special place in our hearts.  We did a video with him, Aunt Avis,with him, Billy Bob (Thornton), and Laura Dern.  So,yeah. 

How do you get a hold of it to see that video? Is that available somehow? I’d love to see it.

I don’t know. I don’t think it’s available.  I think it’s one of those put on the back shelf.   Ouroffice may have a copy though, and they may turn you onto a link. But I mean, I would Google Vic Chesnutt and Widespread Panic and Aunt Avis. (The video, with up-dating commentary by WSP band members, can be found through on-line search for “Aunt Avis” video.) And, it was done in Billy Bob’s backyard inArkansas.  It was done at his cousin’s barn by a whole bunch of friends of Billy Bob, and, of course, this is with Billy Bob Thornton, who was dating Laura Dern, so it was quite interesting, to say the least.

OK, thanks, by the way, it seems like you never hear, after his passing and all, but you never hear of Vic Chesnutt any more, or his music.  I think that’s a shame.  But —

Yeah, it is.  But it’s a — he’s a cultish kind of guy.

Yeah, yeah.

You know.  I think had he been with us, he probably would have received — what is it? –that big award that they do in DC for songwriters?  He probably would have won an awardfor songwriting because of his songwriting potential.  But, yeah, we’ve lost a few.

Billy Bob Thornton.  I meant to ask you, he did a movie about performances you did there in Athens; is that right?

Yeah, Live at the Georgia Theater.  He did an hour-and-a-half video with us in the early,early years.  Awesome individual.  He was managed by Capricorn Records.  Well, actually by Phil Walden.  That’s how we all connected.

I see. 

And it’s said, even though I don’t know how much of it is true, that Angelina Joliewas in our very first video when she was just 18 years old.  I don’t know.  I don’t know. That’s another one that’s in the archives, of her picture on that Everyday album.  (album available through most music outlets).

I’ll be darned.  Wow!

Yeah.  That’s what people are saying.  And, Billy Bob even says, yeah, I met this 18-19year-old lady that I’ve been shooting video with, and she’s on the cover.  And, we said, cool. And, we didn’t think anything of it.  So, you’ll have to look at that album cover, Everyday.

Okay.  Do you still follow the process that you never play the same show twice?  And I, as I read about it, it seemed kind of an elaborate process you have of how you determine your set list each evening and how you record it; is that right?

Yeah, we still never — every four days, we always come up with new material, songs that don’t repeat.  That’s what we’re working on right now. 

We stream every show, or every show the venue allows us to stream.  So, yeah, you know. And, as far as the tapers, now it’s not tapers.  Now, it’s high-tech whatever it is that they put out.  We stream our shows, but then we do allow taping at our shows.  It’s not called taping anymore.  I don’t know what it’s called.

That answered another question.  But, going back to your beginnings again, how did you initially join the band?

Me?

Yeah.  Back at the early days, were you —

I’d just driven in from Texas, and these boys were playing at the Uptown Lounge in Athens,GA, and I asked if I could sit in.  And, they said, well, can you play?  I’m, like, I don’t know, you know, that’s for you to decide.  I think I can play.  And, so, I sat in with them, and they offered me a job right there.

Wow.  Wow!         Do you ever join in on any of the vocals?

Occasionally I do, but I’m just so busy playing the shaker, playing congas, playing the cowbell.  It’s just a lot of movement for me to join in the vocals.

I have sung on Mikey Houser’s projects on the albums that I did with him before he passed.

Do you think of your work as kind of providing percussive foundation for the music,or driving along the rhythms, or punctuating the melody, or all of those things, or any?

I think a true percussion player thinks of himself as an art director to where he adds – or, at least, I add color to individual songs, to each different song.  I tell everybody I’m kind of like the sour cream on a baked potato.  It’s something that you don’t have to have, but yet, if you do use sour cream on it, you kind of put a different twist to it, you know.

Going back for a minute to community before we finish, I had another question about your work in the communities. We talked about the house in New Orleans in the Ninth Ward.  I know you do a number of charitable causes, even food drives, I believe, and that you donate recordings to charitable causes – what’s the importance for you to do that?

Well, you always want to give back to the community, you know, that needs the assistance. A food bank is a worthy cause to where I think almost every town that we play at has a food bank.  Personally, I think, you know, it’s a great cause, and that’s the spearhead of some of our fans that saw a need for helping others. 

We do the Tunes for Tots, you know, to where we donate a special show to a school that’s in need of whatever; musical instruments, computers, uniforms, because — and we started Tunes for Tots because, as you probably know, some states have not funded-out — have not funded-out the arts; music, arts programs, and physical education.  And so, you know, it’s just a small portion of the help that they need.  But, we certainly don’t do it for any kind of recognition, except for the recognition that we know that we did it

Sounds good!  Finally, I was just curious what your Halloween concerts are like.  You did Jackass-O-Lantern, and apparently you do special shows when you play at Halloween?

Well, Halloween, you know, we’re still young at heart.  Kids at heart.  We dress up.  We get the stage dressed up.  It’s a circus.  So, yeah, you know, Halloween is Halloween.  We make the best of it.  Our fans go overboard sometimes, but, you know, it’s Halloween. 

All I can say is, if you ever get the chance to come to a Halloween show, you definitelyshould take advantage of it, because it certainly is one, big, happy family — happy circus family, I’ll say.

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