I wanted to say just a bit more about Greg. I met Greg as we were both members of the Phish Women's group we like to call "The PBz". Greg and I were approximately the same age, both outspoken, music lovin', activist drivin' guys. We emailed and chatted often about topics ranging from kids, music, politics, you name it. Greg had this uncanny ability to comfortably communicate with and bond to people with the most modest of goals for their lives, and he could turn right around and intelligently deliver and articulate presentations to politicians on important issues to society.

The first time I met Greg was at the first Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tenn. I recall he was quasi overdressed in a "business casual" dress shirt and slacks, wearing a dapper looking hat, and had a glass of whiskey on the rocks if I recall the drink selection correctly. All weekend Greg seemed to always have a whiskey on the rocks, and I at the time I remember wondering how the guy kept ice in a frozen state in 100+-degree-in-the-shade temperatures?

When Greg and I first spoke within about two sentences I knew this was a HIGHLY intellectual person, brilliant actually, who managed to skillfully keep his IQ under wraps to not overwhelm those around him. If you met Greg and you just drank beer and talked music, outside of his quite extensive knowledge of bands and musicians, you might not have tapped into impressive analytical skills. If you did happen to venture into topics of substance, then I'm sure I can stop right here, because Greg was not only educated, informed, and intelligent, he was damned good at making his point of view seem like the right one. I loved that about him.

Greg was a huge Frank Zappa fan, and through his sister, Melanie, whom I believe is Dweezil Zappa's tour manager or performs some function like that, Greg had a direct line to the Zappa family. Now I may have the sequence wrong, because maybe it was through Greg that Melanie got involved with the Zappas, so forgive me if have that wrong, but what I can tell you is that when ZPZ came to Kansas City Greg arranged for me to receive two backstage, aftershow passes. I took a guitar playing friend, Mike, with me who was a Steve Vai "lemming" but didn't know Zappa's music beyond "Dancin' Fool". Well, of course Mike loved Vai's playing, but he discovered that Zappa's music was a LOT more sophisticated and brilliant than he'd known. Mike became a ZPZ and Zappa fan directly from that concert.

You see, that's classic Greg Stark's. Greg turned more people on to great music, music they'd never heard of, music that was so much more enriching and fulfilling than they'd realized. Amidst the very active benevolent political lobbying activities Greg seemingly had in perpetual motion, he would find ways and make time to facilitate peoples' discovery of all this great music out there. I'd love to see a headcount of the number of people who now love Phish solely because of Greg's introduction of them to Phish's music.

The last time I saw Greg was when my wife, Mary, and I dropped by Lansing during an impromptu trip to Michigan. Greg gave me directions to his place where we hung out and drank and chatted for a bit before making our way over to a local pub Greg liked to frequent. We listened to the band there, and during breaks we talked about kids and family, music and tour and Phish, topics of sociological importance with which Greg was currently engaged. I loved the way Greg would talk not only about the issues, but also his perspective into the personalities of the politicians with whom he dealt. If someone was an ahole or a saint, he'd tell you candidly explaining the particulars of why.

I spoke with Greg on the phone more than I had the chance to hang out with him, but in spite of the limitations of phone conversations, ours was a heartfelt friendship. A couple of years ago we talked about me coming up there for the Rothsbury Fest to work on the stage crews, my second passion. Greg had a connection, but the next year the festival was moved or cancelled or something, whatever happened it aborted my trip up there. Last year or the year before, can't remember, I had extra tickets for Alpine that I offered to give Greg, but he couldn't come because of commitments. There was a chance he was going to come to KC for the Phish show this August, but he wasn't able to do so, and though unknown to me at the time, now I understand why.

I hope you don't mind my lengthy write-up of Greg Starks. I know you probably have better things to do than read a long tribute about someone you don't know. It's just that for me Greg was special, unique in ways that are irreplaceable, and I felt compelled to tell you about this man as best I could. He was brilliant; he was funny; he was witty; he was wise; and most importantly to me, he was my friend.

RIP Greg, and please send some dirty love to Zappa for me.

- john ferguson