Grateful Dad & Friends
Welcome to Grateful Dad & Friends! GD&F is a series of conversations with host and lifelong music lover, Andy Staib, and his closest friends touching on the common threads that bond them together - namely their shared love of music, family, friends, and life. The show was born from the notion that music helps keep us all connected throughout our collective long strange trip. We all have a story to tell. Here are a few of those stories. Join us and see where the energy takes us!
Grateful Dad & Friends
My Friend of the Devil, Tommy Mills
To kick off Season 3, I’m joined by lifelong friend and fellow Deadhead, Tommy Mills, with a special cameo by his better half, Ms Karin Mills. Karin proved to be an integral part of my conversation with her husband in that she served as “fact checker” for the tales being told, and I’m proud to report that Karin confirmed that all but one of the reported antics were, in fact, accurate. Well done Karin!
Similar to two of my previous guests, Doug “Pops” Smith and Rob “Monkey Man” Diestel, Tommy and I share a brotherly bond having spent our summers on the shores of Lake Champlain at a nearly magical “club” on the New York side of the lake known as Corlear Bay Club in the sleepy rural town of Keeseville.
Tommy shares his earliest memories at CBC and he also reveals how he opted to sacrifice a few trips to the lake and instead “got on the bus” in the early 80’s and traveled the country following the Dead. He recalls how he and his band of Deadhead brothers supported themselves on tour by selling PB&J sandwiches, pineapple kabobs, and ice cold ½ oranges from the back of their VW Golf.
He surprises us by admitting that his first love of Grateful Dead music came with the release of the album, Shakedown Street, but it wasn’t the heavy hitters like Fire on the Mountain or the album’s namesake that hooked him. It was….FRANCE. Go figure. He then widens our musical lens by introducing us to the likes of Donny Hathaway, and George Michael. Yup, that George Michael.
Finally, Tommy and Karin give us a peek behind the curtain as to what their three beautiful young adult “children” - Delilah, August and Avery - are doing in their 20’s, how the empty nest is treating them both and what love music they seek out today.
Join us, and let’s see where the energy takes us! #IFE #lovemyfriendofthedevil #loveourfactchecker
https://music.apple.com/us/album/truckin/663694969?i=663694987
https://music.apple.com/us/album/france/663672224?i=663672834
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-ghetto-live/537033638?i=537033644
https://music.apple.com/us/album/friend-of-the-devil/663694969?i=663695014