P H I S H TA L E S : A RO C K L E G E N D O N T H E I M P O RTA N C E O F B E I N G K I N D
Jon Fishman and his wonderful wife Briar own and run the Lincolnville General Store on the coast of Maine. PHOTOGRAPH BY MATTHEW BOURGEOIS
The middle school boy stood patiently in line, until he stood face-to-face with his hero, one of the most iconic drummers in rock history. He froze. Jon Fishman gave him a big smile and said hi. The kid gathered every ounce of courage and whispered, “Would you autograph my drumsticks?” Fishman had a condition, “I will, but only if you autograph mine.” The boy’s face lit up, fear gone, and suddenly it was just two drummers talking about their love of music. Performers deal with fame in many ways. For Fishman, the answer is now obvious: Just be kind. And like all fish tales, the story of how that came to be is a good one.
Born and raised in Syracuse, New York, Jon attended the University of Vermont right out of high school. Of all the colleges he could have attended, it almost seems fated that he would select the same school as his future bandmates. Had he attended Champlain College, also in Burlington, Phish might never have had its “once upon a time” moment.
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“Two months into being on campus, I was practicing my drums in my dorm room when Trey [Anastasio] walked in and said, ‘Oh my god, it’s you!’ which was funny because I didn’t know him and I didn’t know how he knew me.” Apparently, Trey and his friend had been sitting on the library steps during orientation week. As students walked by, they created fictional backstories of why each person was there. “A girl would walk by and they’d say, ‘oh she’s here to go to med school.’ A guy would walk by, and they’d say, ‘he’s here to play hockey.’ They would just make up stories. Apparently, I walked by, and they were just on the floor laughing. ‘That guy doesn’t belong here. At all.’” “It turned out they were absolutely right,” he recalled. “Neither Trey nor I belonged there - other than to meet, I guess.” After showing up in Jon’s dorm room one day, Trey went to grab his amp and guitar and brought his friend Jeff Holdsworth over as well. “We just immediately started playing. We never even had any conversations about ‘what kind of music do you like?’” They didn’t even bother to introduce themselves until they had been playing for some time that day.
