Matthews performs his first show in Asheville

December 22nd, 2006

Jaime Binde

Fighting a cold and a sore throat, which was attributed to something his kindergarten-age daughters brought home from school, Dave Matthews took a few minutes out of his busy Saturday night at the Christmas Jam to talk to the Citizen-Times.

Question: You’re the buzz name at the Christmas Jam this year. Do you realize that?

Answer: Which is very strange because I’m trippin’ walking around and everybody that’s here. Well, I guess it’s sort of intimidating, but I know that I’ll bring what I have and I talk myself out of being as nervous as maybe I should be. I just love being around this many great people. But it also is sort of overwhelming to be you know. … All the people who have come up from New Orleans, whether it’s Ivan and Branford, and all that is a pretty incredible gathering. And then all all of the other folks who have come up. … Marty Stuart and everybody. It’s good to have this unity. And, this Jam. I’ve been wanting to come to the Christmas Jam for years, because I’m a great friend of Warren’s, and it’s always a good thing, and I started to feel like I was just paying him lip service, you know. But I really did want to come, and this is a perfect year I think because it’s such a poignant moment.

Q: What got you here this year?

A: Well, just I was available. You know it’s like every year, you’re sort of like, I can’t, I can’t make it. I am sort of a yes-man, so I sort of end up giving a lot of, which is not a bad thing, it’s a great thing. I end up giving away a lot of my time to everything, so I don’t necessarily have a lot. So that’s why this year I was really glad I got to make it for this. (With a little bit of a cold, so I’ll squeak it out.)

Q: Is this your first time to Asheville?

A: No, I’ve been down here. I was thinking ... I think it’s the first time I’ve played here. But I’ve been here so much that I found that hard to believe when someone said to me that this is the first time we’ve played in Asheville. I was like, no it’s not possible! Because I’ve been here. I came and stayed here with my sister and just hanging around the town with a hat on.

Q: Not wanting to single anyone out, we noted that a lot of other artists were most looking forward to seeing Taj Mahal on Saturday night.

A: Well, I’m glad that I can say that I watched it. He’s always the very, very top of what he does. He’s like carved out his own thing his whole life, his musical life and so I can see why everyone else … and then I got to hear him, he just finished. And it was as always, unbelievable. As always, unbelievable.